Influence

Alex turned back to me with a questioning look, and I nodded, equally impressed. After proving ourselves, we began to talk in earnest. We covered our entire lives, starting from childhood and moving through to the present. While we both could see auras from the start, I had been the first to decipher actual specific thoughts. However, she had discovered one thing that never actually entered into my machinations.

When she was in college, a man had raped her sister. The man had gotten off with no charges, and the girl was broken and hurt. Alex had tried to ease her pain and suffering, but the girl's emotional and psychological state was too shattered. Every little up that Alex had tried to instill only caused her to drop farther into herself. Because of this, Alex came to a decision.

The man's actions, and Alex's helplessness and impotency to do anything, outraged her. She sought out the man that had done this and, when she found him, she directed him up to the roof of the astronomy lab. The lab was in the rear of the school and it had free access to the roof for students via the stairwell. It was situated behind the two-story library, using its bulk to block out the lights from the main campus. It was out of the way and not used during the day.

Brimming with more anger and hate then she had ever known, she tried to force him off of the roof. Every time he got to the edge, his mind would turn off, stopping him. Again and again, she tried, but every time he stopped. Her frustration grew, but her anger faded slightly. The man was found the next morning, sitting buck-naked in front of the local police station, babbling about his guilt and holding a signed confession of his actions.

What she discovered then was that our influence on other people was like a strong hypnotism. You can make people do things and not do things, or you can make them see things or not, or even think things, but you cannot make them hurt themselves against their own will. There are ways, mind you, that you can get around certain things. For instance, you can make liquor taste and look like soda, or, as I said before, you can make a gorilla look like a trusted client.

I immediately saw that she could have made the man think that there was ground in front of him at the edge of the roof, but I didn't say anything to her. Her eyebrow rose as I thought this, and I remembered that she could still read me. I tried to shut down my personal 'emissions' and this seemed to help because she immediately got a confused look on her face as she watched.

Now, around my 30^th year, I have everything that I could want. I have a wonderful woman who loves me, a large apartment downtown with a wonderful view, more money then I could spend, and anything else that my heart desires.