James Fling
Future-teller
April 3rd, 2026, early morning
This therapy thing has gotten us nowhere as far as finding a clairvoyant. So far, just people with weird dreams. Emily can tell when it's a clairvoyant, as a telepath.
On the other hand, though, we'd raised enough money for one plane ticket. I see it as an accomplishment, but Emily says we have a ways to go.
So due to the fact that our hotel apartment thing is pretty small, I was confined to the bedroom. Emily says she can't work with me around. I'm like thanks, that makes me feel so appreciated. So it was about eight in the morning and we had our first patient today.
I don't know what happened, I tuned out as soon as the person started complaining. I clicked on the TV, but I didn't understand a word they were saying. They were talking in… well… foreign. Not English, that's all I needed to know. So I turned off the TV. After about twenty minutes, I was just about as bored as a guy could get.
I thought about what it was that Emily had helped me remember. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could get it myself. And I asked myself the questions that I had from what I had remembered. Like I remembered I was pretty good at martial arts. Where did I learn that? I looked out the window because of a very distracting whirring noise. I pulled back the blinds.
An airport. I felt some connection. Had I learned to fly a plane? I thought of a cockpit. And it didn't show up as a commercial airliner cockpit. It looked more like that of a jet. There were little buttons on one of the flight sticks. Little red buttons. Like a fighter jet. Had I been in the air force? Maybe that explained how I was able to fly that helicopter. That would explain the martial arts too.
But what about that cool stuff I was able to do? I climbed a wall a few hundred feet high. I had melted my way through chains. And I was bulletproof. I had no explanation for that. I kept trying to remember. It was right on the tip of my tongue. It started with T. Trans… Trans something. Transoilium. That was it. Transoilium.
But there was something else. Like a friend. Kyle or something. No, not Kyle. Kevin. For some reason his last name eluded me and I kept thinking Guts. I remembered it was something really weird. Gutierrez. That was it. Kevin Gutierrez. He was a real good friend, I remember that. We had a lot of fun together. We were roommates in college. But he could get serious too. He would keep me from doing some stupid stuff. He was really persuasive. He kept me from running away a few times.
If I went to America, and I found him again, I was sure I could get him over here to help. I wondered how much he had changed in the years we had been apart.
His motto was famous among all the pilots-to-be. Shoot it if it moves, and shoot it if it doesn't. That would really help here.
I heard knocking on the door.
"You can come out now," Emily said.
"Ok, I'm coming," I said.
"And I have better news than that," she said cheerfully. "We've found a clairvoyant. Well, she found us, I guess."
So I went to see the new clairvoyant. She was Japanese, with a pale face, freckles, golden brown hair that went down to her cheeks, and deep, dark blue eyes.
"Hello," she said, smiling. "I Naomi Yamada." She held out her hand, and I shook it.
Obviously she didn't know English very well.
"I'm…"
"James Fling," she interrupted. "I know you."
"Oh. I'm sorry if I don't remember you; I've had about three years of my memory wiped."
"No, from a dream," said Naomi. "A dream told me come here. It said that there was two people that looked for me, you and Emily."
"Well we're glad you came," said Emily. "But it isn't a good idea to go to everyone that is looking for you."
"Yeah," I said. "It's a long story, but there are people who… um… don't want you around."
"What do you mean?" Naomi asked.
"Well," Emily started, "There are a bunch of people out there, are trying to kill other people. They are terrorists. And you, being a clairvoyant, can help stop them. So those people don't want clairvoyants around."
"Clairvoyants?" asked Naomi, puzzled.
"Future-tellers," I clarified. "Anyway, you are a clairvoyant. And there are people that don't want you around. But we are here to help you, and hopefully you can help us."
"But does not everyone see the future?" asked Naomi.
"No, not everyone can do that," I said. "You are special. It happens, like you said, in dreams."
"That helps make some sense," Naomi said. "My friends… family… they think I was crazy. But you think I am not crazy." She looked at us. "You think I am not crazy, do you?"
Emily and I looked at each other. "No," we said simultaneously.
"It would just be easier to understand you if you spoke better English," I said. I looked over to Emily who was nodding.
"Oh, I sorry," Naomi said in a more timid voice than before. "English is not my first language. I try, though."
Naomi turned to leave the room, but stopped. She turned back to us.
"Is it fine if I stay today, with you?" asked Naomi. "I have no room. I can sleep on the sofa."
"It's ok if you stay with us tonight," said Emily. "But you'll need to stay in the room with James. I am busy today."
Emily seemed to stutter at those words. She hung her head and left the room.
