The Games Heroes Play (2 page)

“You are right sir, but that was not the only thing he was able to see.”

“Yes, of course, he knew your name and your plans for your wife next week. 
Things that could easily be deduced with a little research.
  Your name is public record, and with a quick search through computer databases, he could easily have learned that your wedding anniversary was coming up, and that your wife was born in New Jersey.  And if he was at the park, he may have overheard you or your wife mention about your vacation time next week.  It does not take much deduction to guess your plans.”

Lieutenant Rogers was a little offended by this remark, but he would not let it show.  He thought the trip was an original idea. 

“It is also easy to see when your thoughts are straying, Rogers.”

Lieutenant Rogers knew he was faring poorly.  If he appears to be losing his wits, he could be pulled off of his vacation for reprocessing.  He needed to stay focused.

“Lieutenant, tell me, did he say anything that was incorrect?”

“Yes sir, officially speaking.  He said there was a three headed dragon in the lake of the park, and a phoenix in shock to its right.”

“Why would he say that?”

“Well sir, I suppose because of this.” 

Lieutenant Rogers took a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and, unwrapping it, handed it to Captain Williams.  It was a picture drawn by a child, of a dragon sitting in water.  The dragon had four heads, and there was a bird on fire to its right.  Captain Williams immediately noticed a discrepancy.  “How many heads did you say the dragon had?”

“Three sir, which the kid was able to see.”

“This dragon has four heads.”

Lieutenant Rogers was surprised.  He looked down at the picture, and sure enough the dragon indeed had four heads.  “I must have remembered it wrong, sir.  I thought the dragon had three heads.”

If he had remembered it wrong, and that kid was truly a mind reader, he would have seen the dragon with three heads instead of four. 
Impossible,
Captain Williams thought; how could this kid go from getting 49 cards wrong, showing no ability to read at all, and then suddenly begin reading so fluently?  “Fail him.”

Lieutenant Rogers was not sure what to say; he was certain this boy was able to read minds.  He needed to convince Captain Williams.  “Sir, why do we have a reader
administer
the exam?”

Captain Williams was taken aback.  Lieutenant Rogers surely knew he was playing a dangerous game here.  He had no authority to question orders, and he could lose much more than
his vacation if he was not careful.  What is it that has gotten Lieutenant Rogers so fired up?  “Lieutenant, you know the answer to that question.”

“Yes sir, I do.  A reader administers the exam because we can see when a child is cheating.  We know what it feels like to have our minds opened up, and we know the look of someone who is reading.”

“Are you saying this child passed these tests?”

“Yes, sir.
  Just before he began talking, I felt my mind being looked into, and when I looked at him, I saw the calm of a reader.  He started getting too much information so I tried to close off my mind and focus on the card, but I was unable to; he had already gotten in and opened me up completely.”

“That is a dangerous position to be in Rogers.  You’re telling me that a fully trained reader was unable to stop mental penetration from a child?”

“With all due respect, sir, you know it is difficult to stop a reader once they have gotten inside.”

“It is difficult to stop a
professional
reader!”

Captain Williams was furious.  The possibility that a child had just been granted access to a military mind opened the door for some very dangerous possibilities.  Had this boy any greater skill, he could have learned things that would put them all at risk.

“Sir, this boy appears closer to a professional reader's level than most of our third year students
,”
Lieutenant Rogers responded quietly.  He was done now; he knew the conversation was over.  He was certain he had convinced Captain Williams, but he also knew the cost. 
Lieutenant Rogers had placed himself on the side of that boy against his superior, and Captain Williams would not forget it.

“You have your orders, Lieutenant.  Go back there and fail him.”

“Yes sir.”

“And Rogers, after you do that, report back to me.  You are going back to base for reprocessing.”

CHAPTER 2

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, Jay was feeling surprisingly well.  It is true that he had failed the mind reader’s test, and now would never be able to attend the Academy as he had always dreamed, but at least his social situation had improved.  A surprising outcome of his extended stay in the testing room, coupled with witnesses seeing an excited Lieutenant Rogers run out of the room in the middle of his time there, was that rumors were running ragged about the school.  They started out relatively tame, with the general belief that he had passed the test.  This theory seemed to dissipate fairly quickly, since there would be no reason for Jay to continue going to class if he would soon be leaving for the Academy.  Once the only logical explanation the students could come up with was ruled out, the illogical explanations began to appear.  Some claimed he had passed the test, but turned the Academy down. 
Ludicrous
, Jay thought when he heard this,
nobody turns the Academy down
.  Another theory was that he was not just a mind reader, but could do it flawlessly, and therefore did not need any more training.  The last common rumor was, in Jay’s eyes, the most ridiculous of them all; that he decided to join the Villains.

To Jay, this idea was not just crazy, it was offensive.  All he had ever dreamed of has been becoming a hero so he can find the Villains' base and defeat them once and for all.  He does not just hate the Villains, he despises them. 
A Villain is someone who takes advantage of those weaker than themselves, and abuses their powers,
Jay thought with disgust. 
I would never become one of them, I will never turn my back on what’s right.

He realized it did not matter.  He had failed the test, so clearly he did not have the power to fight for good or bad.  Jay knew that all there was for him to do now was to put the Academy
and his test behind him, but he simply could not get it out of his mind how Lieutenant Rogers had reacted to his joke.  It was as if he had actually been right about the last card – except that he saw the card, and knew he had been wrong.  He might have been able to get this out of his head if it were the only oddity that he faced regarding the test, but ever since he dug into his imagination to pull out the tall tale about the couple in the park, he had not been able to get his imagination to stop.  From the moment he stepped out of the testing room and met the small crowd who had gathered to see why he was in there so long, his mind began forming a stream of pictures.  He could almost see how each kid in that crowd would react if Jay had passed the test.  He saw some of them shaking his hand, some telling their friends, and some just standing there in awe, wondering if Jay was reading their minds at that very moment.  He could see one boy waiting outside the school for Jay to walk out, grabbing him, and beating him to a pulp.  Imagination or not, he had decided to leave by a different exit that day.  Then Lieutenant Rogers walked out of the room behind him, and as he passed Jay could see a new picture, with that guy Bob – or was it Lieutenant Rogers? – Kissing Sarah goodbye, telling her he would have to miss their anniversary again.

But that was yesterday.  It was a new day, and Jay had come to terms with his being declared normal.  It might have bothered him more if he was not so distracted.  With all that was going on, he could not concentrate on any one thing.  Jay found himself sitting in English class without any idea of what was going on. 
Ok
, he thought to himself,
time to focus, everything she’s saying will be on a test at some point.  I need to think about English now. 
For a few moments he was able to concentrate, but before long he felt the overwhelming desire to look out the window at two squirrels chasing each other around a tree.  He looked, and was surprised to
find that there were, in fact, two squirrels chasing each other around the tree. 
Focus Jay!  English now, English…
He was back for a few moments, but then a statistics problem popped into his head. 
I hate this problem, I can never get it right, and I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.
  He quickly pushed the problem out of his head, realizing this was clearly his imagination once again getting the best of him, as he was not even taking a statistics class. 
English!  English!  English!

“…Can anyone tell me what the author means when he makes this comparison to gold?” 

He means the gold is like their love, which can be beaten and stretched a large distance without breaking.
  Jay smiled.  At least his imagination was on topic now.

“The author means that the gold is like their love, which can be beaten and stretched a large distance without breaking
,”
The teacher responded, answering her own question.

Ok, that was freaky,
Jay thought.  With all the excitement the night before he never got around to reading the assigned poem, so he knew he could not have actually known the answer. 

“What about the compass?  How does that compare to the gold?”

The compass shows a representation of their love as well, with the woman being the fixed point, and the man traveling away from her, but their never really being separate from each other.
The thought came before Jay could stop it.

“The compass shows a representation of their love as well, with the woman being the fixed point, and the man traveling away from her, but they are never completely separate from each other.”  The teacher’s response to her own question rang in Jay’s ears, as if an echo from something he had already heard.

“Can anyone tell me what the title of the poem means?”

Jay had to raise his hand.  If he was wrong, he would be wrong, but he had to try.

“Yes, Jay?”

“The title of the poem is 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning'.  A valediction is a farewell message, and John Donne says in the title that this poem is a farewell message where the women being spoken to should not be sad, because they will never truly be apart from each other.”

The teacher appeared surprised and pleased by Jay’s answer. 
“Wow, Jay, very good!
  Ok, now tonight for homework…”

“Sounds good!”
Jay interrupted.  “Tonight for homework we will be reading a sonnet by the same author, called ‘Death, Be Not Proud’, and we should be ready to speak up more in class tomorrow.  There will be a test next Wednesday, so we should make sure we understand the poetry completely, as well as the time period in which they were written…and…and…and I need to go to the office now!”

Knock, knock.

“Mrs. Johnson, can I see Jay in the office?”

WHAT IS GOING on!?
Jay was in disbelief at the event that just took place. 
Did I really just read Mrs. Johnson’s mind?

As he walked down the hall toward the office, his thoughts were so full of disbelief over the previous encounter that it did not occur to him to wonder why he needed to go to the office at all.  He probably could have figured it out by looking at one of the pictures going through his head,
but he was ignoring them now.  He grew up hoping he would become a reader, but now all he wanted was a moment of solitude with his own thoughts.

All thoughts of his previous encounter faded, however, when he arrived at the office to find his mother yelling at the principal, and his younger brother sitting in a chair in the corner of the office.  He might have found some amusement in his quiet mother telling off the giant that was the school principal, if it were not for the sight of his brother.  There he sat, shirt torn, a bloody tissue shoved up his nose in an attempt to stop bleeding, and face severely bruised.  Jay rushed to his side and knelt down beside him.  “Donny, what happened to you?”

Donny was unable to answer due to a fresh set of tears that ran down his face at the sight of his older brother, but there was no need for him to; it took only an instant for the pictures to begin to form in Jay’s mind.  Jay could see a group of kids blocking his brother in a bathroom.  He could see them accusing him of something, clearly something foul, although Jay could not hear what it was as he was only seeing pictures.  Then one of the kids stepped forward from the crowd – one who was noticeably bigger and stronger than any of the others.  The boy stepped close to Jay’s brother and, bending down so his face was close to Donny’s, said something in his face with a challenging look in his eyes.  It must have been something vile, because Donny shoved the big kid with all his might. 
Donny, you know better than that!
  The push clearly caught the boy off guard, as he fell hard on his backside.  Jay could see the anger build in the kid.  He could see the kid get up in a furry.  He saw, and almost felt, a quick hard blow to the stomach.  The next blow came to his head, at which point the pictures immediately stopped.

“Donny, it’s ok now.  It’s over.”

Jay leaned over and gave his brother a hug.  After a wince that told
him
not to hug so tightly, Donny wrapped his arms around Jay’s neck.  “You’re not a villain, Jay, I know you’re not.”

THE RIDE HOME was unusually quiet.  Their mother drove in the front seat, clearly having used up her desire to talk in the office, where she yelled, screamed, and at times uncharacteristically cursed, at their principal for not keeping better watch of the students, and not informing her of the rumors that had been circulating involving her son.  Donny sat in the back with Jay, sleeping with his head awkwardly on Jay’s shoulder.  The unnatural crooked position was the only way Donny could rest his head without aggravating one of his many welts or bruises.  It was not just the lack of noise that made the trip feel quiet to Jay, but also the lack of pictures.  Shortly after leaving the school, all his mental images stopped. 
Good
, Jay thought,
they’ve caused enough trouble, let them go.

It had not taken Jay long to figure out what had pushed his brother over the edge.  His brother was brilliant; he would have known exactly what he was getting himself into shoving that boy.  He knew the only thing that would cause Donny to take such a risk, and his words to Jay, apparently the only words he has spoken since the incident, confirmed it. 
That kid had insulted me, calling me a villain, and Donny was defending me.
  The thought was sickening to him.  That boy was huge, and the beating he gave to Donny was severe.  Jay almost wanted to tell his mother to turn the car around so he could go face that kid himself, but Jay knew his
mother would never do that, and even if she did Jay knew he would probably not fare much better than Donny had.

When they arrived home, there was a black car sitting in their driveway, and a man in
a
military suit similar to the one Lieutenant Rogers had been wearing the day before stood outside the car talking on a cell phone.  He ended the call as soon as the family pulled up.

“Is he alright?”  The man asked formally.

Jay did not have to be able to read minds in order to see that this guy really did not care about Donny.  Part of Jay did wish he could have a few images, in order to figure out who this guy was and why he was waiting for them.  Not receiving a response to his question, the man continued.

“My name is Captain Williams, and I would like to speak with Jay about his test yesterday, and recent events at school.”

“It’s not his fault!
”  Jay’s mother looked livid.  “He clearly didn’t start those rumors about himself, and that’s all they are, rumors, Jay would never…”  She trailed off, unable to bring herself to repeat what she had heard people were saying about her son.

“Ma’am, we have no reason to listen to rumors.  This is another matter, and one which we believe Jay would be interested in discussing as well.”

“That choice is his to make, not yours.”  Jay had never seen his mother so aggressive. 

“That is true.”  Captain Williams turned his attention to Jay.  “Jay, may I speak with you regarding what is best for the league of Heroes and the safety of the world?”

It was clear that Captain Williams was trying to play on Jay’s desire to become a hero. 
I’m not stupid
, Jay thought to himself.  But yet he did want to talk to Captain Williams, because he
knew now that he did have some ability, even if it were sporadic.  Before he could respond, the pictures began again.  The clear ones were from his mom and brother, but there were others.  Most of them were black, showing nothing worth value.  A few of them were just faded, however.  One of him, his mother and his brother standing there, one of a steering wheel from the driver’s seat of a car, and one of the back of their heads…

Jay spun around and, sure enough, a car had pulled quietly into the driveway, with one man having already stepped out of the passenger’s side and was looking at them, and the other was still inside the car, in the driver’s seat.

“Will they be joining us?”  Jay meant for this statement to be a show of confidence, but his voice came out weak and shaky instead. 

“No, they are here to assist me should I need to make any important decisions.  They will wait in the car if you would prefer.”