Caleb 34 - An Ex

"Opening salvo for what?" asked Josh, and I filled him in about the HOA, Pritchard, and also about Alan and Anne.

"I'm expecting more reports to the police," I said.

"Can't you just..." began Louise and then looked guilty. "No, you can't."

"Are you two good now?" I asked, looking at the pair of them.

Louise looked at Josh, and he at her. She went and sat next to him, taking his hand. "We will be," she said. "Josh, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Keenan contacting me. I honestly thought he would just give up if I ignored him. If you want me to, I'll let Caleb or one of the girls show you my memories."

I watched Louise's aura carefully while she spoke. She may have been able to police her thoughts, but I was certain that she had no idea how to affect her aura. Either she was being honest with him, or she was betting that he would not dare to ask to see the memories. It was, potentially, a masterful piece of manipulation. Her aura showed that she was totally relaxed, with no fear at all. Again, that could easily have meant that she was being honest, or that she was certain, given her knowledge of her boyfriend, that he wouldn't ask.

Josh shook his head. "No," he said, although I could see he desperately wanted to know for sure. "You're right. I need to trust you, or we have nothing. You say nothing happened with him, so nothing happened."

"Fuck it," I thought. I wanted to know for certain, and I had no reason not to - if you discounted all the moral, legal, and ethical ones. I looked, and I saw the truth.

"Let's leave things with your parents as they are for now," I said. "There's no reason to poke a sleeping bear. Wait until they make the next demand before putting your foot down."

Louise nodded. "Makes sense. The next holiday is the summer one in any case. What are you guys doing?"

"Ness and her parents are going to be coming down to move Ness in," I said. "After that, I don't know. We might go back up and stay with them for a few weeks."

Louise sighed.

"You never know," said Jules, smiling. "If you make a good impression while they are down here, they may invite you two up too."

Louise's eyes lit up. "Really?" she asked. Jules nodded.

I yawned. "Well," I said. "I have training in the morning, so I'm going to bed."

Louise came and gave me a hug. "Thanks Caleb," she said. "I don't know what we would do without you."

"You'd be fine," I said, "as long as you had each other."

I showered and got into bed. As I lay there, my thoughts turned to Ness.

"Good night my beautiful girl," I sent to softly through the connection.

"Good night, my knight in shining armour," she returned sleepily.

My training with Kevin the next morning picked up where we had left off. It was like I had never been away. It was a sparring day.

"I like the fact that you use all your skills," he said. "Not only your karate, but wrestling as well. As you said at the beginning, you are not trying to win competitions. Some of the things you do would be illegal in that case. But you are trying to win the fight. Perhaps once we perfect your Nidan level, we should look at other fighting styles."

"Such as?" I asked.

"Have you ever heard of Krav Maga?" he asked.

I nodded. "It's the martial art that the Israeli military use, isn't it?"

"Correct," he said. "Unlike most of the 'traditional' martial arts, it doesn't have centuries of history. In fact, it's a combination of a number of other fighting styles, including karate, boxing, Aikido, judo and wrestling. It is, by its own definition, a mixed martial art.

"You still need to practice the mental discipline, and for that I think Aikido is probably the best choice as one of the 'internal' martial arts. You will hear lots of discussion about that. Bruce Lee had no time for Aikido - he classified it 'exercises for old people' - but when it comes to mental discipline, I believe it is one of the better ones. So, what we will do when I am happy with your Nidan, is we will alternate. One day we will examine Aikido, and the next Krav Maga."

I smiled at him. "And will you ever be happy with my Nidan?" I asked him.

He laughed. "I already am," he said, "but I know you still can improve. The question is, Caleb, are you happy with it?"

I thought about that through our next bout. I should have been paying more attention to the fight, because he kicked my ass.

I got my schedule from Mary as we sat at breakfast. Louise looked on, interested, as Mary went through the details of my day.

"I am raising your rates for new clients," Mary said. "Everyone else is charging between ninety and one hundred and fifty dollars an hour for hypnotherapy."

"What are you raising it to?" I asked.

"For PSU students it's going up to seventy," she said. "For everyone else it's doubling. One hundred dollars per session."

I goggled at her. "One hundred?" I asked. "Nobody will pay that."

"On the contrary," she said. "I have a waiting list of forty clients who are willing to pay that. I have already been asked if there is a way to pay extra and become a priority."

"Forty?" I asked incredulously. "How am I going to get to see all those?"

"One at a time," she said, smirking at me. "Today, though, you have your ethics class first thing, then a couple of follow-up weight loss sessions before lunch." She went on to describe the rest of my day.

"My only concern," she finished, "is that the Dean of PSU is not going to be happy with a lot of non-students coming onto campus for consultations. I seriously think you should look into finding somewhere off campus to see people."

"An office?" I asked. "I can't afford that."

"I know," she nodded. "We'll have to think about it and see what we can come up with."

I got my things together.

"Don't forget to go hand those essays in before you go to lunch," Mary said. "I'll send you a text to remind you."

"Yes, Mother," I said to her in a bored teen voice. She swatted me on the ass as I walked past her. I had started travelling in separately; it gave me more flexibility with my schedule. If I had to leave early or late, it didn't impact on the girls. They travelled in Amanda's car.

On my way home from PSU, I called in at the supermarket and made sure I had everything for that night, for when Jeevan and Meena came over.

I was limited for time, but I wanted to show Meena that I could cook. I was going to start with a risotto, then follow up with a gnocchi puttanesca. Of course, there would be garlic bread; what Italian meal is complete without that?

I also decided I would make a lasagne to give people the choice. There were going to be eight of us for dinner, so there was quite a lot to do. I knew I wouldn't have time to make a dessert, so I bought some tiramisu and some profiteroles. I hoped everyone would find something they liked.

I arrived home and went into the kitchen to start.

The doorbell rang, and I looked up from my prep to see Louise go to answer it.

"Miss Louise Brown?" A man was at the door, holding a huge bouquet of red roses.

"Sorry," said Louise. "There's nobody here by that name."

The delivery man looked at his device and then at the number on the door.

"This is the right address," he said. "Are you sure there's nobody here by that name?"

"Sorry," she said. "They must have the address wrong."

"Okay then," said the delivery man. "Sorry to have bothered you."

He turned around and walked back to his van. Placing the flowers in the back, he got in, and after a few moments drove off. Louise closed the door slowly.

"So, Miss Brown," I asked from the kitchen, "care to tell me what that was all about?"

"My parents must have given Keenan our address," she said. "He's done this before. He bombards me with flowers and gifts and stupid poetry. He thinks it will make a difference."

"Any chance he could turn up here?" I asked.

"It's not beyond the realm of possibility," she said. Her phone rang. "It's my mother. I'll bet the flower shop called him to tell him, and he called her."

She declined the call. "Oops," she said with a small smile, "my battery is dead." She turned her phone off.

I sighed. I wasn't looking forward to when I'd get dragged directly in between Louise and her parents. I already knew I would; no good deed went unpunished.

There was another knock on the door. Louise sighed and went to answer it again. This time it was a package for Jules. Louise accepted it and took it to her. Jules came into the kitchen a few minutes later.

"The drives are here," she said. "I'll go up and install them; they are plug-and-play, so that should take less than half an hour. Then the system needs to format and initialise. By later tonight our security system should be up and running." She grinned at me. I smiled back. I loved how excited she got. It was almost childlike, which made all the jargon pouring out of her sound even cuter.

Dinner was just about ready when Jeevan and Meena rang the doorbell. Louise, once again on door duty, let them in. She took them into the living room, where the other girls were watching television. A few moments later, Meena came into the kitchen.

I was just putting the risotto on. It was a quick dish, and needed to be cooked just before serving. Otherwise it went flat and soggy.

Meena watched me for a few minutes.

"You are a far better chef than you let on," she said, standing beside me. "I think you and I could teach each other some things."

"I would love to learn," I said.

"Dinner's ready," I sent to the girls. "Bring everyone through, please."

I heard Jules clatter down the ladder from the attic space. She went into the bathroom and washed her hands. She grimaced, as she was last to the table.

"Sorry," she said. "I got caught up."

"No problem," I said. I served everyone their risotto. "Dig in."

Dinner was a success, and the older couple sat conversing comfortably with the younger folk around the table. Jeevan was surprised to learn that Josh and Louise knew about powers, and specifically about me.

Jeevan looked to be full of life, and I wondered the obvious. I caught Meena's eye and then glanced at him. She took my meaning almost immediately, and nodded. I smiled sympathetically at her. It must have been a bittersweet, almost Pyrrhic, victory.

Later, as I was loading the dishwasher, and Jeevan was sitting with the girls in the living room waiting for me, Meena came into the kitchen again. She came and stood by me. I could see she was embarrassed, but she wanted to tell me something.

"Jeevan shared today," she said.

I looked at her. "And how are you?"

"Relieved mostly," she said. "I can already see a difference in him. He has more vitality about him than he did yesterday."

I nodded. "I saw that. You say 'mostly relieved?'"

She smiled at me, but there were tears in her eyes. "Does it get easier?" she asked. "I spent so long trying to get him to share, and now he is..."

I pulled her in to a hug and held her to me.

"The first time is the most difficult," I said. "Just remember he loves you, more than anything else in the whole world. If you asked him to, he would stop sharing instantly. That is a sacrifice he would - and up to now, has been making - for you, willingly."

"I know," she said. "I daren't show him how much it hurts. Otherwise he would stop again. I just don't know what to do."

"Did you consider joining them?" I asked.

She looked up at me, her eyes wide, a look of horror on her face.

"I have never been with anyone else, let alone another woman," she said.

"You don't necessarily have to be. Just be with Jeevan. There are plenty of things you could be doing to him while he is sharing with her, or he could be doing to you. Being there and seeing what is going on may make it easier to bear. Sometimes your imagination of a thing is far worse than the reality.

"Just think about it. Talk to Jeevan about it. Next time he shares, maybe join them. Don't be sitting downstairs wondering what is going on and thinking the worst. You cannot carry on like this, because it will take him no time at all to figure out what is going on, and he will stop sharing again. Not only that, but you can't carry this hurt with you. Talk to Jeevan. You will figure this out between the two of you. But always remember that we are here for you both, if you need us."

She hugged me again. I looked up at Jeevan. He had been standing at the door almost since his wife had entered. He nodded at me and turned away. By the time Meena and I had separated, he was gone.

I finished in the kitchen and then both of us moved back into the living room.

"Bhaiya," said Jeevan. "Can I steal you away for a short time?"

I nodded, and we moved into the den. I sent the memory of Meena's and my conversation to the girls and asked them to talk to her. I sent Amanda a little extra nudge to emphasize that they should just talk. She sent back a good-natured pout.

"Thank you," he said after we sat down. I noted he'd closed the door on his way in. "I knew it would hurt her, which is why I didn't want to share in the first place. I know we are both between a rock and something hard. Now that I have started sharing again, it would be difficult for me to stop, but I will if it is hurting Meena. If possible, I would like to find a way to keep on without it causing her so much pain."

"You heard what I said to her," I said. "You saw my struggles about the girls sharing when you read my mind. I have only just gotten over it, and seeing them sharing helped. I don't know if that will make Meena worse or better, but sitting somewhere else while you are sharing definitely makes it worse. If you go off and share without her knowing, and she finds out, her world will collapse. I think it will feel like all her fears have come to pass, although I am no expert."

"I think you are right," he said. "I can limit my sharing; once or twice a month is sufficient. I will think on how to make it more bearable for her. Maybe, as you say, involving her in it may be the way to go. Anyway, we did not come here to talk about my problems. You got rid of the bond. May I see now, please, since your ransom is now paid?"

He smiled to take the sting out of the last comment. Without a thought, I dropped my shield, and felt him enter my mind. It was fleeting, and then he was gone. He nodded, and my shields were back up

"Excellent," he said. "Now there is nothing stopping you. Here are the memories of how I cured Jules, and also how I stopped you and the girls from conceiving. They are simple procedures, and you will see very easily how to reverse the process when you are ready for children."

I took his memories and looked them over. I chuckled. They were both very simple, and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of them myself.

"Be cautious with Healing," he warned. "To you, lots of Healing will seem simple. As a dreamer, you just imagine something is, and it becomes so. What you don't know, when you start out, is how much power it will take. If you start to Heal someone and stop halfway through, it can be worse than having done nothing at all. In cases where you can't Heal someone all the way with your available power, you can sometimes do it in stages, but they must be planned carefully. In other cases, you just have to walk away, knowing that you cannot help.

"At all times, when you are Healing you must watch your own status. It takes up so much power, and it is so easy to get focused on the goal. 'Just a little bit longer, just a little bit more power,' and the next thing you know, you are in trouble. You can get caught up in a power syphon, where you simply cannot stop until your power is completely exhausted. If that happens, if you are lucky you will pass out and the power drain will end. If you are unlucky, you will die.

"I have buried two Healers in my career of less than ten years. Each one was less than forty years old. Each was powerful, although not as powerful as you. But it seems that the more powerful the user is, the more arrogant they are, and that is to their detriment. Please be mindful of this.

"If you are ready, we will start your training next week. Monday night between seven and ten. I will send you an address. Dress simply."

"Okay," I said. "Is there anything more, or should we go and join the others?"

He stood. "Let us join the ladies. I fear poor Josh will have been talked to death."

I laughed. "He's used to it."

When we re-joined Josh and the girls, Meena was sitting next to Amanda, who had obviously just been holding her. I had given the girls a heads up that we were on our way back, and they had had time to get themselves organised.

We sat and chatted for a while longer, and Jeevan updated my secretary on my new evening commitment. That would mean that both Monday and Tuesday evenings were committed, since Tuesday was the night that I would be teaching at the dojo.

I was a little nervous about that too. My first full class was to be the next night. Kevin had been right when he'd said that people would come, and I had a class of ten beginners, including my girls. Kevin had said he would be there as support, but he would be leaving it to me to deal with them. He was certainly a believer in throwing people in the deep end.

I had already briefly sketched out a lesson plan, which I had shown to Carys. She had made some suggestions, and cut about half of it, saying that people needed more time to consolidate information than I was giving them. The lesson was an hour and a half, but we would be in the dojo from about seven thirty to ten - closing time. That was going to make my Tuesday a very long day.

The next morning, Kevin made me perform my kata even slower. Once again, he called for me to freeze, and tested my stance and balance. I almost made it all the way through without a single fall, but he got me right near the end.

"I think you should be satisfied with your Nidan level now," he said. "Tomorrow we will start with Krav Maga. I teach the military style. There are also civilian and law enforcement styles."

"Do I need to get a different belt for that?" I asked, but he shook his head. "Keep that one on. You deserve to wear it."

I went and changed, and then went home to start my day.

I actually went to some classes that weren't ethics that day. The professors made no comment about my non-attendance. I was up to date on all my coursework, and the final exams counted for most of the grades. I wasn't worried about those in the slightest. They were coming up in about two months. Coincidentally, we would finish our exams on the same day that Ness finished hers.

I was nervous when I returned to the dojo that night. I had my lesson plan in place, but I was being watched by both Carys and her father. My girls were also in the class, and there were seven other people whom I had never met before. I got there at seven. The class was to run from eight until nine thirty. People started drifting in at about seven thirty, and my girls arrived at seven forty-five. I did a role call at eight. Everyone who had signed up was there. It was time to find out if I could teach.

There were ten people in the class, and I had them line up in two rows of five.

"All of you have your own reasons why you are standing here tonight," I said. "I am not going to go all Mr. Miyagi on you, but I will tell you the rules of the dojo. While you are on the mat, you obey your teacher, and you treat them - and each other - with respect. This is why we bow before we start, when we finish, and before we fight. This is how we bow..."

The lesson went quickly, and I covered everything I thought I should. At the end I got them to line up again.

"Thank you for your attention tonight. I will see you all next Tuesday." I bowed, and they returned it. I released them from the class. They all went off to get changed.