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Crumbly Writer’s Stories | ||||
| “Normalcy Is Harder Than It Looks” | |||||
| Book 3 of “The Catalyst” Series | |||||
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| Home | An Unknown Attraction | Trying To Be Normal | Normalcy Is Harder | Contact me | |||||
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Chapter 14: Care to Try a Little Greek?
The next morning I got up, glanced at the sun out the window and smiled as I stretched, glad I didn’t have anything planned for once. However that illusion was quickly set aside.
“You need hurry up,” Anh told us from the door. “Becky, Melinda and Chalise are on way over. Since Chalise coming, we invite Kitty too. They be here soon. We also invite Brooke and family, so kids keep Caroline company. Get asses moving, lot do today.”
I looked around in confusion. “Did I miss an announcement somewhere?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Cate told me, “but our sisters have had something in the planning stages for a while now, so I guess it’s about that. Anyway, it won’t do you any good to lie in bed and grow even more gray hairs.” She quickly jumped out of bed before I could swat her, and I managed to get myself up as well.
When I got downstairs I found plenty of people waiting for me. Josh and Suzy demanded some immediate attention, although Suzy seemed more interested in the new girl and what her relationship to me was. Suzy looked like she planned to give Nikki a serious talking to. I could just picture that, a 9-year-old lecturing a 19-year-old on maintaining proper boundaries. However I wasn’t quite ready to focus on either one this early. Making my way into the kitchen I discovered everyone else there. Chalise gave me a kiss, telling me Kitty would be by soon.
As Chalise led me to the table Cate handed me a cup of coffee and Anh set some spicy eggs in front of me.
“God damn it, did you have to take the last of the coffee?” Melinda complained. I turned, ready to say something about children being present, but thought better of it when I saw the look in her eyes.
“Are you feeling OK, Mel?” I asked.
“Oh, sure, I’m just peachy. It’s not like all of us can come prancing down in the morning, having burned off all their tensions each and every night. And you look like a million bucks as well. It’s not like you have to worry about zits and wrinkles every day.” I figured we might have some problems this morning if this kept up. I glanced at Cate to see whether she might get on her sister’s case, since they’d been on each other’s nerves for a while. Instead Cate walked up to her and whispered in her ear. Melinda’s head jerked up and she looked back at me doubtfully before glancing at Cate again. However Cate merely nodded her head at her.
Slowly Melinda approached me, as if waiting for a cobra to strike, but when she reached me she grasped me and gave me a big hug. I looked at Cate in confusion, expecting her to make a fuss, but she merely nodded knowingly to me, so I just held Melinda and let whatever was supposed to be going on happen.
I had no idea what they both were thinking, but Melinda held me for a long time. It didn’t bother me, despite our not being overly close, I still loved her and I appreciated how dedicated she now seemed to be to my whole mission. However my eggs were getting cold! As if reading my mind, Anh picked my plate up to warm it up for me again.
No one did anything but watch us as the minutes ticked by, so I focused myself on comforting my sister, who seemed to be in a particularly bad mood today. I held her like I had Cate so many times. Not as a lover, but as I had always done in the past when Cate had been scared or simply needed a hug. Even Mom and Dad looked in to see what we were doing. Finally, Melinda turned her head to address Cate.
“You’re right, I feel much better,” she stated unbelievingly. “You mean I’ve been suffering for the past ten years when all I had to do was give my brother a hug?”
“You have no idea what you’ve been missing all these years,” Cate told her.
“You know, Mel, I’m curious about your earlier comment,” Becky said, now that the silence had been broken. “Alex, have you ever had trouble with your acne?”
I looked at her. “No, I’ve always had fairly nice skin. No problems like that. I figured we just had better skin than the kids at school,” I replied. “Mike was always complaining about his pimples.”
“Cate, what about you?” she asked.
“Nope, my skin was always nice. I hardly ever needed any make-up,” Cate informed her.
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but I know both Melinda and I had terrible trouble with zits while growing up. And I’d be willing to bet both Mom and Dad did when they were younger as well. Alex, how many colds have you had? How many days did you have to skip school because you had the flu?”
I simply looked at her in confusion.
“I can answer that,” Mom told her. “Neither he nor Cate ever got anything. Your father and I would be as sick as dogs, you and Mel would catch whatever we had, but both Alex and Cate would be as happy as clams. Neither one ever seemed to catch anything.”
“Hmm, interesting,” was all Becky said in response.
Chalise turned and regarded me. She’d been standing back from me this whole time, giving my sister free access to me. “You mean all I needed was to give this big lug a hug and all my problems would go away? Zits, cramps, colds and flus?” she asked, as if she’d just found the fountain of youth and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t labeled as such.
“Well, it may take more than that,” Cate told her as she walked up and slipped inside my other arm. “It seems to require daily access,” she replied, giggling as she nestled into my side.
“Have the rest of you noticed any health improvements?” Chalise asked the room at large.
“I no get cold since New Orleans,” Anh announced. “And it much cooler here.”
“Same here,” Shani echoed. Just then the doorbell rang. I started to make a move towards the door but Mom intervened.
“You stay like that and I’ll let Kitty in,” she said. I sighed as she disappeared from sight.
Kitty was laughing when she came in, but hesitated when she saw me holding my sisters.
“I knew you’d be up to something if I took too long coming over,” she teased. “You and Melinda getting along a little better now?” she asked.
“Cate’s idea,” I pleaded.
“It was her time of the month,” Cate explained. “She was about to bite someone, so I tried the only cure I’ve ever known to work.”
“You know, come to think of it, I noticed my last period was a lot easier,” Kitty said.
“For as informative as this is, isn’t there something more important to discuss then everyone’s menstrual cycle?” I asked.
Everyone quickly apologized, and I was once more given a warm breakfast and a fresh cup of coffee.
“It’s all part of the puzzle, Alex,” Becky said. “Your energy has healing properties. Your blow to the head healed incredibly fast. You haven’t been sick much in the last 17 years, and Cate, who’s spent most of her time with you, hasn’t either.”
“Yeah, I get it. So why was it so important I get up early this morning?” I asked, trying to shift the topic.
“We were waiting for Gail. She said she’d be here early this morning, but this part doesn’t require her. She wanted to be here for the later part,” she explained.
“There’s more than one part?” I asked.
“With you, there’s always more than one part,” Becky teased. “Shani, do you want to get this show on the road?”
I turned and looked at Shani. I wasn’t expecting any surprises from her.
“All right. Alex, you asked me to look into setting up a corporation to help us find a place to live in Carbondale. Well, after thinking about it I decided a non-profit would be better because, putting it frankly, you’re highly unlikely to be generating a profit for some time to come. Plus setting it up this way would allow any of your followers to contribute to your expenses.”
“That makes sense, though we’re supposed to be helping them, not asking them for money,” I reminded her.
“That might be so, but I’m sure they’ll be anxious to help. It also allows each of us, who haven’t had to pay much in the way of rent for the last several weeks, to contribute to its starting costs. We can use the non-profit, I kind of like the name ‘Angel Vision Foundation’, to pay for a loft space I found. It can also cover expenses like car rentals, moving and travel expenses. Plus anything put in is tax deductible.”
“Are we actually going to have many expenses?” I asked.
“As time goes by, yes. This allows anyone you help in the hospital to make a ‘donation’ to show how thankful they are. If any of your Watchers in New Orleans wants access to your sperm donations they could likewise make a contribution.”
“I wouldn’t charge them for that, in-vitro fertilization treatments are expensive enough as it is.”
“Actually, a simple transfer of sperm to a healthy fertile woman isn’t expensive,” she informed me. “I think you are confusing it with infertility treatments, which are much more complicated. But even if it were expensive, it’s not a matter of you asking for it, Alex. It’s going to be a matter of them wanting to contribute. You say it helps everyone to take part in your mission. Well that even goes for those you haven’t met yet. They want to help, and if they don’t have a specific job yet they can at least offer some cash or volunteer to help whenever we need something.”
“OK, I’m not necessarily objecting,” I told her. “Go on.”
“All right. Allison, Brooke and I have been looking at spaces in Carbondale and we found a nice loft space. It’ll take a lot of work, especially to make it look like a home to all of us, but it will be ours, and it’ll be a central location we can all work out of.”
“Yeah, it’ll make commuting to school a bitch, though,” I playfully complained.
“You’re already doing that by driving nearly all the way to SIU to pick up Chalise every day. Actually, it’d take less time than you spend now.” She had a good point, plus it would solve the overcrowding in our house and give us a lot more leeway. It sounded like a good idea all around.
“It would also make operating nationally, when you travel, easier,” Melinda suggested. “Your expenses would be covered, we could get corporate rates to hotels, and we could even issue you a corporate credit card.”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” I told them. “I’m convinced. Go ahead and set it up and let’s close on the loft.”
“You don’t want to see it first?” Shani asked, confused.
“If you have looked at it and think its fine, then I’m sure it’s perfect. I trust your judgment on this. What’s up next?”
Shani still looked both elated and confused, but she began to rapidly make notes. Melinda and Becky both stood up to present their own information.
“Tied in with that,” Becky started, “Melinda has been trying to find some way to help you out. She thought she could start a research project studying women on campus who showed ‘intuitive sensitivities’. However it’s much too late in the school year to get a study started, and even if she succeeded, she’d have to find a sponsor who’d want everything to be justified.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I agreed.
“Well, she came up with a slightly different idea. Instead of trying to initiate a research project to find potential Seers and Watchers, we thought of a different way of interviewing students. Since you generally only attract women, we decided to investigate starting a sorority. By starting a chapter at SIU geared to helping women learn how to listen to ‘their internal voices’, we can direct it to your potential followers, as well as other women attracted by the concept. Then, when we have some likely candidates, we have you come in and see if any of them actually are.”
“Sounds like a lot of trouble—” I started to say.
“Not at all,” Cate observed. “It’s a wonderful idea. It will attract the people already predisposed to seek you out. You can gather them all together at once. Then, once you’ve found them, you have an organization already devoted to helping them out.”
“Exactly,” said Melinda, starting to get excited. “I’ve been recruiting around campus. I used some of Allison and Ryan’s contacts to get approvals for it, and I’ve run recruiting drives and started petitioning to start a new sorority. We’re having our first organized event this afternoon,” she told me.
“This afternoon?” I asked, suddenly growing cautious. “You want me to walk into the middle of a sorority cocktail party?”
“You pick up the obvious pretty well, that’s exactly what we’re planning.”
“Aren’t they going to question why a man is in attendance? A high school kid at that?”
“We’ll keep you hidden during the start,” Melinda explained. “We figure anyone on campus who we missed will be naturally drawn to you just by your proximity. Anyone who objects to your being there will obviously not be a likely candidate. If the idea catches on and we have some success, then we can try expanding to other campuses. I’m sure there are other Watchers in New Orleans who are going to school, or are alumni who can help organize a new sorority on other campuses. That way you can focus on searching large cities over the summer, and then in the fall we can start searching various school campuses.”
“Wow, this is all a bit much. You couldn’t give me a little advance notice?” I asked.
“That’s what this is,” Melinda replied. “We wanted to make sure we could pull it off before we presented the idea to you.”
“Actually, Melinda felt terrible she came between you and Cate, and wanted a way to make it up to you,” Becky told us. “This is largely her pet project. She organized this, got everyone involved, and did the research. This is her baby. It’s also her act of contrition. She hopes you’ll be one of the charter members, Cate.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to have a tough time telling our friends they can’t join our new sorority,” Melinda told us, trying to distract us to avoid forcing Cate into a difficult situation. I admired that action on Melinda’s part.
“I can’t see why we can’t have normal girls join as well,” I suggested.
“There might be a conflict if they figure out there is a tier system in place,” Melinda said, seeming to consider the idea, “with some members having information the rest of them don’t. But I can see wanting to include normal girls as well, since we need more than just the Watchers and a couple of Seers to make it viable. Having the Seers there to guide other girls would benefit all of them and would fit in with the general idea. But then, secrets and hierarchies are the basis of Greek life, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to hide.”
“Still, if we direct it to helping women develop their instincts, to trust their own judgments, we could direct it to all the women on campus,” Shani suggested. “That would feed into the whole ‘Angel Vision’ formula. We could use the foundation to push the sororities on campus. That could be part of its mission. That way we could maintain contact with current members, alumni and contributors, all without anyone asking any questions.”
“You know, this sounds right up my aisle,” Natalie suggested, looking eager about a new task once again. “Planning your trip this summer was a nice distraction, as it got me thinking once again, but this would be a great long term project for me. I could plan it out, talk to people about sponsoring it, arrange things with everyone involved. I’d love to get involved if I could.”
“Uh, sure but—” Melinda started to say hesitantly.
“Don’t worry, Melinda, I won’t steal your thunder. I’ll do all the dirty work. I’ll do schedules, I’ll do the bookings, I’ll figure out who to contact and how. You focus on the ideas and who to recruit, and I’ll handle everything else.”
“Hey, I love it when everything comes together,” I told everyone. “Fine. Natalie, you, Melinda, and Becky get together and hash out where you are going to take this whole project. Now, what’s Gail’s role? Why’s she coming over today?”
“When we suggested it to her, she insisted she wanted to go along with us, just in case there’s any trouble. We certainly wouldn’t expect any, but she takes her job of protecting you pretty seriously.”
I took that under advisement but wanted a little more information.
‘Gail, are you close?’
‘Still another twenty minutes,’ she told me. ‘I’ll be there before you’re ready to go.’
‘Assuming I already know what’s up, huh?’
‘I figured you wouldn’t be contacting me otherwise,’ she said.
‘I thought you were staying home to mend fences?’ I asked her.
‘They didn’t need all weekend to mend. The girls only wanted to make sure I hadn’t lost my mind. I managed to convince them I’m still the same person, just that there’s a little more to the story than they might normally expect.’
‘So how’d it go? Are they convinced?’
‘Yeah, and I hate to say it, but thanks for reaching out to them. I would never have done it myself. We’re all thankful you made the effort for me.’
‘Ha, tell them they owe me another dinner sometime. We’ll see you when you get here,’ I told her.
“OK, Gail will be here soon. Now, is there anything else I need to know?” I asked the room at large, knowing they usually liked to gang things up on me.
“Well, there should be quite a few people there, including a couple of girls who are coming up from New Orleans to help us. They’re part of Patricia’s group, so they’ll explain to the girls about how to approach family and how to spot potential Watchers and Seers. I’m sure they’re also very interested in meeting you, Alex. I figure you’ll be busy talking to quite a few new sycophants before long,” she teased me, knowing how I felt about people expecting great things from me, but also aware most of the women so far have been very supportive and helpful. “Just be warned, though, since this is a woman’s group we’ll have to keep you hidden. We have another group sponsoring us, so we’ll be using their facilities for the party. We’ll slip you in by saying you’re Melinda and Becky’s brother and you’re helping to carry supplies. Once we get you in, we’ll store you in a private room upstairs and you can conveniently forget to come back out.”
“That sounds good. Who are we taking with us?”
“Well, Becky and I are the organizers,” Melinda said. “Kitty, Chalise and Cate will attend as possible future members. Allison and Brooke will be there representing the hospital, giving some ‘career’ information. Shani will be there to help appeal to any minorities who may show up. Gail will either watch over you or guard the door. Natalie needs to be there to start getting familiar with what we’re doing as well, plus she can provide some useful personal information for any Watchers we find.”
“Excellent. Now, I’m going to head back upstairs where I’m going to finish getting ready. Anyone who wants to come upstairs and help me dress, and that’s a hint, Kitty and Chalise, we can get this little show on the road.”
When I made it back downstairs, dressed and ready to go, Cate stopped us.
“OK, Alex, Becky, Allison and Brooke, I need you in my laboratory for a few minutes.”
When Kitty and Chalise started to follow me, she stopped them.
“You may not want to watch this,” she warned.
“Cate, if we watched him put Mary out of her misery, then we can watch whatever you’ve cooked up,” Kitty announced as they both stepped around her to follow me out.
We all headed to the garage, which had now been transformed into a menagerie of animal cages Cate had dubbed her lab. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled out a small mouse.
“Now, we’re going to do this with both a mouse and a rabbit. I don’t know if size makes any difference in what you can see, but I want to be sure we don’t miss anything,” she told us. I simply nodded, already guessing where this was going.
She waved Allison and Brooke in close, then cradled the small animal in her hands and held it up to me.
“His name is Omeg,” she told me. I groaned at both the idea she was telling me its name and at her strange logic.
“As in ‘Omega’, the Greek word for ‘the end’?” I asked. She simply nodded. Although I wasn’t anxious to do this, I’d known it was necessary for a while. I slowly reached up and did like I’d done recently. I simply put my hand over Omeg’s small head and watched as he simply stopped moving. It didn’t look very impressive to me, but I was well aware of what I’d just done to him. Cate looked up at me as if to be sure I’d actually done it, turned to be sure both Allison and Brooke were satisfied with the demonstration, then she held up a single finger and turned to put it on a small tray while she got another one.
“Omeg 2,” she told me simply. She showed him to us, and then she took a needle she had prepared nearby and injected something into his neck. Omeg 2’s end wasn’t quite as quick this time, but it was no less definite. Cate now turned to Allison.
“Well, what did you see?”
“It was like Alex thought,” she told us. “There wasn’t anything. The energy simply diminished. There’s still some left, but you can tell it’s dead.”
“When Alex did it you could see the energy in its forebrain go dim, and then the rest of its energy followed. I don’t think there’s any doubt, it looks like Alex was right about there being no sign of the soul passing on.”
“Not necessarily,” Kitty offered. “Don’t expect Anh’s spiritual realm to simply be a ghostly image floating away. I suspect there is much more to it than that. But I don’t think, if it does exist, that it occupies the same space we inhabit. It’s still possible there’s an afterlife, but like before, we have no way of observing it.” Everyone nodded at the wisdom of her words.
“So, should I do a rabbit now?” Cate asked.
“No, as much as I’d appreciate eating some rabbit stew, I think we can save poor little Psi 1,” Brooke told my sister, who merely nodded and proceeded to clean up her small lab while we observed. When she was ready, she dropped her stuff into a hazardous materials container and we all left her garage/lab.
We got to the campus early. The sorority—rather the ‘women’s fraternity’—hosting us was located at Sanford Hall. Silly me, I’d always thought ‘women’s fraternities’ were called sororities. I guess they had their reasons for renaming standard English words, but I figured that was their choice. I hadn’t been on campus much aside from moving both Becky and Melinda into their dorms and apartments before the school sessions started. We got busy carrying in the various supplies, including a fair amount of beer and wine (guess who got stuck carrying the heavy kegs?). The women of the group hosting us, Alpha Gamma Delta, didn’t pay me any mind so I wasn’t too worried, but I made sure I ducked away as soon as I could. Becky led me to a small upstairs room where she told me to lock the door for now, since she didn’t want anyone who lived here accidentally walking in on me. So, I just sat there, idly twiddling my thumbs.
I let Gail know where I was, and she told me she’d be available if I needed her, but she was doing the remaining heavy lifting I skipped out on, so I felt a little guilty, but not too much. After a while someone knocked quietly at the door. Not knowing if I should answer I waited for the signal, two knocks followed by another two.
“Hello, Mr. Alex, sir? Are you in there?” someone called out to me. Being curious I had to check to see who it was.
I found two quite pretty girls peeking in when I opened the door, so I did the only thing I could. I invited them in.
“Excuse us,” said a dark haired girl with light skin and pale lips, “we know we really shouldn’t interrupt, but we’re both from New Orleans. Pat … I mean Patricia Moore sent us up to help. Anyway, we’ve been dying to meet you, and Patricia said you wouldn’t mind if we—” They were both so cute I couldn’t let them languish in indecision for long.
“Don’t worry, I’m glad you came up. I’m Alex, by the way, but then I guess you already know that.”
“Oh, we know all about you,” the other one, a brunette with darker skin replied. “You’re about all we talk about back home anymore. Patricia said if we helped get the charter house here off the ground, you’d help us set up our own at our schools.”
I smiled at their wide-eyed innocence. “And may I ask what you two beautiful women are called?”
“Oh, excuse us,” the first one laughed. “My name is Tina Shaw and this is Amy Ray. We’re both big fans. Amy saw you when you were still in New Orleans. I only heard about you afterwards, but I’ve been looking forward to meeting you ever since.”
Both were quite attractive. They wore glasses, though they had quite different styles. Tina’s were heavy black frames which highlighted her hair and set off her skin, while Amy’s were lightweight wire-rim glasses. Amy’s hair was a little mussed up, while Tina’s was well-combed with her hair dyed a couple of different colors underneath her darker hair. They looked completely different, but they both had the same adoring look and the same youthful playfulness to their eyes.
I was also struck by how well Patricia had perfected her identification process. Previously we’d only been able to identify Watchers by catching them gawking at me. However I’d been told these two were Watchers, and she’d been correct on that. Watchers were more difficult to identify than Seers were, so Patricia’s methods seem to have been firmly established.
‘Hey, Patricia, I just met Tina and Amy. I’m really impressed you’ve perfected your identification process. Good job, and thanks for sending them up to help us. They both seem very enthused and I’m sure they’re going to fit in really well.’
‘Thanks, Alex. We worked on it really hard, talking to relatives and friends of the people I’d identified as Watchers here. We started noticing trends and when we followed them up, we learned even more about them. I think we’ve got a good system now,’ she told me, sounding quite pleased by my approval of what she’d been doing. It had been a while since I told her she’s been doing a good job, despite the amount of work she’s been putting in down there. I’d have to make my oversight up to her, but first I had a couple of girls to get back to.
“Well, it’s great to meet you both, and thanks for coming all this way to help us out. I really appreciate it,” I told them, which really seemed to please them both to no end. “I’ll have to think of a way of rewarding you for it. So, where do you both go to school?”
“I attend Tulane University,” Amy told me proudly. “That’s why I was in town when you were there. My family is from Alexandria, to the northwest of the city. One day several students started talking about ‘the angel of New Orleans’, so we had to see what the fuss was about. They were intrigued, but their interest didn’t last long. I followed your movements for the rest of your time there, and then I eventually found the community a little while later.”
“And I attend the University of Mississippi, near Memphis,” Tina said. “My family is from New Orleans, and I started coming home more often once I heard about you. After talking to several people, a girl by the name of Darice finally mentioned I should contact Patricia. They were both really nice and explained how we’re part of a new race of people. It’s great being part of the beginning of a new movement.”
“Yeah, but just remember, this isn’t about a new race for the people here today. It’s simply about a sorority which focuses on trusting women’s own judgments. That’s the emphasis. We’ll talk to anyone who shows any further inclinations, but we’re trying to generate a grass roots movement at this point.”
“Yeah, we know, we’ll make you proud,” Amy said excitedly. “Let’s get back downstairs, Tina, and see if we can find any more of us.” With that they both giggled and turned to leave.
“Wait, before you go, what the heck is the name of this new sorority?” I asked, my curiosity finally getting the better of me.
“Oh,” Tina answered, “it’s Alpha-Alpha-Alpha. It stands for ‘ἀεί ἀποπιστεύω αὐτογνωμονέω’,” she said, slowly sounding out the words carefully. “It means ‘Always Trust Your Judgment’.”
I was surprised by the response. “’Triple A’? ‘And if your judgment doesn’t work out, you can always call to have your car towed’? Didn’t anyone think about what else it spelled?”
They both laughed, “Yeah, everyone already thought of that, but it was the Greek phrase which best encapsulated what we are trying to say to new members. The Latin sounds better, ‘Praecipue Animo Fiduciam’, which would make it Pi-Alpha-Zeta (Π-Α-Ζ). But Becky said the Greek would ensure it would always be listed first in the student guide,” Tina said, giggling.
“Oh, by the way,” Amy told me, “I’m a dual Marketing/Art major, and Melinda told me about your idea for the Angel Vision Foundation. I think I can come up with a really good logo for it. What’s more, I can file for the trademark for it, just to make sure it’s official,” she said, glad to be able to help.
“That’d be great,” I told her, gently kissing her forehead. She blushed and lowered her head, but I could tell she was really proud. Then they both ran out, giggling the whole way.
‘Alex, we’ve got some very anxious people down here,’ Gail warned me.
‘I’ll need more information than that. How anxious and what type of people?’ I asked her.
‘There’s one girl about ready to climb the stairs looking for you, and there are a couple who are much more interested in watching the stairs than in the presentations or the socializing,’ she told me.
‘OK, Amy and Tina are on their way down. Have them talk to the Watchers, and kindly escort the girl up here. I figure she’s got to be a Seer.’
‘That’s what I was thinking. But I seem to be stuck guarding the door. Seems there’s no end of young men interested in new female meat on campus. I’ll send one of the other girls up with her, instead,’ she suggested.
‘That’ll be fine. I’ll be waiting patiently,’ I told her.
A couple of minutes later the door handle rattled but there was no knock on the door, so I was instantly on guard.
“Hey, who the hell locked the door? Who’s in there? This isn’t a public area, you aren’t supposed to be up here. Come out now or I’m calling the campus police,” a young woman’s voice rang out.
I didn’t know what to do so I simply remained silent. I didn’t think facing her would be a good idea. Then she’d just think I was a horny student waiting to waylay one of the attendees. Instead, I sent a quick message to Gail apprising her of the situation.
“Come on, I know you’re in there. Come out now!” she called again.
At that point I heard some voices. There were a couple of accusations thrown around, and a little pleading as well, but that was about all I could make out. I was investigating the hiding potential of the closet; although I was sure there and under the bed would be the first places they’d look for me once they entered.
There was more arguing outside and I was starting to get quite nervous. I wasn’t supposed to be here and I had no legal right to even be in the house at all. What’s more, neither Melinda or Becky had anyone’s permission for me to be here either.
‘Alex, are you in the room?’ Allison’s voice called out to me.
‘Yeah, there’s someone by the door who’s ready to cause a scene,’ I told her.
‘Yeah, we know. We think we’ve got it handled, but there’s someone who wants to get in. We’re standing right outside.’ So I swallowed heavily and went to open the door. Opening it, I found several people clustered around it. Allison stood behind Becky and a blond girl I didn’t know, while off to the side was an angry looking girl who seemed ready to strangle me.
“Ha, I knew it!” the one girl announced. “You just think you can….”
That was as far as she got before the blond finally raised her head enough to look me in the eyes. When she did she jerked back a bit, causing the other girl to stop yammering, and when the blond started to stumble back she rushed to help her.
“Are you all right?” the girl who had wanted into the room asked. She was a very pretty brunette, but she was busy trying to help the girl I’d just activated.
“She’ll be OK, give her a second to get used to what’s happened to her,” I told them.
“What happened to her? Did you do something to her?” the brunette asked me.
“Nothing that wasn’t expected. That’s why she came up here. If you need the room it’s all yours. Though we’ll need to find a place where we can discuss what happened to her,” I quietly told the people assembled around the door.
“You can’t order me around you little pis—”
“Please, you can’t order him around and insult him like that. Don’t you have any idea who you’re talking to?” the blonde stated, even though her eyes had yet to clear. She fumbled with her hands until she grasped the brunette who was helping her and she held her off. “This is important. If you need something from in there, get it quick, because my master has need of the room,” she informed her girl.
“What? Why I never…,” the brunette started to huff, until she saw she had no one supporting her in this crowd.
“If you don’t get out of the way, I’ll have you escorted off of the premises,” Allison told her sternly.
“But I live here,” the brunette protested.
“It doesn’t matter. This whole event doesn’t matter as much as this young man speaking to this woman right now does,” Melinda told the protesting girl. The brunette quit arguing, glanced at us all again, then scooted by me to grab something from out of the room.
“Don’t take too long,” she told us as she made her way out again. By now the blonde’s eyes had returned to normal and she was busy looking around, while shielding her eyes from my bright glare.
“Please, step inside our guest’s humble abode. My name is Alex. And you are?” I asked as I guided her inside. Melinda followed her inside while Allison took up a guard post outside the door to make sure we weren’t disturbed.
“My name is Diana Lane. I’m a…,” she responded, hesitating as she tried to study me. “I’m a double major in Philosophy and English, with a minor in web design, although I’m paying for much of my education through my web design, so I had a bit of a head start.”
I simply nodded. “No real plans on a career then?” I teased.
“No, actually I know exactly what I want to do. I see myself as a writer. I plan on following in the footsteps of Jean-Paul Sartre, or more precisely, his girlfriend, Hanna Arendt. They were both novelists who focused on writings with a philosophical bent. That’s been the main employment for philosophers for the last thousand years,” she told me, smiling meekly.
“Ah, big ambitions. But the web design is your backup plan.”
“It isn’t so much backup as it is something to help me along the way, as school isn’t cheap. It pays the bills, plus I’m big into technology. For as much as I like ideas, I’m not very comfortable around people.”
“OK, let’s not get distracted quite yet. Sit down, Diana, we have quite a bit to discuss.” I then proceeded to give her a brief review of all she needed to know. Both she and Melinda seemed captivated by the information. My sister had never actually seen one of my activations before, aside from Gail, I guess.
She told me how she’d always been fascinated by computers and technology, but had especially sought out the field because she’d been afraid of her social interactions. She never knew why, but she always got these odd feelings about people and about what they seemed to be thinking, even though she had no way of knowing such things. As a result, she simply tried to shut down and block all these sensations out.
“I’m afraid they aren’t just stray thoughts. That’s what this sorority is about; learning to trust those feelings you have that logic tells you don’t make sense. The fact is we’re trying to reach out to others like us, to let them know those feelings they can’t identify are actual abilities, and you can use them to get ahead in life. Rather than hiding behind a computer terminal, you should really try to capitalize on your ability to both see and feel other’s emotions. We’ll teach you how to do both. There’s nothing wrong with being fascinated with technology, but don’t fear what’s probably your greatest strength.”
“You mean, all those nice guys that bugged the hell out of me because it felt like they were raping my mind, really were….?” She asked, not wanting to finish the sentence.
“Yes, I’m afraid they were. But instead of hiding from nice guys, you should be using your ability to read such information to help other girls avoid those men who mask their true intentions,” I told her.
She nodded somewhat dumbly at me.
“Wait, they’re telling me things are starting to get pretty busy downstairs,” I told her. “You should both head down and help deal with the people. There are several girls downstairs you’ll notice who spend their time staring either at me or in my general direction. We call them Watchers for obvious reasons. I want you to help them, give them a general overview of what I’ve told you without saying anything too specific. I’ll try to talk to as many of them as I can.”
“You can speak to the people downstairs?” she asked with wide eyes.
‘Just like I can speak to you now, Diana. Say hello to Anh. She’s a 52-year-old Vietnamese woman, but you can hear her as clear as day because they are her thoughts, not her words.’ As I connected Anh and Diana together I told them both in a normal voice, “Now hurry up, there’s a lot of people to get through today.”
Melinda sprang into action, moving in and scooping Diana up and escorting her out, smiling at me as they left. I stopped to consider Allison at the door.
“Should I vacate the room?”
“The girl hasn’t returned, so I guess it’s alright. Don’t worry, though, we’ll cover for you if anything happens,” she assured me.
“Thanks. As always, I appreciate it.”
‘Shani, have Amy and Tina alternate in bringing some of the new Watcher girls up to see me,’ I instructed my oldest follower.
‘Cate’s currently doing a very good job of apprising them of what they need to know, but we’ll bring them up for a personal interview,’ she responded with a little mental laugh at my expense.
So I sat and waited a little longer, waiting for something to happen. I was wondering what was going on when I got the idea of tying into Shani and Allison’s vision. When prompted, they showed me what they were seeing downstairs. There were more people than I would have expected, but there were only a couple I’d likely be interested in, namely the types 1s and 2s, but I was pleased to see such interest in the sorority.
There was another knock on the door, this one using the correct code for a change, and I answered it to find Amy and two young girls who looked at me anxiously. I invited them in and gave them the established speech, but I got the distinct impression they were just happy to meet me personally. I figured they’d already gotten the basic information, so instead I told them about what Patricia, Melinda and Becky were doing, and how it would ultimately impact them, their lives, and the lives of anyone else they knew who might also have these abilities. We were just getting into it when I got an urgent message.
‘Alex, we’ve got a problem here,’ Gail alerted me.
‘Go on, I’m listening,’ I told her.
‘There’s a professor here causing trouble, demanding to be allowed into the building so she can search for someone hiding here,’ she advised me.
‘OK, let her in. She could either be looking for trouble or looking for me. If she starts searching room by room, let me know and I’ll take evasive action. But if she heads directly here, let her know I’m expecting her.’
‘Will do, Boss. Talk to you later,’ Gail told me.
‘There seems to be some trouble at the door,’ Shani warned me. I told her I already knew and we were addressing it. I continued talking to the girls, warning them we were about to be interrupted and we’d have to cut this discussion short.
We managed to finish up, and I opened the door to let them out when, surprise, surprise, there’s a bewildered woman standing there preparing to knock, with Gail standing behind her.
“Professor Bishop? What are you doing here?” one of the girls asked. The older woman just stood there, glancing at the two girls with me, wordlessly working her mouth without saying anything.
“She just stopped by to say hello,” I told them, making sure I was watching the exiting girls rather than the woman standing staring at me. “Tell Tina to bring up the next set of girls in about fifteen minutes,” I told Amy, as I turned and purposefully walked away from the door, not glancing back. I knew the new woman would feel compelled to follow me. I wordlessly told Gail to close and watch the door.
“What are … Who … Why are…?” she asked, as if unable to properly formulate a single question.
“My name is Alex. This sorority is a cover. We’re looking to provide protection for the young Seers and Watchers,” I told her.
“Seers? Watchers? What are you, uh, sorry, I guess I shouldn’t be questioning you.”
“Are you ready?” I asked her without giving her any details, still facing away from her. I didn’t really want to warn her, since you can’t really prepare someone for what she was about to undergo, just tell her to be prepared for something.
“Uh, I guess so. Yeah, I’m ready,” she answered, more authoritatively this time.
I slowly turned around and looked her in the eyes. I think I liked this new approach of telling them ahead of time. She managed to steel herself very well. She hardly jerked, and she didn’t get weak-kneed at all. Instead her eyes just got glassy, so I simply stood there and waited for her to recover. I knew what she went through would be a shock, no matter what I told her to be prepared for, but I just wanted to reduce the tendency these women had of almost collapsing when they were first activated, and my warning had done that.
“Wow, that was … that was something,” she said, slowly trying to figure out what had changed in her world.
“By the way, what’s your name? I can’t very well call you Professor Bishop all the time.”
“Uh, it’s Molly. And don’t say anything. I know it’s a lame name, but I’ve had it my whole life and I’m keeping it for all the good memories I have of it,” she told me, clearly repeated an oft-worn phrase of hers.
“I think it’s a wonderful name. After having met as many women as I have the last couple of weeks, I like unique names. All I need is a bunch of women named Sue.”
“Do you have a lot of … Wow, what the hell did you do with the lights?”
“The Seers and Watchers are categories. I, as you can see, radiate a certain kind of energy which surrounds living things. Seers, like yourself, are drawn to me. They typically can detect the energy enough to feel people’s emotions, and they detect it enough to be drawn to me, but once they encounter me I ‘activate’ them, allowing them to actually see the energy.
“The Watchers are like the other girls you’ll meet downstairs soon. They can feel the energy I give off, but they can’t figure out what it is, so they simply watch me, not understanding why,” I explaining to her.
“The lights you’re seeing now represent people’s auras, essentially revealing their personalities. The intensity of the light shows how healthy the tissue is. The colors show emotions, like anger, lust, romance or any number of other things. I can’t describe it much better than that because I’ve never seen it myself. I seem to be immune to my own magic.”
“Why are you so bright?”
“Actually, I don’t know. For some reason this life force seems to pump out of me. I have no idea where it comes from or where it goes, but I seem to be full of it. In more ways than one,” I responded with a smile at my own poor joke.
“Now, there are several women who live with me who share these abilities with you. You’ll meet them shortly. The girl who brought you up here is like you, and there are a few others around as well. You’ll notice they’re a little brighter than the others are, but nowhere near as bright as me.
“So that pretty well describes your abilities. Tell me a little something about yourself,” I asked her.
“Well, I’m a professor here,” she said, trying hard to look at me but being unable to. “I teach law. I’m single, twice divorced. Seems my exes couldn’t resist the young things who attend school here. But I’m generally too focused on my research and students to focus on romance.”
“Yet you practice your delivery enough to know it by heart,” I commented.
“Yeah, I guess I do. I’m always meeting visiting professors or clients who want to know my history, so I’ve worked out a little shtick.”
“Well, since I haven’t heard it I look forward to the rest of the routine. Any kids?”
“Yeah, actually two, 17 and 20, though they’re with their father and his new girlfriend now,” she told me.
“Girls or boys?”
“One of each, actually.”
“Well, I ask because this tendency to detect feelings tends to run in families, but it only seems to affect women. Some of the girls have some information downstairs that will help you determine how likely it is your daughter may have the tendency.”
“I’ll check it out. Should I bring them by if they seem likely to—?”
“Don’t worry about it. I suspect you’ll be spending a fair amount of time with us. By the way, should I give you a call if I have any legal problems?”
“Sorry,” she said, laughing slightly. “I’m the last one you want handling your cases, since I don’t actually practice law. I study it. I’m the one to come to if you want research done on case law, or if you want a talking head concerning the latest political scandal or celebrity lawsuit.”
“Look, I’d be glad to talk longer, but I’m expecting a couple more girls to be coming up soon. I don’t know if you are supposed to be at an event like this or not. If you are, feel free to mix and mingle, as there are several women who would be glad to tell you more of what you need to know. But if you aren’t, I’ll send someone over to your office tomorrow or the next day.”
“No, the girls who live here may feel awkward, but it should be alright. Actually, if it would help, I’ll volunteer to serve as a sponsor. It’s the least I can do.”
“Good, you’ll want to speak to these people,” I told her as I flashed a couple of pictures through her mind. “They’ll get you started. And feel free to come by the house. Becky or Melinda can give you the address, but as I was saying, we’re under a bit of a timeline here.”
“Oh, I understand, sir. I wouldn’t dream of taking up your—”
“Hey, don’t start. I’m just a naďve high school kid. Don’t go making me into something I’m not.”
“Yes, sir, I’m sorry, sir,” she started apologizing as I walked her to the door. When I opened it Gail was still waiting, but the brunette had returned.
“You wanted to speak to me?” I asked her.
“Yeah. I’m curious. Why do I get the impression this whole thing was just an excuse for you to meet girls? What makes you so special these girls and women would go to such efforts just to take care of you?”
“Ah, actually it’s a little more complicated than that. And it’s not for me, it’s for the girls themselves. I’m providing a, uh, a way for the girls to better handle the world. Try talking to a few of them. They won’t tell you everything, but they’ll give you an overview of what’s going on. I’ve already alerted them what they can tell you, so they will be waiting for you,” I told her. I glanced over and saw Tina leading another two girls over to me. “Now if you’ll pardon me, I have some further discussions to take care of.”
All in all, it was a very productive evening. I couldn’t believe we’d had as much success visiting the nearby campus as we’d had visiting a city with a population of three and a half million people in it. Hopefully it was because my girls were brighter than average, but I somehow doubted that. I assumed it was probably just random luck.
We’d identified two Seers and twelve Watchers, plus meeting Tina and Amy. They were all helping us clean up and pack everything away. The brunette, Nancy Wilkerson, stayed on and helped as well. She seemed to have become fascinated with me, although she didn’t really have any apparent reason to. Oh well, maybe she was like Kitty and Chalise. Only time would tell.
Now that everything was over, the other girls weren’t upset for me to be here. As long as we cleaned up the mess we’d made they were satisfied. I noticed Nancy speaking to Becky and Melinda. I don’t know if it was about their use of the house or about me. But I trusted my sisters to protect me almost as much as I trusted my girls. Melinda had shown she was serious about helping me today. Now we’d see whether she’d impressed Cate enough to get them over their little hurdle.
Melinda was ecstatic. She finally ran up to me and enveloped me in a big hug and just squeezed me like a long lost brother or something. Cate didn’t object, so I didn’t try to dissuade her.
“Thanks for everything, Mel. You put in an awful lot of work on this, and I’m really impressed by it. This was a phenomenal idea and I appreciate it. Hopefully Tina and Amy can apply it at their own schools after this.”
“Yeah, it was a great success,” she said, stepping back to address me. “Beyond the girls you dealt with, we have another 20 potential members. They really seem to like the emphasis we place on developing their internal feelings. I’m not sure how much we can teach them, but at least if they join they’ll have a lot of support from the other girls here.”
Cate then stepped up to Melinda, causing her to cringe slightly, but Cate gave her an even bigger hug than Melinda had given me.
“You’ve proven yourself, Mel. You’ve demonstrated you’re interested in helping Alex in what he needs, and you aren’t simply interested in him for your own reasons. I’m looking forward to working with you in the future, on both this and other things. I’m also looking forward to being a member of your sorority next year.”
Melinda was pretty overwhelmed by Cate’s response, and I could see tears leaking from her eyes.
“So, am I forgiven for what I tried to do?”
“Yeah, I can’t be angry at my sister indefinitely. You’ve shown yourself to be a valuable member of Alex’s crew, and that counts for a lot.”
As we carried the last load of stuff to the car, Natalie walked over. “So, I’ve gotten a good idea of what’s involved. I’ll have to look into who I can call about advancing this, but I think we’re off to a great start. I can see this going far, though we’ll have to establish this one house before anyone else will be willing to allow us to continue.”
“I’m confident you and Melinda will do wonders with it. I’ll leave it in your very capable hands, though you might want to speak to Amy and Tina about that, since they are already making plans on introducing it at their own schools. Just try to give me a little more advance notice when I’m to appear, in the future.”
“Hey, keeping you in the dark wasn’t my idea. It was something Melinda seemed to think was necessary. But she hadn’t actually told us much of anything.”
Before getting into the car I walked over to Tina and Amy.
“Look, I don’t know when you’re supposed to head back, but if you can possibly wait to leave in the morning I’d like to spend some time with you. I don’t know if Patricia explained it to you, but there are certain, uh—”
They both noticeably perked up at this and quickly cut me off.
“Alex, you don’t know what this simple offer means to us. We know how your time is divided between so many, and how you hate to diminish your love by having to spread it around so much, so we really appreciate the effort. Normally, we’d be noble and suggest you don’t, but we’d just be kidding ourselves. This simple act will probably be a momentous occasion in both our lives, both because it’s with you, but also because of what it will mean to our abilities.
“We’d love it if you’d take us home and make love to us. We’ll put off whatever we have to in order to make time for you.”
I had to smile at their overwhelming sincerity. “All right, climb into one of the cars and let’s go.”
Melinda and Becky took Chalise home, while I sent Amy and Tina home with Allison and Rebecca, since I knew Kitty would want to ask me about it. I was upfront, and she asked me my intentions.
“It looks like they are going to be doing a lot for me, trying to start their own chapters of the house in their own schools. I want them to be as successful as they can be, and that’ll mean they need to be able to evaluate anyone they interview or meet. I’d really rather not do this, but I think I owe it to them for what I’m going to ask them to do.”
Kitty leaned over the console to kiss my cheek while I drove. “That’s why Chalise and I allow you to get away with these things, because you’re so honest and you don’t do it lightly. We won’t have a problem with it. Just don’t try anything with that Nancy girl, neither one of us is sure we trust her at all,” she warned me. I took her warning to heart. After all, they had no problems with everything else I did, so being cautious was the least I could do for them.
When we arrived home, Anh had dinner prepared. Both Tina and Amy expressed their thanks to everyone for being included and thought Anh’s meal was wonderful, as they mostly ate crummy food since they couldn’t afford New Orleans’ better restaurants. Anh suggested several decent low-priced alternatives in the city they could try.
I glanced meaningfully at Cate, just to make sure she was OK with what I planned to do. She simply shrugged and asked, “Do you think it’s necessary?”
“I do,” I answered concisely. So she told me she’d always trust my intuition, though she felt defensive about Nancy as well.
Finally I took the two girls to bed, after having spent suitable time with both Jennifer and Nikki. I didn’t want them to feel they were being ignored simply because these two were on a limited time frame. They both said they understood, but I knew I’d have to make amends soon.
As I led Tina and Amy into the spare bedroom—I left the big bedroom to the other girls since we wouldn’t need as much space—they both turned to me and handed me two sheets of paper. Instead of examining the papers I looked questioningly at them.
“They’re our recent STD exams from our doctors. Patricia said we’d need them if this was to occur, so we’ve both avoided having any sexual relations since we had them done. We’re both clean.”
“That’s good to know,” I told them both as I set the papers aside.
“There’s one thing you need to know, though,” Tina informed me. “I’m not on any form of birth control, so you’ll have to use a rubber. I’d love the chance to have your baby, but I want to finish my education first. I’m also aware that plastics interfere with what you do, so I hope it won’t make a difference.”
“Actually, it’s a good question just what effect it will have, as we’ve never tested it, but there’s someone else who’d be interested in the results. Personally, I can’t see the impact being lessened by the subtraction of a couple of inches of exposure, but we’ll have to try it and see,” I said as I kissed her.
It turned out it didn’t seem to make a major difference. It’s hard to evaluate differences of perceptions anyway, but they both got a significant improvement in their abilities, which is what I was after. After I was done, the girls came in with the refreshments, and Cate, Anh and Rebecca cuddled up on the smaller bed with us.
“We don’t like sleeping on that big bed without you,” they informed me. I could certainly understand that, as I’d grown quite used to a big pile of bedmates myself.
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