Chapter 11

Psychic SOS

The bus had let us out and I was walking towards the door when I spotted Toby talking to a woman. She had on a uniform with a reflective vest and was stopping the traffic to let the kids cross. It was a little odd because normally kids acted as the crossing guards. But I saw the normal crossing guards, two sixth graders, sitting on the school wall, talking to each other. I went over to speak to them.

"What's up?" I nodded at the adult directing traffic.

Tanya Conway, the sixth grader that was our student body president, frowned, "That lady said that she'd be directing the traffic today and maybe tomorrow because of some planned construction."

I left them and waited for Toby to catch up with me. "What did the guard want?"

Toby turned and looked at the crossing guard, "She wanted to know if I liked school, who was my teacher and who was my best friend. I told her you were. She wanted to know why we weren't walking together. I told her you rode the bus and I walked."

"Oh." I dropped the subject when I noticed another bruise on Toby's jaw.

"Your Dad is hitting you again?"

"Nah, I fell off my skateboard."

I didn't say anything more because I could hear his thoughts and he was really frightened that I would say something. We went through the day and when I went to get on the bus, the crossing guard came up to me.

She smiled at me, "Excuse me, are you Gregory Furey?"

"Yeah?"

"Your Dad is Gregory House, right?"

I nodded.

"They want you in the office, something about your Dad."

"I'll miss my bus."

"They'll make sure you get home, don't worry."

I followed her, not thinking that I should try and read her. I was worried about my Dad. He was really stressed out about the IRS and always seemed on edge. We turned the corner by one of the classrooms, when the guard opened the door to it, looked around and then grabbed me, pulling me inside.

"What are you doing?" I pulled, but she had a strong grip on my wrist, "I want to go. Let me go!"

A man came into the classroom; he was the substitute teacher we had in our class just two weeks before. He had a squirt bottle in his hand which he pushed into my chest with a force that took the wind out of me, while the woman continued to hold me in a death grip. I was almost as tall as her, but she had my arm pinned in a way that I couldn't move.

He motioned to the bottle, "Drink that."

I was scared, having a hard time concentrating. The lady pulled on my arm and I thought it would snap. I used my free arm to drink.

Auri

Furey? Honey, what's up? You sound scared.

They made me drink it…I feel weird. They won't let me go home. I want to go home to my Dad…I feel tired…

Furey, honey, who is keeping you from going home?

My head felt heavy, I was having trouble understanding her. Auri…I feel funny…like…

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I woke up in an old house, I was in a bedroom with two windows, but I was up high, probably the second floor because I could see a tree top just outside. There was chain around my ankle attached to the bed. I heard voices in the next room. I tried to lift up, but my head hurt so much that I put it down on the pillow again. A few seconds later the door opened and the same man, Mr. Arenson the substitute teacher, stuck his head in.

"Ah! Awake." He opened the door and came inside, sitting down on the bed. "Greg. Do they call you Greg?"

I didn't say or do anything.

"We want to put you to work."

"Work?"

He nodded, "We need to know what some friends are thinking and one it just so happens that your mother was responsible for me going to prison ten years ago with her special talents. And, we think you may be special too."

"I'm not." I said as convincingly as I could. But when I tapped into his thoughts, he didn't believe me.

"Greg, we've been talking to people and know that you amaze the other kids on the playground by telling them what they're thinking. Now we just want you to tell us what this man is thinking. We need to know if he is a cop or not."

I tried to listen to his thoughts. He was worried that I was trying to read him so he started thinking of music; his mind focused on It's a Small World. But I heard his thoughts just before he switched. Mr. Arenson was worried that the man who was buying the guns was ATF. After he finished the song, he turned to me, "Help us and your Dad won't be hurt."

I said nothing, but he was thinking about two men who were at Dad's hospital. They had guns and were in the parking lot watching my Dad's car in the handicap spot. He had been watching my Dad for several days. The images were for my benefit; he was purposefully thinking about it to show me he was telling the truth.

I began to cry, "Leave my Dad alone!"

"Well, I'd like to do that, but we need your cooperation. We need you to read this one man and, if you do that, we won't hurt your Dad."

I could see that he was telling the truth, he wasn't going to hurt Dad if I cooperated.

"Now, drink this." He shoved the bottle towards me.

I knew the water had drugs in it. I only had one opportunity before I drank it and went back under. I screamed my thoughts as fast as I could. Auri! Auri! Substitute teacher, Mr. Arenson, crossing guard, they have me. I'm upstairs in a room. I don't know where. They're drugging me. I drank some of the water while they watched. They sell guns and they think the buyers are ATF. Auri, take care of my Dad. They're going to hurt him. They've…they've been…watching…