"It's strange," I reflect, "how so much can change in so little time."
As I break off a piece of lunch and hold it out to a monkey that has a beak instead of a mouth and nose, I amend it to, "Well for everyone else anyway. What do you think?"
The monkey just ignores me and snatches the bit of food from I fingers before running off.
After I finish eating, I sit down in a meditation pose and start to look for the cracks in the world. It's taken me three months to get to this point, but even with my missteps and mistakes, just having a lunch where I don't need to look over my shoulder or use my new powers of cleaning and repair on my books is bliss.
According to PHO, powers should be instinctive to use. Fat lot they know.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I slip through my memories. A few minutes later I fall into my own personal slice of New England coastline during winter. The waves and sky over the ocean roiling in response to my agitation.
"Damn it!"
As I scream at the clouds, the few rabbits and birds willing to brave the snow all flee for cover in the nearby forest.
A few minutes later I'm able to leave my bit of New England and return to my body. It doesn't take me much longer to find my power and slowly spread it out as I look for the crack I used to get here.
Once I find it, I shudder as memories of the first time I fell through a crack, and I just kept falling until I passed out looking up at rivers of light flowing through the sky. As tears start to stream down my face, I slip through the crack onto a street a few blocks away from Winslow High School.
As the faint strain of the end of lunch bell reaches my ears, I slump as I try to work out where here is.
It takes me several minutes before I manage to find my way out to the main road, and the gates of the school. As I look up at the large clock on the front of the school it ticks over to 10 minutes past the start of art class.
Shivering, I hunch my shoulders and walk into the school, wishing desperately that I was invisible so that nobody could stare as I walk into class late, especially The Trio or their hangers on. Wonder of wonders, as I walk into the classroom, absolutely nobody looks up, and Mrs. French just kept talking. Slowly, it dawns on me that I am actually invisible.
I can't help myself as I start to hyperventilate. I need to get away, to get somewhere safe where I can't accidentally out myself. As I step backwards everything goes dark and I bump into something solid, like the inside wall of a locker.
As I do, I can't help but scream and drop down into a small ball on the floor.
After a few seconds my eyes adjust to the darkness, and it slowly dawns on me that I'm not in my locker. It takes even longer for me to uncurl from the floor and start looking around. As I recognize our basement I start to laugh hysterically.
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After a cold shower, to clean off the dust from the basement, I decided to make some more notes in my special notebook about the things I discovered today. When the living room light fails to turn on, I move one of the chairs over to the front room window so that I can take advantage of the afternoon sun.
As I'm writing, an ambulance drives down our street to Mr. Persons, the old man that had a heart attack last year. As the siren turns off my pen drops from my suddenly nerveless fingers as I put the lack of power and Mr. Persons heart attack together and get murderer.
As my heart leaps into my throat, I swallow hard and close my eyes to concentrate on my breathing as I try to bring my emotions back under control.
"Why did I have to get such a difficult power, why couldn't I have had something simple like flight, or even something useless like bug control?"
I jump as I realize I said that aloud, and then I giggle softly as I make my way into the kitchen where we keep the candles and matches.
With some light, I make my way back into the basement and look for the camping gear we last used the summer before Mum died. When I come across Mum and Dad's double sleeping bag I almost chicken out and turn myself in. Then I remember that my power killed all of the power, and maybe killed our neighbor. I can't afford to be locked up by the PRT, as I could cripple them accidentally.
With my resolve reaffirmed, I quickly find the camping rucksack and pack a few changes of clothes, the self-help books I've been reading, an old camping guide, a pen, my notebook, and as much tinned or dried food as I can along with the small camping stove and matches.
With a heavy heart I leave out of the back door and jump the fence to our backdoor neighbor before heading to the trainyard.
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It is full dark by the time I manage to find my way through the north docks and into the abandoned parts of the trainyard. I am willing to admit that part of that was my reluctance to use the buses given my current emotional state.
As I look around at the spots of flickering yellow light that are visible in the darkness, it occurs to me that this is probably a good time to be here if I want to avoid attention. Not that here is where I want to camp.
"Ok Taylor, you can do this. Just find a sheltered area and then you can look for one of the cracks in the world."
With my peptalk done I square my shoulders and walk away from the last streetlight and into the darkness. As I'm stumbling over the tracks and discarded sleepers, one of the candles floats out of my backpack and the wick bursts into flame. With a smile I say, "Thanks dad" before continuing to make my way deeper into the train. After a dozen steps, I turn to look at the candle that's floating innocently near the ground. As soon as I do the candle drops to the floor, and I quickly pick it up before the wick can burn through the wax.
"What the hell?"
Shaking my head, I push my surprise to the back of my mind and continue to trudge on.
In the end it only takes me five or ten minutes to find an old cargo container that's had the top ripped off. I grimace as I look inside, as even by candlelight it's clear from the puddles and mold why nobody has claimed this container. Which, ironically, makes it perfect for my needs, as I have absolutely no intention of staying here.
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An hour, eight or nine cracks between worlds, and multiple trips to my personal slice of New England later. Including one rather hair-raising moment where the cracks opened up into a canyon and I fell past an ideal camping spot and had to make my way back to the stream I passed, I finally made it to somewhere I could safely test my powers without putting anyone in danger. Now all I need to do is make a shelter before it gets dark here.
On second thoughts, I should have a cup of tea… Damn it, I didn't pack my teabags. Ok, hot water it is.
With a smile I unpack the camp cooker and pull out the little burner, along with the instruction book, out of the kettle. It's only once I've got it all setup that I end up staring at the burner in consternation, as it's completely empty.
With a sigh, I open the instructions and begin to read. Methylated Spirits! Why couldn't they have printed that on the side rather than on the instructions that were in the middle of the stupid stove. Right, fine, I'll just use the kettle to get some water, as I need to drink.
A few minutes later I'm laying back on my sleeping bag sipping water from the kettle. That's when it hits me. This is the best damn water I've ever tasted. Even the air tastes good. Closing my eyes, I allow myself to sink into meditation as I visualize New England, and try to compare it to here. A moment later I find myself in my own little slice of New England, except it's not winter, and the sea is calm.
"What on earth?"
As I look around, instead of the barren trees and snow-covered grass, I'm instead standing in the middle of a spring meadow with flowers of every description blooming from the grass. The trees have that bright green color of new growth, and the sound of insects fills the air. I stand there stunned at the change. What's going on? Is it something to do with the different cracks?
As I'm thinking, I find myself wandering into wood that no longer seems quite so forbidding as it did before. Peaceful. That's the only word I have to describe what the place is like. Peaceful. It's like summer camp before everything…
As my thoughts turn dark, so does the sky with clouds rolling in from out of nowhere and the smell of a storm filling the air. Suddenly this place doesn't seem so peaceful and inviting anymore.
When I return to my body, I'm still lying on my sleeping bag, but my campsite looks like a tornado hit it. The grass is torn up, and my rucksack has strewn its contents all around me.
Swallowing hard, I say, "It's ok Taylor, this is why you're here. At least you weren't at home when this happened."
Out of habit, I glance at my wrist where my digital watch used to sit. Not that I've worn one since my powers killed the 3rd cheap watch I bought. With a sigh, I look up at the sky and try to estimate how long I was gone for.
Absently, I reach out for the camping guide and flick to the page on how to read the time by the sun. Right, hands and fingers. Raising both hands, I put them one of the other to make my estimate. Glancing back at the book I nod, three and a half hands would be around three and a half hours till sunset…
I glance back at my hands, that are both raised together in the sky, and then back at the book, which falls to the floor with a thud. Right, telekinesis. Stupid powers. Well, first of all, I need to make sure I'm safe to be around, then I can start working on everything else my powers can do.
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I 've been here two days now, and I don't think I'm any closer to being safe around people than I was before. It seems like the only smart thing I brought with me is the camping book. If it wasn't for my powers, I'd have had to risk going home already. As it is, I'm starting to get a handle on the telekinesis power as it's just so useful.
I pause in my writing as I glance over at the cheerful little fire I've got going, with a pot of water levitating over it. As I spot the steam coming off of it, I take a handful of noodles and drop them into the water while my pen starts moving once more.
I discovered a new aspect of my power while getting firewood earlier, apparently I can use it to cut things as well as light fires. On the subject of my camp, I haven 't seen any signs of predators or civilization since I've been here. Not that means much, as there's still large tracts of the USA where you can walk for days without ever encountering a road or any other sign of humans. But the lack of planes is a little disturbing.
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Day 4
Apparently the wildlife has become more comfortable around me as I woke up to something that looks a bit like a rabbit rooting through my rucksack. I managed to chase it off, but it took the pack of spaghetti with it. I guess I 'm going to need to learn how to make snares. At least I'm now getting practice with my cutting power, as it seems to go through the tins easily enough. I'm currently warming up some ravioli, which will make a nice change.
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Day 5
It rained last night, and all the labels came off my cans. At least the books are fine as the rucksack is waterproof. I hate corned beef. Well, the canned stuff anyway. Apparently the mystery can I opened was one such can. I think I 've also made a new friend, a brown and grey sort of cat. It's mostly like a normal cat, but it's got spines on the end of its tail. It came out of somewhere and started eating the corned beef while I was heating up some hot dogs and peas. It even let me stroke it while it was eating.
Anyway, I 've learnt a couple of things today. The first is that my ignition power even works on wet wood. The second is that wet wood produces so much smoke. And the last is that I'm going to have to head home soon, as I at least need a tent and some more food. I just hope the house isn't under surveillance. I think the meditation and being out here is starting to help, but it's lonely.
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Day 7
The animals here can teleport! I was checking my snares today and I found out why I haven 't caught anything, despite sometimes looking like they've been set off. I heard something rustling near where my snare was, and found one of the rabbit things caught in it. I tried to use my cutting power on it, but before I could, pop, it disappeared. I do mean pop, like the sound you make with your finger in your cheek. I don't think it's the same way I teleported at school, but I think I felt it move. I'm sort of glad it got away as (despite the camping guide saying I should) I don't really want to hurt anything.
Anyway, I found Spike sleeping in my rucksack when I got back so I figured I 'd wait till he wakes up before heading home. Anyway, I'm going to practice what the book calls conscious awareness, as that's the meditation method that seems to be helping me cope with my emotions the best, as the book says to just be part of the world and allow the world to be part of you. Maybe I should check out the library and see if there's any books on meditation, as this one mentioned a moving meditation. Maybe a martial arts book, as apparently there's a few that can help with meditation.