“The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 06: Reacquaintances
Alex awoke to a comfortable mental fog, memories only slowly
filtering through of what had happened the night before. Remembering, he slowly
opened his eyes and looked about. It took him a moment to remove the hair from
his face, but he couldn’t see much. He was lying on his side with someone
holding him loosely from behind, their naked breasts pressing into his back,
while another body lay over him, her dark head with its darker black hair lying
against his chest, her soft breathing telling him she was still asleep. He
tried to glance over his shoulder, but even without looking he knew who it
would be, who it always was, and that someone very important was missing. He
already felt her loss.
The arms wrapped around him tightened, so he knew at least
one other person was awake.
‘Gail? Are you awake?’ he asked softly, quiet even
for a telepathic whisper.
‘Yeah, boss man. I’m awake. Though for as long as you
kept us awake with all that screaming last night, I’m a bit surprised,’ she
answered him.
‘Sorry about that,’ Alex apologized.
‘No you aren’t,’ Gail contradicted him.
‘You’re right, I’m not. Do you have any idea of what time
it is?’
‘Yes, it’s a little after six. You about ready to get up?’
she asked him.
‘Yeah, you’d better get the girls up. Who’d you end up
sleeping with?’
‘I got my own bed. Seems your two little girlfriends have
developed quite a friendship with each other. They’re both looking very happy
in each others’ arms.’
‘That’s good. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it
more,’ Alex told her before ending their short conversation.
“Finish speaking with Gail?” Cate quietly whispered to him,
whispering near his ear so she wouldn’t disturb Liv.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” he asked.
“You always reach out to whoever you’re physically closest
to, as if they are the most in need of you, which is probably true most of the
time. I can’t see you reaching out to Shani or Patricia at the moment.”
“Always the careful observer, you should add psychology to
your list of fields of study,” he observed. Liv shifted against him, murmuring
as she started to awaken.
“Shh, don’t awaken sleeping beauty,” he whispered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she answered him. “Hey, wait a
minute, what am I then? Sleeping Rapunzel?” Alex couldn’t help it and started
giggling quietly, which caused Liv to wriggle a little more as she tried to
find a more comfortable spot on Alex’s chest. However, that just made it worse,
and soon brother and sister were trying to contain their sudden giggle fits.
“Hmm, some comfy pillow you are. There I was, all
comfortable and then my pillow starts giggling,” Liv complained, finally
opening her eyes and looking up at Alex.
“Good morning, beautiful. Or should I say beautifuls?
Whatever happened to Shanna? Last I remember she was recovering from having her
head blown off.”
“Yeah, you were pretty out of it after that last time,” Cate
reminded him. “I forced you to eat something while Shanna recovered, then you
fell fast asleep. I keep telling you that you burn off a lot more energy than
you’re aware of. However Shanna had to take off shortly after that. Seems she
still had some packing to do, and she wanted to finish her sleep at her place
so she’ll be well rested when she joins us this morning.”
‘Hey, Shanna?’ Alex called, reaching out once again.
‘Hey yourself, handsome. I was wondering just how long it
would take you to wake up. You were pretty out of it when I left last night.’
‘So I heard. Sorry about that. Are you awake and getting
ready yet?’ he asked.
‘Yep, I’ll be ready to head out in a bit. I’m packing the
car as we speak. I’ve got a lot of mementos and office supplies in it. I’ll
park in the garage when I get to the hotel, just so I don’t have to worry about
leaving all this stuff on the street.’
‘Sounds like a plan. Are you going to be ready for
breakfast or will you need more time?’
‘No, I should be ready. I’m anxious to get started today.
Is everyone going to be there for breakfast?’
‘As far as I know. I’m assuming Emma and Sarah will be
there, so yeah, everyone should be there.’
‘Good, I’ll see you in a little while then. Now, unless
you want to come over and help, I’ve got to finish up here,’ she replied
and they both said goodbye.
“Shanna says she’ll be ready for breakfast,” Alex told the
two girls.
“Good, we wouldn’t want to leave without her,” Cate told
him.
“Care to take a shower?” Liv asked. “Maybe we could try for
a second cumming,” she teased, making a terrible pun.
“If you do, you’ll have to do all of your fooling around
within a half hour of breakfast,” Cate told them. “Alex finished off all the
spare food last night. We’ll have to stock up on the way out this morning. This
boy can eat like a horse.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, maybe in that case we can wash
each other’s backs... and fronts,” Liv suggested.
“You do that,” Cate told them. “I’ll call home while you’re
busy and talk to Mom and Dad, they’ll want to know how things are going. I’m
assuming you’ve already talked to the girls?”
“Not this morning, but I talk to them throughout the day. If
they ask, you can fill them in on last night,” Alex told her before he followed
Liv into the bathroom, grinning broadly. Cate sighed as she started dialing the
phone, thinking it was frustrated watching others have all the fun while she
pretended she and Alex weren’t involved.
“Well, glad to see you could make it for breakfast,” Emma
said, clearly happy to see Alex again. She and Sarah said hi to everyone. Liv
couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face, though, so everyone smiled in knowing
acknowledgement.
“Shanna should be by soon. I spoke to her about an hour ago
and she said she’d be here shortly,” Alex informed them.
“Good, it’ll be a full house then,” Sarah responded.
“So how did the two of you sleep last night?” Alex asked,
trying to get everyone’s mind off of his romantic interludes of the previous
night and that morning.
“We did fine, although we can see you did pretty well
yourself,” Sarah responded. “So, Liv, did he work any magic on you?”
“Man, you better believe it,” she said. “I can talk to
people I’ve never even met. It’s amazing. I think I’ll be talking to Alex all
day just because I can.”
“Well, I hope you enjoy it. I’d love to have an
ability like that,” Emma told her.
“You and me both,” Cate complained. “That’s the problem with
being Alex’s wingman, I’ve got to watch everyone else reap the benefits.”
“Are you kidding?” Amy asked. “You get to go everywhere with
Alex and spend all your time with him. Not only that, you get to see whatever
he does and talk to everyone he, uh, does.” The other girls laughed at that
while Alex and Cate both blushed.
“She gets a few side benefits as well,” Gail suggested
meaningfully, which Liv and Tina smiled knowingly at.
“So, we’re sorry to see you leave. It’s been a blast,” Sarah
told them.
“Before you take off, I want to say a few things,” Alex told
them. “When you go home, I want you to talk to your relatives, and pay
attention to anyone you think might be either a type 1 or type 2. If you’re in
doubt, include them. Next, suggest they come down to New Orleans. The type 2s
don’t need to be there anytime soon, but if they want to meet me, or if there’s
any type 1s, they’ll have to get down there in the next couple of days.
“They might not have much of a choice later,” he continued,
“but at this stage they can make up their own minds whether they want to be
involved in this whole scene or not, so try to make it sound convincing.”
“Alex Peter Jennings! Don’t you dare say anything
more about mind control. I thought we’d settled this yesterday,” Cate insisted.
“You don’t control anyone’s mind and you don’t make decisions for
anyone. Everyone who is involved with you got involved because they wanted to.
If any of their relatives don’t want to get involved with you, it’ll be because
they don’t believe them when they describe you. Now I’m going to break this
habit of yours of assuming that no one would voluntarily accept you for who you
are.”
Everyone looked at Cate in shock for a few moments, then the
girls all started giggling uneasily.
“Yes, Mom,” Alex told her in an imitation childish voice.
“Now I know you two must be involved with each
other,” Liv commented. “Only two lovers would scold someone like that, and only
a lover can pull the mother card. Anyone else would be history.” They all
laughed a bit more openly at that, and Cate blushed heavily. “By the way, don’t
ever call your sister ‘Mom’ again if you know what’s good for you,” Liv warned
him with a dire look.
“Don’t worry, Alex,” Emma told him, returning the discussion
to the prior topic, “we’ll be down in a few days, with or without any
relatives. There are a couple who might be possible, it’ll be interesting to
find out.”
“Hey there, everyone,” Shanna called out as she neared the
table. Everyone welcomed her, breaking up the discussion as they got their food
from the breakfast bar. Sitting down again they started to eat.
“OK, Tina, Amy and Shanna are all coming with us, correct?”
Alex asked, just to figure out logistics. They each nodded their heads yes.
“I’m already telling you, I don’t care who drives with who,
but you’re riding with me,” Gail told Alex in a no nonsense tone of voice.
“That goes for me as well,” Cate said. “Wherever you go,
we’re bound to find new followers, so I want to be there to keep track of
them.”
“I don’t know if that’s necessary,” Alex suggested, “Tiny
and Amy have proven adept at talking to the new Watchers.”
“Yes, they have, but I still think I should keep track of
them. I’ve been doing more than just talking to them. I’m also keeping track of
who we meet, where we meet them, the circumstances, and I record any personal
observations. Plus Tina and Amy don’t have experience with the Seers. Each of
them takes additional time, and the circumstances are almost always bound to
attract attention. You need someone to watch your back. They can help out, but
I want to be with you to ensure everything goes smoothly.”
“I’m OK driving on my own,” Shanna told them. “Although I’d
appreciate some company, I can always talk to Alex or Liv while I drive, so
I’ll be fine.”
“Amy and I would like to ride with you guys,” Tina said,
“but we were thinking of shifting off with one of you, so no one had to ride
alone. I guess that idea is out the window now.”
“OK, I know it’s awkward, but everyone travels in their own
car,” Alex announced, taking the role of decision maker once again. “We’ll take
the lead, Tina and Amy can follow, so they can stop and help if necessary.
Shanna can pick up the rear. She’ll only stop if we meet another Seer so they
can commiserate, but the chances of that are pretty slim.
“We found out on the way here that we’ll probably have to
stop pretty frequently. We ended up stopping nearly every exit, so expect a lot
of interruptions. If anyone doesn’t want to stop, just keep going. We’re
heading to Allison’s place, she made arrangements for us to use it for the next
several days. We’ll give everyone the address so we can meet if we get split
up. Otherwise, if one of us stops the others can join us or simply head for the
next exit. Anytime we stop we meet up at the next exit, since chances are we’ll
drag whoever we meet there to educate them. Everyone got that?”
They all agreed, so they resumed their normal conversations.
When they were finished, Alex hugged the two girls from Springfield, Missouri.
Alex told them to try to bring their mother, sister and aunt, who they’d
mentioned might be potentially new followers, and he hoped to see them in a
couple of days. “Just be prepared for a madhouse, because I’m known throughout
New Orleans now, so there’s no telling what might happen.”
“Yeah, we’ve figured that out by now,” Emma replied.
“Whenever you’re around, anything is likely to happen.”
“OK, now that that’s taken care of, Liv, I assume you’ll be
heading up to Carbondale soon?” She nodded meekly like a little girl, instead
of the assertive professional she was.
“Yes, sir, I’m planning on heading up this coming Monday.
I’ll be clearing up all my outstanding cases for the rest of the week, just so
no one will be inconvenienced by my absence.”
“Good, I like that attitude. You demonstrate your own
personal sense of responsibility, both to your tasks but also to your friends
and coworkers. That makes me think that much more of you.” Liv smiled brightly
at this praise, even though it was so imprecise. “You’ll enjoy everyone you
meet up there, and I’m sure they’ll fill you in on every little detail about
me, but I wouldn’t believe a word of it if I were you.”
She gave him a big hug and wished them luck. Everyone said
goodbye after that, and the others headed out and the little caravan got
underway. For two of the cars scheduling was easy to arrange, since they were
in constant communications. For the other, they had to use a telephone, so it
took a bit more work.
As they headed out, Cate, who was riding in the back seat,
turned to Alex, who was driving.
“Alex, I thought we’d discuss what happened in Memphis while
we have you to ourselves.”
“Yeah, it was something, wasn’t it? Hell, we encountered
more people in Memphis in one day than we did in St. Louis, a much larger city,
in two weekends.”
“That’s hardly accurate, or even true,” Cate responded. “You
met three Seers the first weekend in St. Louis, and we hardly spent as long
there as we did here. And don’t argue the fact you met Nikki in St. Louis. If
you don’t count her, then you can’t count Kelly Ott, since you met her in a
hotel. Besides, we’ve learned a lot about how to handle these things. We dealt
with the Watchers, we set up people to watch for anyone approaching you, and we
tried to scoop up anyone in the vicinity. We’re handling things much more
efficiently. We might have learned these things in St. Louis if we had
the chance. However you allowed Clara and Lisa to chase us out of town
instead.”
Alex listened to Cate’s points, simply nodding in acknowledgment.
He was well aware of the details. They had indeed learned a lot, and St. Louis
ended up as a bit of a fiasco. Much like New Orleans had before. He felt
nervous about what they’d encounter there this week.
“We’ll have to be careful in New Orleans,” Alex told both
Cate and Gail. “We know everyone will be watching us, we know that Albert
Rodriguez is aware of me. Let’s see if we can prepare for whatever happens this
time. But just be aware we may have to skip town again. I know Patricia has
several things planned, but let’s keep our options open. She and our trio of
Watcher watchers have thing well organized in New Orleans, so it isn’t really
necessary for me to do much there. I’ll try to visit with as many of the people
that Patricia has lined up as I can, but nothing about the next several days is
written in stone. I’d still rather not end up in the headlines.”
“That makes sense,” Cate agreed, “although we probably have
more Seers and Watchers lined up there than anywhere else, so if we can keep
out of trouble you can reach a lot of people with a minimum of effort. Also, we
need to manage the issue and not let people push us around.”
“That makes sense. I also think everyone in New Orleans has
been inviting their relatives so I can check them out. That’s bound to take
some time. We’ll just have to hope we can keep a low profile for once.”
“It’s hard to keep a low profile when people bow down to you
in public, or approach you in public cafeteria’s dripping with fresh blood,”
Cate reminded him. He merely nodded, well aware of how these things quickly got
out of hand.
However the normal six-hour trip wasn’t as difficult as the
trip from St. Louis had been. They met plenty of new people, but they were more
scattered, despite this being a more heavily traveled route. Instead of
stopping at nearly every exit, they only had to stop every couple of exits. In
fact, when they pulled into one McDonald’s to talk over coffee with a couple of
girls they’d just flagged down, Alex recognized it from their previous drive
down several months ago. He wondered just how many people might have been
following him then, only he had been unaware of it and thus had missed the
chance not only to talk to the people, but to learn about himself before
he’d reached New Orleans. But he realized that everything needs its own time,
and that you can’t rush life. Life happens according to its own schedule, and
you have to be willing to adapt to it. Anh had been drilling that into him
lately, and he thought it particularly good advice.
As they drove past Lake Maurepas and the nearby Maurepas
Swamp, Alex grew both more excited and more nervous, since he recognized the
sights. He remembered the view of Lake Ponchatrain that had made him so
reflective before. As they entered the city he spotted several sights he
remembered, despite the fact they’d spent most of their time in the French
Quarter, the view along Poydras Street in particular bringing back memories of
his first medical intervention. When they pulled up in front of Allison’s
apartment everyone was more than ready to get out of the car, since they’d
spent most of the day sitting.
Tina and Amy had agreed to check into ‘Le Sursis Petits’, the
quaint little hotel that Alex and his family had stayed in on their previous
visit. They didn’t feel secure staying there again, since the local reporter
revealed Alex was staying there, but they felt comfortable with the management
and were sure the girls would feel comfortable there. However the girls had
heard stories of Allison over the last two days, and were anxious to see where
they were staying so they followed the others up to their room.
They’d reached the elevator in the lobby, and when it opened
Alex found himself inundated by three excited young women who quickly swarmed
over him.
“Alex, it’s so good to meet you,” a girl with reddish hair
stated excitedly.
“We were expecting you, but knowing you’re coming and seeing
you are two completely different things,” gushed another, a blond whose bangs
kept falling into her eyes.
“Hold on, hold on,” Alex said, trying to fend them off. He
glanced at Gail, who was supposedly protecting him, but she was giggling with a
hand over her mouth, so she was obviously not going to be of any help. “Now,
could someone kindly tell me who you are?” he asked once he’d gotten a little
space for himself.
“Oh, sorry. We were so excited we kind of got carried away,”
said one, obviously the most outspoken of the group because she quickly took
over speaking for them all. “We sublease Allison’s apartment from her. We
agreed to let you take over the apartment while you’re here, under the
understanding that we got to meet you. We’re here to help get you settled, then
we’ll take you over to where we’ll meet Patricia for dinner.”
“Oh,” Alex said, relieved there was a rational explanation
for three young teens throwing themselves at him for no apparent reason. “Are
you...?” he asked, not willing to finish the question in case they weren’t.
“Oh, yes, we’re what you call Watchers. Patricia selected us
from the group that hung out at Peter’s coffee shop to take over Allison’s
apartment for her. She felt renting it to her ‘sisters’ was more fitting, plus
she figured we’d keep it neater if she could threaten how upset you’d be if we
didn’t,” she answered with a giggle.
Alex had to admit she was cute, in that bubbly teen manner
he normally found so annoying. It was the sort of teeny-bopper/cheerleader type
of enthusiasm. Still, on this girl it seemed to be fitting.
“So, you answered why you were here, but not who you
are. As you’ve obviously guessed, my name is Alex.” He then proceeded to
introduce everyone else and the girls politely said hello to each, but their
eyes kept darting back to Alex like he was the newest teen sensation. It was
more than a bit disconcerting to Alex, but Gail continued to giggle at his
discomfort, and his sister Cate soon joined her, since she knew how much he
disliked the cheerleader types at his own high school.
“Sorry,” responded the cheerful blond. “My name is Valerie
Albright. I attend Tulane University near here. This,” she said, indicating the
redhead beside her, “is Carrie Meier, she attends Loyola and this,” she
indicated the dark haired girl on her other side, “is Cynthia Ackerman. She’s
attending Southern University.”
Alex cordially said hello to each, reviewing each as he did
in that searching manner he had of looking at someone like he was reading their
very personalities through their eyes. Valerie obviously was the blond with the
bangs that wouldn’t stay in place, with blue eyes and very pale skin, but who
managed to carry herself with a lot of style despite her simple dress. Cynthia
had darker skin with black hair that hung down to her breasts and had a dark
penetrating stare with nice full lips. Carrie seemed the shyer of the three,
since she hung back a bit. She had reddish brunette hair with a fuller figure
and a sprinkling of light freckles. Alex wouldn’t have thrown any of them out
of bed, but he had to reconsider that thought, since he realized it may just
come to that.
The three girls grabbed everyone’s bags and helped them into
the elevator and they headed up to their room. Everyone had to explain who they
were, which mostly consisted of how they related to Alex, since he seemed to be
the common denominator between them. Shanna, Tina and Amy all oohed and aahed
over the apartment, and Amy told the girls how she wished she had a spread like
this when she was in college. However they informed her they worked hard
keeping it neat as a pin, since they definitely didn’t want to lose it.
As they were putting their stuff away, Tina and Amy
announced they were going to head off so they could unload their stuff at the
hotel in time to meet the rest at the restaurant. Valerie told them they were
staying at the same hotel, since the management was so fond of Alex. It seems
Patricia continued sending people from the community there since it was widely
associated with Alex. Thus the hotel was doing very good business as a result.
They were offering the girls a free room as their way of saying thanks. Cynthia
offered to accompany Tina and Amy over to help them get settled and show them
where the three girls were staying. She also said they’d be glad to show them
around New Orleans, especially since they might have more encounters with Alex
by doing so. They also gave everyone the name and address of the restaurant, as
well as Valerie’s phone number, though the restaurant didn’t trigger any
memories for Alex as he didn’t think he’d ever been there before.
Since they knew they had a while before the Tina and Amy
would be ready, everyone else sat around and talked about themselves, while
Cate and Alex rested up after the long drive. Even though they hadn’t stopped
as much as they had on Monday, it was still draining dealing with that many
people, never knowing precisely how anyone was going to react or what to
expect.
“None of us knew the others when we each first learned of
you,” Valerie told them. “Cynthia and I learned about you when you were still
in town, although Carrie showed up a few days afterwards. We took to hanging
around at Peter’s coffee shop in the French Quarter, commiserating with the
other Watchers about who had seen what and what it might mean. Peter, David and
Darice managed to get us organized and informed us what you expected from each
of us, and we told anyone else we met we were sure was safe. But you certainly
created a swirl of public attention with those headlines about you in the
Times-Picayune newspaper.”
“Everyone had to be careful who we told what to,” Carrie
explained, “since everyone was anxious to discover whatever they could. Just
like you did, we each had to deal with the posers who wanted to be a part of
something they weren’t. So we had to be doubly careful.”
“Word quickly spread about Patricia’s intimate relationship
with you,” Valerie said, continuing the story, “so we’d all trek to her
concerts whenever we could. We got to talking to her there after a short time
and she thought she’d trust us, since we behaved so well at the concerts instead
of acting like drunken bores. That’s when she told us Allison had a really nice
apartment she was interested in subletting. We jumped at the chance, and we
were even more excited when we finally saw the place. Our first night
here none of us could sleep, imagining all the things you did with Allison and
your other women in this very bed.”
“So what is it each of you are studying?” Alex asked, always
aware of his need to give his followers individual tasks to keep them involved
and to allow them to feel included.
“I’m majoring in technology, mostly Web Design,” Valerie
told them. “I’m studying Industrial Design,” Carrie said, which everyone
thought fit her personality, although Alex didn’t think he had any immediate
needs in that particular area. Cynthia said she was working in teaching and the
history of literature, which made Alex think of Diana, who shared a similar
interest.
They decided they’d wasted enough time for Tina and Amy to
get ready, so after speaking briefly with Patricia they set out for the restaurant.
As usual, they walked to the French Quarter, even though it was a healthy hike.
They were each anxious to stretch their legs, so the walk did them good, and
Alex was anxious to see the city again, as well as to see how many new
followers they might see. However, when Cate pointed out a couple to Alex,
Valerie asked them not to go chasing Watchers yet.
“Patricia is planning on presenting you with the results of
her research. She’s got a bunch of potential Watchers and Seers that she’s
identified through her questionnaires, so she’s anxious to see if they actually
are. If you start blindly talking to people you’ll compromise her ‘experiment’,
so she asked if you could stop searching for people for the night. There are a lot
of potential followers in the city at the moment, as everyone here has been
recruiting friends and family. That’s what tonight is about.”
Alex was about to ask about that, but he found the idea of
not bothering with who was following or watching him to be strangely
liberating, and he enjoyed it for as much time as he could. He simply strolled
along enjoying the scenery, the odd costumes and the strange mix of locals,
performers and tourists. However, none of them could fail to notice the many
Watchers that passed them, nor the several that were actively following them.
But as long as they didn’t make a scene Alex could ignore them for now. He just
hoped that Patricia was correct in knowing who was who, and that they weren’t
missing people by taking this line of non-action.
Vicky and Carrie took them into a small little brick
restaurant where they met Cynthia, Tina and Amy talking to the maître d'. He
escorted them back to a large table where they found Patricia sitting with
Darice, Peter and David. Cate and Alex immediately begun hugging everyone, and
they introduced their new friends and they quickly got started on the meal and
catching up on their lives. Patricia had catered a specialty 5 course meal of
the house. After the waiter brought a salad Alex had never seen the likes of
before, they started discussing what had been happening.
“Things have been busy since you left,” Darice told Alex.
“Everyone keeps bringing their relatives, so we’ve got plenty of people for you
to indoctrinate.”
“Yeah,” David said, “Patricia developed a real detailed
checklist that identifies who will be a Watcher and who will be a Seer. We’re
anxious for you to check it out. That’s why everyone is here this week. We told
everyone to bring their relatives and friends so you could see who qualified
and who didn’t.”
“I heard about that,” Alex replied. “I hope it works. We’ve
already been using it, and Tina and Amy have been helping talk to the new
people we’ve met.”
“We’ll find out how well it works tonight,” Patricia said,
brushing out her curly hair showing off new jewelry. Noticing everyone’s glance
she responded, “I got this because it shows up well from a distance. The show
tonight is going to be a big deal. It’s the first time I present my new
material to a public audience, aside from your birthday and your prom, of
course. So I’m excited for a variety of reasons, but the biggest thing is
introducing you to the potential Seers, to see if my ideas are correct.”
“We’ll see soon enough, but there’s no guessing ahead of time,”
Alex said, taking Anh’s teachings to heart. “Now, how have the press reports
about me been?”
“Well, as you may have noticed, we worked to bury the
internet accounts of your activities here,” Peter explained. “While we haven’t
exactly erased them, we’ve made them much less noticeable, and we’ve produced
so many misleads and false information most people have given up looking.”
“Yeah, we noticed that when we tried showing some friends
what happened to me here,” Alex commented.
“So has Mr. Rodriguez printed anything more about me since
we left?” Alex asked.
“There really hasn’t been much to report, and he didn’t know
that much about you to start with, so no, there really hasn’t been much,”
Patricia explained.
“That’s a load off of my mind,” Alex said, relieved he
wouldn’t have to worry about being exposed anytime soon.
“We’ve got a lot planned for you in the next few days,
Alex,” David said. “I hope you don’t have any specific plans for sleeping by
yourself for a while.” The others with him laughed at that idea.
“David is right,” Patricia explained. “I’d originally
planned to have the women interested in getting pregnant by you agree to a
unique agreement, where they’d arrange to find relatives representing a
Watcher, a potential Seer and a normal type 3 woman. However, from what I’ve
been hearing from everyone else, the time for grand experiments may be limited,
so after talking it over with your other girls we’ve decided to present our
potential Seers to you a couple per night, based upon who is the most fertile
at a given time. These people are anxious to get pregnant, and especially to
have not only your baby, but hopefully a baby that would possess your special
abilities. That’s the holy grail of your people right now, and people see
anyone who could produce such an heir by you as being your equivalent of a
Madonna figure.”
“But I thought you were the ‘Madonna of the Angel of
New Orleans’?” Alex countered.
“Hardly,” she laughed, “although that might change tonight.
I see myself more as the other Mary figure in this context. I’m an intimate
confidant to you. Many now like to think of Mary as Jesus’ lover, although the
church considers such ideas heresy, preferring to believe that Jesus never once
sullied himself by getting an erection or ever having had sex, but I think such
views of the world are overly simplistic. I like to think of her as the first
disciple, whom the church conveniently chose to ignore.”
Cate cleared her throat loudly, subtly telling everyone who she
thought was actually Alex’s first disciple and ‘intimate contact’, and Patricia
had to laugh. “Sorry, Cate, I know it’s a misperception, but unfortunately I’ve
become the public face of Alex’s ministry in New Orleans. Everyone has
associated me with him, and since he hasn’t been here himself, they look to me
for leadership. So far I’ve tried to keep the message simple and strictly based
upon what he’s told me, but it’s hard because these women all want more.”
“It’s true,” Peter said. “Since we don’t want to release the
information in any publicly available manner, the three of us have been
responsible for getting news of you out to everyone. There is a huge
desire for the latest information about you. People are continually stopping by
for anything new concerning you. They’re especially interested in the numbers
of people you’ve connected with. We keep telling them you haven’t been doing
that yet, and that you’ve been holed up amongst the normal type 3s until
now, but that’s just gotten them to focus on the stories of your schoolmates.”
“Yeah, they love the stories Patricia came back from
your party and Prom with,” Darice explained. “They especially like how you
seduce and win over the normal girls just as easily as you do the Seers and
Watchers. Somehow that makes them think that you have what’s needed to allow
the community to cross over into the mainstream eventually. They know they’re a
very small group at the moment, but they imagine a day when they’ll be
considered a specific segment of the general population, able to freely admit
who they are.”
“I’ve hardly seduced anyone,” Alex argued, blushing
slightly. “If anything, I keep fighting them off. But my approach seems to
attract many of them. But you’re right, the girls from my school have become
official followers, even if they don’t know the full story about me yet.”
“Ha,” Cate said with a surprising amount of mirth. “You
should see them. They’d do just about anything for him. When he finally told
them a little about himself, which they’d been gossiping and guessing about,
they were ecstatic. Now they have changed their college plans, planning to
attend SIU just so they can be close to him for the next several years.”
“They don’t know about your... uh...” Peter asked, unwilling
to mention Cate’s idea about his impending death as if saying it might make it
come true.
“No, we didn’t feel it was appropriate,” Cate told him, not
addressing what they were discussing either. “Besides, for the moment, it’s
just a crazy notion that we’ve had. We have no actual proof of it. After all,
Alex’s energy heals, so any signs of his suffering from it are disguised by it
as well. But I still remain convinced. Dr. Moore has given him several thorough
checkups, and he’s come through each with flying colors, although he admits
that Alex already looks like he’s aged several years in just the last couple of
months.”
“You didn’t really talk about that with Liv, did you?”
Shanna asked. “I’m sure she would have liked to have examined you to make up
her own mind. What do the other Seers see about your health?”
“They have trouble seeing anything about Alex clearly
because of the strength of his aura,” Cate explained. “About the only way they
can observe much in detail is through a lead door, which we’ve used several
times. Again, his entire body is infused with plenty of energy, which normally
means they are healthy, but he’s been showing additional signs of aging. He’s
been suffering from mild arthritis recently as well.”
“I thought that was the result of wear and tear on the
joints?” Darice asked, clearly confused by the association.
“It normally is,” Cate responded. “We’re not real sure what
it means or why he’s suffering from it, since it doesn’t really run in the
family, but I’m guessing it’s just a sign of the strain his entire body is
suffering from. But whenever it occurs, he just touches the joint and it’s
better, so it’s more an indicator than a problem.”
During a break between courses Alex excused himself, at
which point Darice asked him to hold on a minute. As he waited, curious about
the delay, she found what she was searching for and handed him a clear plastic
container. He looked at her curiously, clearly mystified. However Cate laughed.
“Alex, it’s for your sperm. They’re afraid that with you
sleeping with several women every day, that you won’t have enough fresh sperm
for a fresh deposit in the morning. She’s offering to have it delivered for
you.”
Alex blushed and hurried off to the restroom where, after
having relieved himself, he tried to forget about the embarrassing events of
the evening long enough to get a good hard-on. Luckily there were enough
attractive women sharing his dinner table for him to let his imagination run
wild, and it was only a little longer before he’d made his deposit. He was
washing his hands, the container on the sink, when there was a knock and the
door opened.
“Just came to see what was taking you so long,” Cate said as
she entered the men’s room. Alex quickly looked around, although he hadn’t
noticed anyone else since he’d entered. In fact, he never would have
masturbated into the cup if he’d thought there was anyone else in the bathroom.
“You always walk into men’s rooms like that?” Alex asked.
“I do when you’re in here alone for so long. I’d have sent
Gail but... she may have made you even later.”
Alex assured her he’d manage to take care of his ‘deposit’
and that they could return to the table.
“You haven’t noticed that we’re one of the only ones in the
restaurant tonight, have you?” Alex hadn’t noticed it. “That’s why I wasn’t
worried about walking into the men’s john. The least you could have done was
demonstrate how the urinal worked for me, though.” Alex tried to ignore his
sister’s teasing. He tried to quietly hand the sample to Darice when they
returned to the table, but she picked it up and examined it against the
overhead light of the restaurant.
“Gail, does that look OK to you?” she teased. “Think there
are enough little wigglers in there, or should we send him back with a little
encouragement to make the little spermatozoa a little more active.”
“You could always try it for yourself and see,” Gail teased
her back.
“Don’t tempt me,” she told her. “You don’t know how tempted
I am as it is.”
After they finished their meal Patricia turned to the
others.
“Well, it’s been fun, but I’ve got to get over to the bar to
get ready for the concert tonight,” she told them. “I’m assuming you’ll all be
there, and no, I’m not asking, I’m informing you you’ll be there. It’s
important.” When everyone nodded she continued. “Good. Now, to keep you busy
until it’s time to head over, I’ve arranged for some, uh, entertainment.
I’m sure you’ll find this very entertaining, Cate,” and with that she stood up
and left out the side door, while a woman they didn’t know led six women in
with her from the front of the restaurant.
“Uh, I have a feeling I know what this is about,” Cate
confided to her brother.
“You better believe it,” he told her. “They want us to pick
out the real Watchers from the posers. But we’ve always judged who was a
Watcher and who wasn’t by their interest in me. If everyone is focused on me,
how can we tell the difference?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Cate assured him, as she wiped her
hands on her napkin and stood up, after briefly rooting in her knapsack. She
walked to and around the girls, speaking to them from a table behind them.
“Now girls, I’m going to need each of you to fill some
information out before we start, that way Alex will know who each of you are.”
Several of the girls immediately turned around and started
grabbing the forms, but two stood rooted to the spot, continuing to stare at
Alex, seemingly unable to look away. At this point Cate wordlessly swept her
arm to indicate the two lone women in a triumphant expression.
“Damn, we misjudged one,” Peter complained.
“That’s a 30% failure rate. Hopefully we’ll do better with
the rest,” David replied, immediately filling Alex with dread, knowing he was
going to be spending quite a while evaluating potential followers. He just
hoped they’d all been given the briefing already, so he and Cate wouldn’t have
to speak to each and every one of them.
To Be Continued