Carl had always been a night owl and wouldhave kept going until the sun came up, but he reluctantly agreedthat it might be a good idea and went inside to try and get somesleep. As we all trundled into the house, I wondered how muchsleep, if any, we would get tonight.
***
We were all a little red-eyed the nextmorning from lack of sleep. I amused myself momentarily calling itprecognition, but disregarded it as plain old common sense. We sataround fortifying ourselves with copious amounts of coffee,drinking mostly in silence. Nobody seemed eager to be the first oneto raise the subject.
Carl was the one who finally brought it up,asking me to show him what information I had dug up on the subject.I got up and motioned for him to follow me toward the office. Sidgot up and followed us as well. It took us the bulk of the morningto go over all the research about psionics that I had saved on thecomputer. Carl kept asking me to try something every time he cameacross a new psi ability that sounded cool, and I had to keepreminding him that we only knew how to do the one single thing.
Linda brought in a plate of sandwiches for usaround lunch time, but just left them and went back out to whereshe was talking with Sara. “Perfect timing,” I thought. “We coulduse a bit of a break, and nobody has had anything all day exceptcoffee.”
“I have an idea,” Carl said in between bitesof his sandwich. “Let’s sign you up for the PGA Tour and make somemoney. You would be unbeatable with your telekinetic control of theball.”
“Not funny,” Sid sputtered indignantly. “Thisshould be used for the good of our country, not for crass monetarygain. Think of the lives that could be saved in a place likeAfghanistan when we’re engaged in battle.”
I poked Sid and said, “Relax, he’s just beingflippant. We’re all a bit giddy from the shock.”
“I must admit that I haven’t given muchthought to real world applications for this yet,” I said. “Bothideas probably have the potential of working. We could try variousthings this afternoon to see what ideas we can come up with, andmaybe come closer to figuring out the mechanics of how itworks.”
“Maybe we can also figure out if this can betaught to someone, or if we should all run outside in our underwearevery time a storm builds up,” Carl said with a lopsided grin.
“Let’s go see what the girls are up to, andmaybe we can figure out the answer to that. I’ll tryanything, to save us from the sight of you in yourunderwear” I said, trying to keep a straight face.
Chapter 9
Linda: Up, Up, and Away
I watched the boys file into the office, butas Sara remained seated with her cup of coffee, I decided to stayout here with her. “How are you this morning?” I finally asked asan opener.
“A little better than I was last night,” sheadmitted. “Sid and I were up half the night talking about it. Itall seems unreal.”
“Welcome to my world,” I said wryly. “My headhasn’t stopped spinning since this thing started.”
“What’s it like?”
“It’s not really easy to explain. I feel kindof tingly whenever I do something mentally, but that’s the onlyexternal connection that we’ve been able to identify so far.”
“What does it feel like to fly?” she askedwith a hungry look on her face.
“Again, it’s not easy to describe how itfeels mentally, but the physical sensations are wonderful. Eversince I was a little girl reading comic books, I wished that Icould fly away at will, so this was almost like a dream cometrue.”
“I’m with you on that,” she repliedwistfully.
“I’ll take you out flying with me later, ifyou want,” I offered.
“I’ll hold you to that promise,” she quicklyreplied with an excited look on her face. “In the meantime though,how about getting me a refill on my coffee?”
“Easier done than said,” I said confidently,floating the coffee pot over from its place in the machine. Shegrabbed it tentatively and I waited to release my hold upon ituntil she had a firm grip. When she finished refilling her cup, shesuddenly raised the pot up and let it go. She caught me bysurprise, but I was proud of the fact that I managed to stop itbefore it made impact with the table. I topped off my cup before Ifloated it back to its place in the kitchen.
“Nice try,” I grinned. “But Super Lindaprevails!”
“Super Linda indeed,” she snorted. “Don’tmake me knock you down to size,” she threatened, waving the sugarspoon at me in a mock threatening gesture.
We talked all through the morning before Sarafinally started loosening up. It wasn’t that she was overtlyhostile, but I could tell that she was uneasy about abilities thatwere beyond her control. A growling stomach reminded me that we hadskipped breakfast, so I suggested a break to get some foodtogether. Sara must have been hungry herself as she simply got upand went to forage in the fridge.
We put together a plate of food each, andthen made up some sandwiches to bring to the boys. They seemedpretty focused on their discussion, so I just left them their lunchand went back to join Sara. Feeling better with some food in mystomach, I cleaned up the small mess left from our preparationswhile Sara lingered over her plate.
Finally finished, she looked up and impishlyasked me, “Wanna go outside and play?”
Grinning in reply, I nodded agreement andgrabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Offering it to Sara, shedeclined but asked for a Coke instead. I grabbed a can, andfollowed her out onto the back deck. “What did you have in mind?” Iasked.
“Nothing in particular, but before we’re donefor the day, I’m going to hold you to your promise of taking me ona flight.”
“No worries on that score,” I said, “Howabout this for starters then?” With a quick mental flip, I knockedher legs out from under her, but kept control of her body so thatshe fell into a lounging position, three feet off
