She stared back at me with a blank expression.
* * *
I had no further contact with Maria after we met at her house that evening. By Friday, I was relieved that any lingering weakness due to my stomach virus had thankfully dissipated. Better yet, there’d been no further visits from the FBI.
Perhaps best of all, I felt some peace of mind that my brain cancer might actually have been cured. However, for the time being, I kept the news regarding my latest brain scan results to myself. I was so eager to tell my parents and sister the great news, as well as my friends, but something told me that discretion was the better part of valor for the time being.
Maria’s revelations regarding the Nuclegene Corporation hadn’t settled well with me. Somehow, the company that I had mentally associated with giving me a second chance at life suddenly seemed less beneficent and much more nefarious. Yet, nobody else from the company had tried to contact me yet, either.
My mind was in constant motion as I contemplated the various angles of what I’d experienced, coupled with what I’d learned from Maria. My only attempt to read the information from the USB memory drive that Maria had given to me had resulted in very little helpful information. Most of the data was heavily laden with medical and technical jargon that left me bewildered.
Instead, I secured the drive in a relatively hidden location. It might have merely been paranoia on my part, but it seemed the sensible thing to do.
Friday evening after work, Travis came over to share a pizza while we watched a rerun of
The Expendables 2
with Sylvester Stallone and a host of other old action hero stars.
Despite partaking in an unhealthy pizza, I let Travis consume the beers that he’d brought while I guzzled Gatorade; something that I’d been doing since Wednesday evening.
My headaches had virtually stopped, but I had yet to successfully move objects selectively. Instead, objects erratically moved either to me or away from me from time to time.
Earlier that day at the tag agency, a stapler I’d reached for leapt into my hand at the last moment just before I touched it. Fortunately, nobody had noticed.
However, I resolved that over the weekend I needed to make a breakthrough of some kind because I couldn’t continue to risk unpredictable events that might draw undue attention to me.
One thing was certain; if strange abilities were being manifested within me, I wanted to control them rather than wait for some corporate lab to take the reins. I hated the idea of becoming someone else’s lab rat!
Of course, I had no illusions about ever making use of my odd abilities. Quite honestly, the effects were so subtle that they seemed more annoying than useful.
My goal was to return to a relatively normal and cancer-free life. To me, that was success.
I felt hopeful; at least, until Saturday night.
I had visited my sister and her family during the day, and spent time outside tossing the football around with my nephew, Jake, and brother-in-law, Kevin. Following that, my parents arrived, and we held a family barbeque. Mom and Dad told us about their recent Caribbean cruise and showed us way too many photos from their exploits. It was enjoyable until early evening when I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and my headache returned with a vengeance.
I told everyone that I was just feeling a little tired from a long day and needed to go home to rest, but my sister gave me a look as if she knew better. I came directly home and collapsed onto my couch. Despite drinking what felt like a gallon of Gatorade, I still felt weak and eventually fell asleep.
I had surreal, vivid dreams about electricity coursing along the ground, and then a series of lightning storms that erupted in the sky. Then there were black, roaring tornadoes in my dream, and all manner of things were flying through the air such as houses, vehicles, trees limbs, and various other objects.
Abruptly, I woke from my dream with a gasp. My lungs were heaving and my head pounded like hammers were beating on my brain.
The room was dark but there was the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning through the living room window. My body felt drenched with sweat and my clothes stuck to my skin.
Lightning flashed again, and I was shocked by what I saw. My living room looked like it had been trashed!
The coffee table was tipped over, the reading chair had been pushed into the dining room, and the lamp from the end table lie upon the floor. Clothes, magazines, and other personal effects were chaotically strewn around the room.
What the hell had happened?
I felt disoriented, anxious, and thirsty all at the same time. I managed to reach down onto the floor where my Gatorade bottle had fallen. I twisted off the cap and drank the remaining contents even as I tried to grasp what had occurred.
My mind quickly began to clear and I rolled off of the couch and staggered into the dining room to flip on the light switch. Fortunately, the chaos appeared to be contained to my living room.
I went to the refrigerator to extract a bottle of 7Up, which I downed in a matter of seconds.
My mind raced from feeling dazed to feeling practically energized.
Oh, I felt amazing!
My body felt alive; nearly electric and hypersensitive.
On a whim, I held out my hand to the dining room table and looked at the salt shaker.
Nothing happened, but my hand tingled slightly.
Then I tried again, except this time I imagined the shaker coming to me. A pressure formed against my palm, as if something was already touching my skin.
To my shock, the shaker smacked into my palm like it had been thrown at me!
“Well I’ll be Sierra Hotel,” I muttered.
I was stunned.
Thunder roared outside and lighting flashed through the curtains like a pronouncement from Mount Olympus.
Despite my vivid, strange dreams, something significant had changed in my body while I’d slept.
Something fantastic!
A barrier had suddenly been breached; hurdling past frustration and futility and landing firmly into a space reserved for things phenomenally unknown.
I realized that my life was about to become even more interesting.
Unfortunately, experience had taught me that the most dangerous aspect about eye-opening revelations wasn’t when I was mistaken, but rather when I was correct.
Chapter 4
I spent Sunday at home relentlessly practicing moving objects. It felt as if some invisible gateway had been partially opened the previous night, permitting me access to something formerly unassailable.
I was like a kid with a new toy.
By the end of the day, I’d learned that extended periods of moving even small objects like pencils, articles of clothing, and magazines generated headaches, as well as caused me to break out in a sweat.
The largest object I managed to move was a dining room chair, though barely more than a foot or so before my head was once again pounding.
Fortunately, it seemed that Maria had been correct about electrolytes. Colas and sports drinks kept the headaches in check and helped me to concentrate, acting almost like fuel for my abilities.
Despite plying my body with all manner of energy drinks, I felt exhausted by the end of the day. However, I felt more alive than I had in a long time.
That night I slept like the proverbial dead.
By Monday morning, I could hardly concentrate on my work. There were so many wayward questions running though my brain, and I craved solid answers.
During my mid-morning break, I called Maria on my cell phone and quickly explained the recent developments in my newfound abilities. Despite her former misgivings, she seemed greatly interested.
“Maria, there’s something I really need to know. When you looked at my most recent brain scan, was there any comparison data?” I asked. “I’d like to know how my results compared to the scans of other patients who received the same treatments.”
“From what I recall, overall your brain appeared to be much more active than the majority of the other patients. However, there were small regions of your bran that weren’t as brightly lit as a few of the others. I can’t be certain, but that might be due to tissue variances where your tumor was located. There’s a possibility that additional applications of the drug may improve the results in those regions, but I don’t recommend further treatments. Don’t forget what I said happened to most of the other patients.”
“Yeah, I remember. It really doesn’t matter, I suppose, what with the explosion and everything.”
I probably should’ve just stopped there and let things drop, but I’d made a lot of progress over the weekend.
I almost laughed.
Hell, it wasn’t as if I had any practical use for the abilities; not many job opportunities out there for telekinetic freaks, short of circus sideshows.
“Logan,” Maria prompted.
“Yeah?”
“Never mind. Forget it.”
“What? What were you thinking?” I asked.
The line went silent for a moment.
“You’re thinking about the drug, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I suppose I am.”
She sighed.
“Listen, the reason I wasn’t in the office on the day of the explosion was because I had gone across town to pick up a fresh delivery of the drug for the treatment center. It’s still in my refrigerator, in fact. But I’ve already told the company and they’re supposed to be by sometime this afternoon to pick it up,” she said.
She had some of the drug in her refrigerator?
Her revelation intrigued me.
Maybe if I took just one more dose?
Granted, I didn’t want to end up like those poor folks who’d succumbed to strokes over it.
“Do you think that another treatment would significantly enhance anything?” I asked.
Maria sighed.
“Possibly, but there’s no way to know for certain.”
“Unless I tried,” I said.
“It’d have to be today, Logan. Right now, in fact. For all I know, they may already be on their way here to get the shipment.”
My heart raced over the possibilities, or more accurately, the gamble.
Why risk it? What’s to be gained?
A smart man would’ve been thankful just to have the possibility for a full, cancer-free life. What were the practical benefits for me even if I were able to enhance my abilities?
“Logan?”
“Yeah, I hear you. I’m probably not even thinking clearly right---”
“If you want to try just one dose, I’ll administer it to you. But you’d have to come over
now
.”
I felt as if I was at a crossroads in my life; like the ultimate game show moment where I might risk losing everything. I could almost hear the game show host say, “
Take what you have now, or risk it all for what’s behind curtain number two. Winner takes all.
”
I was probably being foolhardy, but I’d always heard that he who hesitates is lost.
Yet, he who leaps without looking might also be lost.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained?
Crap.
“I’ll be right over.”
* * *
I sat on Maria’s couch blankly staring at her television as she retrieved the medication intended for me. A voice in the back of my mind nagged at me, telling me it was idiotic to take another treatment.
I couldn’t help feeling that maybe that voice was right. My problem was that I was too damned curious to say no.
What could I say? Stubbornness had always been a predominant trait in me.
“Earlier today, Utah Republican Senator Benjamin Conway spoke out regarding the recent explosion at the Wallace Building, named after multi-billionaire American investor, Nevis Wallace, long-known to be one of Conway’s key campaign contributors,” said a television reporter.
I concentrated on the screen before me.
“This cowardly act of terrorism will not go unpunished,” Senator Conway said. “We’re a proud nation of patriots, and we’ll never permit the evils in the world to go unchallenged, particularly when perpetrated on American soil.”
I’d never cared much for Benjamin Conway; one of the Senate’s most outspoken members. Frankly, I’d always considered him to be a bit of a pompous ass. Granted, I didn’t entirely disagree with that he’d just said, but he’d always come off as overly zealous when it came to topics like terrorism.
I recalled how Conway had made the topic of terrorism his personal centerpiece and agenda for the nation, pushing through a number of legislative bills to increase the strengths, and reach, of law enforcement.
He’d called it his crusade, of sorts. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of paranoid tendencies when it came to my government. But then, that’s just me.
“…regarding the demonstrations that are taking place nearly ten years following the historic Land Reclamation and Investment in America Act. Many Americans believe that it was wrong to declare imminent domain on large stretches of individually-owned farmland and grassland in key areas across America, enabling the largest corporations to construct cities that catered to their own designs,” said the news anchor.