The Music of the Mind Ch. 09

Chapter 9: Terrible Sound

How long I sat on the couch trembling I don't remember, my body flooded with adrenaline and my mind in turmoil. It took over an hour for the man's command to fully leave me, and when at last I could move with no hesitation I found I was unsure of what to do.

I tried calling out to the genie both in my mind and aloud. I am sure if there was a hidden camera for a funniest video's show in my condo I could have won the prize with how ridiculous that looked. Finally after nothing happening for some time I started to wind down.

I had to think. Why were these people after me? Was it only because we seemed to have similar gifts? Which begged the question, where did they get theirs from? Could it be possible that the gift was natural in some people? I mean, we have all heard about ESP and other such abilities, but never has it been proven.

Clearly whoever they were, they didn't like me one bit, and the only reason could be because we shared some form of the gift. A confrontation was coming sooner or later, and I had virtually no information.

I chewed on this problem for over an hour until my mind felt like Swiss cheese. I sat exhausted on the couch for a while then, just staring into space and feeling a bit black of mood. At last I resolved that no amount of worrying was doing any good, and I needed to snap out of it.

A good hot shower and some clean clothes got me feeling a little more revived. I thought about just sitting around for the rest of the afternoon, but decided right then that I wasn't going to be a prisoner of these people. Fear could be more debilitating that anything, I had seen that. I wasn't going to start a pattern of fear now. Besides, I had some new ideas and abilities I wanted to test out.

I figured that cup of coffee at the Grind was a good idea for more then one reason. I wanted to make sure Wendy was okay, and I figured by just showing up I would reassure her that our friendship was intact. Plus the mall was full of people, and I doubted they would attack me in the middle of a crowd.

All this time I kept the curtain closed around my mind, though I found it slightly uncomfortable, like wearing earmuffs at a classical music recital. I had grown used to using the gift as another way to see the world around me and with myself closed off it made me feel more isolated then I thought possible. As I left the house I decided to see if there was a way to have some protection and yet not completely shutter my mind.

As I walked the block over to the mall I opened the curtain just a sliver and left it there. The noise of those around me filtered in through the gap, and I found I could call their notes to me, but I couldn't contact their minds without drawing the curtain slightly more open, maybe 30% or so. I wasn't sure if having the curtain partly closed offered any more protection either, but it made me feel better.

As I entered the main hustle of the mall I began to experiment some. With the curtain only slightly open all the sound of those around me was distorted. It sounded like listening to a busy street through an open window. You only caught bits and pieces of sound, and it was hard to determine what direction it came from. After a little work I figured that with the curtain drawn back about half way I had a good ability to read and feel all those in front of me, while shutting out the bulk behind and on the sides. That would work.

As I walked I passed a couple having a heck of a row in one of the small alleyways between shops. They looked like college kids, and the young man was screaming some truly awful things at a young woman who was crying with great sobs and then screaming back. They were about 50 feet down the alley. I stopped and bent as if to tie my shoe, then leaned against the rail surrounding the patio of the café next to the alley. Here was another good test.

I concentrated and pulled the man's note close to me, but not enough to enter the music of him. They were far enough away that his note didn't emerge very far from the jumble of noise of humanity without me pulling him closer this way. Once he was close, I tried to concentrate to shoot the thought at him to "Be nice and stop yelling." As soon as I attempted to fire this thought though the man's note retreated into the distance. The thought I then fired was ill formed and spun off to the side narrowly missing the girl.

I tried several more times before I realized I just couldn't hold his note and fire the thought at the same time. It took every ounce of my ability and concentration to send those notes out, and they seemed to be terribly inaccurate. This was good news, for if my enemies operated like I did, they would have to be physically close to me to be effective. Since the closer someone was the closer their note in my mind, though really they had to be very close for them to emerge out of the jumble of noise much.

I was also puzzled why my thought seemed so lopsided and so wild as I fired it. The one I had used on the man had seemed small and tight, fast too. But on him I had simply said stop. Intrigued, I fired down that alleyway at the still screaming boy the thought. "Be Kind". This time the thought was smaller and didn't shoot off to the side so quickly, but I noticed now that it also rapidly shrank in size as it traveled until it winked out shortly past the couple.

Now I was getting somewhere. I focused all my energy on the single emotion of kindness, and fired at the man. A small tight ball streaked out of me straight as an arrow. It hit the man's note, but by the time it had the ball was barely the size of a pea as his note absorbed it. He stopped yelling for only a few moments as he shook his head in confusion. I wanted to cheer, but instead I continued my walk down the mall.

The young man had noticed me staring at then and I didn't want another fight on my hands. I walked out of site of the ally, called his note to me and whispered a full note into his mind to calm down and act like a gentleman before heading on my way.

I entered the Grind and took up my table. Wendy noticed me after only a minute or two and waved enthusiastically. I pulled her note to me and she was thrilled I was there. She had been really worried, and my appearance and the normal routine comforted her. I made a mental note to be careful about young woman's feelings. She was no Tuyen.

As I waited for my coffee I mulled over what I had learned. Clearly my greatest power was when I called a note to me, but it left me exposed in more ways then one. I stopped the obnoxious young man in the alley in a moment that way. The thought attacks had very limited range, and an even more limit message that could be delivered. That gave me some tactical room to maneuver in with these people. If I could spot them, and they seemed to have easily recognizable notes, then I could defend before they could get in range to do much damage.

Wendy appeared before me smiling. "Here's your coffee Sir." She said with mock formality and a small curtsy that as she bent her knees she raised her skirt slightly to show me the tops of her smooth thighs again. I laughed and she smiled and chuckled too.

"God Wendy, you're wonderful. Thank you for the coffee and for. . .well you know." She blushed but the smile didn't falter.

"You're welcome, especially for the. . . you know." She winked and turned back to the counter and the growing line. I shook my head, I swear I felt like the world had gone a bit mad, or maybe I had. I would never have expected I would have slept with her two weeks ago.

I sipped my coffee and thought about what other discoveries I would find about my gift, about the beautiful people around me, and the people who had decided I was somehow their enemy. My life had gone from quite routine to a whirl of activity in the last week and a half. The funny thing was I couldn't complain. I realized I was happy, more so then I had been maybe in all my life. I was worried, stressed, and jumpy as a cat but still happy.

The line in the Grind showed no signs of wanting to abate so I took my leave of Wendy and Kelly rushing around behind the counter and headed slowly back up the mall. The lights were starting to come on as the early fall darkness took over the foothills. As I walked I realized I was passing Cynthia's shop and I decided to pop in for a moment. I had not seen her since our evening together, and I realized I wanted to see how she looked on the outside as well as in her music.

The bell on the door jingled as I walked in, and I heard Cynthia's voice ring out from the back of the store.

"We're just closing!" I walked forward and peered around the last shelf toward the counter. She was standing rifling through receipts, and she looked up as I poked my head out.

"Well I wasn't planning on buying anything so I guess that makes me a doubly bad customer?" her face split into a huge grin, and I pulled her note to me. The smile was reflected on the inside as well. She all but bounced out from behind the counter and into my arms giving me a hug that I thought might have cracked a few ribs.

"Mike, it is good to see you!" she said still holding me. I heard a deep baritone sound like someone clearing their throat. I looked back at the counter over the shoulder of the beautiful blond still wrapped around me to see Mr Football from all those nights ago standing there with a box of books.

"Ummm, Cynthia." I said in a none too confidant voice. She pulled back and spun to look at what had drained the color out of my face.

"Oh my! Well umm. . .Mike I am sure you remember my ex-husband Mark?" I nodded mutely as he put the box down and walked over to me. I know I could have knocked him backwards into next year with the gift, but I just stood there as the wall of muscle approached. He held out his hand with a very small smile and spoke.

"Hey Mike, I owe you more then a few thanks, and one hell of an apology."

I just stood there looking at that massive paw extended to me for a few seconds before I reached out and took it. That cinched it I decided, I was a nutter. His smile grew much broader then. His grip was firm, but polite.

"I ummm. . . well, umm, apology accepted Mark, and well you're welcome, though I am not what sure for." I tried a small smile then as he released my hand.

"Well the thank you is for the help you gave Cynthia in her store the other day. She told me all about it." He shook his massive blond head. "I have to say that was one of the most decent things I have heard of, especially after what she and I put you through. I admire that."

"Ummm, well thanks. I just did what felt right."

"Well enough of this man talk." Cynthia said as she grabbed my arm. "Mark would you be a dear and lock up?"

"Sure hun." He said in his gravely voice. "Hun?" I thought.

"Come on Mike; come have a cup of tea with us."

I spent a very enjoyable hour with the two. It became clear that something was trying to blossom between the two of them again, and I did what I could to ease old hurts and encourage what was already happening. I found myself on more then one occasion shaking my head in wonder at it all.

These two people seemed nothing like the ones from my awful night all those years ago. Mark had changed courses years ago, and had hung on with Cynthia for a few years hoping to work things out with her, to help her find a path out of her anger as he had his.

The divorce had only been final for a couple months. The changes Cynthia was making and the confession and apologies to Mark had renewed a spark between them. It was still just a spark, but a raging inferno could come from just a spark. Maybe that is a bad analogy. A beautiful fire of passion and love can come from just a spark.

I finally had to drag myself away from their company over their invites to dinner and drinks and any other number of offers. I was tired, really tired and I wanted some time to just rest.

I wondered home and once inside I flopped down on the couch. Part of me wondered if the attackers would come back in force since they obviously knew where I lived, but somehow I doubted that. The man had a look a real terror on his face when he ran away after I had attacked back. Still, just to be safe I set the alarm on the front door and the windows for the first time since I had lived here.

I woke the next morning not nearly as refreshed as I had the previous morning, and on only four hours sleep. Amazing what a little help from a genie did for getting good shut-eye. I supposed it would be rude to ask for that special treatment every night.

I plowed through my morning routine and was disappointed to find Wendy not working as I stopped for coffee on my walk to the shop. I guess I was getting used to having an interesting life.

I got to the store and unlocked the grate, and disabled the alarm after coming into the shop. It looked just the same as always, cluttered, dusty, and full of truly beautiful old things. It always made me feel quiet when I walked into the shop every morning. To be surrounded by so many things that carried the weight of time, and yet were still so unmistakably human.

I flipped on the open sign and walked around the counter, punching the computer monitor on as I sat down. I had taken to keeping my mind partly shuttered all the time now. I really didn't know if it would help me, but it made me feel better nonetheless. I had only been sitting for a half an hour, trolling through the receipts on the computer I needed to take action on, deliveries to be made and such when the bell above the door jingled. Well I say it jingled but in reality it sounded like a bell that someone had grabbed with their hand to stop it's ringing prematurely. The problem with that was the bell was at the top of a ten foot tall antique door.

I slid the curtain closed in my mind until it was only open a crack, and I reached out in my mind through that crack. They were there, two powerful trembling notes. I slid the curtain shut, and hit the switch under the counter that turned on the surveillance cameras in the store.

They came around the island of stuff in the middle of the store then. It was the woman, looking much like she had on our last meeting, but with her now walked a tall thin older man. Though he looked in his sixties, he carried himself like a man of thirty, and his eyes roamed over the store to rest on me behind the counter. If the gaze of the woman was a predator, he was a hunter. All the cunning and power that our intellect gives us was reflected in his eyes, but not in a way that spoke of anything beautiful.

I waited, my heart pounding and my nerves on fire. They walked slowly up to stand five feet back from the counter. The man simply stood looking at me for a moment, then I felt the attacks from both of them start. The power from the girl was much like the man who had attacked me at home, her notes rebounding off my curtain easily. But the sound from the old man tore into the curtain around my mind like knives, threatening to tear it asunder.

Somehow I knew that under the assault of both my defenses could not stand, and I feared an attack would have little effect on this man, but if I could get rid of the woman then I might stand a chance. I formed a single thought into a ball and flung it at her. "Flee!" It sped the short distance to her note and surrounded her. It was then I could see that like me, a shimmering curtain surrounded her though it flapped wildly from the note I had fired before the note dissipated.

I could feel little rips forming in my defense, the curtain starting to come apart. In panic I put all of my concentration in my attack, and fired it at her. "FLEE!" A much larger ball of thought flew at her, and when it hit her shield it tore it away like paper. He eyes went wide and she turned and in her haste fell, scrambling on the floor like an animal in her haste to get away.

I think she would have climbed the furniture to get away if it had been faster. Instead she simply ran stumbling around the island of stuff and crashed through the front door with the harsh jangle of the bell to signal her departure.

As the woman had turned to flee the old man's assault had stopped for a moment. I concentrated on my curtain and felt it reform under my attention; resume its shape and structure. This was well, for his renewed assault was nothing short of astounding.

The notes he fired were not compact but large and wild. They tore at my defenses as I fired my thoughts at him. I watched as his curtain swayed wildly then began to look almost semi solid. I noticed my attacks rolled off this more readily and his attacks came slower.

My contemplation had slowed my attack though and I saw his curtain become fluid again as several huge thoughts ripped into me tearing a small hole that I concentrated to hold together. I put my will into making my defenses more solid, like I had seen his become. I felt the curtain stiffen in my mind, like it was turning to something akin to crystal. Now the furry of his attack washed around me, but his note was also so obscured in my mind that I doubted I could fire back.

Then as quickly as it had began it stopped. I let my concentration waver and my curtain of protection became fluid again. He stood staring at me with his grey eyes. I found he was breathing hard, and realized I was as well.

"It is as they said, you are strong." His voice was quiet, not at all what I had expected, as if weak from long disuse. "Where did you get your power?"

"I'm not in the habit of answering the questions of thugs who attack me." I said, the anger boiling up out of me. His eyes narrowed dangerously and I readied myself for round two, but it did not come.

"I am no thug; I am someone who can offer you a great deal of help."

"Funny, I am not in the habit of excepting help from people who attack others for no reason. People who do that I believe might be called a thug?" I said with a snap to my voice.

"I am sorry we had to attack you." He said spreading his thin hands in a supplicating gesture before him. "We had to test you, to know if you were worthy." He shrugged slightly and I realized he wore an immaculate grey suit of an almost antique design.

"Oh yeah, great way to meet people, make new friends. What do you want?" I snapped.

"I already told you. I can help you to use your power. You have much, if you focused it, the things you could do. You could have anything you wanted, any woman, power beyond imagining." I could see the lust in his eyes as he spoke. My power would be a sword in his hand.

"I don't want power, and my power as you call it is not mine, it is a gift." His eyes snapped to attention and his pathetic attempt at a smile vanished as he looked as though he was trying to see through me. Suddenly I had the distinct impression I had said something I shouldn't have, and I was wishing I had just shut up.

"A gift you say, yes that would make sense." He smiled again now, and I felt a chill go through me. "Where is the box?" His last statement was harsh, almost barked out as his smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"What box? This place is full of boxes take your pick of them." I said with as much confidence as I could muster, but his slight smile returned. I always was a terrible liar.

"Give it to me and I will leave you in peace. Give it to me and I will give you whatever you wish. Or do you wish war between us?" his voice was soft again now, almost supplicating. I almost looked down to the open box behind the counter then as my mind raced. Maybe I should give it to him, when he saw the genie was gone he would leave.

I know it was a pathetic line of reasoning, but what would you do after you just engaged in your first ever mental duel with a crazy old man. Then I felt it, the presence in my mind. There was a strange sensation as if the Genie nudged me onward in this course of action.