Speak No Evil

‘Good,’ Charles said promptly.

‘Why?’ Madame asked.

‘Because. . because I hated not being able to do some stuff for myself. And now I could.’

Madame nodded. ‘You see, Charles, feelings are involved. If you’d been content with your situation, you might not have developed the gift.’

Ken broke in. ‘Madame, what’s the point?’

Amanda looked at him gratefully. This was exactly what she was wondering too. Thank goodness for Ken — the one person in the class she could connect with.

Madame raised her eyebrows. ‘Excuse me, Ken?’

‘OK, I get it, we got our gifts because we had strong feelings about something. I felt guilty about my best friend getting killed when we crashed into each other on the football field, so I started hearing his voice from beyond the grave. And then all these other dead people jumped in and started talking to me. But I don’t care how I got the stupid gift, I just want to control it so I don’t have to listen to these — these ghosts, or whatever they are.’

‘But you can’t control your gifts unless you understand them,’ Madame argued. ‘You have to dig deeper into your feelings if you want to manage these gifts. And you can’t all do this in the same way. Not only because each gift is different, but also because each of you is at a unique level in terms of control. Some of you, for example, can summon your gifts at will.’

Some students must have looked confused, because she explained.

‘What I’m saying is that some of you can call on your gifts when you need them. Like Charles.’

Charles beamed. ‘I can make anything move whenever I want it to move. ‘ To illustrate this, he stared at Madame’s handbag, which hung on the back of her chair. The bag began to rise.

‘Charles,’ Madame warned.

The bag went back to its place.

‘Others of you are less capable of bringing your gifts out when you want to. Tracey, you don’t have complete control yet, do you?’

‘But I’m getting better at it,’ Tracey said.

Whatever, Amanda thought. This is such a total waste of time.

‘Amanda thinks this is a waste of time,’ Jenna piped up.

Amanda shot her a dirty look. She knew how to block Jenna from reading her mind, but she’d let her guard down.

‘Jenna, you know you’re not supposed to read your classmates’ minds,’ Madame scolded. ‘But this is another example of my point. Did Amanda’s thought just come to you?’

‘No,’ Jenna replied. ‘She looked like she wasn’t paying much attention, so I was curious to know what she was thinking about.’

‘In other words,’ Madame said, ‘you read her mind intentionally. Which, of course, is wrong, because Amanda’s thoughts are her own and none of your business. But you did provide an example of what I’m talking about. You have control of your gift. You can decide whether or not to read someone’s mind.’

Jenna nodded. ‘Yeah, I can pretty much do it whenever I want. Unless someone knows how to block me. And remembers to do it,’ she added, with a wicked glance at Amanda. Amanda ignored her.

‘I suspect,’ Madame said, ‘that all of you are capable of calling upon your gifts when you want them to appear. But some of you haven’t yet achieved that level of control.’

This is so not interesting for me,’ Amanda thought. She kept the thought in the back of her mind so Jenna couldn’t read it, but Madame was getting very good at reading her students’ expressions.

‘Amanda, do you really think this discussion is a waste of time?’

Amanda now had to admit to herself that there was another decent aspect of the gifted class. You could say what you really thought and not get into trouble.

‘For me, it’s a waste of time,’ she declared honestly. ‘I know how to control my gift. As long as I don’t feel sorry for someone, I won’t take over that person’s body. And I’d never want to do it, so I don’t need to learn how to bring it out.’

Emily gazed at her curiously. ‘Really? You’re never tempted to live someone else’s life for a while?’

‘Like whose?’ Amanda asked.

‘I don’t know. .’ Emily considered this. ‘OK, Lady Gaga. I bet she’s got a pretty fabulous life.’

Amanda sniffed. ‘I’d rather make my own life fabulous.’

Madame’s eyes swept the room and settled on another student. ‘Sarah, do you think this discussion is a waste of time?’

Amanda was actually curious to hear the girl’s response. Of all the classmates, Sarah talked the least about her gift.

The girl with the curly dark hair and the heart-shaped face spoke softly. ‘I think it’s dangerous, Madame.’

‘How do you mean?’ Madame asked.

‘If we have total control of our gifts, if we could use them whenever we wanted to, we could end up doing bad things.’

Madame gazed at her thoughtfully. ‘Can you give us an example?’

Everyone turned to look at Sarah, and there was real curiosity in their expressions. Amanda knew why. Supposedly, Sarah had the most powerful gift of all — she could make people do whatever she wanted them to do. None of them had seen much evidence of this remarkable gift, but they knew she had it.

But Sarah didn’t use herself as an example. ‘Well, take Martin, for example. If he could call on his power whenever he wanted to. .’ Her voice trailed off.

‘Go on, Sarah,’ Madame encouraged her.

With clear reluctance, the girl continued. ‘Maybe. . maybe Martin doesn’t like someone. So he. . he makes something fall on that person’s head and kills him.’

‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Martin said indignantly.

‘Are you sure about that?’ Sarah asked. ‘I mean, what if someone was really, truly getting on your nerves?’

‘You’re not talking about Martin,’ Jenna said suddenly. ‘You’re worried about yourself.’

‘Jenna!’ Madame snapped.

Jenna sank back in her seat. ‘Sorry.’

Tracey looked confused as she turned towards Sarah. ‘Are you afraid Martin is going to drop something on your head?’

‘No,’ Sarah said. She looked at her watch and fidgeted, which struck Amanda as very unusual. Sarah was famous for being the perfect student, who never behaved inappropriately in any classroom.

Madame glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘We only have a few more minutes. For tomorrow’s class, I want you all to think about this: if you had complete control over your gifts, how could you use them in positive ways? How could you help people, maybe even use your gifts to benefit mankind?’ She gave them a moment to jot down the assignment.

‘Now, does anyone have anything to say before the bell rings?’

Emily raised her hand. ‘Do you know how Carter is doing at Harmony House?’

Amanda was mildly curious about that too. Their former classmate had been sent to the institution for troubled teenagers over a week ago.

Madame nodded. ‘I’ve been talking to Doctor Paley regularly. Carter hasn’t spoken, but he’s cooperating. Doctor Paley believes that eventually he’ll be able to make a real connection with him. Oh, and I should tell you, he’s not allowed any visitors yet.’

Jenna snorted. ‘Who’d want to visit him? The guy was spying on us! He was consorting with the enemy. As far as I’m concerned, he can spend the rest of his life at Harmony House in solitary confinement.’

‘Try to keep an open mind about Carter,’ Madame urged her. ‘We don’t know what his real intentions were.’

The bell rang and Madame dismissed them. Amanda took her time gathering up her things, but all the while