Ch 2: Tele - The origins

Life has always been different for me. Since I was a baby, I could hear voices in my head...voices that never seemed to exist for others. By the time I'd grown to give meaning to words, I started realising that these voices were peoples' thoughts. I discovered I could read minds. I remember the first time when I tried to control my power. I was in the first standard and the exams were coming up...

Usually when I don't concentrate at hearing someone's thoughts, there's just a faint mumbling.. There's no use trying to decipher it, 'cause it will be a mixture of so many thoughts from all the people around me. That day I was desperate. I was not at all prepared for the upcoming exams. I knew the teacher had all the questions in her mind. I had to get it out of her somehow or I would fail. All day I concentrated on her. But the friends around were making so much noise, both in their heads and otherwise. After the final period, she walked out of the class. I followed her and had my final try at concentrating hard. I started hearing clearly-"I hope the students study enough, especially...". I didn't realise i was walking with my eyes closed. I barged right into her at that moment. She turned around, furious...

No one like their minds to be read. They somehow got some hint that I was reading their mind, like you know when someone's staring at you even if you're not looking at their direction. Maybe that's what distanced me from everyone. Mom and dad were always fighting. They decided to end the relationship when I was in 10th standard. I cried all day, I did not have a single friend to share my sorrow. Dad took me in after that and I buried my sorrow in books. It helped me in getting admission in CET.

It was the second day in college that I saw the woman of my dreams. She'd the elegance of a queen, the innocence of a child and beauty of an angel. I told myself never to read her mind. As she walked past me, I smiled and her lips parted like a blooming red rose. It was beautiful.. Next week, I asked her out. She obliged, I jumped for joy.

That evening, we were at Lords. She was sipping on the last drop of lime juice, when I unintentionally started reading her mind- "I love you and I know you love me". Happiness overflowed in me. Suddenly she stood up, shaken. I realised I'd made a mistake. Was it too late?.. I tried to calm her, but that's when I had the shock of my life. She thought, "I shouldn't make him fall in love with me. It will ruin his life. How would he ever understand that I can control emotions.." I tried to keep my cool. I knew that there was only one way to prevent her from going away. I told of my powers. She is the first and the only person who knows I can read minds. We married 4 years later. Our love bore a son. He's now studying in a school 15 minutes away on our Lamby.

My son wasn't growing up alone, like me. He had many friends, even a girlfriend-Neha. She was occupying much of his thoughts those days. I should've warned him to give more impetus to studies and try to pass in that day's 'surprise' chemistry test. But the cute boy always melted my heart and I could never hurt him. There he came. By the look of it, he didn't seem to have done very well in the exam. Ya, he was thinking just that. We got on the Lamby and were on the way back. Then I thought he'd said something to me. I turned my attention to him.
He asked, or I thought he asked “Eh…… You can read my mind??”.
Unconsciously, the words blurted out of my mouth..“How did you know???”

My son seated in the back seat suddenly shifted his position in shock. I lost control of the scooter and both of us fell down. I fell towards the left, but he fell in the opposite direction, right in front of an approaching car...

[to be continued, by someone other than Inquisitivo and me]