Chapter 5

If I thought that a new day would get the stories of the survivors out of my head I was sadly mistaken. Even getting dressed and going out to handle my chores cleaning up after the animals did not change my thoughts, which was strange to me because neither working or working out allowed me to relax. However thinking about the horrors those old men had gone through just bothered me. When Brodie joined me working with the animals I told him about what I was thinking, I asked him how he had handled what he saw when he was a prisoner. All he offered was that for him he took it day by day and vowed that he would watch out for anyone else trying to do that again. It was of little comfort to me but after a while I managed to put it out of my mind as something I would think about later.

Heading inside for breakfast I found putting those thoughts aside easier as my mother provided my next distraction asking about our whereabouts the day before. When Brodie stated that we had gone fishing she did not like it and asked me the same thing. When I backed up Brodie's story about fishing she asked where we had put the fish we had caught. To which Brodie calmly stated that the fishing had been a bust with neither of us catching more than a mosquito bite so we enjoyed the day talking. When she kept pushing and asking what we had talked about Brodie simply said that we were talking about guy stuff. If Brodie thought that would pacify her he was mistaken. She turned to me again asking the same questions I backed up what Brodie had told her. The three of us went around like that for the rest of breakfast until it was time for her to leave for work.

Her parting shot at not crumbling under her interrogation and telling her what she wanted to know she grounded me to the ranch saying that the doctors said that I needed some time to recover from my injuries. The problem with her statement was that I was not forbidden from helping around the ranch so my forced convalescence was given to me to keep me from martial arts. Even my sisters could see what she was doing. I was not going to argue with her since I was still feeling weak even after sitting in front of the wall socket last night.

I decided to play up my grounding; I headed back to my apartment but instead of heading to bed to rest like my mother suggested, I took up my position in front of the wall socket again. Sitting back against the wall I thought about my spigot and turned it three quarters of the way on and relaxed as the power flowed into me. With nothing else to do I spent my time thinking about what had happened the day before at the glade and how fast I was about to move. In addition to my thoughts on my increased speed, there were also changes to my Second Sight. The images I saw when I woke up this morning were clearer after I spent some time sitting in front of the socket.

Considering how all of these events were related was still a mystery for me since nothing was making any sense. Taking a break from that confusion I found my focus and once again took off on Mr. Toad's wild ride and followed the path that the electricity took through my body. If I had thought what I was seeing before was fantastic what I was observing now simply blew my mind. The slow pace of healing I had in the hospital was now moving at warp speed with damaged and destroyed cells being broken down and removed before my eyes. In place of them new cells were growing as if I was watching a time lapse series of pictures. How long I stayed there watching what was happening I had no idea other than saying that I was ready for lunch when I stopped my viewing.

I would have preferred staying out in my apartment for lunch but I had been forbidden from having lots of food outside where I was told mice would get into stuff. So I wandered inside where to no one's surprise I had to make my own lunch as I could hear my sisters talking excitedly in their room to someone, probably Faith considering how much time she was spending with my sisters since my accident. I ignored them and headed back to my room since what I was doing was a lot more interesting to me than listening to a bunch of girls cackling about me or any other boys in the area.

I had more important things to do like figure out what was going on with my drawing power and healing. Although sitting in front of the socket that morning had produced nothing in the way of an idea I still liked the feeling I was getting so once I was alone in my room again I sat right down in my spot and opened the spigot again. Closing my eyes I allowed my thoughts to drift with the occasional peek at my healing until Sherri's voice came over the intercom telling me that dinner was ready. Since I was famished from sitting in my spot I wasted no time getting downstairs noticing that our mother's SUV was parked in front of the house. Stepping inside the my thoughts for a nice large dinner evaporated as I could feel a change in the atmosphere as there was a frost in the air as my sisters were having a staring match with our mother across the kitchen.

My confusion as to what was happening was short lived as my sister Sherri turned to me and asked, "Did you know mom has a date tonight?"

Having no idea what Sherri was talking about I came up with a typical guy response, saying, "Excuse me?"

This time it was Shelly's turn to answer, saying, "Mom just got home and we told her that dinner was ready. Only she did not ask what was for dinner, instead she disappeared into her room and came out wearing that." Pointing to the dress that mom was wearing.

Even under normal circumstances I would have seen why my sisters were upset with what our mother was wearing. The dress was one that as far back as I could remember she had only worn for Sherri and Shelly's father on the occasions when the two of them would go out on a date and he would return to spend the night in her room. In the past I never gave her clothing a second thought but now having Peter's memories intertwined with mine I understood my sister's anger at our mother. Personally I thought it looked good on her since our mother was nearly six feet tall and had given birth to three kids still had a figure that would turn any male's head to the point that their neck might snap. Seeing her in that dress with its plunging neckline showing her boobs, even I wanted to turn my head and I was her son. I had a good idea of what her figure looked like since before our move we had spent quite a bit of time at the beach. However until just now with a flash of Peter's memories I never considered what was happening at the beach with men and some older boys stared at her as she escorted my sisters and me out onto the sand. With Peter's memories tied into my own I understood what they were thinking about my mother. I also now understood the meaning of that dress to my sisters, that she was wearing it for a man other than their father would not end well.

I tried to downplay the situation, by saying to them, "It's just a dress. Did you ask her why she was wearing it?"

Before either of my sisters could continue, our mother interrupted saying, "All right that is enough from all three of you. I have never lied to any of you and I never will so let me say yes I am going out with a man that I know from work."

Before our mother could continue her defense, Shelly interjected raising her voice, saying, "Every time you wore that dress for dad he always stayed over for breakfast. You're not planning on bringing this man back for breakfast are you?"

Susan sounded defensive as she answered her daughter, saying, "No I will not be bringing any man home with me," she stated and then continued, "This evening I am going out for dinner and drinks with a man from work, it is nothing more than that."

After making her statement she picked up her shawl and purse and headed out the door leaving my sisters and I standing around the island wondering what had happened. Hearing the crunch of gravel as she drove away. I could tell as I looked at my sisters faces that they were not fooled by our mother's statement as to what she was going to do tonight. As for our mother's quick exit thinking that my sisters would soon forget about her betrayal of their father, all I can say is that others who have crossed my sisters stayed ostracized for a long time.

When Brodie arrived for dinner and my sisters told him what had happened he said he was sorry. When they attempted to drag him into their feud with our mother he chose neutrality by hiding in his machine shop fixing anything he could think of while the three of them were in the house. I was glad that I had the apartment which put me outside of the freezing conditions in the house. That was not to say that my sisters did not try to enlist Brodie and I against our mother because they tried. Brodie would just say that he had work to do elsewhere on the ranch. I simply stated that since Francis, (the twin's father) and I did not see eye to eye that I did not have a dog in this fight and they were on their own.

Since our mother was gone things grew rather quiet for everyone at the table. Brodie ate quickly and headed out of the house saying that he had tools he needed to check out before harvest time. I simply told them that I was still not feeling all that well and excused myself heading outside only I did not return to my room. Instead I took a seat on the porch to watch the sunset and was soon joined by one of Brodie's dogs named Gerty. Like the other women around the ranch she simply invited herself to join me by placing her head in my lap to be petted. The two of us sat there together, Gerty lying beside me with her head in my lap and my hand gently stroking her head watching the sun go down. With everything I had discovered about myself that day I was thinking that today had been a rather good day. I had an idle thought wondering if by touching someone else I could use my second sight on them.

Since Gerty was lying there with her head on my leg, I decided that she would make a suitable subject that I could use to see if I could view another being. So with little more than a thought and my hand on her head I found myself literally inside the body of a dog. When I tried to move I found out that moving through another living being was a lot harder than moving through myself since I was willing and my whole body was involved. Moving through the dog was harder and at first I thought that maybe that it was due to her not giving me consent. Then I thought that it might be due to the fact that I had no clue what a dog's anatomy was supposed to look like so that might have had something to do with the difficulty of moving through her body. As I continued to probe moving through her body became somewhat easier but nowhere near as easy as it was moving though my own body. In the case of Gerty there were the twin feelings of pain in her joints and the contentment she had with someone petting her. Concentrating on the pain she was feeling I managed to trace the pain impulses she was sending to her brain and found that both of her hips had had their bones ground down to almost nothing with several deep gouged on both sides of the bone like someone might have taken a grinding wheel to those surfaces.

Looking at the damage I wondered what it would be like to heal something more complicated than the knife wounds Master Kim and I had worked on up until that point. Focusing my efforts to look at what I would need, I realized that I needed a lot more information on what I was trying to do since I had never looked at the inside of an dog or any other animal for that matter. I realized that before I tried to do more than superficial healing on a human being I had better have more information about what a health body looked like.

My discoveries created another problem for me to think about. I wondered what would happen if I simply tried to make her comfortable seeing that she was Brodie's favorite dog. I knew she was since he had mentioned that due to her hip condition he should put her down but every time he thought about it he simply said that he could not do it. Considering the pain that she was in I was surprised that she could even move, so in looking to try to ease her pain I traveled along her nervous system looking at how her nervous system worked sending impulses through her body. That search took some time compared to my own body and I knew my time was limited since I could feel the temperature drop the longer I sat on the porch.

Deciding to study Gerty a bit longer I returned to my research following the various paths the pain impulses took going both up and down through her body. By the time the coolness of the evening registered with my mind I had discovered that pain impulses Gerty was feeling had different flavors and intensities that I could detect and tell apart. Tied to that was also the concept of feeling pleasure complete with different feelings and intensities, if I concentrated on them I could tell them apart, too. I understood that dogs had rather simple concepts as far as contentment and pain but at least it was a beginning for me on how things worked. The down side to my research with Gerty was that although I could numb or tone down her nervous system I could end up doing more damage to her in the long run since the pain she was feeling now was slowing her down so that the bones she still had were not put under more stress than they could tolerate causing her more pain in the long run. That idea was something that I would have to work on more in the future.

Finding nothing else I could do for her I finally let the cold air around me remind me that it was actually getting late in the evening. Looking up into the heavens I could see that the stars had moved through the heavens, deciding that I had done enough I left the old dog there and headed for my apartment finding that the time was after midnight. I wanted to think about everything that had happened today but the exhaustion I felt was stronger and I was asleep never once even thinking about what I had done.

Tuesday morning wasn't any better for me due to Brodie thinking that I needed to be cheered up. Since I did not want to tell him what I had been doing I was at a loss when he ordered my sisters and I into his truck. I thought that we were heading into town for an ice cream. Therefore I settled in for the ride. Then I realized that he had gone the opposite way heading for the long way into town. The long way was in fact actually the short way to the local rifle and shotgun range. When we got there there were several people standing around apparently waiting for us to arrive.

What followed for my sisters were their first shooting lessons using a shotgun. In my case I had fired a shotgun before but never on a trap and skeet range. Between Brodie, Shelly, Sherri, and I we only managed to break twelve clay targets all morning. I think I could have shot better but for some reason that I did not understand my left eye tended to bug out which in turn caused me to jerk the trigger every time I fired. All three instructors tried different things to keep me from jerking the trigger, but by lunch time all of us were frustrated at my lack of progress.

I did not take a chance on the way home I told everyone that I was feeling tired and I wanted to go to bed when we got home. Other than the three of them saying that I should have something to eat before going to sleep, they didn't argue. To keep the peace and to keep them from checking up on me later I relented saying that I would have lunch first. As soon as we arrived home my sisters headed towards the kitchen to make up some sandwiches for all of us while Brodie and myself carried all of his weapons to his shop. At lunch Brodie apologized for keeping us out too long but I just waved it off saying that I felt fine when we had started out in the morning. Only now did I feel the fatigue of the day starting to tell on me. By the time everything was put away lunch was ready and we had a nice time talking about what we had done that morning.

Once lunch was done I headed to my apartment and the wall socket with my name on it, only this time I was careful as to not blow the circuit as I opened the spigot all the way. This time though I thought about my healing and with my Second Sight worked on healing my body with the power I was drawing. The healing was coming along quickly as I sat there for the next six hours feeling better than I ever had, even before the accident. The only down side was when I was called to dinner. Which turned into a solemn affair with the four of us present since our mother was working late according to the message my sisters relayed to everyone at the table when we were all seated. No one believed that for a second and the way my sisters silently fumed I was glad I had an escape along with Brodie who said he wanted to clean the shotguns again.

That was how the rest of my week went with Brodie and my sisters who were constantly trying to cheer me up. When I was in my apartment I had time available to exercise my abilities which continued to expand. It seemed that the more power I absorbed the stronger my abilities became that my ability to heal myself became part of my subconscious. When Friday arrived I was ready for a break from sitting in front of the socket. Therefore I consented to being seen by a doctor in town. Since everything else in my life was going sideways since my accident I was hoping that this would be the start of my life returning to a routine. What happened to keep my life going sideways was the file that the Nurse-practitioner received bore no resemblance to the young man sitting on her table due to the fact that for the last week I had used the power I was receiving along with my second sight to heal my body and with a week of practice I was doing well.

The Nurse-practitioner she did what she could but in the end it turned into a routine physical for me with her staff doing little more than taking my vitals. As far as any visible damage the only thing on her chart that matched the young man sitting in front of her was my eye. There was no way for me to hide that so I did not try. My condition left her baffled as to how I had healed so quickly. Telling the doctor that I had no idea as to why I was healing so fast only brought attention to me from Brodie and my sisters who up until that point had failed to notice that I was healing quickly.

When the four of us sat down to dinner that night my sisters had a new target for their wrath as they gave me the silent treatment after they overheard what was said in the doctor's office. I knew they wanted to ask me what was going on but with Brodie there to keep things civil the three of us just looked at one another while we ate until I could make my escape to my apartment. But that was only a temporary relief while they did the dishes. After the dishes they made an appearance in my room this time Brodie was not there to referee so their questions were direct and to the point. In true brotherly style I simply lied to them long enough for them to realize that I was not going to tell them anything, about anything most especially about what I could now do.

Saturday and Sunday was filled with more questions from my sisters that escalated when they invited Faith over for Sunday dinner. When they started in on their questions again Faith's interest in what had happened to me picked up also. Until then I had been tolerate of my sisters questions, but when they invited Faith into the discussion I became rather upset. Voicing my displeasure only made the problem worse as they claimed that they had a right to know since they were my sisters. When I did not cave in to their demands our argument escalated to the point that I was thinking of eating the next few meals with Brodie in his machine shop so I could get away from my sisters and now Faith.

Monday morning for me was a turning point for me since I already knew that I needed more help figuring out what had happened to me. I had tried to enlist Peter the previous week but his last statement to me was that he wanted nothing to do with my Jedi mind tricks. When I tried to force him to help only made him withdraw to somewhere in my head where I could not find him. After he had withdrawn I had no idea if he was monitoring anything I was doing. Without Peter's input I was left with Master Kim as the only person I could trust and for the previous week my mother had forbidden me from seeing him which left me somewhat desperate. Now that had changed with my chores done and my mother seeking to distance herself from my sisters I was free to head to Master Kim's in the hope of finding a mentor for all the weird shit that had been happening to me.

Taking my place on the mat across from Master Kim I explained everything. From riding onto the scene of the accident to Peter sticking out of the box, then touching him, and finally waking up in the hospital. I explained about having Peter's voice in my head, and how he had pointed out the first things I could do with electricity. When I explained my first day out of the hospital and practicing in the grove he asked for a demonstration. Taking my usual spot I found my focus then signaled that I was ready. Master Kim attacked me with a series of combinations that before would have forced me from the mat. Now I was quicker than him and when I used my Second Sight with my speed made his attacks against me seem like I was watching a movie in slow motion. My defense went on for about ten seconds before he told me that he was waiting for my attack. In the past his reach had been a huge obstacle for me to overcome but between my speed and Second Sight his advantage was gone and my own leg kicks started to get through with light strikes against his knees and thighs. When he started to compensate against those strikes I attacked his midsection with combinations. When his hands came down to defend against those I attacked his upper body changing tactics again this time hitting him with combinations ranging from his legs up to several taps against his head that if I had been intending to harm him I would have done with closed fists and elbows that would have put him down hard. It was only after I had put him down hard with a leg sweep that he called a break to our sparring. Looking at me from the mat all he could do was laugh saying that it had been many years since he had been taken to school like that. When he asked me how I did it, I took a seat across from him then explained how I had been able to combine my second sight with my speed to allow me to anticipate what he could do. When he asked me about my second sight I explained how I considered it just an extension of what we had been working on before my accident. When I put it that way if he did not understand he at least had an idea as to what I was talking about. When he asked how far I could sense people around me I had him back up to the point that he was nearly across the mat from myself. When I stated that he was at my extreme sensing range I told him to stop which made his eyes bug out as he offered that his own ability was only out to five feet or so.

Taking our positions again Master Kim asked if I was up for another match. Saying that I was ready he charged but like I told him I knew what he was going to try and in the end the result was the same as he hit the floor with yet another leg sweep. The rest of the day with Master Kim ended up being the same with him trying different things but always ending up on his back with me ready to finish him off. For Master Kim being beaten by a kid was like waving a red flag in front of a bull as he tried new tactics every time trying to catch me off guard. However since I was reading his intentions faster than he could form the intent he had no chance of doing what he wanted.