19 MEMORIES

Robert reached his truck and got in. He was upset and shocked that Jason would play a sick joke like this, on him. What could he have been thinking? The lack of sleep must have been affecting him more the he had suspected. The Jason he knew would never have done this. Would he? But how could he not have seen it coming. Robert was upset with himself. His ability to sense what other were feeling had always given him ample warning. But he could sense almost nothing from Jason tonight, just emptiness and a weird sense of not belonging.

We all allow ourselves sometimes to experience a serenity of dullness in life every so often. We see only what we want to and unconsciously reject the things we don't want to know. Is this what he has done? Was that the reason he did not see what was happening right in front of his own eyes?

Has his friend totally lost it, was he going mad? Could sleep depravation make one go crazy or was this truly just a very sick joke from a unstable man.

He didn't know.

'But how did Jason know about my ability to see glimpses of the future or that I could move objects with his mind?' Robert had no answers.

The only person who ever knew about his gifts was his mother.

Robert could clearly recall the memory of his childhood as it flickered to life in his mind's eye.

It was a warm summer's day when he discovered is unusual talent for the first time. He was lying in bed with a broken ankle. He had dropped a pencil and was trying to retrieve it. It had rolled just beyond his reach. He didn't want to alert his mother who had drifted of to sleep in a chair next to his bed.

He remembered wanting the pencil so desperately to finish his drawing of his mother in the armchair. He closed his eyes and reached for it again. He opened his eyes for a instance and to his amazement he saw the pencil slowly rolling towards his hand.

Shocked he pulled back his hand and instinctively turned and looked to his mother. She was staring at him and then back at the pencil. Her face composed.

She opened her lips and bit her bottom lip. He knew that she was only pretending to be calm. When she spoke her voice was friendly and yet even at that young ages he could hear the shock and confusion in it.

"How, did you do that sweetie?" a smile lingered on her lips.

"I don't know." He had answered feeling panicky. He wasn't sure if it was him or something else? But what?

The questions raced thought his mind. He felt scared and excited all at once. His mother rose out of her chair and sat down on the bed next to him.

She stroked his hair to calm him.

"Don't worry my sweat." And gently placed a kiss on his forehead. "Has something like this happed before?"

"I don't know. I don't know if I did it in the first place?" he answered honestly.

"Do you want to try to do it again?" she asked in her usual sweet voice.

Robert nodded feeling excited about the prospect of being able to move something without touching it. Was it not every child's dream to have superpowers like there Superhero's?

He smiled and stretched his hand out at the pencil. Nothing happen. He lowered his hand deeply disappointed.

"Try again." She encouraged him. He looked up into her smiling face.

Once again he tried. He reached out to the pencil like before. Closing his eyes and in his mind's eye seeing the pencil and reached out to it. He was willing the pencil move towards him. The next moment he felt the pencil in his hand.

His eyes shot open with amazement when he saw the pencil in his hand.

"You did it." She said looking at him in awe. "That is a very rear gift you have there my son." She hugged him. "I have heard about people that could move things with their mind but never believed it to be true."

She flung her arms around him again and hugged him tightly.

When she pulled back her face was all serious.

"Robert you must listen to me carefully. You must never tell anyone about your gift. People are very small minded about things they do not understand." She lifted his disappointed little face and frowned.

"Do you head me? You must promise me. No one must ever find out."

"Why?"

"I don't want them to take you away from me." Her eyes filled with tears. "I could not bare to think what they might do to you if anyone ever found out. Robert promise me you will tell no one of this not even Jason."

"I promise mom."

Robert had always been careful not to reveal his secret to any one, not even Jason. Then out of the blue Jason mentions all of his gifts. It could not have been a coincidence, could it?

Robert turned the key and the pickup roared to life. He looked up at the apartment block. Jason's faded blue curtains clearly visible in the window. The thought that Jason could have been serious jumped into his mind and for a brief part of a second Robert considered the possibility that Jason could have been telling the truth. Then just a quickly his logical side condemned the idea as utter nonsense.

"No, no." he grunted and then his smile faded. That would mean that everything that he knew to be true would be made a lie, and that could never be. 'No, it was just a bad joke created by a very unstable man with a sleep deprived mind that has gone mad. Yes,'he nodded 'that would be the most logical explanation'.

He concentrated on the fact that he would soon see Kara and would then forget about Jason and all his madness.