Chapter 3: Future Influence
Cambridge, May 2006
Gene winced at the sound of the alarm clock and slapped the button with his left hand. His head dove back under the warm cover. After literally kicking up fuss hours earlier, he awoke from a dreamless sleep. Gene groaned against his pillow, gradually becoming aware of the reality.
Liz... Maybe I could patch up with her.
It was a desperate, small thought. He couldn't let things end this way, right? After all, she was his first girlfriend. …But then his thoughts went to yesterday's text messages, and something about them just ticked him off. The idea of getting back together with her increasingly left a sour taste in his mouth.
Forget it.
Gene buried his face into the pillow. If only he could sleep the day away without having any nightmares. What if he did? It was decided then; he'd rather have nightmares than seeing his ex-girlfriend at school. Gene's attendance was good, so he could afford to sleep in. He turned his head to the wall. Slowly breathing in and out, he sank into another sleep. To his relief, he didn't see any further nightmares. However, he did dream of a girl... A girl? But it wasn't Liz. Her face was faint. All he remembered was that she was short and cute. Sometimes she would blush at him. Well, girls tended to do that around him... It was strange. He had just broken up with his girlfriend, and here he was dreaming of another girl.
Suddenly, a beep roused him from his sleep. It wasn't his alarm clock though.
He turned his head to look at his mobile phone on the nightstand. He reached out and looked at the notification screen. Two people had texted him. One of them was his classmate Simon. He was in the same circle of friends as Liz. Gene hesitantly clicked on his message.
It read:
Yo, Gene. You okay? I heard Liz dumped you.
Gene sat upright immediately. That didn't happen.
Wait. Who told you that?
His response was immediate.
Nicole told me.
Nicole was Simon's girlfriend and Liz's best friend.
She didn't dump me! It was a mutual break-up.
Simon replied again.
Really? Well, Liz got over it quickly. I was worried because you didn't come to school.
Gene winced. She got over it quickly.
Seriously? Never mind then. ...I don't want to see her face for a while. That's all.
The next reply came a little later.
I understand. But don't stay away too long. You're on our football team in PE, remember?
Gene twitched his eye. That was what he was worried about? He had the urge to throw his phone out of the window. Instead he settled for punching his pillow.
Then he laid down again to think about the situation with a deep frown on his face.
So that meant Liz lied to Simon and Nicole… and they wouldn't believe him over her, of course. Gene only entered their clique a small time before he dated Liz. Nicole knew Liz from elementary school and were 'best friends forever'. Simon was well… just someone. Someone who liked Gene better for his football skills. He felt sad just thinking about it. Gene moved his arm automatically over his eyes, so that the pyjama sleeve would soak up any tears that threatened to fall out.
Why was this happening to him?
Gene sniffed and raised his arm onto his forehead. With his other hand he navigated to the other text on his phone. There was another text, which was sent yesterday at midnight. He had not bothered to check his phone after he had the nightmare.
He smiled a little at the message.
Hey, wanna go for a drive tonight?
It was a short and simple message from Craig, his friend who played guitar.
Craig lived in the neighbourhood and was a year older than him. He went to a different school, so Gene's school friends didn't know of his existence. Martin and Luella didn't seem to be aware of him either. However, Noll did find out that he often sneaked out at night, but apparently not why or with whom. Gene grimaced. After that Martin caught wind of his nightly ventures, and questioned him about it a little, but Noll insisted he had not told him anything.
That was the reason they decided to put the 'driving lessons' on a backburner.
After that they barely contacted each other. Well, that was already two months ago. That happened to be around the time he started dating Liz.
Gene turned on his side and sighed.
A shame, really. He liked driving, and he had gotten pretty good at it. It gave him a sense of freedom, some autonomy. Most of all he enjoyed the "danger"; sneaking out at night and spending time with Craig doing things his parents wouldn't approve of. He associated Craig with all the vices; driving without a license, smoking, and alcohol. Gene couldn't really resist trying them out either.
Of course, not at the same time.
Come to think of it, he'd pretty much neglected Craig while he was dating Liz. It didn't feel right to meet with Craig while he was going out with her. They probably wouldn't have liked each other either. Liz was a popular goody two shoes who went with the whims of her parents. From what he had heard, Craig appeared to be a school delinquent who rebelled against his parents, because he wanted to become a guitarist. Most people would consider it strange that Gene associated with these two extremes.
He typed in a reply.
Sorry, I had a lot on my mind yesterday. Maybe next time.
For now, he just wanted to coop inside his room and sulk the entire day.
Perhaps cry over it a little.
Maybe a lot. Damn it.
Timothy Grey placed a cup of tea in front of the boy. Usually he received students and fellow teachers in his office, but today was different.
"What brought you here, Oliver?"
"A letter."
"From who?"
"From someone who may be precognitive."
Timothy paused.
Well, this was interesting. He could only assume that his specialization in quantum mechanics would become of use to Oliver Davis' enquiry.
The day he first met the boy came to mind. At the beginning of a previous semester Timothy taught an introduction lecture in physics which also touched upon the principles of quantum mechanics. He found the short teenager sitting among the large majority of bachelor students in the lecture hall. Back then he didn't think much of it; people of all ages occasionally snuck in and tried to make sense of the various lectures taught at the colleges.
Timothy was always happy to see a young teenager interested enough in the topic to join his classes. Oliver was quiet as he soaked up the information in the lectures. He never said anything, so Timothy wondered if he completely understood the theory at all… and how he could get the boy to interact. He asked his name once, but the boy only replied with 'Oliver'. There was no surname attached at all. He would figure out why soon. Timothy inquired with his fellow instructors and heard that the same 'Oliver' was a 'child genius' who often snuck into university classes and could occasionally be found the research office.
It became quite a problem. Not so much for the instructors, but for his school attendance records. One day an instructor from the law department knocked on his door with the request to kindly turn away this 'Oliver' from his classes. That man was Martin Davis and Oliver was his adopted son. He had seen the man quite often in the hallways and in the staff rooms, but other than exchanging some pleasantries they never had deep conversations. They were in completely different departments after all.
Timothy couldn't quite resist inviting the man for a lunch and speak at length about his wayward son.
He looked at the boy. "Could you tell me about the contents of the letter?"
"I prefer to keep it private," Oliver said.
Timothy nodded.
"Very well. Then let's stick to what you can tell me."
It didn't show on his face (he hoped), but Timothy was quite excited to have this conversation with Oliver. He had gratefully accepted the sudden request for a dialogue. Timothy readied his notebook. After Martin gave him his son's paper 'The System of the Unexplained Phenomena' to read, he became quite a fan. A big fan. It was a truly fascinating insight on the state of the parapsychology, and Oliver's paper truly seemed game-changing. Safe to say, it was his paper that got Timothy interested into the field. Formerly he never bothered with it, because the scientific community deemed it to be pseudoscience.
To his surprise he even found a fellow physicist with a shared interest in the grey area between quantum physics and the paranormal on a message board for parapsychology. Timothy couldn't say he dabbled in parapsychology like Martin did, but for now he was open to discussing these topics.
Oliver took a sip from his tea and spoke.
"They wrote my name and home address on the envelope. However, the letter itself was addressed to my brother."
Ah. His brother. If he remembered correctly his name was Eugene. Apparently he was a medium. A perfect medium at that.
"How very interesting. What difference would it make if the envelope was addressed to your brother as well?"
Oliver held his gaze as he answered, "I can only assume that this person wanted to make sure I would make use of my psychometric ability. The contents of the letter would likely be dismissed by my brother otherwise."
"But what do they have to gain by doing so?'
"They wanted me to sense their intentions."
Timothy leaned back in his chair.
"... Hm, but that's not why you have come to see me."
Oliver nodded.
"I used psychometry on the letter as well. Aside from a psychometric vision, I was also able to see irregular visions."
He leaned forward.
"Irregular, in what way?"
"I get input from all my senses in the usual visions. In the case of the irregular visions, all except for sight were shut down," Oliver explained. "In addition, I saw multiple visions of a particular time and place concurrently... but the situation changed in each vision."
The boy stared down at the table with a frown. He seemed to struggle with something else.
Timothy persuaded him to go on.
"What else did you notice?"
"These visions…" he paused, "seem to take place in a future."
Timothy was about to ask how he determined that, but he refrained from doing so. He put a hand under his chin. Precognitive visions. The quantum physicist on the parapsychology message board had also briefly discussed that topic.
"...So that's where I come in. Very interesting," he said, nodding. "If I understand correctly your abilities interacted?"
Oliver looked up again.
"Yes."
He let out a sigh.
"Then I must disappoint you, I cannot tell you anything about precogs. I'm very new to this."
"It does not matter. I'm not particularly interested in precogs either. Only the theory behind them." Oliver said. "I would like to know how you think of these matters from your perspective, Mr Grey."
"My perspective… Can you tell me a bit more?"
The boy tapped on the table with his finger as he pondered over what to say. Timothy took this time to scribble in his notebook. The tapping on the table stopped.
Finally, he spoke.
"The psychometric vision indicated that they were very close to a particular girl. The so-called precognitive visions all seemed to be related to the girl's future."
"So this girl seems to be the precog's focal person," he said as he wrote in his notebook. "Were there any other potential focal persons?"
He shook his head.
"No... Only someone who might be of some importance to the focal person."
Timothy lifted an eyebrow. Could it be…? He didn't ask. The boy wouldn't answer anyway.
"Hm. Rather than being fully precognitive, I would say that they are able to predict a future of a person they are close with."
Oliver said. "I see, it's just as I thought."
"Now let's get to what you mentioned before. If I recall correctly, you saw multiple situations of the same time and place in your irregular visions."
"Yes, some visions had different situations which overlapped with one another. Most of the time I only saw one situation clearly. All the others were less visible."
"Ah, that must be the most likely outcome," Timothy said. "What do you remember of my lectures on quantum mechanics?"
Oliver paused. "You said that due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we cannot predict the future state of any system. However, we can use Schrodinger's equation to predict the state's evolution."
"And how would you define 'the future'?"
"…A state comprised of all possibilities."
"Well, something comes into existence because of certain conditions. Why would something happen? Under what conditions would it possibly exist? In a precog's case, how would one be able to catch a glimpse of the future?"
"If the conditions aren't right, the predictions would become exponentially more inaccurate."
"…Then if we go by the theory that this precog isn't fully precognitive, and is only able to predict the future of their focal person… What happens if a person whom they don't know does something outside their predictions?"
Oliver cupped his chin with his fingers.
"That would mean they wouldn't get caught in the precog's predictions."
Timothy smirked a little.
"You're getting the hang of it. Well done."
"It's nothing much."
He underlined the conclusion in his notebook.
"What will you do about it, Oliver? As it is, your future has already changed. The visions you saw may not happen in the same way - if they happen at all. Especially if you have some involvement as you don't seem to be the focal person."
"The conditions have changed."
Timothy nodded.
"Not only of what occurred in those visions. I could think of a few other things that have changed. If the letter hadn't arrived and caused you... confusion at a certain level, you wouldn't have made a decision to visit me in my office. In a parallel future I could have been sitting in this office and working on my paper. Its conclusion might turn a little different as I may rework an insight I had from our conversation."
He intently looked at Oliver.
"In other words, you are causing an avalanche of changes by simply talking to me."
The boy sighed.
"You sound very dramatic, Mr Grey."
"And you are not worried? Provided that you put some importance into those predictions."
He looked away.
"Even if I did... I do not particularly wish for the same future."
"Well, this sounds very ominous. Aren't you being the dramatic one, Oliver?"
Oliver sighed.
"It's rather my brother who is being over-dramatic." Then he shook his head. "Never mind what I said."
"Oh my," Timothy said. "Is there anything else on your mind?"
He shook his head again. "No, I'll figure out the rest on my own."
"I hope I was able to help out."
Oliver smiled a little.
"Yes, it confirmed something I was wondering about."
"If you need any more help with this. Please give me a ring."
"I will. Thank you, Mr Grey."
Oliver drank the last of his tea and stood up.
At that moment someone knocked on the door.
The door opened, revealing a young woman with short, curly red hair.
"Ah, hello Tina."
Tina was one of the PhD students in his department.
"I just bumped into Martin Davis in the entry hall. He said he wishes to speak to his son."
She looked at the boy near Timothy's desk. Oliver didn't bother turning around, and got himself ready to go.
"In the entry hall, you say?" Timothy said.
Tina nodded.
"And he has a visitor with him."
Timothy blinked and looked at Oliver. The boy frowned this time.
"Well then," Oliver started to leave. "Goodbye, Mr Grey."
He held up a hand.
"Oh, I'll go with you to greet your father. It's been a while since our last chat."
Timothy went down to the entry hall with Oliver. When they arrived he found Martin talking to an unfamiliar lady. Oliver's pace quickened when he saw her.
"Madoka."
She turned around with a dazzling smile, stopping Timothy in his tracks. He could only watch them from a short distance. The woman named Madoka didn't seem out of place in the university. Looks-wise she could very well be a Master's student.
"Noll! There you are. You should take your phone with you next time."
She had a bright voice. The boy muttered something to her and turned to Martin.
"What's this about?" Oliver asked.
His father answered, "Madoka wanted to talk to you about the trip."
Oliver turned towards Madoka again and narrowed his eyes.
"Are you trying to convince me to go again?"
She tilted her head apologetically.
"I planned on booking a ticket tomorrow, so in a way I suppose it is my last opportunity to convince you to go to Japan. But..."
"But what?" Oliver said.
Madoka showed a nervous smile.
"It's Gene. He's gotten cold feet."
Oliver brought a palm to his face and sighed. "That idiot..."
"Tim!"
Timothy snapped out of his daze. It seemed like Martin had taken note of his presence.
"Oh, hello. Martin. I wanted to see you again. "
"Great." Martin turned to the young woman. "Madoka. Let me introduce you to my colleague from the physics department, Timothy Grey. Tim specializes in quantum physics."
Madoka blinked, "Oh, nice to meet you, Mr Grey."
"He's gained some interest after reading Oliver's work," Martin proudly said.
"Ah, hello. Nice to meet you," Timothy said, a little caught off guard by the sudden introduction. "Yes, it was an excellent paper. Especially at such a young age. It was a very well-deserved honorary doctorate."
Martin continued, "Ms Madoka Mori is one of our investigators at SPR."
"...She's my mentor," Oliver added, somewhat exasperated.
"Y-your mentor?" Timothy widened his eyes and showed his best smile. "I'm honoured to meet you. I didn't think I would meet such an important person to Oliver..."
Madoka smiled back at him, waving a hand.
"Oh, I hardly am. If I'm not mistaken, Oliver used to skip school for your classes."
Martin nodded with a less pleased expression. "Oh yes, he did."
"Well, I always say the more the merrier. Hahaha!" Timothy laughed awkwardly.
A scowl formed on Oliver's face. He was obviously not enjoying the topic of his truancy.
"Madoka, can we talk now?" He coldly said.
However, Madoka's response was warm and radiant, and easily triumphed over Oliver's frigid atmosphere.
"Of course! Hmm, let's see. Mr Grey, do you know where I could have a little chat with Oliver around here? It won't take too long."
Timothy looked up at the ceiling as he pondered.
"The main dining hall should be relatively quiet around this hour. It's not far from here," he said, turning around. "I'll take you there."
Timothy guided them to the dining hall, simultaneously playing the tour guide by pointing out the important and notable rooms along the way. When they arrived, Oliver took a seat at a table in the corner.
Madoka thanked him and offered him a business card.
"Mr Grey. Please take this with you."
Next to her, Martin frowned a little. Timothy took it in his hand. It said: Madoka Mori, Chief of Field Laboratory Team, Pratt Laboratory, Society for Psychical Research. The description was followed by an address in Cambridge and a telephone number.
"Thank you…"
Then he reached into his breast pocket. Nothing there.
"Oh, I forgot mine in my office. Shall I go grab-"
Madoka shook her head with a smile.
"No need for that. You may call my number, and give it to me the next time we meet," she said.
He nodded.
"O-of course!"
After saying their goodbyes, Madoka went up to Oliver. They started speaking in Japanese.
The men turned around and headed to their respective staff rooms.
Beside him Martin suddenly spoke.
"Err, Timothy… What did you think of Madoka?"
"What can I say, she's very charming. A very interesting woman. I look forward to meeting her again."
Hours later the Davis family sat around the table in the dining room.
Luella wasn't pleased. The men were unusually quiet. It felt like she was talking to three walls. Only Martin had the sense to make vague attempts at conversation, but he also seemed very much in a daze. She narrowed her eyes at her husband. It was probably something very embarrassing. She suspected that Martin would soon burst from the silence at the table, so she said nothing until then.
Her gaze moved to Gene. Her son was listlessly picking at a piece of carrot on his plate with a fork. There was hardly a spark of energy in him: he was dully staring at somewhere near the ceiling. Luella turned to see what he was looking at. Ugh, a spider web. She made a mental note of having Martin remove the insect from its place once he returned from oblivion.
Her focus returned to her own plate of food again, and briefly glanced up at Gene every so often.
Upon returning home from her work in the morning hours, Luella found Gene moping and wallowing in his bedroom. Predictably, he hadn't gone to school and refused to lunch with her, instead opting to eat sweets and snacks. From the little she had heard from Noll, his brother and his girlfriend had a spat and broke up. Since Liz was his first girlfriend, she couldn't really blame him for feeling down. However, he still had to eat properly, so Luella decided to drag Gene out of bed to have him eat dinner with them.
Luella frowned as she watched Gene picking at a diced potato again. He had the nerve of playing with his food like that. Normally she would make him wash the dishes after dinner, but she was kind enough to let him off this time.
She peered at her other son. Noll was… Noll. He had occasionally looked at his brother, as if mildly worried, but went in favor of going into complete internal mode after five minutes had passed. In this mode he would tune out as many as conversations as possible. This always happened whenever he struggled with a writing block. Hm, this could take a while. She looked down at his plate. Noll was already halfway done. Very good. Luella had made fried rice with diced potatoes and carrots, and roast chicken with gravy. She had served gado gado, a fried tofu salad dish, for Noll who was vegetarian. Personally, she liked that dish as well so she ate from it too.
A voice in front of her suddenly spoke.
"Darling, I may have committed a grave error."
Ah, there it was. Martin broke.
Only Luella looked up from her own meal. Neither Noll or Gene reacted, respectively too busy thinking or staring empty-headed at the ceiling.
"Do elaborate," she said.
Martin looked a little embarrassed.
"You see. I took Oliver to the college as he wanted to speak with Timothy."
That was hardly surprising. Noll seemed to 'adore' his classes. Much to their dismay their son had skipped his school classes in favour of going to university lectures. This boy was too impatient. Curiously enough, Timothy Grey let him into his classes. She met the young man once during a staff dinner at the university. He was a tall man with curly brown hair. Personality-wise, Timothy seemed affable, but rather awkward.
"Yes, and?"
"Then I received a call from Madoka. She wanted to talk to Oliver."
Luella put her fork and knife down.
"I assume it was about the trip?"
"Yes, but... I forgot my senses and... introduced Tim and Madoka to each other."
Luella's face blanched. Her eyes had become as big as saucers as she waited for her husband to continue. Noll stared at his mother as if he didn't know she could make that kind of face.
"Madoka seemed eager to keep contact with him. "
The dinner table went silent. Only Gene lazily chewed on the chicken meat without paying attention to the topic at hand.
"And what about Timothy?"
"Well... Tim appeared somewhat... taken by her," Martin said, vaguely gesturing with his hands. He always did that when he was nervous.
She stared.
"That awkward bachelor and... that serial heartbreaker?"
"It... might... work out?" Martin tried, but it was more like a plea.
Luella groaned, putting a hand in front of her eyes.
"Martin. You are many things, but not a matchmaker."
Her husband winced at her words.
Noll sighed, pushed his chair under him away and took the plate from the table. He had not finished his meal. Luella lowered her hand. She wasn't going to let him get away with this.
"Oliver, don't waste your food," his mother said with a sharp voice.
He sat down again. In the meantime, Gene poked at his last piece of potato, lost in thought.
Luella continued, "Madoka is a lovely woman, I really mean it... But do you have any idea how many men she turned down or dumped after a week or two?"
Martin put a hand over his forehead. Clearly ashamed.
"Yes, milady. I know of every single one of them."
"Andrew, Omar, Hiran, Jake, Ethan... and many more," Luella said, counting on her fingers. "And do you have any idea what she said to the men she dumped? 'Oh I'm afraid you're not my type after all. Giggle!' Goodness, that woman."
Noll rolled his eyes. He was obviously disinterested in the topic.
"Madoka gets bored of them so quickly," she sternly said. "He might be lucky if he is turned down before such a disaster occurs."
"I dearly hope so."
"...What were you even thinking..." Luella muttered, and resumed eating.
Her husband sighed.
"It all happened spontaneously. If Oliver hadn't come to the college, they'd never met..."
"Don't put the blame on Oliver."
"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that... only hypothetically speaking," Martin said, making a vague gesture with his hands.
Luella paused.
"Ah, you mean to suggest that Noll is the true matchmaker."
"In a way he is. After all, both Madoka and Tim were mutually impressed by the other's standing in regard to Noll."
"Hm..." Luella looked at Noll with narrowed eyes. "Not bad."
Noll finished his last piece of potato. His plate was empty. He looked at Luella who nodded in approval.
Then Luella said, "But it's not the end of the world if it doesn't work out. There are more fish in the ocean."
She pointedly looked at Gene, who had emptied his plate as well. He gazed back at her. His eyes looked a little sad.
"Next time. Do introduce your girl to us as well. And never mind what Noll says about her," she said, shrugging. "He's not in that phase yet, it seems. He wouldn't understand."
Aforementioned son looked a little irritated.
Gene nodded weakly and sipped his tea.
"Well, a boy is fine too," Luella casually added. "It's silly to hide it from us."
"Hrmph!"
Gene barely prevented himself from spitting out his tea. He put a hand in front of his mouth and swallowed. Noll could only watch and sigh. Luella was half-amused.
"Ah, um... I'm going to do my homework."
That was the first sentence he spoke at the table. Noll looked up at his brother. He was probably very worried about him even though he didn't show it. After Gene cleaned up, he promptly fled the room without saying another word.
Martin got up as well, swiftly putting the ball into Noll's court. "...My turn to wash the dishes, I suppose."
Noll stared at Luella, who gazed back.
"What?" she innocently said with a tea cup in her hand.
"Thank you."
Gene entered his bedroom in a hurry, sat down at his desk and let out a deep sigh.
Luella's offhand comment had taken him by complete surprise. What did she mean by "It's silly to hide it from us"? He didn't particularly hide Liz from them. Gene had shown Luella a picture of the girl. Or did she think he was making that all up and that Liz was actually a bloke...? No way. Not to mention he never had a boyfriend. Was she just making a general comment or was it based on speculation? Gene frowned at a pile of school books. No, Luella wasn't into dumb speculations like that. Plus, her comment wasn't directed to Noll who had no sign of a love life. So it had to be something else.
Gene shook his head and grabbed a school book. He might as well do homework to clear his mind.
Not a minute later his attention was thrown off when Noll entered his room and sat down at the end of his bed. Gene glanced at him with a frown. Without saying something, his twin opened a book and started to read. Noll's concentration immediately seemed to pour into his book.
And then silence.
Gene made a face.
Noll never read in Gene's room. Normally, whenever he wanted to read or do research, he would close off his room from any intruders (read: Gene) with a locked door. Gene himself didn't have a lock on his door. Martin had the door handle changed to one with a lock two years ago when Noll went full-blown mad scientist. That door lock had been the bane of Gene's existence for the last two years. It reminded him of how petty Noll could be.
His twin noticed his stare.
"Are you done moping?" Noll said with a deadpan face.
Gene's eyes twitched. He replied with a forced smile on his lips.
"Hey... I had a very good reason to mope."
Noll ignored him. He closed the book and put it on the bed. His hands folded.
"There's a lot to talk about. Where do you want to begin?"
Noll stared at the wall in front of him.
Gene sighed and turned his head back to look at the school book. He hadn't really thought about... the nightmare or the letter. When Madoka called him earlier this day he even said he needed a little more time to think about the trip. Yesterday had been a big downer. His thoughts returned to when he walked Liz back to her home. He had heard Noll's voice back then.
Suddenly, all the pieces fell into place. Gene turned his chair around and faced Noll.
"You touched the letter. You called out to me, didn't you?"
Noll nodded with a wry smile. "It was very overwhelming."
Overwhelming - just how overwhelming could it be?
"Let's start with that then. What did you see?"
His brother met his eyes.
"The girl - Haruka was writing the letter."
Gene raised an eyebrow.
"Go on."
Noll looked down at the carpet.
"She wondered to herself what would happen if she doesn't mail the letter. The psychometric vision ends here. Another vision starts."
Gene leaned his right elbow against the table and supported his chin with his hand. Well, it wasn't unusual to have another vision, but something about the way in which his twin spoke seemed off.
"The scene changes to a meeting with two other girls and a woman... It looks like a therapy session. It seems to be the last meeting with them. "
"One of the girls is the one she met at the mailbox, right?"
His brother nodded.
"From here on the vision branches out. She focuses on the one where the girl didn't follow her. In this vision she didn't post the letter."
"Huh?" Gene blinked. "I'm sure we saw her posting the letter. It's imagined, right? Because at the beginning you said that she is wondering about a 'what if' situation."
"This vision is different from the preceding one. I could only see what went on. As if my other senses weren't working."
"Because it's imagined? Is that even possible to pick up with your psychometry?"
Noll sighed. "I thought so too, but... it doesn't end there. After this, Haruka seemed to see a series of blurred visions presumably related to the girl. All fragmented. These appear to take place in the future."
"The future? How do you know?"
Noll paused.
"I saw myself there, growing older."
Gene froze, realizing the implications. Noll's older face from the nightmare flashed in his mind.
"Then does that mean, then the nightmare I saw was..." His voice trailed off weakly.
"It's not definite," Noll insisted.
"Then... Did you see it too?"
He shook his head.
"No. I never saw anything like that."
"But you saw yourself in those visions, how much older were you?"
"...I'd say around 17 or 18."
Gene paused. No, in the nightmare he was way older than that. Either early twenties or mid-twenties. He didn't know if he should tell Noll about it. Last night he seemed adamant that he shouldn't tell more.
"And what about me? Why did you call out to me?"
"I didn't see you there," he replied.
"Why?"
Noll sighed. "I suppose Haruka's friend only associated with me for some reason."
Gene couldn't help but grin.
"As in... she's your future girlfriend?"
Noll sharply glared at him. "It was nothing like that."
Gene held up his hands in defense.
"It was just a guess," he said. "If it's not like that, then what were those visions about anyway?"
"It seemed like we were on various cases."
"Cases?"
"I couldn't tell you any details. It's all a blur."
Gene huffed. "Then did you recognize any other people?"
Noll sighed and folded his arms.
"...Only Lin."
His eyes went wide.
"Lin, what was he doing there?"
"Lin and I were in an office somewhere."
That got Gene interested. An office? That could only mean one thing. He remembered the people in his 'nightmare'.
"But there were others... Do they happen to be Asians? Japanese perhaps?"
Noll shot him an exasperated glance.
"Most of them were."
He smirked.
"So Madoka gets what she wants."
"It isn't definite," Noll repeated.
Gene leaned back in his chair.
"Yeah, yeah. I heard that already."
Noll sighed again and scratched his head. He seemed really bothered about something.
"Is there anything else?"
He stared back at him, then looked down.
"...No."
Gene frowned, but he decided not question him any further. Perhaps he was still bothered about the nightmare. If it were Gene, he would have been bothered as well.
Noll continued, "I wanted to confirm something, so I went to see Mr Grey."
Gene raised an eyebrow.
"The quantum physicist?"
His brother nodded.
"What did he tell you?"
"It's likely that she isn't fully precognitive, but only able to predict the future of a person she's close with. He said Haruka's friend is the focal person in her visions. It means that if someone she doesn't know does something, it won't get caught into her predictions."
"You're not her focal person. So if you do something..." Gene muttered while pondering over the situation. As it is, the future could already have been changed. No, it had already changed. "...Did you tell Mr Grey everything?"
Noll shook his head.
"No. I said nothing about what happens in the visions or what was written on the letter."
Gene let out a sigh of relief.
"Good, he doesn't need to affect the future."
"No. He's already affected."
Gene blinked.
"Huh? How?"
His brother frowned.
"Weren't you just listening at the table? Mr Grey and Madoka met because of this letter."
Gene glared back at him.
"Correction: Because of you."
Noll looked away.
"It wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the letter."
He heaved his shoulders.
"You could have decided to call him instead of visiting."
"…I'm not good with phone calls," Noll admitted.
Yeah, that much was obvious. Gene thought.
They went silent. The only sound in the room was of his brother flipping through the pages of his book with disinterest. He was waiting for Gene to ask more, but Gene wasn't sure whether he should bring it up.
Well, here goes nothing.
"Then what about my nightmare…" he started. "I saw your... ghost? Is it part of that same sequence of visions? Or not? It really bothers me."
"Gene," he suddenly said.
"What?"
"These… precognitive visions had no sound."
"Uh…"
Gene stared.
"Then it really was…"
He didn't let him continue.
"Haruka does not seem to be fully precognitive, which indicates a limitation of Haruka's ability, thus making her a precognitive clairvoyant. …Or it was something you and I weren't able to decrypt." Noll looked at him. "The former is more likely going by your reaction."
"…Decrypt?"
He closed his book shut in a single motion.
"I have a theory about that."
"…I'm all ears."
"Give me something to write on."
Gene handed him a white sheet of paper. His brother placed the sheet on top of his book and wrote three lines on it:
1. a psychometric vision: Haruka writes the letter.
2. a series of irregular (precognitive) visions: Haruka meets the girls for the last time + the focal person is on various cases
3. a (precognitive) vision of the focal person with ESP
"Let's say that the letter contained several information packages. I picked up all three of them, but I was only able the decrypt one and two."
"I only experienced number three. Why?"
"Because I didn't pass one and two through our channel," Noll said. "However, I was unaware of the third vision... It seemed like you were able to decrypt it."
Gene nodded.
"But how possible is it that Haruka is capable of seeing ghosts?"
He shrugged.
"Unlikely, but who knows."
"If she's not, then our Haruka passed on information unaware, because her focal person has some form of latent ESP," Gene said, tapping on point three on the paper.
"It is likely that she herself was able to see pieces of her future... but not of her friend's future ESP experiences."
"So their abilities interacted?" Gene said. "And you picked up on that somehow."
"Define interaction."
Gene rolled his eyes.
"Isn't becoming friends enough?"
Noll sighed. "This is really useless."
"That was the first thing that came to my mind! Don't call me useless because of it," Gene said. "I mean, the more she knows the person... the more clues she gets for her predictions? Her friend is the focal person, so Haruka could have garnered all future ESP experiences from that focal person, and not process it visually as she lacks certain abilities."
A look of surprise momentarily crossed his brother's face.
"Not bad. Mr. Grey said something like that too," Noll softly commented. "You should use your brains more."
Gene groaned.
"Well, maybe our twin channel is a little wider than we thought."
"What do you mean?"
"We haven't experimented with it a lot… Perhaps some of the information you can't figure out, comes more easily to me."
His brother sighed in response. "That's just speculation. I need more data."
Gene smiled wryly. Neither of them were particularly interested in experimenting. So far Gene only experimented when he tried to pull pranks on Noll.
He sighed, looking at the clock.
"But if you come with me... that nightmare won't happen?"
Noll looked a little exasperated. "There's one thing I don't understand. She probably didn't see what you saw. Is it really worth the trouble to have me join your trip?"
"If you don't meet her in Japan," Gene said. "She won't have a family, which includes you apparently. Haruka seems very concerned about that. …But I do think it's more likely that she saw what I saw. Perhaps without seeing a ghost. That must be the greatest reason."
"… I cut off the sequence of visions prematurely," Noll muttered. "You're probably right."
Gene blinked.
"Really. Why?
"Two years' worth of fragmented visions gave me a headache."
Gene snorted.
"Well… then it must have been a good thing I got that nightmare," he said with a bitter smile.
"It doesn't sit well with me." Noll said with a serious face. "Why go through all the trouble for one girl?"
He shrugged.
"That's what friends are for... right? Let's say you were offered a chance to save someone from a drab future, would you do it?"
Noll's eyes stared back at him. His gaze seemed faraway, as if he looked right through him.
"Would I do it?" he repeated, and looked down to his feet before he answered. "Of course."
Gene sighed. His brother was an idiot scientist, but at least he had some shreds of kindness inside of him.
"By the way, Madoka told me you got cold feet..."
Oh that. He made an awkward smile at Noll.
"Err, she didn't call at the right time. I just feel like I want to coop myself up in home for at least a year."
"You still feel like that? All because of a girl?" Noll deadpanned.
"... You really aren't in that phase, are you? Do you even know what I feel like?"
His brother shrugged.
"You should go."
Gene frowned.
"So that you can have some peace of mind? I know you want me to go, because you can do your precious research without any disturbances," he said, pointing at himself.
Noll sighed.
"Gene. 'Don't go alone' doesn't mean not going at all."
That was true. The letter did not say he shouldn't go.
"Just go. I just don't want to see you moping around for a year or more. You would turn into an eyesore."
Gene raised an eyebrow.
"...Are you trying to cheer me up?"
Noll looked away.
"If you won't go, I'll personally drag you there."
He widened his eyes.
"What?!"
"I'm not saying it again."
"Seriously?! You'll come with me?"
Noll sighed. "I'll call Madoka tomorrow and tell her to book two tickets."
Gene dropped his jaw. He could barely process what he just heard. Noll is coming with him. To Japan.
"By the way, you don't have to be considerate of me. It's annoying."
"What?"
Noll sighed again.
"Just bring them home. Your girlfriend... or boyfriend."
Gene blanched.
"...Why did Luella say that?"
Noll shrugged lightly.
"She happened to see you sneaking out at night to meet that guy..."
His cheeks turned red.
"It's not like that. It's not like that at all! He's just a friend!"
"Luella doesn't seem to think so."
"She's wrong about him. Like I said, he's just a-"
"An accomplice in driving without a license?" Noll said and got up. "I shall go inform Luella she was mistaken."
Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless! He definitely used psychometry on him.
"Noll. Don't. Don't tell them. They'll kill me."
Noll showed a content smirk on his face. "Fine then. Let's stick to 'boyfriend'."
Gene groaned.
Author's note
Timothy Grey was mentioned in the short story "Eugene" written by the author of Ghost Hunt. Gene's friend is also mentioned, but he was unnamed. I gave him the name 'Craig'. You can find links to the translation of "Eugene" and other short stories at GhostHuntHQ on tumblr.