“The Catalyst” Series
		“Touring Under Pressure”
		Crumbly Writer All rights reserved © 2012
	Home | “An Unknown Attraction” | “Trying To Be Normal” | “Normalcy Is Harder” | “Racing the Clock” | “Touring Under Pressure” | Contact me

08:  Unexpected Fallout

           

“I’m telling you,” he explained to the impatient policemen facing him in the decrepit hospital room where he was physically chained to the bed by handcuffs, “I was trying to protect those girls from a predator attempting to take advantage of them.”

“And we’re telling you,” responded the beefy sergeant who glared at him as if he was the bug he’d just accidentally swallowed while out biking, “there was no guy there, supposed angels or not. You shot into a group of women. Everyone reported the exact same thing. It was a group of women talking amongst themselves. No guys.”

“That just can’t be right,” Anthony said in confusion. They’d given him medication to ease the pain when they’d operated on his stomach to repair the gunshot wound he’d gotten when that woman had shot him in the gut. But they hadn’t given him enough to eliminate the pain, and he found it difficult to think through the still flaring pain in his stomach. “If that’s the case, then—”

“Then you imagined the whole thing?” the other cop asked. Anthony had already seen a whole string of them. Apparently shooting someone in the middle of a crowded stadium got a lot of attention from the officials. “I’m sorry,” the cop continued, “but if you’re trying to build an insanity defense it ain’t going to fly. You’ve already admitted to shooting into the crowd. You’ve already told us you were trying to kill someone, and it doesn’t matter if he was there or not. You were trying to commit murder, you thought enough to bring a gun, so it shows both intent and premeditation, and if you injured someone else in the attempt the law’s the same. It’s just as if you had been gunning for them. You’re not going to get off on this one.”

“Yeah,” responded the sergeant, “especially not in this jurisdiction. You may not be aware of it, since you’re from out of town, but the local councilman from this region is notorious for pushing race-baiting issues. He’s not about to let some rich businessman from another part of the state slip by, just because you can hire some expensive lawyers to argue a useless insanity defense. While we don’t report to him, he’ll be sure to bring enough political pressure to bare that you won’t be able to dance away from this one.”

“But you don’t understand,” Anthony argued, trying to get them to do just that. “I went there just to talk to him, but when I saw him there, trying to take advantage of all those girls who were just like my daughter, I lost it. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing.”

“Yet you managed to say something to him, this mysterious angel who wasn’t even there, that he ‘wasn’t going to get away with it’. That demonstrates clear thinking. Being mistaken in who you’re trying to kill won’t buy you anything, and insanity defenses almost never succeed. If you’re going to make bogus claims you’re going to have to be more careful about your story when you do it. Now, why were you shooting at those girls? We all know there are no damn angels in Dallas, and we know people don’t go around shooting them even if they did exist. So what were you really trying to do? And just bear in mind that we’re not leaving until you give us an explanation we can understand. OK?”

Anthony knew he was going to be there a long time. The thought he’d shot the wrong people, the very people he was trying to protect, that he was protecting them from someone who wasn’t even there, was more than he could take. It forced him to question his own sanity. Obviously he must have been out of his mind. He couldn’t have seen something that no one else there had noticed. Hell, the cops insisted that each of the victims had denied any such person had been there. Things were looking bad, both from a legal, personal, mental and psychological perspective.

Worst of all, the money he was trying to protect was in danger, as he wouldn’t be able to manage his finances while in prison, and his daughter wouldn’t be likely to look on his actions favorably. Hell, he’d screwed up big this time, and he couldn’t see any way out of the mess he’d stumbled into.

---

---

‘Alex?’ Gail asked telepathically.

‘Yeah, are you ready for us to pick you up? We’ve been waiting to come get you.’

‘Actually, it’s OK. When the police asked about my car Linda Evens told them she drove me, giving me a plausible excuse for why I didn’t have my own. So she’s bringing me by.’

‘OK, that makes sense. So how’d everything work out? We’ve been anxious about what’s happening. We’re trying to decide how to respond.’

‘I think the best bet is to lie low for now. Right now no one suspects you’re involved. The suspect, an east Texas businessman, has been ranting and raving about how dangerous you were and how he wanted to stop you from harming anyone else. But since no one reported seeing you, and since everyone there said not only that you weren’t there, but that it was only a group of women, the police are taking this as a case of someone with a severe mental condition. Thus it would be better if no one knew you were actually in the city right now.’

‘That makes sense. So it sounds like we should head to Oklahoma earlier than planned? Say early tomorrow morning as opposed to Tuesday morning?’

‘That’s what I was thinking,’ Gail responded.

‘So what was this all about? Who was he so concerned about? Who was I supposedly cheating?’

‘Well, despite my being a fellow cop, they wouldn’t tell a witness who may be called to testify any information about the case, so they wouldn’t give me any specifics. But it’s got to be someone you’ve met while you’ve been here in Texas. Since they keep specifying ‘eastern Texas’, I’m thinking it was someone we met in Houston, and the only one who reported any problems with her family was that real skinny Seer, what was her name, Gracie something or other?’

Alex turned to Cate, who was the one who’d been keeping track of who everyone they’d met was.

“Cate, I need the last name of Grace, the girl we met when we just entered Texas.”

Cate grabbed her iPad and started going through her notes. “It’s Grace Barlow, from Beaumont, Texas,” she responded, which Alex conveyed to Gail.

‘All right, I’d suggest you contact her for information about whether it’s her father or not, and what may have happened.’

‘OK, I’ll get on that,’ Alex replied, but Gail continued before he could switch over to her.

‘There’s something else I wanted to bring up. It’s strange and I think it needs to be addressed,’ she said, without supplying any specifics.

‘All right, I’m listening,’ Alex replied cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

‘I know everyone always talks to each other, and that you generally ignore most of it, effectively just tuning it out, but can you tell if Kayla Odell, the new Seer who was shot, has been using you to transfer messages?’

‘That’s a tall order, since as you said I try not to listen in to the private conversations in my head, but now that you mention it I don’t recall hearing her mental voice. Although I don’t listen in, sometimes I get enough for me to make a connection to a specific person.’

‘The reason I ask,’ Gail explained, ‘is that she contacted me directly. When I asked her how she did it, whether or not she went through you, she had no idea what I was talking about. As strange as it sounds, I think you somehow boosted her abilities without being aware of it.’

‘I can’t picture how that could have occurred,’ Alex replied. ‘Normally boosting someone takes a lot of work, trying to set up the environment, carefully controlling the pace and trying to arrange things so everything happens at once. I can’t imagine how it could just spontaneously occur. I mean, we’d have to at least be in close physical proximity. They were both well away from me when they were shot.’

‘Do you think the attack might have boosted your own abilities?’ she asked. ‘After all, it’s happened before. Usually every time you’re attacked you end up with some strange new power.’

‘I’d hardly describe them as new powers. Usually my new abilities are either new manifestations of existing abilities, or they’re something my brain wasn’t able to handle initially, like when the telepathy kicked in when I got in that fight with Bao, Anh’s son. I suspect I’d had the ability for a while, but my brain hadn’t yet figured out how to process it.’

‘Yeah, I remember hearing about that. But however you describe it, you usually can do new things you couldn’t before following a physical altercation.’

‘I’ll tell you what, hold on and I’ll contact her and set up a test. I’ll have her contact you while I focus. If she goes through me I’ll know it this time.’

So Gail waited while Alex made the arrangements.

‘Kayla? This is Alex. How are you doing?’ Alex asked.

‘Hey, Alex,’ she responded, sounding pleased he’d reached out to her. Her thoughts were clear telepathically, but that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t still in a lot of pain. ‘Actually it’s kind of mixed. Both Haley and I refused the painkillers they offered us, since we wanted to keep our minds clear so we’d know how to respond to questions by the police. Gail told us how to approach it so we were prepared, but we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to focus on giving the right answers if we were drugged up.

‘So essentially we’re both still hurting, but we’re also feeling more alive than we ever have before. I was checking in with Gail the entire time the police were questioning me.’

‘That’s just it,’ Alex replied. ‘Gail was wondering how you managed to do that. Normally the only way a new Seer can communicate telepathically is either to or through me, and you don’t seem to be doing either.’

‘Yeah, Gail mentioned that. But it’s not just me. Cate said the Watchers don’t get activated, they’re just drawn to you but that you don’t actually do anything to them. Yet Haley can easily tell which of the cops’ good-cop/bad-cop acts is legitimate. She actually told them she didn’t buy the whole act, since the bad-cop was more sympathetic to her.’

‘Whoa, that’s a significant development,’ Alex responded with a bit of alarm. ‘Alright, just so we can get a handle on this, I want you to contact Gail again just after we finish talking. That way I can tell whether you’re actually going through me or not.’

Kayla agreed, and Alex sat back and focused on what was happening inside his own mind.

‘Alex, this is Gail again. Kayla just contacted me. What did you get?’

‘You’re right. She didn’t go through me. Not only that, but she also told me that Haley was boosted as well. This is downright freaky. I have no memory of doing any such thing.’

‘But this is a good thing, isn’t it?’ Gail asked. ‘I mean, you keep complaining about having to make love to one stranger after another. Wouldn’t this solve a lot of your problems? It’s essentially a spontaneous boosting without the need to get intimate with each of your followers. It would mean you could boost everyone right away without having to get to know them so intimately first.’

‘You’re right; it would be a tremendous advance, not only for me but to the whole movement. It would make my life much easier, it would help each of the followers I meet from here on out, and it would reduce a lot of my ongoing stress. But I think Cate will want to examine it in detail before I attempt it again.’

‘Well, I just wanted you to be aware of it,’ Gail said. ‘We should be home shortly.’

Alex stopped to update Cate and the others in the room on the latest news, and then left them to discuss it while he reached out to someone else.

‘Grace? This is Alex. Where are you now?’

‘I’m in New Orleans. I came down to see the community down here. It’s wonderful how many people like us are here and how supportive they are. I’m planning on returning to Houston and trying to build our local community to—’

‘Yeah, that’s wonderful. Listen, I’ve got some very bad news for you, but I’ve got to ask some questions first. How are you and your father getting along lately?’

‘Does this have to do with your attack in Dallas?’ she asked, but Alex wasn’t ready to reveal that information quite yet.

‘Not directly, but it may apply. Just answer the question.’

Grace was hesitant, but Alex couldn’t tell if that was because she felt guilty about not conveying reports of her continuing problems with her father, or because she was concerned with what his ‘bad news’ might be.

‘We haven’t, frankly. We got into a couple of screaming matches. I kept trying to assure him I wasn’t changing anything, but he insisted I was being taken advantage of and that he was going to cut me off financially to protect me. But I’ve never had access to much money to begin with, so his argument of trying to protect me seems pretty weak. I think he was just upset that I’m finally growing up and am no longer as easy to control as he used to be.

‘Anyway, things escalated after that. He threw me out of the house, telling me if I wouldn’t listen to him then he’d no longer shelter me. Again, I think he was more concerned that he couldn’t buy me off as easily as he’d thought. When that happened I decided I’d take this trip to New Orleans just so I wouldn’t have to bother my friends with putting me up indefinitely.’

‘I can see why that would be beneficial, but I’m still interested in the relationship between you and your father. If he cut you off financially, how could you afford to fly to New Orleans?’ Alex asked.

‘Oh, that’s easy. My father was being an ass, but my mom could see the effort I was making and how much I seemed to be maturing, to use her words. She wrote me a check to cover my expenses.’

‘Ah, that might have been the trigger. Despite his best efforts to protect you, he probably saw the canceled check and thought you’d found a way to access his funds indirectly. I’m guessing he figured the money wasn’t to go to New Orleans, but to follow wherever I decided to take you.’

‘Alex, I’m starting to get worried. What’s happened to my father? Why are you asking me all these questions?’

‘Grace, there’s no easy way to say this, but your father has just been arrested on two counts of attempted murder in Dallas. He came into a crowded concert and tried to shoot me. Unfortunately he hit two girls instead. I don’t think anyone actually knows I was there, so I suspect he’ll have a fairly good chance at claiming a mental impairment defense on the basis of his trying to shoot a mythical person.’

‘Wow, that’s terrible! This was when you alerted us about being attacked? He tried to shoot you then?’

‘Yeah, it happened several hours ago. I’m just now starting to get details on what happened, and I didn’t even know who he was when he confronted me. We pieced together that you were the most likely connection, so I wanted to be sure before I told you. The media is responding to the shooting but they haven’t released any details on it yet. But that’s likely to change before long. You’d better call your mother and see about getting to Dallas. You’d also better get a decent lawyer, because he’s apparently been speaking pretty freely about his trying to gun me down.’

‘Yeah, we’d better get right on this. You weren’t hurt were you? And what about the two girls? Were they connected to you and were they seriously hurt?’

‘I’m fine, and the girls weren’t seriously hurt. They were injured, and that’s serious enough, but they weren’t critically injured. He wasn’t aiming at them so they only suffered glancing blows as they tried to defend me. They reacted quickly to his strong emotions, knocking me aside before he could get a bead on me. But I’m worried about what this will mean for you and your family, so I want you to see if you can help him before he buries himself any further than he already has. I hate to remind you of this, but Texas is a death penalty state, and a shooting in a crowded stadium is likely to have people looking to make a public example of him.’

‘Thanks for warning me, Alex. I’m not sure how I’ll react to this. I’m a bit too surprised at the moment to be able to think clearly yet, but I’ll start making the arrangements right away.’

‘Talk to my people there,’ Alex suggested. ‘If you can’t access your funds right away, my people will get you back right away.’

With that, Alex wished her luck and returned to the ongoing discussion between the others. Cate, seeing he was done with whatever telepathic conversation he was having, tried to discuss the idea of his newest boost but he put her off once again.

“I want to check up on the girls in Carbondale and see how they’re doing first,” he told her as he started dialing the loft. “We haven’t had a chance to check up on them, and I’m sure they’re upset by whatever emotional leakage I projected when I was attacked. And before you ask, I’m calling so I can talk to everyone there and not just the Seers.”

“Hello, Angel Vision Foundation?” Natalie Mendoza, the first Watcher he’d ever talked to, answered.

“Hey, Natalie, this is Alex. I was just calling to check in to see how everyone is doing. I was—”

“Alex, what the hell happened to you? Hey, everyone, it’s Alex,” she called out excitedly before returning to the conversation. “I’m putting you on speakerphone just so everyone can hear you.”

“And I’m doing the same thing here,” he said, although he’d already done it when she first answered. “Don’t worry about me. Yes, there was another attempt on my life but I’m OK. A couple of new followers acted quickly, I guess by detecting his intent from his aura. They shoved me out of the way, saving me, while charging him hoping to distract him. They both received gunshot wounds but he missed any vital organs. I’m still worried about them, though. I wanted to stay to help but Gail wouldn’t stand for it, and they wouldn’t let me see them either. But for now, I’m interested in knowing how each of you is holding up. Last I heard, most of you ended up in the hospital yesterday.”

“We’re fine,” Shani responded. “Just like you, all we really needed was to eat a bunch and relax. It took a while to recover, but there was no reason for us to have been hospitalized. Basically the EMTs panicked, and the hospital staff, who know and worry about us, overreacted as well.”

“I can assure you everyone is fine,” Liv told him, as if her word as a doctor meant any more to Alex than the voice of the others. “Ryan checked everyone over, and Anh, while still a little woozy, seems fine.”

“Well that’s good to know. Just so you’re aware, there may be another new ability this newest attack triggered, but we don’t understand it yet. I’m going to experiment with it as soon as we finish here. Anh, I’ll call you tomorrow so we can discuss it, along with several other items which have come up. I also have a few other things to discuss with Liv and Allison concerning some things I learned while at the Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio. But I’ve got a lot of talking left to do here tonight, so—”

“Hold on, Alex,” Rebecca hurriedly said before he could hang up on them. “Becky brought up something the other day I wanted to discuss with Cate. That was what we were discussing the other night when Anh fell.”

“Sure, I don’t mind considering another question.”

“Uh, well, we kind of wanted to ask Cate herself, without you listening in,” Rebecca hesitantly added.

“Oh, well, that’s a little unusual but not that strange. Sure. I’ll take the phone off speaker and give it to her. Here she is,” he told them, while wondering what they had up their sleeves this time. If all his girls gathered to discuss the topic it must be worrying them, yet they didn’t want to discuss it with him. That got his curiosity up, but he wanted to maintain their privacy and their independence, and they couldn’t do that if he was continually butting into their conversations, so he put that curiosity aside. However, he kept one ear open to his sister’s conversation.

“Wow, that’s quite a theory. I’ll have to consider that,” she replied. “No, I don’t know what it means, and I’m a bit doubtful about it as well. But I’ll have to consider how realistic it is and what impact it may have.” She listened a little more while Alex kept himself occupied. The other girls had turned their attention to scanning the TV for any news reports of what had happened at the stadium, so that kept them busy.

“I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to do that. I’m here most of the time, and I’m…,” she stopped to listen again. “Look, I’ll give it some more thought, but personally I think you’re way off base. I’ll call you to talk about it tomorrow, but I’m not too worried about it.”

Cate then put the phone back on speakerphone and everyone said goodbye, after asking him who his newest bedmates for the night were. The three girls were a little embarrassed, but everyone took it well so they weren’t worried. The women in Carbondale laughingly teased Alex that he must have had his abilities boosted if he was now taking on three women a night instead of his traditional two. Alex took the teasing pretty well, and soon the phone call ended and Alex turned to his sister.

“What was that about?” he asked, meaning the cryptic secret conversation she’d had.

“Oh, that? Never mind. It’s a silly theory a couple of the girls had after talking to Kitty and Chalise. I don’t think it bears repeating, but as I told them, I’ll consider it before making a final evaluation. Besides, I’ll have to call Becky and Melinda tomorrow and hear it directly from them before I really know what they were thinking, but I don’t want to either bore or worry you about it. You’ve got enough things on your mind.”

That response hardly eased Alex’s mind much, but she was right, he had enough other things on his plate at the moment. Instead he turned his attention to the television. The girls had found a news report about the shooting. Whereas earlier they hadn’t given many details, now they were announcing “a businessman from out of town came to the concert looking to confront the mysterious Angel of New Orleans. Instead, he attacked a random group of women who were speaking together; thinking one of them must have been him. The police describe him as being ‘fairly delusional’, so they have him under medical observation at the moment. They also have him under a suicide watch since they’re afraid he may respond negatively when he realizes he was chasing a figment of his imagination.”

“Well it looks like they’re not looking for you, at least,” Cate observed.

“Yeah, but it would still be better if I didn’t stick around. All it would take would be several people talking about an angel appearing downtown and they may rethink that,” he answered. “Now, it seems I’ve got a mysterious new ability and three willing suspects to test it out on,” he said with a leer, but they weren’t immediately convinced.

“Will we still get the traditional boosting performance if it succeeds?” Jamie asked. The others seemed interested in Alex’s response as well.

“Yeah, I figured it’ll be hard to convince anyone to forego that, so there’s no need to pretend I’m unsuccessful,” he laughed.

Thus he tried, over the next twenty minutes, to somehow boost them without making love to them. He knew there must be a way to do it, but since he hadn’t been aware of doing it at the time, it was even harder to duplicate. He tried concentrating, wishing, he even had Cate threaten to hit him thinking maybe it was the sense of danger which triggered it, but nothing seemed to work and Alex was starting to get frustrated.

Just then Gail and Linda Evens came in. Linda was the girlfriend of the PI who’d warned Alex about the attack. Alex got up and gave them both a big hug, asking how they were. He knew Gail had a lot of experience in the field, but he couldn’t imagine it was easy shooting someone. She explained the questioning had gone well and the police were satisfied by her answers. What’s more, since it was so clearly a case of the public’s defense, and so many people had seen the man preparing to shoot her after she’d given him the warning to put his gun down, that they weren’t going to make her stick around any longer, as long as she was available to return for the eventual trial.

“It’s a lot easier than shooting someone when I was a cop. Then I’d end up spending the entire day filling out detailed reports about the shooting.”

“They wanted to honor her in a ceremony for having saved even more people,” Linda said, “but she told them she had business in another city on Tuesday, and she had to be there early to make sure the next concert was doubly safe after this. That seemed to appease them.”

“Not quite,” Gail replied. “They want me to appear downtown tomorrow morning, so you’ll have to leave the city without me. Just promise me you won’t get shot at by anyone while I’m not there to protect you.”

“I’ll try to avoid standing still long enough to provide them with an easy target,” Alex laughed.

“So how did you make out, Linda. After all, I’m guessing this was the guy you warned me about. Weren’t they interested in the common link between you?”

“Actually, they never asked me about it. I’m sure they’ll make the connection eventually, but I’ll simply tell them I didn’t know who he was.”

“I suspect he followed Linda here,” Gail surmised. “I’m guessing her boyfriend told him she was going to be here tonight, so he trailed her until she led him to you.”

“If that’s the case, I doubt either of them will volunteer what Harry said,” Linda suggested.

“I think that’s a safe bet,” Gail said. “If he did it would make him culpable for the attack and it would destroy his reputation as a PI. Besides, they’d have been all over it if the shooter had mentioned he’d been following her.”

“It’s strange he’d admit to the shooting but wouldn’t mention he followed someone here,” Alex commented.

“I’ll call Harry to make sure he doesn’t mention that when they call him,” Linda said.

“It’s probably too late,” Gail told her. “I’m sure they’ve already contacted him. Besides, you don’t want to implicate yourselves. Right now, you had no knowledge of any of this.”

“Yeah, but it would be expected I’d call him. I should at least tell him what happened to me.”

Gail admitted that made sense, so she made her phone call. The others were still trying to figure out how Alex’s newest ability might work, but they were interrupted when Patricia and her band mates arrived. Once Gail let them in they swarmed around Alex, each telling him how worried they were about him.

“I’m OK, but I can’t say the same for the two girls who were hit. Luckily they escaped serious injury, though. So what happened to you? You’re getting home awfully late.”

“The place was a mad house,” Sammy Tipton, the keyboardist, told them. “First the police questioned everyone, even though we were nowhere near the shooting. Then the business manager spoke to us, then the insurance adjuster, and then finally Diane Kennedy lit into us. She insisted we be thrown off the tour since we introduced an ‘uncontrollable criminal element’ to the show.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Alex said, growing worried he’d destroyed Patricia’s newly revised music career.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. Diane is mostly upset that we’re attracting bigger crowds than she is,” Patricia answered. “In fact, once we finish our set there’s a steady stream of people leaving in the middle of her show.”

“No doubt helped by those who I take with me when we leave,” Alex replied with a guilty smile.

“No doubt, but you’re not the problem. Diane is the problem,” Patricia told him in a no-nonsense tone. “This was supposed to be her comeback tour, but she just doesn’t have what it takes to make it anymore. She’s become a bitter angry diva. No one was about to blame us for what one crazy person did during our concert. Of course, there’s no telling what they’d say if they knew we were actually indirectly responsible for it.”

“No, you simply know me, and the person was trying to kill me. That doesn’t make you responsible for it, just like I wasn’t responsible for it. Frankly, I’m not even sure why he was after me, so I can’t even say whether the shooter was responsible for it. Right now, he’s got a fairly good basis for temporary insanity.”

“Anyway, the long and short of it was that everyone wanted to know what happened, whether we had any clue about it, and what we personally planned to do about it,” she continued.

“So what did they conclude?” Cate asked.

“Just what you’d expect,” Mackenzie Schumacher, the band’s drummer answered, “that no one knew anything and we weren’t responsible.”

“The show’s sponsors weren’t pleased, since they’ll have to issue refunds to everyone,” Patricia explained. “They suggested we play an extra concert so they won’t have to do that. That way they could simply give everyone a replacement concert, and only refund anyone who can’t make it. Unfortunately tomorrow night, Sunday, is the only date we have open.”

“That means you’ll have to leave them behind and head to Oklahoma on your own,” Gail pointed out, still stressing Alex needed to leave the city as soon as possible.

“I hate to see you pass up the chance to meet the followers you didn’t get a chance to meet tonight,” Patricia told him.

“I met a lot of them. We’d never get everyone as we were only here for one night, anyway,” Alex responded. “I’ll consider it a done deal.”

“So everyone is OK? Aside from the two girls, that is,” Patricia repeated.

“Yeah, we learned several other things, though.”

“Well, we stopped back to get some food. We’ve got to go back to arrange things for the show tomorrow night,” Patricia said, just letting Alex know they were under the gun.

“I’ll tell you what,” Linda suggested, “Alex is likely to focus on boosting everyone, and since I’ve got to get home again before Harry starts to worry what I’m up to with Alex here, I’ll explain everything to you while you eat.”

Everyone agreed that made sense, so they said goodbye and the members of the band told Alex they’d meet him for the show on Tuesday. As the others left, Alex turned back to the remaining girls and they resumed discussing how Alex might spontaneously boost the three girls. Everyone had their own ideas on the topic. Linda Evens could have provided yet another test subject, but Alex had missed his chance, and he doubted it would have made a difference anyway. He was still feeling frustrated at his inability to utilize this new ability of his.

“It might be like the telepathy. It may just take time for my brain to figure how to wire itself correctly. Maybe it will work after a few days?” Alex suggested, not really expecting an answer.

“I guess you’ll have to resort to the old approach of multiple orgasms,” Jamie suggested with a smile. The other girls quickly agreed that was the best option.

“I’ll fix your snack for you in that case,” Cate told him as she headed off to the kitchen.

“Just so you know,” Alex told the others, lowering his voice, “Cate’s got a unique ability of her own where—”

“Don’t bother, Alex, I’m not staying tonight, so there’s nothing to explain,” Cate called from the mini-fridge.

“Uh, OK,” Alex answered, unsure why Cate would suddenly change a long established pattern which hadn’t caused any problems in the past. But he wasn’t sure how to ask her what was up without first explaining their basic relationship to the other girls first.

“I’ll leave your food here on the table,” Cate said. “One of the girls can get it for you when you need it. I fixed extra, since you’ll certainly need it if you’re doing three girls tonight.”

“What about the experiment I proposed?” Gail asked, returning to the conversation. That distracted Alex, so he couldn’t pursue asking Cate what was going on with her.

“I think I’ll try it,” Alex explained. “I think we need to know more about how this whole procedure works.”

“Which experiment is that?” Brittany asked.

“The one where he doesn’t give each of us multiple simultaneous orgasms,” Steph told her.

“Sorry, I was trying to avoid saying that outright,” Alex apologized.

“Hey, don’t apologize,” Steph answered. “We’re here for you, we’re happy to help you. Any orgasms we get are strictly a side benefit. Frankly, I’d be happy with one decent orgasm, even if it isn’t quite mind melting.”

“So who gets the full treatment and who gets less?” Jamie asked. “I assume you’re using a control?”

“Ah, but if I told you that I’d introduce the placebo effect,” Alex replied with a smile. “I’ll have to leave you guessing. You’ll only know if you don’t get a boost following the experiment.”

“That sounds fair,” Steph answered.

“Yeah, I can certainly agree to that,” Brittany said.

“Wow, this is a lot easier than I thought it’d be when I suggested you weren’t going to be getting my ‘A’ game,” Alex said.

“Alex, Alex, Alex,” Cate answered as she brought out a tray with snacks. “Once again you completely miss the point. The idea isn’t that these women want to have you give them unbelievable orgasms. They’re trying to express their thanks and get closer to you. As long as they can enjoy your company, they’ll be happy.”

“Especially if we can help in the process of figuring out how to use your abilities,” Jamie answered. “If we can help you do that, then we’ve helped everyone else who’ll be in our shoes after us.”

“The other thing you need to work on is letting go and stressing yourself less,” Cate instructed her brother.

“Yeah, especially since it seems you’ve been inhibiting your own ability by not trusting your own instincts,” Gail added. “I still contend you’d do better just letting go and not trying to control everything which happens to you.”

“So the moral of the story is, have fun, stop stressing so much, and don’t worry so much about who orgasms when,” Cate concluded. “If it happens it happens. If not, you’ll still all have a blast. But in either case I’m going to bed in my own room, so have fun without me. Somehow I don’t doubt you’ll find some way to keep yourself entertained.”

Cate left with no further explanation and Gail made herself comfortable in an easy chair against the wall, figuring four on a double bed was a few too many already. Despite Cate’s advice, Alex still felt it necessary to maintain a certain amount of control in order to ensure each person got the desired effects, but he didn’t have to control everything, and once he reached a certain level with each girl he could let himself go to a certain degree. Alex had to give it to Cate and Gail, though, sex was a lot more fun when you didn’t stress over it the entire time.

           

Check out smashwords.com or vincentberg.net for all of my eBooks.

Note:
Don't forget to review the book after you read it. Thanks!

---

This book is now posting every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

e-mail Author
Requires an email address, for anonymous feedback
use the "Contact me" button at the top of the page.

		Copyright © 2012-2014, Crumbly Writer. All rights reserved.
		Reposting on other sites for commercial or non-commercial purposes without specific written consent from the author is strictly prohibited.