Chapter 50

"Think of it as taking a step back from a rattlesnake you encounter on the trail," Bud suggested. "You keep your awareness focused on the snake, but you move back from it."

"Step back where? There's nothing there, nowhere to go." I asked, confused.

"okay, okay, okay," he rushed. "Try another tack. "You're focusing through binoculars. You have a particular building in your sight. Now zoom out so you see more and more of the city, while still remaining centered on the building."

"I can't do it," I grumbled. "The minute I try I loose my focus."

"Try!" Bud yelled.

"I am!" I yelled back.

"Stop!" Harley's voice rose up out of the quiet place he usually kept himself. "This is not helping."

The silence in my head was almost deafening as we stopped struggling with each other and my locking ability. The pause lengthened. For me it was like I needed to catch my breath all of a sudden.

"Listen Bud!" Harley growled finally. "Cooper doesn't 'see' this stuff, despite treating this like it was similar to vision at the beginning. He feels this, he doesn't see it."

"That's ri..."

"Cooper!" Harley yelled at me. "What's your problem. You knew what I just told Bud as well as I did. Why do you keep feeling for edges in only one direction? Come on man, get your head out of your ass!"

Our arguing must have really set old Harley on edge. I couldn't remember him ever being so loud and in your face about anything in the admittedly brief time we'd known each other.

"Well okay then," I muttered. I could hear Bud snickering, but at the same time I recognized his chagrin. "Feel it all over and get my head out of my ass."

So I took the old man's advice and just let my 'feel' fly off in whatever which way it wanted to go. At the same time I poured all my anger and frustration and everything I had into it. I would have screamed it out too, but I didn't have the energy – I poured it all into those damned 'edges'.

And dammit all to hell!

Dammit all but it worked! I felt it as my molecular lock didn't just grow, it bloomed! My senses raced through the block of Bakelite like wildfire and it was suddenly like I was staring down at the Earth from orbit when a second ago I'd been staring down at the street from a skyscraper window. Zoom and swoosh, I had the entire slab locked!

"Yes!" Bud's cry came triumphantly. "You've got it!"

"I guess I do," I laughed. "Should I try to lift it or something?"

"Yes," Harley begged. "Lift it up."

"But slowly," Bud cautioned. "Remember that your mind can imagine it moving faster than physics will allow for, and the results of failure can be unpredictable and dangerous."

So I took a breath and lifted the small block of Bakelite with my telekinetic talent. I made it rise slowly, inches at a time until it was hovering six feet over my head. While I had it safely overhead where it would be less likely to cross paths with any of my molecules, I sent it floating in a circle around me. I slowly moved it faster and faster until the block's passing through the air started to make a rushing noise. I decided to stop it and for the first time, I felt something odd associated with using my telekinesis.

"Careful," Bud cautioned. "You're feeling the resistance of the built up energy inherent in that mass' momentum and velocity. Telekinetically, you are able to sort of work around some of the physical limitations you might otherwise experience, but it doesn't mean you can just violate the laws of physics at will."

I moved the block of old school plastic back to where it had started, and oddly, I could sense exactly where that spot had been, allowing me to replace it exactly where it had been to start with. Bud sensed my awareness coming to rest on that. "Molecules interact, effecting and being effected in return. You are able to sense their interaction and match them up in your mind, seeing how they fit back together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. This is even more marked when dealing with two pieces of what was once a whole."

"Phew!" I said out loud and Harley echoed it silently.

"Hungry?" Bud asked.

"Famished," I said, and it was true.

"You moved into new territory today with your talent," Bud laughed. "Your body thinks its expended a lot more energy that it actually has, but still, you should eat, its getting late, and you skipped dinner."