When I arrive at school for the first day after the winter vacation, it is early. Many have not arrived yet, and the grounds are calmer than they will be in a few minutes to a few hours. I walk through the corridors, bathing in a more youthful ocean of mind pollution than the ones I have been wading through the weeks since it started to become noisier.
Hm, comparatively, I can't say it is better, less filthy, only that it is more active, less convoluted, and… more hormones-driven? Anyway, something like that.
I walk calmly through the corridors, my hands in the front pockets of my jacket, my eyelids slightly lowered as I keep to myself. My short hair has been combed to lightly cover my ears and make the changes there less obvious, and my pants hide the bandaged wound that is halfway healed already.
Arriving in class after ignoring the gazes along the way, whether they were casual or held some intent in them, I take my seat, and pull out the new book I'm reading after finishing the previous ones. I open it to the bookmarked page, but when I lower my head, treating the rest of the almost empty class like air, I don't manage to focus. My mind is fully swimming inside the conversation of yesterday.
I have been unable to get that out of my head. I didn't even manage to sleep as early as I wanted. Even the pain had only been a light distraction at that time. If not for my healthy lifestyle, which has been made even more so after I have had to limp for a week or two and restrict my activities, I would have been a tired skinny panda this morning.
The image makes me blink with amusement, but one too light to make me smile. Amidst the mental cacophony, Liz's voice rings clear in my mind, like a bell that cannot have its sound buried, or even polluted:
"Max, do you know, the brain is an amazing organ. It is the most complex in the human body, and also, in more than one way, the most fragile. It is the organ that can afford us surgeons, or even common doctors, the least margin for maneuver."
Speaking till there, Liz smiled, because she must have felt that she was going astray. But I remained hooked on her lips, and not for their beauty or their softness I have felt more than once with my nipples.
She took a light breath and continued:
"You must have heard of the many theories about its capacity and its potential, especially the part that is said to be untapped. There are many reasons that have been brought forward for the latter, along with many ideas to truly prove that there is much about the brain we are unable to enjoy. But the only proven point is that there is much we still don't know, about the world, about the body as a whole, and about that very simple, but also very complicated organ. However…"
At that time, Liz looked at me, her gentle eyes more solemn than smiling, and she took a breath, like a signal to the importance of the words that will follow.
"...since the brain is so fantastic, and humans are so diverse, some people came into the world being different. The brain works with electric signals, and some people, those people, can not only process the signal coursing through their own body, their own nerves, but also catch the foreign signals around them."
Even though I already knew all of the above, even though I have experienced what she was only explaining as a general process, I still couldn't help but hold my breath and listen. It was because I had been wading through those muddy waters while forcing my eyes open and trying to pry its depth, its smell, and its other characteristics by myself, and now, light was being shed on it for me to see it clearly.
The breath of fresh air had me focus and wait for the rest of the words.
The solemnity in Liz's eyes melted away, and she stroked my head with softness as she continued:
"As you know already, those people are mind-readers. They are different from the rest, but also unique in the way that some are more talented, able to dive deeper in the ocean of signals floating in the world, or to perceive wider. When I say ocean of signals, it is because everything and everyone leaves traces, perceptible or not, in the world. It is like ripples in water after something or someone passes by. The same happens with the signals coursing through our bodies. Maybe they are retranscribed by our electromagnetic fields, or maybe…"
She paused, and exhaled.
"Anyway, mind-readers can perceive and read signals that are not theirs."
I fell silent for a moment. Then stop thinking about myself and recall someone else, another mind-reader, and the first I have met, at least, that I have discovered, 'Mike'. I raise my head and ask in a calm voice:
"There are some who use it for power and control, right?"
After saying that, my anxiety came back, and I looked around. Because, according to how trained 'Mike Donovan' had looked, the logistics behind him that had managed to make him a border police officer when we first met, then got him a transfer to the city where he contacted Liz, it wouldn't be difficult to put surveillance equipment within the house, and even the bedroom.
My heart started racing and my breathing hastened, before my slight panic is doused by a soft embrace. As I closed my eyes, Liz's voice came from above with a light smile:
"I have not always only been interested in medicine. I learned some things from dad, and I searched the house when you were not here. It is clean. Don't worry. We are safe at home."
My breathing paused, then slowed down, and I lowered my head, not thinking, not doubting, only accepting the words and the comfort, even though I got my answer, my confirmation I never really needed.