Chapter 6: A Few Theories Tossed Around

"So did you notice anything else of interest in their auras?" Cate asked. She'd conducted several 'experiments', mostly provoking me so the girls could detect which colors in my aura each action produced, but personally, it felt much more like she was trying to humiliate me. I wasn't terribly impressed—but still, it had produced some interesting insights. Now she was trying to determine what results the girls had observed during it that she may have missed.

"I saw several things," Shani observed, squinting against my glare as she tried to see things in my aura by looking at me from different angles. "It was hard to separate the colors when they occur at the same time. There's a lot going on." She was quiet for a second as she glanced away and groped for the proper words to describe what she had seen. "I think that the colors that represent emotions occur in a dancing pattern surrounding a person's body, and that they change so frequently they appear to be flickering. When we look at Alex, that's all we can see as everything else is washed out. But in other people, we see more stable, less ... transient colors over their body—the parts of Alex that we can't see. And those central elements aren't really solid colors, it's more that they're speckled or mottled, as if there's a lot of different elements occurring at once.

"I know we keep saying colors," Patricia added, "but these visions don't look anything colors you've ever seen before. We don't know if we're seeing one color or several blended together. It's like, if you don't know that green is actually a combination of yellow and blue, how can you attribute any meaning to the color. Right now, we don't really understand how this particular color spectrum operates. When you were doing the experiments we saw several colors pop up, but they sort of overshadowed each other, and they'd flicker so quickly, they were hard to recognize quickly enough." She tried glancing at me, squinted and looked away once more. "It'll take some work to learn to differentiate and figure out what each one means."

"Now that you have a handle on what everyone is seeing, I'd like to get back to what we were talking about before," Allison asked, the faint scowl on her face making it apparent that she was still feeling out of sorts. "Are you saying that because I was helping those guys, that what I did with them was all right?"

"Actually, I couldn't say," Cate told her patiently, as she finished jotting some quick notes in her notebook, slipping it into her pocket and then looking directly at Allison. "I'm simply going by what you told me. Right now, we have no idea if that's the case or not. I'd love to learn more about how you might have used these abilities before you met Alex, but right now we don't understand them well enough to evaluate their usage. It's a piece of the puzzle that fits and helps us understand it, but that's about all it does now. I'd like to think that you helped them because that would better explain what's going on, but I have no idea whether what you did was justified or not. It will probably take a while to form an opinion on it. I'm sure you were good at what you did, but if you want me to say whether your abilities had any additional effects you'd have to consider the eventual outcome. Did you 'cure' anyone? Did any of them no longer need to see you anymore? Did they stop sleeping with you because of your assistance? Since I've never met any of them nor have known you for long, I really can't judge for myself."

"That sounds like a long winded way of saying nothing," Allison replied with an annoyed sigh. "But I guess I understand what you're saying. I've been telling myself that I've been successful because of what I've brought to the table, but I've never allowed myself to consider just what overall effect I've had on their lives before."

Cate smiled, reached out and grasping her hand. "As Alex said, he's not here to judge you. He doesn't even know you yet. He seems to be the source of these new abilities, but none of us have any clue how or why. So far, we're just guessing. Don't expect him to sweep down from the heavens and anoint you as clean and forgiven. If you're uncomfortable with your life then change it. If you can live with it then that's your choice. But Alex really can't read your mind and figure out what's best for you. That is something you'll have to do for yourself."

"It's so nice to hear my little girl sounding so grown up," our mother whispered sotto-voiced to our father. Cate blushed a little at the overheard complement.

"So, have you figured out why I'm only attracting women?" I asked.

"No, that's still a mystery," Cate replied. "I'm guessing the ability to feel this energy is tied to being female. That could be based on hormones, genetics or any number of other things. After all, women have the reputation for being more emotional and sensitive, so it might be the results of a fair number of them sharing this ability. Of course you'd think there'd be some variance, strictly from a statistical point of view, but so far we haven't noticed a single male having the same reaction to you."

"Any theories on why that might be?" prompted my father, once again pushing her to flesh out her presentations.

"Since it affects women I presume it has to do with a specific trait on the X chromosome. Specifically, I'm thinking it's a weird recessive trait that requires the same trait on both" of the X chromosomes. That would explain why so few women have it and also why no men have it. Normally recessive traits show up in things like color blindness, where a dominant X chromosome overrides a recessive one, thus making men much more likely to suffer from color blindness than women. What we're talking about here is a doubly recessive X-chromosome. Men simply wouldn't have the opportunity to get it and women would have to get it from both of their parents, which would cut way down on its occurrence."

"Are there many cases of, what did you call it, a doubly recessive chromosome?" Shani asked, sounding intrigued in where her abilities might originate.

"None that I can think of," Cate acknowledged, "but that wouldn't rule it out either."

"And the likelihood of that being the case?" my father pushed her once again.

"No clue, it's just a guess with no supporting evidence. It would explain a few things, but there'd be no reason to assume it was true. A more likely culprit would be hormones or other chemical differences in the female body, but then we'd be back to why no men have experienced it. Men have varying levels of female hormones as well. Of course, we're only dealing with a tiny number of subjects," Cate concluded.

"OK, moving on then, I think we've had about as much science as we can deal with. So far you're suggesting that all these lights the girls are seeing simply show a person's emotional state?" I asked.

"No," Cate said, warming to her theory, "As they've said, there's a whole lot going on in these little light displays. They describe a central color which varies for each individual, but also a variety of other colored lights that flicker around the edges. I'm guessing that the central color reveals something about the person, possibly their core personality. That's sort of like the person's soul, their essential being. What we've been focusing on is the flickering outer lights they've described, which seem to reflect the various emotional states that play on the inner characteristics of the person. They may feel happy or sad, but that doesn't change the core personality, it just shows up momentarily and affects the central personality."

"That would describe much of what we're currently seeing," Shani said. "It makes a lot of sense."

"That's a pretty sweeping conclusion from what's been suggested," Dad pointed out.

"Yeah, it is just conjecture at this point, but it's the likeliest guess I've been able to think of so far," Cate explained.

"It sounds pretty good," Patricia suggested. "We could see the outer colors change when you were doing your little, uh, experiment, so your theory makes sense there at least. But you're right, there's a lot more going on than we've been able to touch on yet."

"I think my head hurts from all this theoretical stuff," Natalie stated, holding her head with one hand for effect.

"Well, as wonderful as it was listening to my kids finally unraveling their own mysteries," my mother said proudly, "that's probably a sign that we should eat. I've noticed no one's asked us about food. It's still early, but we could probably eat something since we skipped breakfast."

"I think that's my fault," Cate confessed. "I told the waitress that we'd be sitting and talking for a bit, so she's held off interrupting us. I'll get her attention."

Once we ordered lunch we discussed non-theoretical topics, mainly focusing on food and other things to do for the afternoon. Everyone seemed to be very accepting of the others, so far. No one commented on Allison's claim of being an expensive prostitute, assuming it was OK for some odd reason. Well, aside from Cate's idea about her abilities benefiting her clients, I guess. I assumed I'd hear how everyone dealt with her when everyone cornered me later, primarily my parents. I was sure they'd have a definite opinion about Cate and my spending much time with a known prostitute.

I assumed everyone was purposely avoiding the topic to allow Allison to adjust to everything. I noted that the women focused on me whenever I mentioned anything, as if everything I said was some pronouncement from on high, and they were highly attentive, noticing anything I might want and trying to anticipate my every need. That was bad enough, but they did it with a nervous smile, as if I'd call down a thunderstorm if they didn't pass the salt quickly enough. But as intimidating as that was, it was eerie as well—especially since they seemed more happy to be doing it than just nervous. It was like they'd just found the man of their dreams, the one they'd been waiting for their entire lives, and I was 'it' for each of them. I certainly hoped that wasn't the case, but given how oddly things had been occurring lately, I couldn't discount it too quickly. Shani had certainly established she was interested in me almost immediately after we met, although she hadn't shown any signs of jealousy in regards to the other women being attracted to me. Whenever a new girl would show up she'd make sure they had clear access to me and would seek to assist them in any way she could.

However, given everything they'd said so far—what little they'd said about it, that is—they all seemed to feel they owed me for whatever I'd unintentionally done for (or to) them. Still, I couldn't see how that would account for much. Sure, it was amazing, but it was hardly personal, as I'd had no control over it. But they all continued to treat me reverently. Anything I said they took seriously. I knew if I took a position, they'd likely follow it regardless of their own personal opinions on the subject. Of course, I didn't have evidence of this yet, but due to their general behavior around me I was pretty sure I was correct. I just hoped that I wouldn't screw up as a result. After all, Allison was depending on me to forgive her, Shani intended to uproot her entire life to follow me home, and I could see them all depending on me to always know what was best for them. That thought scared the hell out of me as I had no clue what the best options for my own life were, let alone that of three independent adult women. No one had ever considered me a guiding moral influence before, and the inherent moral responsibilities terrified me.

As the meal progressed, I thought about this newest addition to our little group. And 'group' was starting to become a more appropriate word as I found more people following me around as each day passed. I was hoping all the excitement would slow down soon, but with someone new appearing every single day I thought that unlikely. So far, everyone that I'd affected had first become aware of me on the first day we'd arrived, and that must mean they'd all eventually find me and then they'd stop showing up. That made me feel a little better, but then I considered the various looks I kept getting as well. While many of them were from people we'd seen before, we also had to consider some were new people who hadn't observed me yet. While I might be whittling down the list of people still trying to find me, there was no stopping new people from reacting to me as well.

As lunch finished, my parents decided to wander the parts of the French Quarter they hadn't seen yet, which was mostly the old Saint Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square Park down by the water. The girls were far more interested in accompanying me than in where we were going. My parents tried to engage them in conversation, something made easier by their acting as our tour guides. I also think they imitated Shani in trying to win over my parents first.

"Alex?" Allison asked quietly after sidling up to me so we could talk somewhat privately, despite the constant presence of the other women around me.

"Yeah?" I responded simply, awaiting her question.

"I know you said you didn't know much about me yet, but surely you know how you feel about what I've done," she continued with a pained look on her face, clearly pensive about my view of her character.

Sighing heavily, I considered the situation. She wasn't going to be denied. She wanted to be absolved whether I was a capable of it or not. "Look, I know all of you think I'm this mighty character walking around judging who is worthy of my gift of sight, but that's not what's been happening. I'm just an innocent naïve high school kid who doesn't understand what's going on. I've never met anyone in your line of work before, so I can hardly be expected to pass any kind of judgment on them. Surely there are others who know what's involved much more than I do."

"That's not the point," she replied, copying my tired sigh. "Everyone" has an opinion on women of ill repute. Finding someone with a strong opinion on what I should do isn't my problem. I don't care what other people think. Your" opinion is what's important here. Like your sister said, we can all feel that you have a tremendous amount of power. I feel that God led me to you this morning when he directed me to search out a new church. Surely He" trusts your judgment. I need to know if what I've been doing has been doing anyone any good or if I've just been fooling myself all of these years."

I noticed that Cate had edged closer during this little exchange, straining to hear our words despite the fact that both Allison and I had been keeping our voices lower than normal. When she saw me glancing at her she nodded her head, silently telling me that I had to say something to Allison about this, apparently whether I knew what to say or not. I knew that I had to respond as well ... yet the fact that I could say the wrong thing and possibly hurt her practically paralyzed me with fear. In just a short time I'd grown to care very deeply for these women who all worshiped me. I knew it wasn't justified, but they simply wouldn't be dissuaded. I knew my father would simply tell me that there comes a time when you have to simply grow up and accept what life gives you.

"Well, Allison, as much as I feel uncomfortable saying this, I think you have to figure out something that's going to make you feel more comfortable doing what you seem to be doing. Maybe you've been helping those men, maybe you haven't, but isn't there a better way to help them? Besides, you're limiting yourself in who you can help. You aren't helping those most in need. In fact, you're only placating the rich and powerful. You're also limiting yourself to only helping half the population, and the more powerful half at that." I shrugged, to show I didn't have all the answers, and then smiled as a nice alternative occurred to me. "Personally, I think you'd do better becoming a therapist. That way you could help those that come to you needing assistance. With your intuition and vision you should be able to help a lot of people that way, and you wouldn't be conflicted by your inner doubts." At her somewhat dubious look, I decided to sweeten the pot a little.

"Plus," I added with a wink that I hoped might let her know I wasn't trying to pass judgment on her behavior, "if you wanted to have some fun, you could do it on your own terms."

She thought about that as we walked, but I could tell that her dark mood was lifting as we continued. "You know, that's a good idea," she replied. "I've saved up a fair amount of cash, so paying for additional schooling shouldn't be that difficult. I'd be able to still help those I've helped in the past, but I'd just tell them I'm no longer in that line or work anymore. It's a win-win situation for everyone." Yeah, I thought, except for all those men wanting an uncommitted fling behind their wives back at your expense.

"It's not like there's a long career path in this sort of thing," she continued, still reflective. "I'll probably never make any more than I'm making right now unless I go public and write a book, embarrassing everyone I worked with. A new career might be a solid investment. It'll mean a lot of study and several years before I could begin, though."

"Uh, how much training does it take to be a therapist?" I asked naively.

"No, silly," she replied, playfully slapping my shoulder. "I'm planning on becoming a Psychiatrist."

I felt my jaw working as I thought about the implications of her decision. "Isn't that a bit extreme, after all, that'll take a long time of hard work, not to mention a lot of money?" I asked, realizing I'd just done what I'd been afraid of, unintentionally saying the wrong thing and having her commit herself to something she could never afford.

"Not really," Cate suggested, finally joining the conversation. "You could study part time while doing something else. You seem to be motivated, so I doubt you'll have the lack of drive most students do. By studying on your own, you could move ahead more quickly. I'm involved in a lot of independent studies myself, and I'm sure we could find some Universities that'll be willing to assist you."

"Yeah, especially if you're willing to pay them," laughed Shani, causing everyone else to laugh as well. Apparently our private conversation hadn't been very private.

No one seemed to be concerned about the money involved, so I assumed I had a very poor understanding of how much a 'fair amount' of money was. Apparently escorts made a lot more than I'd been led to believe. Or at least those of Allison's caliber did.

Since it was now later in the morning but still too early for lunch, the streets had become more crowded. We were strolling along when Patricia grabbed Allison's arms and said, "Wow, look at that, isn't that amazing?" Allison immediately sighed in pleasure, apparently appreciating what they saw without the need for further explanation, but I couldn't figure out what they were pointing at.

"What's amazing?" I asked. They both looked back at me.

"I guess you can't see it," Patricia told us, "but we can see the woman over there has a tiny baby inside her that's apparently old enough to have its own aura. She isn't showing at all so it can't be very far along, she probably isn't even aware she's pregnant yet, but already her baby's aura has its own color, showing it to be unique and not just a part of her."

"That is amazing," Shani echoed, apparently watching the same thing.

"Wow," Cate stated, also enthused, "so all this talk about seeing people's souls is more accurate than we initially thought?"

"I guess so, if you can see the characteristics of the unborn," Natalie commented from the side.

"It seems to lack the emotional colors at the edges of its aura," Shani observed. "I guess it's still too young to be feeling very much or to be aware of anything yet."

"Let me tell Mom and Dad about this," Cate replied excitedly. "They'll get a kick out of it." She ran back and started relaying the information, causing everyone to turn and watch the young woman who, for her part, squirmed a little under the sudden gaze of our group.

Cate returned a moment later. "They were excited about it too," she stated. "So what else can you see in the people walking around?"

No one responded, but the women with the vision began looking around more thoughtfully, trying to determine just what they were observing. Given the respite, I pulled Cate aside for a quick one-on-one.

"So what was that whole 'experiment' thing earlier about?" I pressed.

"Why, Alex, whatever do you mean?" she giggled, demonstrating she knew exactly what the issue was, even as she went on to deny it. "Isn't a sister allowed to show her ... love ... for her brother in public?" she added, pitching her voice low in a vague imitation of a sultry voice and clearly enjoying my discomfort. She fluttered her eyelashes at me for a moment, then decided to be merciful and patted my shoulder. "It was clearly a valid experiment. I was testing a valid hypothesis and it provided some valuable information that we didn't have before."

"Yeah, well, it was a bit unorthodox," I complained.

"So are most experiments that prove new things. It was unexpected, but that was the whole point. It wouldn't have worked if I'd told you I was gonna smack you upside your head."

"Yeah, but what about kissing me like that?" I countered, still not able to get over her surprising behavior towards me in front of our parents.

"The idea was to surprise you, and I think I did a good job of that," she replied, giggling quietly. "Besides, I was trying to generate as many different emotions as I could. I wouldn't have been able to do that without a long discussion otherwise."

"No, you made your point. It's just that you seemed to relish it," I argued, already losing much of my supposed outrage.

"It had to be authentic. If you could feel insincerity then you never would have responded sufficiently for the experiment. We had to see genuine arousal and lust. I think it was a very positive development," she answered, somehow crafting perfectly logical explanations for the weird behavior she'd instigated.

"And what about rubbing my crotch in front of Mom and Dad?" I whined.

"Again, it was necessary to generate the response we were looking for."

"And you didn't enjoy any of it?" I asked, searching for what was left of my righteous anger.

"I'm not saying that. In fact I'm not saying I did. I'm just saying that it was necessary, and that there was no one else who could have done it like that at that moment in time, unless I pulled some bimbo in off the street."

"A bimbo might have been less embarrassing. At least she wouldn't have been related to me," I continued to complain, not being able to give up the argument after it was already abundantly clear that I'd already lost.

"Allison was needed to observe what we were seeing," Cate continued, ignoring my desperate attempts to salve what was left of my position. "As one of only three people capable to observing what was happening, I couldn't use her, especially since it was her familiarity with the subject matter that allowed us to separate the different emotions. As I said, it needed to be a surprise, so Natalie couldn't have done it initially, and asking some strange woman, or that guy in the restaurant would have been awkward as well," she stated, effectively countering my bluff.

"No, I guess you're right. Still..."

"You can't have your floozie and eat her too, Alex," she mollified me with a joke.

"I guess," I said, still not convinced of anything, but feeling bamboozled enough to finally shut the hell up.

Cate continued to look at me defiantly with a little smile, seemingly enjoying herself, then her lower lip started trembling and her eyes began to mist before her facade suddenly crumbled. She broke into an unexpected sob and launched herself into my arms, which I instinctively wrapped around her as I'd done since we were both young children.

"I'm sorry, Alex," she cried beseechingly. "I didn't mean to disappoint you or to be mean to you; after all, you're always looking out for me. I feel terrible about what I've done to you."

There wasn't much I could say to her as I had no idea what had brought about this sudden change in her. One minute she's assertive, decisive and playful, and the next she's a basket case, so I simply held her tight and let her get it out of her system. After about a minute she simply pulled back, wiped her eyes, thanked me and quickly backed away.

Now I'll be the first to admit, despite having lived in a house full of girls, I just can't figure women out. Was her sudden reaction just a flood of unexpected emotions, or was it simply Cate trying to pull one over on me yet again by acting upset just so I'd come to her defense and telling her that everything was OK? I couldn't help but feel suspicious, which also made me doubt her honesty in telling me she was sorry for how she'd behaved earlier.

Cate had always been like that, though. She'd be fine one minute and then suddenly get all emotional, either crying or getting angry. It would never take much to settle her, she'd simply come in for a few brief moments and get my offered hug, then she'd just get up and walk off as if nothing had just occurred, leaving me feeling confused and used. Of course I was always interested in looking out for my little sister, especially when she was scared as a little girl, but I'd never been able to figure out just what went through that little head of hers. I simply had to shake my head in confusion, as nothing else I could think of could enlighten me any further.

Now that our little discussion had ended I noted that the other girls were all clustered together and speaking quietly, completely oblivious to Cate and my little scene as they kept glancing after someone who had just walked past them.

"What's going on?" I asked as I approached them.

"Cate, you're our local science expert, what's located right here in the human body?" Shani asked, indicating an area just south of where I guessed the stomach should be.

"Oh, there's a bunch of stuff around there," she responded, showing no signs of her previous emotional upset. "There's the stomach of course, the liver, the kidneys, the top of the intestines."

"Is there something specific you're looking for?" I asked.

"You asked us to keep a watch for unusual things we could see about people with our new vision. It's just that for a lot of folk in this area, their auras have a dark spot right around here," she specified, rubbing her hand along her side.

"Which people?" Cate asked, intrigued to be playing scientific guessing games again.

"Uh... ," Shani hesitated, "mostly heavier people, especially the local blacks. In most of them it's just a bit dim there, but we just passed a young, skinny thing where it was much darker."

"Could it be the pancreas?" my sister prompted.

They looked at each other as they pondered her question. Allison remained blank-faced and Patricia merely shrugged, both showing they had no idea.

"It could be," Shani finally responded. "That would certainly explain it."

"So you're saying you can use this vision to identify health problems?" I asked, amazed at the possibilities.

"I'm not sure, but this is a very interesting development," Cate enthused. "I'm guessing the dim space they see in the auras is a lack of life energy caused by dead tissues. In an older diabetic, they'd see a dim spot as the pancreas is weakened, thus producing less energy. In a Type 1 diabetic the pancreas isn't fully functional, so it would appear darker."

By this time we had attracted my parents' attention. After we explained what we'd been discussing we decided to keep watching people nearby to see if anything became obvious. We had just gotten some drinks and were turning back to a bookstore we'd noticed earlier, when Shani hurried to me and whispered something in my ear.

"You're kidding me?" I protested, not sure if I wanted to do what she was asking of me.

"No, seriously," she insisted, pressing her request. Shrugging, I figured it wouldn't kill me to embarrass myself in front of a complete stranger, so I walked up to a man who had just passed us and stopped him.

"Excuse me, sir, have you had any headaches or any unexplained symptoms recently?"

He stared at me like he couldn't believe I was standing there. "That's a rude question, and no, I haven't, not that it's any of your business anyway," he huffed.

"Look, no offense, but my sister just noticed from the way you're carrying yourself that she thought you might be showing symptoms of a possible brain tumor," I bald faced lied to the guy. He seemed to take me seriously though.

"No, I haven't felt anything odd. What makes her think that?"

"Well, she's a researcher for a medical project and has been studying the effects of brain tumors, so she's pretty knowledgeable about such things," I said, inventing stuff as I went along, trying to tie it into things I could substantiate, figuring he or the doctors he might see would want to verify my claims. I never pointed anyone out, so he was free to assume my supposed sister was one of the adult women accompanying me.