Dream
I kept my mouth shut about Scott, and Abby never brought it up. I felt giddy that night. My brain was fried by a combination of schoolwork and this odd supernatural quirk--I've always kind of been a skeptic, but there's a part of me that wanted to believe that something strange was going on. What it was didn't matter.
What mattered was the prospect of something unexplained and odd didn't creep me out as much. Just like before, I was waiting for other evidence. I wanted more to happen. Then, serendipity. Abby burst through the door with a flyer in her hand.
"So hey, didn't you say you did yoga?" Abby asked. I shrugged and feigned ignorance.
"I said I did guided meditation with my last roommate, but I didn't get all that much out of it."
"Well, this is different. This is with a real instructor, and there's like 10-15 people in each class. Wanna come?"
"When?"
"You can start tonight, if you want. That's why I rushed back here." Abby handed me the flyer and proceeded to change into athletic clothes. "Coming or not? Think fast, cause I'm already going to be late." I shook my head. What got into this girl? Why this interest in inner peace all of the sudden? I guess I should shut up and be happy that she wants to voluntarily leave the room. "Did you hear me, Amy? I'm going right now."
I thought about my last "guided meditation," the one that made my ex-roommate check herself into rehab and left me wondering if my mind was still in tact. My rational thoughts fought for an audience in this split second that I needed to make a decision.
Go to the Yoga lesson, duplicate your session with Jenna, and prove to yourself that you're just being a little fairy princess about this situation, I thought. There's no such thing as telekinesis, and I'd be impressed if there were such a thing as inner peace. You've got nothing to lose.
"I'll go," I said, getting out of my computer chair. I threw on a pair of yoga pants (which make awesome sleeping bottoms) and a white t-shirt. Put the magic to rest...that was the plan. To give up on this giddy excitement and prove to myself--once and for all--that I was just sucked into Jenna's delusions and my own imagination.
When we got to the class, there were only 8 people other than the instructor. Plenty of room to spread out. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad...pull up a mat and pretty much go into high-energy sleep. An hour won't be hard to tolerate.
The class began as soon as we arrived, and as planned, I took a seat in the back of the group to draw the least attention possible to myself. I started breathing slowly, following along with the instructor and the rest of the class. At first I kept being distracted by my thoughts...but my mind eventually started slowing down. I was breathing deeper and deeper until I disconnected.
Like I said, high-energy sleep. Next thing I knew, I was in this dream-state. I could still hear the words of the instructor, but I heard Jenna's voice speaking them. It was like she was right in front of me, telling me to breathe slower. To breathe deeper. To relax. To let go of all the stresses and energies around me. Then she looked at me in the eyes and spoke.
"You're different, Amy, and you're trying to hide." She laughed as I started hovering off the ground. "You know what you are, and you're doing your best not to accept it." I could feel myself floating. I soaked up the sensation of weightlessness, even forgetting that I was sitting in a gym listening to a yoga instructor. I was deeper under my consciousness than I'd ever been, and I started to feel something. A tingle. It crawled over me like fingers barely touching my skin, like an electric pulse flowing up and down me. Then I heard a different voice.
"Wake up, Amy." I felt myself spiral back toward reality, and when I opened my eyes, Abby was standing over me. "Amy, come on." I blinked twice, looking up at my roommate, then to the front of the gym. The class was over.
"How long has class been over?" I asked. Abby laughed.
"Like 15 minutes or so." She sighed. "I was gonna wake you up earlier, but the instructor told me not to." I began packing my things as Abby continued. "He told me you weren't sleeping--you were just really deep under. But you were sleeping, right?" I stood up and sighed.
"Abby, how come you never asked me about what happened to my last roommate?" She looked up, avoiding my eyes.
"Well, I don't know. You just seemed like such a reserved person. I didn't want to pry--I was just happy to have a roommate that wasn't loud. Why, do you want to tell me?"
"When the time comes, I will." Abby stopped.
"Are you serious? That's kind of a creepy response, Ames. When will the time come?" I guess I already blew it. I might as well tell her first and let her think I'm crazy.
"Abby, do you believe in psychic abilities?" Abby started laughing.
"You're totally nuts, Amy. Where are all these questions coming from?"
"Just answer the question. Do-you-believe-in-psychic-abilities?" Abby shrugged and nodded.
"Yeah, I do. And I don't care if you make fun of me, and I'm sorry I dragged you to this yoga class, and--" The girl misunderstood. She really thought I was putting her on. I'm such a no-nonsense skeptic in my day to day life that people are nervous to admit their beliefs around me.
"No, Abby--that's not it at all. It has to do with my last roommate. Can you just humor me for the rest of the evening please?" I looked her right in the eye. I hoped she would realize that I was being serious.
"Well, sure Ames--but know that if you're fucking with me right now, you're betraying the kindness of a person that knows where you sleep." I laughed.
"Understood," I said. "Do me a favor and don't hang out with your boyfriend tonight." Abby started laughing.
"What?" She winced. "Amy, that's not exactly fair. "
"Trust me, if it's not worth it, I'll never ask you for another favor." She looked confused.
"If what's not worth it?" She asked.
"Worth seeing if psychic abilities are real or not." Her eyes lit up.
"Wait, was your old roommate a psychic or something?" I shook my head.
"Nope. But let's just say that you know where one sleeps." Abby started laughing.
"No way, miss logic." She pushed me. "Are you trying to tell me that you're a psychic?" I shrugged.
"No, but that's what we're going to find out. I need a witness who isn't going to freak out on me or anything like that. You game?" Abby raised an eyebrow at me.
"Silvas, I have no idea what it is you're up to, but I'm going to be watching you like a hawk, got it?" I nodded.
I spent the rest of our walk back to the dorm explaining some of the things that have happened to me over the years. She responded differently that I thought she would--asking questions about details and wondering if I could remember specific examples of strange things happening when I was little. I told her everything except the Jenna story. Of all the events that my apparently latent power caused, even my supposed self-levitation would be too much for Abby.
* * *
"So, how do you want to try this?" Abby asked, setting up the items I'd asked to borrow. We had a card table set up in the middle of our dorm room with an assortment of small objects on it: bobby pins, a couple coins, a pen, a glass, a pitcher of water, a book, and a pair of mittens.
"That's all your stuff, right?"
"Yeah, it's all mine except for the glass. That one's yours. But I don't see how you could set-up a glass. It's clear. What's the plan?" I felt silly saying it.
"Well, I'm going to start with the bobby pins. I'm going to try and move one without touching it." I sat on my bed, about four feet from the edge of the table. "Walk between me and all of the objects on the table," I said. "Be sure that I don't have any strings attached to anything." Abby laughed.
"Amy, I just brought all of this stuff out. There's no way you had time to tie anything to them."
"I just want you to be sure about this when you see it happen, okay?" Abby nodded.
"I know better than to fall for a fake," she said. "In order for me to really believe this, you're going to have to do more than slide things about a table." I nodded.
"I'm hoping it doesn't work, Abby. I really am." She shook her head.
"Are you kidding? It would be awesome to be able to make things move with your thoughts. Think of how useful that could be?"
"So useful that if anyone could really do it, we'd probably know by now," I sighed. "Watch the bobby pins." I tried to repeat the same feelings that I have whenever something around me moves. Jenna makes that easy. I just remember the day she left, and how much it made me hurt that she was willing to abandon me and call both of us crazy, and--
"Amy..." Abby said, looking at the table. I saw it too. One of the bobby pins was sitting on its end on top of the table. "...did you..." Just as I looked at Abby and smiled, the pin dropped back onto the table. Abby grabbed it immediately, scrutinizing the surface of the table. "Well, that's a start," she said. "I have a few ideas as to how you could make that happen, though. Maybe you could show me more?" Abby had the kind of smile a child would watch a magician with.
"Not freaking out yet?" I asked.
"Please, it's a just a little bobby pin," she replied. "Maybe I'd be a little freaked out if, say, you could pour a glass of water with that pitcher." I looked back at the the table to choose my next target. I decided to skip the coins and go straight for the pen. I closed my eyes and thought of my meditation today. I thought of that electrical feeling and then looked again at the pen on the table. It started rattling. "Okay...okay..." Now I was peering at the pen. I wanted it to lift off the table and do something really impressive, but all I was getting was the vibration of the object. It sat on the table, shaking back and forth.
"I can't believe this is working," I said. "It's never been this consistent or responsive." Abby was watching every move, darting her eyes between me and the pen. She really was a believer, and to her this was just a confirmation of what she already knew. I guess this was the difference between her and Jenna--and the difference between her and me, even.
"Lift it. Pick it up. Feel yourself picking it up." She stepped closer to it, moving her hands around it to check for strings. She looked back at me. "You're really doing this. You weren't kidding." She looked back at the pen shaking on the table. "Your last roommate ran away, didn't she?"
I plunged into memories of Jenna's reaction to my levitation. Her primal fear--her utter mistrust of what she was experiencing--it froze me out of this feeling...this energy. When I opened my eyes, the pen jumped off the table and clicked itself. The book opened up and flipped pages wildly until the pen landed on one of the pages and started writing. Abby took a step back.
"Hey, you okay?" Abby asked. I nodded to her, still breathing deeply. "Cool...keep going. Let it happen." I still couldn't believe her acceptance of the situation--I think the girl watched too many witch sitcoms.
"What is the pen writing?" I asked her. I had a few guesses.
"It's writing free over and over again--but you mean you aren't controlling it?" Abby walked over to the bed. "How does your body feel? Is it tiring you out?" I shook my head and smiled.
"I feel warm, but it's a comfortable warm." I didn't understand how all this was just coming to me like I had been doing it my whole life. "Are you going to be able to keep this a secret, Abby?" She sat down on the bed next to me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"I think the real question is, can you?" I laughed. now I focused on the water pitcher. It steadily rose into the air, situated itself next to the glass, and started pouring. The glass floated into the air and met the lip of the pitcher as it poured. The pitcher returned to the table and the glass floated in front of Abby. She looked over at me, clearly impressed.
"Nice," she said, grabbing the glass. I watched as she took a sip of water. One by one, she let her fingers off the glass. I kept it suspended in front of her. She looked over at me and laughed. "I knew there was something different about you, Amy. You were hiding from yourself."
"So, how could this possibly be normal to you?" I said as I reached for the glass. I took a deep breath and stood up. "I mean, you're reacting as if you've seen something like this before. To me, this shit is impossible. I still don't believe it's happening." She shrugged.
"I don't know--I never seen anything like that. I was pretty sure that people like you existed, but I never expected to be friends with one of them." She hugged me. "I just don't want you to think that your gift is anything to be ashamed of. You should be proud of it." Like I said, a true believer. For her, there was never any doubt. I was almost insensitive enough to ask her if she'd ever seen a fairies, but I held my tongue.
My perceptions had been completely tossed, and this girl sat by me, hugged me, and told me I shouldn't feel bad about all the crazy shit that was happening. At this point, I knew that I was the asshole. For all I knew, maybe fairies did exist. I just watched a glass of water pour itself with the power of my mind.
"Thanks, Abby."