Chapter 10: A Quiet Oklahoman Afternoon

Alex was glad to get out onto the streets of Oklahoma City. While he was afraid of attracting more attention to himself following the shooting in Dallas, he didn't like the idea of hiding in the hotel room any more than Cate did. What's more, the idea that Cate might have some ideas on how his 'automatic boost' ability worked had him enthused. If they could crack that nut, it would really improve things for his followers and for himself as well. As necessary as boosting people was, he didn't like having to constantly make love to a bunch of virtual strangers. He missed spending time with Kitty and Chalise, remembering the days when he only had three lovers with fondness, even if those memories were a little off, since he'd actually had quite an extensive harem at the time. But he still missed his girlfriends anyway. He managed to call them regularly, but there's a big difference between calling and being there.

Despite his fears, they found the streets of downtown Oklahoma City on a hot summer Sunday morning relatively empty, so Alex wasn't as concerned about creating any potential scenes. If anyone overreacted, it was likely to only be noticed by a few people, so he felt a little freer, able to ignore his constantly niggling worries at least for the moment.

The hotel was located near several conference centers and sports arenas, but the downtown area didn't have the big retail draw other cities had. He didn't think the arenas were busy today so they headed off in a random direction, just walking along and seeing what they encountered. They were both enjoying themselves and Alex tried holding Cate's hand, but she dropped it after a few awkward minutes, which made Alex curious, but he figured she'd simply found synchronizing their pace difficult, so he ignored it. Still, he was feeling himself more uncertain about her all the time. 'Maybe she's just as anxious as I am about whatever test she's trying to schedule for me, ' he thought.

They were enjoying the walk, even though the scenery wasn't overly impressive, when they were interrupted after several blocks.

"Hey, wait. Wait for me!" someone called out behind them. Before they could even turn around they both heard the click-clack of heels as a woman ran after them, trying to reach them quickly. Alex had a good idea of what to expect, so he took a moment before turning around and confronting the woman, allowing her to draw closer.

When he did turn, he saw a well-dressed, slightly older woman, probably in her mid to late 40s, running towards them. When their eyes met she jerked back slightly, losing her balance momentarily. Alex was worried she'd trip, possibly twisting an ankle due to the high heels on the fashionable boots she wore, but she recovered, taking the time to focus on what she was doing and moving a bit more sedately after that.

As she moved towards them more cautiously, Cate hurried to her side while Alex took the time to look her over. Although older, she seemed to be very comfortable. The slight laugh lines around her face made her seem like she really loved her life, and her clothes marked her as being somewhat successful. She wore a hat, which had made running after them more difficult, as she'd had to run with one hand on her head holding the hat in place. She also wore a scarf, a colorful multi-patterned dress and the aforementioned high-heeled leather boots. Alex knew next to nothing about women's footwear, but he knew what looked good, and he figured those must have cost a bit.

She was also a blonde, with her long slightly curly hair bouncing around as she hurried forward, now being steadied by Cate.

"Wait a minute," she said on reaching him. She put her hand on his chest as if to see if he was real or not, "you really knocked me for a loop with whatever you did to my vision. Give me a second and I'll be OK." It did in fact take a long time, probably around a full minute before she could gather her wits about her, but then she steadied herself and tried to address Alex directly, even though she had to squint while looking at him.

"Excuse me, but I could somehow feel you from inside my club, and I just knew I had to find you. I was afraid you'd get away before I could catch up to you."

Looking over her shoulder Alex observed a couple of women watching them from a small establishment farther down the street.

"Don't worry, we're used to it. This is a typical reaction, though it's due to a rare occurrence," Alex explained patiently, as he took her arm and guided her to the side. "By the way, what's your name? I'm Alex and this is my sister Cate."

"Sorry, my name is Leanna Dickson. As I said, I'm sorry to bother you but—"

"Don't worry about it. You've got a rare genetic trait which responds to a certain energy I give off. Very few can detect it, but for those who can, it's pretty overwhelming."

"Excuse me, but why the hell are you glowing like a spotlighted disco ball? Is it you, or am I having some kind of stroke?"

"No, you aren't having a stroke," Alex answered, laughing quietly. "Like your genetic anomaly, which allows you to detect people's emotions and feel this energy I give off, I have a separate one which allows me to 'activate' new abilities in you. The glow you see when you look at me is this energy I give off. We've decided to call it BCM for want of a better name. It's undetectable by anyone else, but you'll notice it in almost everything you look at now. It's a sort of life supporting energy, so it indicates health and a lot of other things. It'll probably be easier to explain this if we could sit down somewhere private. Does this club you just came from have an area we can talk privately in?"

"It sure does," Leanna replied with a gentle laugh of her own, her laugh striking a light tinkling note which made one smile in response, "though I'm sure a lot of people are going to be curious why I took off running after some strange guy like I did, so we may have to answer a few questions about it."

"That's fine. You'll find you'll have to watch how you respond to questions now, as we generally don't want to tell people too much about these abilities we have. But we've gotten fairly good at dealing with people's curiosity."

"That's no problem, I'm used to dancing around issues. I've had my fair share of secrets in the course of my life. Come on, I'll take you back, introduce you, and then we can escape to a private room to discuss whatever you need to tell me."

Alex offered Leanna his arm. She gave it and him an odd look, then shrugged and linked her own through it as they walked back.

"If you look at the people around us, you'll noticed how their 'auras' contain a lot of different colors," Cate explained, as she fell in beside them. "You can only see pure white when you look at Alex, but that's because his BCM is so strong it overwhelms you. But with others it reflects a lot of information you'll likely find very useful."

As Cate continued to describe what she was seeing, Alex took in their surroundings. There were four women standing outside of the club, which was pretty nondescript. It had those odd one way windows which looked like mirrors on the outside with the name of the club, "Maiden Nights", on it. Alex thought it an odd way to decorate a club, figuring clear windows would attract more people, but he guessed it was probably a bit exclusive and they weren't interested in attracting just anyone to it.

As they drew closer to it, he noted the other women awaiting their return were also nicely dressed, although one looked more like a lumber jack, which Alex found strange. If this was an exclusive club, and the others people were so nicely dressed, then surely there must be some kind of a dress code. Alex then wondered about his own attire, glancing quickly at Leanna and Cate, trying to guess whether there might be an issue with how they were dressed.

But by then they were already back at the club.

"Hey, Debbie, Betsy. Sorry, but I saw someone I recognized, and I just had to say hello," Leanna explained. "These are two ... old friends, Alex and Cate," she temporized.

"Yeah? And how'd you do that when you couldn't see them?" the oddly dressed woman asked, though she seemed more curious than hostile. She didn't look bad, and she didn't have a heavy plaid jacket or anything, but she was just dressed more casually in what Alex would consider more work clothes than 'going to a club' type of dress. The woman was young, with a big toothy smile and wore thick framed glasses which shouted 'retro chic'. She also wore her hair cut very short.

"I actually heard their voices as they walked past and I noticed them as they passed the window," Leanna responded. "Anyway, these young women are Betsy, Debbie, Linda and Lori," she said, identifying the woman Alex had noticed was indeed Betsy, "girls, this is Alex and his sister Cate."

They all said hello, though they seemed a little guarded responding to Alex, probably because of the strange way they met him, but they seemed to take to Cate right away. When Alex watched everyone saying hello, he noticed Cate grinning as she watched him as well. He tilted his head, silently asking her what was so funny, but she just waved him off as she continued smiling at him.

Leanna started to head in, but Alex quickly got the door for her.

"Ah, a good old fashioned gentleman. Just watch out who you do that for, a lot of people read more into it than you probably intend," she responded, offering him an odd bit of advice. But once she was through he waited as the rest entered and followed after Cate, watching her shake her head the entire time.

As soon as he crossed the threshold everything suddenly made perfect sense. Cate was right in laughing at him. The entire bar's clientele was composed of women, though it was hardly crowded. There wasn't another man in sight. Alex thought he saw two, but on closer examination he saw they were just women wearing less obviously feminine clothes. Now Betsy didn't look so out of place, as there were several women dressed like her here. Alex just shook his head, Cate was right, he really was slow sometimes. All the signs were there, and he should have had enough experience with it by now to have recognized what was going on.

The women turned to watch him as they entered, their eyes moving from Leanna to him, though they'd also stop to follow Cate as well. Alex just followed the rest, acting like his being there was the most natural thing in the world.

"Ah, there you are, we wondered where you ran off to like that. And now you come back in dragging some strange guy and a nice piece of candy that's likely to get us all thrown in the joint if we go near her, what's the deal?" someone sitting nearby asked.

The place was nicely laid out with a small bar by the door, but only a couple of people were located there now, instead most people were sitting at a variety of tables eating lunch. There was a nice homey feel to the place with candle lit tables, several couches and a lot of posters featuring either notable or famous figures or sporting specific women's slogans.

"Relax, it's just someone I met a little while ago who I haven't been able to—"

"Hey, you don't run out of here that fast unless your undies are on fire," someone countered. "I can also see you're a bit preoccupied with this chap."

"Hey, I'm a business woman, I have to interact with a variety of different people every day. I can't spend all my time flirting with you girls," Leanna argued.

"Hey, leave them alone," objected a woman who was standing beside Betsy. "This guy is clearly someone important, I want to hear his story. The rest of you can do your own thing, but let's not make a fight out of this."

Betsy seemed to be clearly surprised by this response, but Alex noticed her companion's eyes were focused on him in a typical pattern so Alex quickly walked up to her.

"The name is Alex," he said, offering his hand to her.

She shook it, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Alex, my name is Ally Frey. You've clearly got important things to do, so what brings you to our little place? I'm guessing it wasn't due to a personal recommendation from anyone you know."

Alex gave them a relaxed quiet laugh, "No, we just stumbled on Leanna here. We've got an unusual ... relationship between us. She's got a unique ability to sense something in me, just like you do, Ally. It's got nothing to do with me as a person, but a lot to do with who you are."

With this unexpected response several people drew closer, wanting to hear what bill of goods Alex was going to try to sell them. Ally was all ears, so Betsy protectively moved closer to her. Alex simply smiled at her in response. Ally looked a lot like her girlfriend. She had longer hair, but it was the same shade as Betsy's, though a bit longer, and she wore a dress instead of the work shirt Betsy wore. She also had on some jewelry which made them contrast in their appearance, although they also both wore the clunky thick black glasses that were currently fashionable amongst the hipsters.

"You don't need to worry, Betsy. What Ally feels for me isn't sexual, instead she feels a specific energy I give off," Alex said, surprising himself with how much he was revealing so quickly, but he felt strangely comfortable with this group of women so he went with his gut. "We each have related genetic anomalies. I have one which causes me to give off a certain type of invisible energy, while Ally and Leanna have one which allows them to detect that energy. They're both drawn to me not because of my young boyish charm, but because of what they sense in me."

"Wait a minute, what kind of stuff are you trying to tell us?" Lori asked. "I've never heard of any 'mysterious invisible energy' that attracts people. Are you going to give us a bunch of bull about crystal energy next?"

"Hey, leave my damn crystals alone," another woman called out from a table nearby. "What I chose to believe doesn't impact you in the least. They make me feel better and that's all I care about."

"Ignore my friend," Lori advised Alex. "I like to tease her about her belief in things like Feng Shui, but I can see Ally and Leanna seem to be responding to something that I can't see, so I'm actually interested in knowing if there's anything behind these claims of yours."

"Actually, we've gotten a lot of practical experience with it, although we haven't been able to document the process," Cate explained before Alex could respond. "It seems the energy, which we call BCM for reasons I won't bother getting into right now, is in all living things, but it seems to be neither a wave nor a particle, so it's never been detected by existing measuring devices. We're not sure yet what it consists of or how to measure it, but just watch Ally and Leanna and you can see just how real it is. Alex, walk to the bar and back."

Smiling, Alex did so, safe in the knowledge that no one was checking out his ass as he walked away. He heard a coin clinking against the floor behind him. He stopped at the bar and headed back.

"Did any of you notice that while everyone else looked at the coin I tossed, neither Leanna nor Ally ever took their eyes off of Alex? And did you also notice that while Ally can't keep from staring into his eyes, Leanna is unable to? That's all part of our evidence. The BCM energy Alex gives off is too intense for Leanna to manage. Ally can detect it, but not quite as well as Leanna can."

Cate had no idea why they were revealing this much detail to a bunch of complete strangers, but she'd learned to trust Alex when he suddenly decided to go off on a tangent. If he felt it was safe, then she had no problems with following suit.

"You know, getting off of the particulars of our unproven ideas, you might be interested in something else we're doing. We're involved with a group called the Angel Vision Foundation. They're involved with a new college sorority, Pi-Alpha-Zeta. That stands for 'Praecipue Animo Fiduciam', which means 'Always Trust Your Judgment'. We're trying to find others like Ally and Leanna who have these particular talents. They typically are able to detect things about people, often guessing how people are likely to react."

"I've always wondered how Leanna did that," Lori said. "She always seems to know when someone's had too much to drink or when a fight is about to break out."

"You know, Leanna, I hate to ask this, but it's pretty ironic that your name is Dickson and you own a lesbian bar."

She smiled, apparently comfortable with the observation from having heard it before. "Yeah, I don't have any control over my family name. Seems it came from my father, who was a bit of a dick himself. But my mother would never forgive me if I changed my name now, and I wouldn't know what to change it to. 'Vaginadaughter'? 'Pussyrelative'? Or my personal favorite, 'Cunt Kid'?"

Alex had to laugh, although the others in the bar seemed to have heard the line before. "Now that's a superhero sidekick I'd like to see. Although, since everyone now thinks that Batman and Robin are a gay couple, we'd have to find her a different mentor."

"How about Invisible Energy Guy and the Cunt Kid?" someone suggested, only partially trying for a laugh.

"Anyway, you've got a good point, Leanna. As I said, I didn't expect you to have an answer, I was just curious how you handled it. But getting back on topic, we're trying to reach out to women and girls, trying to teach them to trust their instincts, since many of them are actually based on this genetic trait. While those like Leanna, who have learned to trust their feelings based on experience, the ones like Ally, who we call Watchers, don't trust those same instincts because they aren't as strong."

"Wait, if Ally is a Watcher, and yes, we can figure out why you call her that, then what do you call Leanna?" Debbie asked.

Alex managed to skirt that topic, but they proceeded to talk about the work Alex's foundation was doing, with Alex leading the conversation. He subtly suggested Cate take Leanna and Ally aside to explain what they needed to know, while Alex distracted everyone else with the topic of helping women in general. More and more women came over to join them, and soon Alex was entertaining quite a group of interested women. Noticing many of them had just finished eating, Alex asked if they could continue the conversation over lunch, since neither he nor Cate had eaten yet.

The women were more than happy with that, and they pulled a group of tables together so everyone could listen to them as they talked. A couple of women offered to buy Cate lunch, but Leanna said their meal was on her, since it was the least she could do for what Alex had done for her.

That led to a discussion about just what he'd done for her, since so far, all the women knew was that Leanna and Ally could somehow detect some sort of energy Alex gave off. Leanna started to describe her being able to sense more things, and the women asked her for specifics. She slipped up, mentioning his "changing what she could see", and it led the conversation further astray.

"Wait a minute," Lori, always the instigator interrupted, "you said earlier that Leanna couldn't look at you because your energy was too bright, but she had no trouble looking at you as she ran after you, and now she says you've changed what she sees. What is it you did to her? You both mentioned you did something, but you didn't say exactly what it was."

It was Cate that sighed this time, but Alex was ready, having anticipated this coming up.

"The truth is that my genetic ability plays off of their abilities. I 'activate' dormant abilities in them. I've enabled Leanna to see the BCM in people, and that energy supplies a lot of information about people. It shows someone's health, since all living things give off BCM, but it also shows people's personality traits, as well as their current emotional state. It's complicated but—"

"Wait, if this BCM stuff isn't related to light, and isn't either a wave or a particle, then how can she 'see' this energy." Despite how much she was leading the conversation astray, both Alex and Cate were developing a real admiration for Lori. She seemed to have a real sense of curiosity, and it was hard to slip anything by her.

Cate took over the explanation here, since this was her bailiwick. "It's complicated, and we don't want to overwhelm you, but Alex uses his excess of this energy to cause Leanna to grow new brain tissue. Since she's focusing on her perception of the energy at the time, it triggers her to develop a mechanism to interpret it."

"But wouldn't that involve a predefined structure on her DNA? I mean, growing a whole new organ would require a lot to ... I don't know, I guess if a single gene can govern whether we have thumbs or not, it could trigger this, but it just seems a little, I don't know, odd that it would in this case."

Alex took the time to give Lori another look at this juncture, since she continued to impress him. She seemed like a simple girl with a pretty face, a nice smile—especially when she was being challenged—and fairly straight blonde hair which cascaded around her face. She had the kind of hair that was definitely helped by a bottle. She wore simple jewelry—large pearl earrings and a matching non-pearl necklace. She also had soft penetrating eyes, and was dressed in a heavy leather biker jacket. She clearly didn't fit into any single mold. Although one wouldn't pick her out of crowd as an intellectual, based both on her blonde hair and her style of dress, she seemed to revel in it, just as she seemed to revel in being her own woman, picking her own clothing style, her own look, and maintaining her own way of life. Alex also didn't notice any girlfriend.

In short, she was a whole series of enigmas. A butch lesbian, an intellectual book worm, a blonde bimbo, a girl who liked to dress up, there just wasn't any way of pigeonholing her. But Alex didn't get a chance to analyze her any more than that, she was waiting for a response.

"That's because I trigger growth along her optic nerve which utilizes the areas of the brain associated with sight to also process what she's now perceiving. Although she's not seeing light waves, she 'sees' the energy as if it's normal vision. What she sees is completely different from the recognized color spectrum, and it also overlays her normal vision, so she can see both things equally. Again, we've leaving a lot of specifics out because it's actually quite complex, but that's the general idea."

"But then why can't Ally see anything new?" Betsy asked, growing more interested in what might affect her girlfriend's ability to deal with the world around her.

"That's because while Watchers respond to the BCM energy, they don't respond well enough to grow new tissue. We think it would allow them to heal better, but only the Seers can, well, grow the physical structures to actually see this energy."

"Wait, if Ally is a Watcher, and you never answered my question about what you called people like Leanna, let me guess, she's a Seer, or something like that?" Lori asked. Alex had to smile in response.

"You should be a scientist," Cate told her. "You pick up on a lot of subtle clues. You'd be good at it."

"That's exactly what we call them," Alex confirmed, not giving her a chance to respond, despite Alex's curiosity about what she did. "The Watchers constantly stand in the background and watch me, while the Seers can physically see the energy I give off."

"Wow, this is amazing," Debbie said. "Leanna, what am I thinking?"

"Sorry, she can't see your thoughts, but she can see emotions, particularly strong emotions. Although she's still a little green at it yet, meaning she isn't likely to know what the different colors she sees mean yet."

"OK, then, Alex, what am I feeling?" she laughed.

Cate laughed as well. "As strange as it sounds, Alex doesn't share the same genetic trait he activates in others, thus he can't actually see what they can. It's a strange codependent relationship between him and them. He opens their world up, allowing them to see all kinds of things, but he has to rely on them to see the things he can't, the very things he allows them to see."

"Yes, it's a complex relationship, but it's fascinating. How come we've never heard of it before?" Lori asked.

"It's a very rare occurrence, and its effects were never obvious enough for anyone to identify until Alex came along," Cate explained. "After all, if everyone has the same amount of this energy, how is anyone going to measure a difference in someone's response to it? Alex is also a strange case, as it seems he's the first person with his ability. So it looks like Leanna and Ally's abilities were hidden for thousands of years, while Alex's just popped up out of nowhere."

Alex figured everyone had a good idea of how things operated by then, and he figured they needed time to consider it before he revealed any more information, figuring it didn't make any sense until they had time to process what he'd already told them.

"Do any of you know of a decent jewelry story around here? Nothing too ostentatious, but I need to pick up some gifts?" Alex asked, trying to get everyone off of the topic they were discussing.

"Well, surprisingly, there aren't any big malls in the downtown area," Leanna told them. "There's one in the Oak Brook Shopping Center, which is close, but it doesn't have much of a selection. There's also the Crossroads mall, but that's seen better days and is more of a gang hangout than anything else. The only jewelry you'll find there is nickel and dime stuff. Your best bet is 'Mizrachi's' in the Penn Square Mall, but that's a ways from here. I could drive you there, if you'd like."

"You know, that's not a bad idea. It'll give us time to talk a little more about this. We aren't taking you away from your business, are we?"

"Nah, that's the great thing about being the boss," she teased. "I can leave the place to my lackeys. Can't I, girls," she called out loudly enough for them to hear her.

The various waitresses and the bartender all called out, "Yes, your evil lordship." Apparently it was a well-rehearsed response and Alex could see them all smiling, so he knew it was a comfortable joke amongst them.

"But what about Ally?" Betsy asked, sounding concerned for her girlfriend. "Doesn't she need to know the same sorts of things?"

Alex waited a moment before answering. "Frankly, there are separate things to discuss with each, but I guess it wouldn't hurt if you wanted to come along."

"That's OK," Ally hurried to say. "You guys go ahead. We can get together later to discuss anything more that I need to know. Frankly, I think it's better if I take some time to talk over what I've already learned."

"Oh, yeah, there's more we need to cover," Cate told her. "I'll also need to get some contact information, and we need to give you contacts to our communities in Illinois and New Orleans. We have smaller ones in Texas, but—"

"Wait a minute," Lori said, sitting up and staring intently at Alex. "New Orleans, building communities, teaching 'select individuals' things they need to know. Are you that, that angel who was in the news recently?"

This time Alex couldn't resist the audible sigh he gave out. "Yeah, you got me. I'm the fabled Angel of New Orleans. But don't tell anyone, will you? What I'm doing doesn't have anything to do with religion, and I don't like the idea of misleading people. People call me that because the Seers often call me an angel when they first acquire their new vision. They see my glowing with this energy and assume I'm a messenger from God."

"Yeah, I can see that," Ally said, getting a faraway look.

"Look, if we're going to go we'd better do it soon. I don't know what we'll need to do today, but I'm trying to avoid attracting attention. I figure if we're going to go to a mall, we should go early so there won't be too big of a crowd."

They all agreed, and Leanna got her purse from her office and they took off, leaving the bar abuzz with women discussing Alex and his movement.

Stacie took one last glance around the corner, but saw nothing which would stop them from doing what they'd been anxiously planning for so long. This was it. It was now or never. She glanced at Mike and he nodded. She reached into her jacket pocket and took out her mask.

She was definitely not crazy about this idea. It seemed stupid, but Mike was right, they really had no choice. They were at the end of their rope. Their debts had been mounting steadily since they both lost their jobs and the bank took over their house, but they were still living there illegally. They had credit card bills they had no way of paying back which they'd used to live off of while they'd continued to look for work, but nothing had panned out.

Then Mike had made a series of mistakes. He took out a 'temporary loan' from a neighborhood loan shark, figuring he'd have another job before long. Then, in order to pay off the loan shark, he borrowed money to bet on a 'sure thing' he'd heard about at the track. Now having lost their home, and having no money to stay anywhere else, it looked like they'd soon be living in either their car or the street if the bank took the car as well. Certain dangerous people were also looking to break their legs for the illicit loans they couldn't pay back.