Speak No Evil

got the picture.

‘You’re saying Charles needs his gift because it’s not likely that he’ll ever be out of a wheelchair. But most people in wheelchairs don’t have supernatural gifts, Paul, and they function perfectly well.’ He smiled. ‘Now, I don’t know Charles personally, but I wonder if perhaps his gift emerged simply because he’s too lazy to learn how to do things on his own. I do believe you’d all survive very well without your gifts. You’d probably be happier.’

Paul wasn’t so sure about that. Happy. . It wasn’t a word he normally associated with himself. But since discovering his gift, he might be tempted to call himself happy.

Dr Paley looked at his watch. ‘That will be all for today, Paul.’ He rose and opened the door. Halfway out, Paul remembered something he wanted to ask the doctor. When would he be able to leave Harmony House? But before he could formulate words, the phone on the secretary’s desk rang.

‘Doctor Paley’s office. Yes, send them in.’ She hung up the phone. ‘Ken Preston and Amanda Beeson have arrived for their appointment.’

‘Good,’ Dr Paley said. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Paul.’

But Paul was curious. Why were two of his classmates coming to see Dr Paley? Did it have something to do with what the doctor was just talking to him about?

Before, Paul wouldn’t have cared about Ken and Amanda. But now that he was one of them. .

The secretary had her back to him. Paul shifted. And fortunately, Dr Paley was studying his notes, and so he didn’t notice the cockroach that crawled under his desk.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE SECRETARY TOLD KEN and Amanda that Dr Paley was expecting them. Sure enough, when they entered the inner office, the plump, balding man in the white coat was standing by his desk and smiling.

‘Come in, Amanda. And you must be Ken. Have a seat.’

Amanda surveyed the room, and what she saw was reassuring. It looked like any doctor’s surgery, with an examining table, a cabinet holding medical equipment, a tall weighing scale and an eye chart on the wall. It was all spotlessly clean, even the floor, so she felt OK about dropping her handbag there when she sat down.

‘So, are you kids cutting class?’ the doctor asked jovially.

‘We have excuses,’ Amanda assured him. She didn’t want him thinking she and Ken were the kind of people who were residents of Harmony House. ‘I told the school secretary we had doctors’ appointments.’

‘Which is absolutely true,’ Dr Paley said. He indicated a framed diploma on the wall behind his desk. ‘I am a doctor.’

Amanda had no doubts about that. If Madame trusted this man, he had to be what he said he was. Madame was no fool.

‘Now, tell me what I can do for you.’

Amanda looked at Ken.

‘You go first,’ Ken said.

She faced the doctor. ‘When I saw you yesterday, you said you might be able to help us. And, and we need help.

‘Help with what?’ Dr Paley asked.

Amanda glanced at Ken again. Ken nodded, clearly encouraging her to go on.

‘Help us to get rid of these gifts.’

‘Ah.’ The doctor opened a folder and turned some pages. ‘Now, let me see. Amanda, you’re suffering from Psycho-Transitional Corporeality — you’re a “body-snatcher”, is that correct?’

Amanda grimaced. ‘That makes me sound like a criminal.’

Dr Paley smiled. ‘It’s just the term that’s used for what you’re capable of doing. You can inhabit the consciousness of others.’

‘It started when I was a little kid. I saw a woman begging on a street, and I felt sorry for her. And then, suddenly, I was her.’

‘You didn’t try to become her?’

‘No! Who wants to be some poor, dirty beggar? It just happened, I couldn’t do anything about it. I was looking through her eyes. I could even see myself, staring at her. Me. Whatever.’

Dr Paley regarded her thoughtfully. ‘You were in two places at once?’

‘Not exactly,’ Amanda told him. ‘It wasn’t like I could feel myself being me. But the girl. . She acted like me, she talked like me. She wasn’t like, dead, or a zombie. Every time this happens to me, when I can see myself, I’m acting like me. Does that make sense?’ She looked at Ken for support.

‘It’s sort of like she has a clone,’ Ken offered. ‘Or she’s a robot that’s been programmed to be her.’

‘I see,’ Dr Paley said, making some notes. And you say this has happened other times?’

Amanda nodded. She described the time she became Tracey, back when Tracey was a major nerd and loser. She told him about the young woman she’d met at a seance, who was depressed because her mother had died. She didn’t mention the time she’d become Ken. They never talked about that — it was just too creepy.

‘And this happens because you feel sorry for the people. Can you stop it from happening?’

‘Sometimes,’ Amanda said. ‘If I try really hard, I can think of them as pathetic instead of pitiful.’

Dr Paley understood. ‘You treat them with scorn instead of pity.’

‘I guess. Sort of. Just so I don’t, you know, body-snatch.’

Ken jumped in. ‘That’s how she got her reputation. Some kids call her the Queen of Mean.’

Amanda was taken aback. ‘Where did you hear that?’ she asked him.

‘Nina told me.’

Amanda gritted her teeth. That figured.

‘Does this ever happen if you want to be someone else?’ Dr Paley asked.

‘No, I like being me. Why would I want to be someone pitiful?’ And then she realized she had an opportunity to salvage her reputation for Ken’s sake. ‘Actually, I did do it on purpose yesterday. To save someone.’

‘What happened?’ Ken and the doctor asked simultaneously.

Amanda preened. It was cool, having all this attention and a story to tell that would make her look a really nice person.

She told the story of the hitchhiker. Ken was totally blown away.

‘Wow! You might have saved that girl’s life!’

Amanda smiled modestly. ‘Yes, that’s what Jenna said.’

But Dr Paley didn’t look very impressed. ‘And you might have found yourself being abducted in the hitchhiker’s place.’

Amanda stopped smiling. ‘I didn’t think of that,’ she admitted.

‘Your gift has dangerous implications,’ Dr Paley noted. ‘Ken, what about your gift? How do you feel about it?’

‘It’s mainly annoying,’ Ken said. He explained to the doctor how it all began, when he collided with his best friend Jack on the playing field. ‘It wasn’t so bad when it was just Jack contacting me. But then I started hearing from all these other dead people. Some of them just wanted to talk, but a lot of them asked me to do favours for them.’

‘And did you do these favours?’

‘Once in a while,’ Ken said. ‘Like, I’ve been watching a soap opera so I can tell this old lady what’s happening on it. But sometimes, people want me to get involved in their lives. This one guy, he wanted me to contact his granddaughter and tell her that her boyfriend was no good. I said no.’ He paused. ‘I kind of felt bad about it though.’

‘So your gift doesn’t bring you any pleasure,’ Dr Paley commented.

Ken shook his head. Amanda noticed he didn’t mention the time he was able to save a young boy’s impoverished family by talking to the boy’s late father and finding out where the man had left a winning lottery