The Music of the Mind Ch. 11

"The genie said without help you would be killed, do you think it meant for you too. . ." Her words trailed off and I could see a haunted look in her eyes. It clicked for me then.

"Oh Tuyen, look, I won't drag any of my friends into this mess with me. I think the genie just meant I needed help with my guest here."

"I don't think that is what it meant Mike, and you know it. It meant you need help fighting these people." Her face was grave as she spoke.

"Maybe, but I won't risk my friends." I said. "Mike, if you can't trust your friends to help, who can you trust? Who else are you going to get to help you?" As she spoke, her voice was low and gentle, and her face thoughtful.

"Tuyen, I could never ask it of you. It is so dangerous. I don't even know if I am right about what to do. I could really hurt you, or kill you even. Hell I just don't know!" I reached up and rubbed my temples. Things were getting complicated in a hurry. Tuyen just sat there looking at me for long moments with those deep beautiful brown eyes.

"I don't think it is entirely up to you Mike. I think you need help, and I am willing to help you. I know it's dangerous. Plus, I can't imagine what it must feel like to be able to go into peoples minds and help them. God Ellen would kill for your powers!" she said with excitement creeping into her voice.

"It is not my power." I said sternly. "It is a gift, and one that has required more moral fiber then any other temptation I have experienced in my life. Would you really want that temptation?" I said, the iron now in my voice. Tuyen sat with her head lowered for a long time, when she looked up I sensed a deep moral battle had been ragging in her.

"Yes Mike, I want it. I want to help you. You gave me back myself with that one little thing you did. I want to be able to do that too. Besides, why don't you go look around and see if my mind looks like his, or like you think it should."

I sat thinking and looking at her. I did need help, and if not from Tuyen, then who? If I could give her the gift, then should I give it to the other girls? God, did I even know how to do it?

"Okay, I'll try. But first, I want you to swear that if I can give you this gift, that you will never use it to control or force anyone to your will. I want your most solemn oath." I stared hard at her after I spoke.

"Mike, I swear to never use the gift to control someone. I swear I'll only try to use it for the right reasons." Her voice was even, and her face composed and as she spoke she looked me directly in the eyes. I nodded.

"Okay lets do this, but you need to lie down, and I am going to put you to sleep before I do it. I don't want to take any chances I don't have to." As I finished speaking Tuyen nodded her head solemnly.

"Let's go in the bedroom, you can lie on the bed." Tuyen raised her eyebrows at me smiling.

"The bed huh, okay by me." She said as she winked.

We both adjourned to the bedroom, and made ourselves comfortable on the bed. I figured if I came out of this as tired as I did the last time I had better be lying down already.

We both lay on our sides facing each other. She was so close I could smell her hair and body. Her eyes were thoughtful, but unafraid. More then anything I wanted to not betray her confidence in me.

I leaned into her and gave her a gentle kiss, and pulled her note to me. I could still feel the ring of the note from that kiss fading in her. I rang notes of sleep, and comfort to her, and almost immediately she fell into a deep sleep.

I let myself fall through her mind, past all her memories, past her instincts to that quiet place within. It took time to go that deep, and it felt like I traveled a great distance. At last I found myself in that quiet place that was the place from which Tuyen's music came.

I waited for a long time, just feeling the space around me. It was a place that was hard to visualize, it felt more like operating on intuition. The great array of strings were there, and yet stretched across them was a great tight curtain. It felt like the curtain I could draw over my mind to protect myself, but this one was firmly attached and closed permanently.

I knew I had to move it, but I did not want to tear it. I wondered if I could remove it and keep it intact, if Tuyen would be able to close her mind to attack then. That would be essential in the days to come.

I reached out to the curtain and tried to pull it away from the place it was fastened, but it held tight, and I heard a faint hum come from it as I pulled. I released it and the hum stopped.

An idea sprang to mind, and I pulled at the curtain again. The hum started, and I reached out and stilled it. The curtain came away a bit and a new hum began. I wanted to shout for joy.

I walked down the edge, and stilled the humming notes as I pulled. It was a long and tiring process, but eventually I had the bottom and sides, if you can even call them that, free. The curtain could now easily be pulled to the side or up. I didn't know if Tuyen could move it herself, but it was worth a try.

Now that the curtain was drawn back I could feel the strings more clearly. Immediately I realized they were not attached the same way the man's were. I am not sure how to explain it, but after looking and feeling them for a long time, I realized that a slight shift in the connection would allow Tuyen to access these strings with her conscious mind. I was unsure, but something told me it would also allow her to pick up vibrations of others and read them with her conscious mind. This was the real secret.

I began to work and found I could make the small shift just by playing the same note as the string where it attached, and I could slide it over. It may not sound like much, but it was grueling work. When at last I finished it was a big effort to close her curtain and climb slowly back up through the layers of Tuyen's mind.

I opened my eyes in the bedroom, and I was still only inches from Tuyen. She was smiling, and still dreaming in a quiet sleep. I only held my own eyes open a moment longer before I drifted off to sleep in absolute exhaustion. Little did I know what surprises the morning would have for me. . .