I haven’t written you a letter since issue 5 because you come here to read awesome indie works, not my ramblings. Also, there’s a hope that the infrequency of my letters will imbue them with “special” gravitas and cause you to read them in full… hope springs eternal. Anyway, if this is your first time here, “Welcome! Take a look at some of the great works that are already here and know there’s more coming very soon.” If you’ve been here before, “Welcome back! There’s exciting new things on their way.” Here’s an update on what’s happening behind the scenes.

Giving a Damn and Core Values

Those of you who follow Unheard know that massive changes have taken place at a fundamental level. The magazine has gone from being a free PDF and paid Print Edition to a full-on website. There are many reasons for this change but the primary one is staying relevant to authors and readers. Staying relevant to authors and readers means being accessible where anyone can find great work, enjoy it and share it with friends. Unheard’s original publishing model wasn’t providing that service and thus put the magazine in danger of becoming irrelevant.

Print vs Digital

I love print. I was trained in print design and I am far more at home designing for it. If this was a mere vanity press, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. However, Unheard Magazine is about getting indie short stories and poetry that (I feel) deserves to be heard in front of readers eyeballs. Since I am not a giant publishing house with financial resources, the only way that’s going to happen is making your work easy to find and read. Like it or not, digital publishing is the best way I know of to do that. By becoming digital, everyone can now Google search you, read everything you’ve ever published here, bookmark your work and find your website. (Unheard isn’t about trapping your readers here.)

Technical Crap

The old address UNHEARDMAG.COM should finally be redirecting correctly now. I also might make visual changes to make the site easier to read and navigate but that is for the future. Still, if something is frustrating you, please email and let me know.

Owning Up to My Shortfalls

If you’ve read or participated in this publication more than once, you know I am running this show with very little help. (Maybe 1 or 2 extra people when they have the time.) You also know how freakin’ long it takes me to respond and update anything. That’s not very awesome of me. I am changing that. While I can’t promise to write you all the time and become your bestest friend, publishing through this website, rather than PDF issues, means submissions no longer have to be held for weeks while I design everything. Contributors will still receive a form email telling them that everything worked when they submit but acceptance or rejection emails will happen much more quickly. (Something that used to hardly happen at all.)

And Finally

Damn, this thing has gotten long. If you’ve read this far, thanks for taking the time. If there’s anything I want you to take away form this (long) letter, it’s that I give a damn about indie writers trying to get published. Unheard Magazine is a labor of love created and maintained by one guy and several wonderful volunteers who are real people. Please read the awesome stuff other real people have contributed, share their work with your friends and maybe submit some of your own.

Chapter Seven
Roy
Witness (Measure 2)

Oh God having to do this for a living. I didn’t know how much more I could take of it, in all honesty. I think it depends on what day it is and how strong the memories haunted me. Sometimes murder is the most beautiful act in the world, and sometimes you can feel pieces of you break off and stay with the dead.

There were two of them this time, not that I could tell you how many there had been the times before.

It didn’t make sense.

If I understood it right, the psychic she had employed could only drain one person’s mind of memories and thought. One person at a time, anyway. What had the other man been doing while my co-worker had drained the older man’s mind? Or maybe my co-worker had gone for the young guy first. Both were still breathing when I arrived, much to my deep regret.

I decided to give the older one a more honorable death for having lived so long by shooting him in the chest, right through the heart. It was a nice, clean death; he died before I felt the push-back of the gun against my hand.

My cell rang. I carefully tucked the gun into the hands of the younger guy, who was muttering at a wall about music dancing across the sky, and I answered the phone.

“Are they dead yet?”

She has no patience, that woman. She kept chewing on her nails over the phone too. I swear she just tilted the receiver closer to her mouth so I could hear.

“Stop calling me when I’m out,” I grumbled. “It distracts me.”

“You’ve been given five minutes to carry out this task and it’s not finished yet?”

Crunch. She really laid into one of her fingernails on that damned receiver.

“One of them’s dead. How would you like the other one killed?”

“The younger one?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

There was a pause on the phone. She stopped biting her nails.

“You’re going to burn the house down, right?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Just leave him inside,” she said. “You’re in a hurry.”

We both hung up and I set to work arranging the whole thing to look like one happy family tragedy. I carefully erased the body memories on the two before I went out to the gas station across the street to get a jug of gasoline. That way if the police showed up while I was out getting the gasoline, they would only have blank bodies to stare at and a young guy with a gun in his hand muttering about clouds.

The Corporation would probably come knocking around again because the two guys were registered with the G Faction, but they’d find empty minds anyway, and no memories left on the bodies either thanks to me. It was highly enjoyable: Frustrating the cops, a rival faction, and The Corporation all in one strike.

And, I thought as I poured the gasoline around the house, the drugs my boss had started sending me more than took care of my memories of anything ever happening. She had ordered the drugs when we all found out that The Corporation had started investigating all of the murders. Usually The Corporation just let the factions sort out these types of problems, but apparently they discovered that a member of the C Faction, some idiot with a vendetta, had originally been from a different faction, and had murdered three people.

How they find all these things out is beyond me, but I’m grateful The Corporation had started poking around because I hate, absolutely hate, taking in people’s body memories and remembering them later on. After being forced to take the memory drugs, I got my first full night sleep in years. No more having nightmare after nightmare of feeling like someone’s cutting me up or pushing me around or running into me. Those drugs were incredible. Truly, truly incredible.

The boss would send a couple of thugs to escort me back home, and then I only had to wait until I passed out on my bed before the drugs made me forget everything. So far, a week had passed with two or three murders a night, according to the papers, and I might have done all of them. I couldn’t remember.

It was perfect, and I started to maybe enjoy my job.

Until that one, single night, that is. The night the drugs stopped working. Then things got ugly.

Chapter Six
Kate
Manipulation (Measure 1)

“Her name’s Auryon. She’s my sister, and she must, must be killed.”

He twisted his fingers around one another in a strange little dance as he sat there across from my desk. I turned my attention to his eyes. The boy was experienced enough to know the power of distraction. What was truly going on through his mind?

“What do you want me to do about it?” I asked. I looked past him down the hallway filled with bodies. He had literally torn through my security guards to reach me. I hadn’t even had time to call for help. How had he done something like that in such little time? It was as if he had simply nodded at them, and they’d ripped themselves apart. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

“Madame,” he wiped his bloodied hands on his jeans over and over again, “please, could you help me find her so I can kill her?”

“You murdered my guards for the sake of asking my help?” I asked. “You dare walk into my office covered in their blood and ask me for help to murder someone else? You seem perfectly capable of killing her on your own.”

“Would you have let me see you if I hadn’t shown what power I have?” the boy said. “I have heard that you enjoy displays of power. Was that wrong?”

All said so quickly, as if he was running out of time.

“Yes, of course it was wrong,” I said. “Killing people for no other reason than to show off is disgusting. Why do you need my help when you clearly lack a conscience but not such incredible abilities?”

“Madame, you see –”

“My name is Madame Broussard.”

“Right.” He steadied his nerves but continued wiping his hands on his jeans. “Madame Broussard, I learned that Auryon now works for The Corporation. She has chosen that over the A Faction. I know that The Corporation is a valuable ally to the A Faction, but, with Auryon’s influence, it will soon turn against us.”

I looked out the window and tried to pretend as if I needed to contemplate my decision.

As soon as I had read Aihi Raker’s mind so long ago, I knew I would need him. I’d waited a long time for him to come in asking for my help. This was the opportunity to manipulate him that I’d been looking for.

“If you feel it’s important to destroy your sister, then I will help you find her.”

“I tried to make her join the A Faction,” he said, his eyes searching the desk for something to lock on to. He dared not look at me directly again. “Please believe me that I did –”

“How about this, if you can resurrect my poor guards, I will train you myself to kill your sister, whoever she may happen to be.”

It was the idiot’s fault for thinking I had enough power to even touch Auryon. I’d heard all about her and Aihi from that man – it seemed as if no one was capable of stopping them. The best I could do was manipulate Aihi for a while.

Aihi was clearly stunned at the idea. He waved his hands wildly in the air, his mouth gaping open. It was a strange image; something between a two year old trying to discover how to grasp things and a murderer being told he was a good person. What indignities his sister had put on his shoulders were beyond me, but I find it difficult to stop and question a bull on a rampage.

“Resurrecting the dead? That’s impossible. No one’s done that yet. No one’s strong enough. Psychics aren’t capable of anything involving the body or the soul.” He seemed even more shocked to have stood up to the President of the A Faction by arguing, even pointing out such a fundamental rule. I found myself impressed as well.

“You’re strong enough, Aihi,” I said. “If you can tear through my guards then you’re a shining example that rules can be broken.”

My cell phone always lit up when I knew Nilas needed to speak with me. I excused myself, shut the boy’s mind down for a moment and spoke with my crusader. I re-opened Aihi’s mind just as I tucked the phone back into my pocket.

“How can I re-awaken the dead, though?” Aihi asked.

“Discover it for yourself,” I said.

“Please!” he leapt to his feet and leaned against the desk.

What capabilities did the boy even have? I thought I knew them all when I had first met him five years before, but clearly I had missed something crucial if he could kill my guards so quickly.

With a deep sigh, as if I had to debate whether I wanted him to know at all, I said,

“Go find a woman named Salezra. If anyone can teach you to raise the dead, it’s her.” I rapped my fingers on my desk and stared out at the blood-stained walls. “And don’t ever do what you have done to earn my attention again. Understood?”

He nodded, his face pale, and quickly left my office.

Chapter Five

Nilas
Search (Measure 1)

“There’s nothing left of him! So please, please, I must ask that you leave him be. What else could you do to him? What more could you want?”

The old man looked up at me with absolute desperation. His son had lost his mind right in front of him. It was hardly my fault. The son was now slumped on the ground, and I only had to take his hand into mine.

When I touched his wrist, I could feel the younger man’s thoughts crawl up my hand and dig into my skin. The thoughts were desperate to leave their previous keeper, as though they had sensed the man’s future. I closed my eyes briefly and sifted through the grains of memories I’d newly gained.

Where had the man buried the most precious memory within these thoughts?

“Please,” the old man pleaded. “Please, leave my son alone.”

“He is very much a hollowed man now, and I will be leaving very shortly,” I said while I continued looking. “Is not that leaving him alone?”

The son’s memories that I had taken began playing before my eyes again.

I could see the old man in one of his memories, smiling with his hands around a woman’s waist. The son, a boy in the memory, looked up at his father and started laughing.

“What did you do to him?” the old man cried, back in the present.

There would be one memory more carefully buried than the others. I kept my eyes closed and concentrated on one memory moving before me, trying to escape unnoticed. I felt the old mans dry hands feebly try to push and pull at me, a sad attempt to distract me from this single memory flashing before my eyes. I laughed and shoved him aside. I heard his head crack against the dresser, and felt content enough that I was on the right track with this memory.

The memory continued playing against the back of my eyelids. The old man in the memory suddenly seemed very grave when he and his son were playing on a swing set. The old man set his son on his knee, still swinging gently back and forth on the swing, and looked over at his wife nervously. She sat on a park bench leafing through a newspaper.

“We,” the man cleared his throat. “There’s a secret I must tell you now and you must swear never to repeat it to anyone.”

I could see through the boy’s eyes that the man was deeply afraid of uttering the secret even to his son. Memories from other psychics had revealed the same to me. All afraid of the truth they hid. The boy nodded his little head earnestly and grew still.

“There’s someone you must protect.”

“What’s the secret?” the boy asked.

“The fact that this one special psychic that you must protect even exists is the secret,” his father said. “Your mission is to guard a psychic who holds an even graver secret. There should be someone who comes along and tells you this later in life, but it always has passed through our family, this secret. So I wanted to tell you, myself.”

“When do I have to protect this person…this secret?” the boy asked.

“Soon,” the father said. “Whenever the archivist wishes.” Tears welled up in the man’s eyes. He patted the boy’s head. “Yes, your power is strong enough to protect her now. Yes….you will leave here tomorrow to go see the archivist.”

“But how will I find her? What’s an archivist?” the boy said. His father remained silent. In desperation, the son cried out, “I don’t even know her name! Who am I supposed to protect?”

The father looked around nervously. He nodded at his wife, who had looked up, and she returned to her papers. Finally, certain no one else could hear, he leaned down to the boy, unaware that one day he would be whispering it into my ear. “When you arrive at the airport tomorrow, there will be many people holding signs with names on them. You will know the archivist because he will be the one holding a sign with the name ‘Salezra’ on it. That is who you must protect.”

Perfect.

I opened my eyes and tucked the memories deep into the pockets of my mind. Thousands of memories from each psychic I had touched remained there, each neatly stored for access at any time.

The son, though I had now emptied his mind, reached out for his father and felt the blood running on the ground coming from the old man. He started to cry, though he had no reason to. I had taken every single one of his memories that would suggest he should be saddened by this. A strong psychic, I thought, to maintain some shred of himself after I had taken his memories. .

My cell phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket and waited for the usual three- second pause.

“Are you finished?”

She always seemed so impatient to me.

“Yes, send him here for cleaning any time you want. These two will not be moving for a while.”

“You always have to think of the police,” she said.

“The entire Corporation could come knocking at the door and I wouldn’t feel bothered right now.”

“A good night, then,” she said, her voice lifting into careful optimism. “Good. Progress is good, isn’t it?”

“However slow,” I muttered.

“I’m sending him now,” she said. “Please feel at ease to move on to your next target.”

“Thank you,” I heard myself say, though I never knew exactly why. “Thank you,” I said again.

“Always,” she said and hung up.

She’s staring at me across the table with those guilty eyes, and I can already tell my evening is ruined; suddenly this pizza sitting between us doesn’t seem quite so appetizing anymore.  After a couple false starts she finally manages to find her voice (although shaky and nervous) and after I reassure her that she can tell me anything says, “I love you… and I don’t think there should be any secrets between us, so I have a confession to make. “

My throat tightens when she says, “I kissed another guy at a party last week, but it was nothing… I swear!”

I lean back in my chair and sigh, this simple action is probably what saves my life, because I can just barely see the Horde troopers an instant before they crash through the pizzeria’s plate glass window and open fire, laser bolts turning the quaint little establishment into a war zone, complete with mozzarella rain and cheese shaker grenades. I quickly overturn our table and drag her behind it with me and she screams as a red blast of laser fire takes out a chunk of the table’s edge next to her head. I reach behind my back and draw the laser pistol concealed underneath my jacket and – meeting her panicked and trembling gaze – say,
“Honey, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, too.”

Chapter Four

Auryon

Layer (Measure 1)

It took 12 years for the factions to notice my abilities. Not even my own parents said they remembered what my abilities were; only that I suppressed them. I wanted to be left alone. My goal in life since I was seven years old was to go unnoticed by the factions. Someone told them, though.

The E Faction came calling first. A representative knocked on our door in late March, and hardly paid attention to anyone except me when he walked into our living room. He had been a tall man with black eyes, blond hair and no facial expressions I can remember. A boring man.

“Why didn’t you tell your own faction that your daughter has such remarkable gifts?” the psychic said. He only looked at my parents long enough to glare at them. Then his gaze settled on me again.

I leaned against the door frame leading into the kitchen, trying to remain calm while I held my hands behind my back so he wouldn’t see them shaking.

How did they find out about me? I’d spent years upon years trying to hide everything about my abilities. Now suddenly this?

Aihi, my younger brother, was leaning against the counter in the kitchen, listening intently to the conversation. He also chose to keep his abilities a secret, and he must have wondered if they had found out about him as well. He looked extremely worried when his eyes glanced at mine.

“She hasn’t told us what her abilities are,” my mother said. “We’d be an embarrassment to our faction if we told them that Auryon has abilities, but that we, as her parents, didn’t know what they are.”

“You could have brought her in to us,” the representative said. “We could have tested her. We could have forced the abilities out. She’s not the first psychic who’s refused to display her abilities, Mrs. Raker.”

“The problem is that…” My father was at a loss for words under the man’s gaze.

I stepped in.

“We see no reason to allow you to take me,” I said. “The E Faction is for weak psychics who feel the need to belong somewhere. I have no use for such a pathetic faction.”

The man with bleached hair rose from his chair in our living room and strode toward me. He came within inches of my face, his breath reeking of cigarettes.

“Do you care to say that again?” he asked.

He only possessed the ability to find anything that didn’t want to be found. The perfect hunter, but a poor fighter, though with a frighteningly large body. The appearance of strength. He certainly represented the E Faction well.

“Sorry, but I see no reason to join the faction of my parents.”

“You have no choice!” he yelled. “Once a faction has chosen you, you must join them!”

“I don’t recall ever hearing of such a rule,” I said.

“Auryon…” my mother said.

“He’s got four men with him outside,” my father said. “We can’t put up much of a fight, even for you.”

“The men outside have little or no ability,” I said.

“Little or no?” The man snorted. “They’re our best warriors. The president of my faction, himself, sent them with me.”

“How is it that you learned about my abilities in the first place?” I asked. “If not even my parents know, then how is it that your faction learned I have any?”

The man hesitated.

“We have psychics of our own working with us,” he said. “They found out what you can do.”

“See, I think you’re lying,” I said. I saw my brother’s body tense out of the corner of my eye. He was afraid; the final sign that the man needed to leave. “If you knew what I could do, you would have sent your entire faction here.”

That was when the representative lost his patience. Somewhere in his stupid little mind, he reached the conclusion that violence would persuade me instead. However, lacking the strength to mentally assault me, he resorted to throwing a punch at my head. I ducked and felt his bones crack when he hit the door frame leading into the kitchen. He bellowed loudly and staggered out of the house to get his fellow thugs. The man had no sooner slammed the door when my mother ran up to me, gripping both my arms tightly. Her face was centimeters away from mine, her eyes wide.

“Please,” my mother said, “they’ll burn this house down if you don’t go with them. They’ll hurt us –”

“Mother,” I said, “I will never join any faction. Ever. It’s a pathetic and ridiculous system that exists to keep us under control.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” Aihi said. “Ridiculous?” He appeared from the kitchen, his body filling the door frame. He still seemed incredibly tense. “If you have abilities, then you belong to a faction. That’s the only way to survive. Normal people are getting better at fighting and manipulating us. If we don’t band together, we have no prayer of surviving.”

“Then why haven’t you joined a faction yet?” I said.

“Because the right one hasn’t asked me yet,” he said. “I’m waiting.”

“That’s not why you’re waiting,” I said angrily. “You’re just waiting to see which faction I choose. You want to join the same faction as me.”

Aihi shrugged and tilted his head to one side. He tried to look calmer than he felt.

“So what if I do?” he asked. “Someone has to look out for my sister. Our parents are making a mess of their roles in our lives. Someone should take over.”

My parents would have protested but they were promptly knocked unconscious when four psychics filled their minds with such empty thoughts that they forgot to breathe. The psychics then kicked the door down and stood facing us.

One of the psychics turned his gaze from me to my brother. My brother doubled over and started coughing until blood splashed out of his mouth. I watched Aihi crumple to his knees.

Enough.

I’d failed to keep what I could do a secret from the factions. I’d failed. There was no point in hiding it all any longer, then. I should’ve known I couldn’t be happy in life. I should’ve known I’d have to lead a paranoid life for no reason, terrified that the day I was discovered would happen. Now that it had come, I was shocked to find that I was angry, not scared.

They couldn’t hurt my family any longer.

To the supreme shock of the psychics in my living room, I raised myself off the ground to have a clearer look at them. I can still see the hunter from the E Faction in my dreams, looking horrified as I floated above him. As if I’d turned into a ghost.

They didn’t scream. There wasn’t time to. Their bodies simply disintegrated into the air. Blood sprayed from them but that, too, seemed to melt into the air.

Why? Why had it come to this?

Tears filled my eyes before my feet hit the ground again. I fell to my knees, my heart pounding in my ears, my chest constrained with sobs.

Why did they even find out? Why did they have to make me kill them like this? If only they hadn’t attacked my parents and my brother like that. It would’ve been all right.

Couldn’t we be left alone?

My brother rose to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth. He was breathing heavily but seemed fine otherwise. He looked at where the five men once stood, and saw me holding my head, crying.

“The E Faction obviously wasn’t worthy of you.”

My parents were furious when they had learned what I did, later on, when they had regained consciousness. I demanded that they never invite a faction to our house again. Not if they were looking to recruit me. I reminded my parents that I would have been spared from having to kill the five men if word of my abilities had never gotten out.

They had lied to me, I thought. They really did know what my abilities were. How else had the E Faction discovered me? No one else could’ve possibly known.

I warned them that every representative sent to our door would die.

Despite my warning, however, a representative from every faction came. Every month another faction would knock on our door. It became a monthly gift that my brother would laugh at me about. He was deeply amused, as though I was rejecting suitors rather than pouring blood all over my hands. It’d been nearly a year since I’d had a full night’s sleep.

The last faction was supposed to arrive on my 20th birthday.

The A Faction. The elite faction.

Ever since their conception, the A Faction dominated the other seven factions, and recruited the very best psychics the world had to offer. Even the C Faction, which had quickly gained power over the years, couldn’t compare. I was honestly surprised they hadn’t come knocking first. I wish they would have come first. Perhaps if I had just killed their representatives; the other factions might’ve become too afraid to bully me into joining them.

We heard the knock on our door just as we had settled down in the living room to open my presents. I put one of the presents down on the floor, but didn’t get up from my chair. My mother and father exchanged glances from the couch beside me.

“Please answer that,” my mother said quietly. “Please, you can’t keep someone from the A Faction waiting.”

“No.”

“I will!” My brother leapt up, picked his way through the presents all on the floor, and opened the door.

My mother leaned toward me and whispered fiercely,

“If you don’t accept the A Faction, there will be no other faction. None of them will ever come looking for you after this. You have insulted and made enemies out of every other one except for this one. This is your last chance or you’ll be an outcast.”

“Mother,” I said, “I am an outcast. I like it that way.”

Aihi answered the door and, very loudly, said,

“You must be from the A Faction.”

“Actually, I’m not,” the woman answered. She stepped inside and looked around before leaning her umbrella against the wall. The middle-aged, slightly travel-weary woman shook her hair free of excess rain and breathed in deeply the air of our home.

I couldn’t sense anything about her. For the first time in my entire life, I felt as though I were staring into an empty shell rather than a person.

The woman walked over to me and crouched beside my chair. She smiled warmly up at me and, without saying a word, mentally swept over my mind, viewing all of my thoughts at a glance, before I could stop her. I felt her searching the layers of my mind for my abilities through the millions of pieces of information and memories. She had nearly uncovered them before I physically shoved her away from me. She had brought me to my feet.

It was terrifying. My head was pounding, my blood coursing through my veins as though someone had tried to shoot me. How could I sense nothing from her, but she could so easily look into my mind? Who was she?

She rose from the ground and smoothed over her coat.

“My name is Venki. There’s no point in lying to you, Auryon. You’ll weaken my defenses sooner or later with the amount of power you have.” She started pulling at a loose thread on her coat until it snapped off. “There have been many rumors spread about you, Auryon. None of them good. You’ve made a lot of paranoid enemies. Every faction is afraid of you.”

“The A Faction isn’t,” I said. “They haven’t sent anyone here for me.”

“I’m from The Corporation.”

“The Corporation?” I said. “Which one?”

Venki laughed.

“You’ve never heard of The Corporation?”

“No,” I said. I continued wasting my energy trying to find her mind, hidden within the body standing in front of me. There was something blocking me from her mind, though. There seemed to be little, black boxes strapped to her body in various places. I started focusing on one of the boxes and found that her fingers instinctively went to her arm where she felt the box burning into her skin.

“The Corporation helps protect the E Faction from the other factions,” she said, glancing at my parents. “Six months ago, you killed five of that faction’s best warriors. They’re still vulnerable because of your actions.”

She winced when the black box melted into her skin, though she showed no other signs of the pain than that. It had almost seemed like a nod of approval that I could do that much. I focused on the black box resting against her neck next just underneath the collar of her shirt.

“Please,” my father pleaded, “please don’t kill our daughter.”

“No,” Venki said, “we won’t kill her. We’re going to have to take her in with us, though. It won’t be death, but it might be close.”

“No!” my mother said.

Just as I thought I had melted the black box on her neck, the door burst open. Six other people with the black boxes on them charged into the living room and pinned me to the ground. They flooded my mind before I could even react. How could so many of them exist? I’d gone 20 years without encountering a single person with that much power.

Venki pried the remains of the black boxes from her arm and neck, and threw them to the ground. I saw her grin at my brother through a gap between two of the henchmen’s arms. She sauntered over and peered down at me. I felt a great wave of sleep overtake me and looked away from her. I was too weak to do anything else. It was difficult enough fighting the other six people away from prying farther into my mind than I wanted them to. I could keep them from reaching the deepest layers of my thoughts, but I couldn’t defend myself against Venki’s suggestions to sleep at the same time.

My parents had already been knocked out cold and lay on the floor. They looked peaceful.

I shook my head free of Venki. My eyes locked on Aihi’s.

“Aihi!” I screamed. “Help me!”

Was he smiling?

My brother yelled my name, but suddenly fell to the ground when Venki raised her hand at him. For a split-second, I tried to sense what had happened to him. In that second, Venki flashed her eyes at me, and the waves of sleep crashed down. I slipped into such a strong sleep that I lost grasp of even my dreams. There was nothing but complete darkness.

For a long time, I desperately fought to grab hold of consciousness. It took days before I could finally force open my eyes again. I don’t know if it was because the psychics allowed me to or because I was strong enough to fight them all.

Whatever the case, I woke up in a hospital bed with thousands of lights all focused on me. My eyes burned even after I’d closed them again. I tried to lift my hands to shield myself from the light, but I couldn’t move. Sleep still paralyzed me.

“My God, such a strong psychic,” I heard someone say. A young man’s voice. “You found her in the middle of Oregon?”

“Yes, Mr. Ross,” Venki said. She sounded significantly more subdued than when I had last heard her. “The only faction that didn’t try to recruit her was the A Faction. The other factions want her dead.” 
 “I can see why,” Mr. Ross said with a soft laugh. “She nearly killed you and our six best psychics. She killed at least 30 other powerful psychics. All on her own. My God, if only she had a twin!”

“Do you want her, then?” Venki asked.

“Oh yes,” Mr. Ross said quietly. I sacrificed a fraction of my grip on consciousness in order to sense where I was. I couldn’t see through my own eyes because of the bright lights focused on my body.

In an instant, I could picture the room as though I floated above it. I could nearly picture myself, lying like a corpse on a bed in the middle of a white room, decorated with heavy machinery. My body was covered in wires.

Mr. Ross, in a t-shirt and shorts, stood just behind my head with Venki to his right. He turned to her and took her hand into his. I couldn’t hear what they said any longer, but she nodded and watched him leave the room, his hands in his pockets.

The room, it seemed, was larger than my house. It was filled with machines, all of which were somehow connected to me through either wires or waves of energy. There were a set of lights just above me. Beyond the circle of low-hanging lights, however, were thousands of people, all gazing down at me from a circular balcony. As if they were about to watch an operation. I rose myself back into my body, and tried to fight for control of it again.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Venki called to the group above us, “her name is Auryon. She is the one who kept all of you up late at night these past long months, trying to solve the complete disappearances of those psychics she killed. This is her.”

I heard one person applaud me, then another. The entire room erupted into applause and completely stunned me. I felt a shadow cross over my face and opened my eyes to see Venki staring down at me.

“The machines you’ve undoubtedly sensed around us are keeping you in check for now,” she said through the applause. “We’ll have to keep you like this for a while, I’m afraid.”

No, I’ll destroy them, I thought angrily.

I wanted to fight her. The damned woman was insulting me in front of everyone I had frustrated. Why had she captured me at all? Just to show me off like this? I would rip everything apart. I was not going to be a spectacle for these stupid people.

Sparks flew and the lights flickered. The crowd above burst into a series of gasps and muffled screams. I released as much strength as I wanted to and felt it lash out against the machines that had chained me to Venki.

Every single machine broke. Venki was suddenly unprotected against me. She knew it, though I still sensed no emotion at all from her.

The psychics sitting in the audience didn’t hesitate to come to Venki’s aid, however. They leapt to their feet and each focused on me. I felt at least 20 psychics attack me in one massive stroke that immediately forced me back down on the bed. At least 30 people with no psychic abilities rushed into the room and began trying to repair the machines. Some of them simply threw aside the obliterated machines in order to focus on the ones that could be saved.

“This is the face of the new psychics,” Venki yelled calmly to the audience, her voice carrying over the chaos around her.

The 20 psychics pinning me down on the bed remained standing, focused entirely on controlling me. It felt like a car had been pressed down on my chest.

“How many more of her are there?” someone called from the audience.

“None that I’m aware of,” Venki said, smiling. “However, she’s what every faction wants and is terrified of. Someone that is obscenely stronger than our best psychics and machines. The C Faction has especially begun recruiting psychics along these lines, though none anywhere near as strong as her. We don’t know how they’ve motivated the strong psychics to join them when everyone knows the A Faction has a history of superiority. We think foul play is involved.”

“They told me,” I said through gritted teeth. The “car” pressed against my chest felt heavier, “they told me I had no choice.”

“Which faction told you that?” Venki asked me.

“All of them.”

“Something is going on between the factions that we need to find out about,” Venki said to the crowd. “I brought her to you today to tell you that you can stop researching the disappearances of the powerful psychics. We’ve found our murderer and she’s working for us now. Mr. Ross would like all of you to now focus on the factions, themselves. We need to clamp down on all of them as soon as we can, since we appear to be losing our grip. There has to be a reason why the A Faction has stopped receiving the powerful psychics while the C Faction is rising in the ranks of power. It’s abnormal and we need to know why.”

“We repaired the four main machines, Venki,” one of the repairmen called. “You can tell the psychics to stop pinning her down. I think the machines can handle her.”

“Hmm, I see,” Venki said, “This girl just destroyed all of them herself. What can these four machines do to prevent that?”

“There are drugs arriving soon,” the repairman said. “I’ve already called Bill Reily.”

“No drugs,” she said. “I won’t allow them to use drugs on her.”

“Mr. Ross told us to call Bill,” another repairman said.

“You don’t listen well, do you?” she said.

To my surprise, the 20 psychics suddenly released me. I sprang to my feet and hit my head against one of the closer lights above. Every person turned to me. No one said a word. Venki narrowed her eyes, waiting for me to attack the repairmen.

“You think that I’ll just attack them because I’m now free?” I said as I roughly pushed the wires off of me. “Fight your own damned battles.”

“Do you want to be drugged?” Venki said. “If they drug you, you might never come back to us from where those drugs could take you.”

“And who said I wanted to be here?” I yelled. “I never asked you to drag me here like this!”

“Auryon, would you please join us?”

“Of course not,” I said.

Venki took a deep breath, straightening her shirt as she did.

“The true purpose of The Corporation is to keep every faction in check; to make sure that all of them remain on equal levels so that normal people can lead normal lives. If you were to help us, we would be extremely grateful.”

“No,” I said. “No. No.”

Her eyes were still blank. She put her hand to her chin, and then laughed.

“Ah right, ah right, I’m sorry,” she said. “Of course you’d be killing people.”

“All the more reason why I would never join!” I screamed.

She took a step back, scratching her head.

“I naturally assumed that you enjoyed brutally killing people who opposed you,” she said. “To leave no trace of those 30 or so psychics behind speaks volumes of your character.”

“That I didn’t want word of my power to spread?” I snapped. “You honestly think I like killing people? What kind of a person enjoys that? It was to keep my abilities a secret, all right?”

She narrowed her eyes at me again, but she smiled.

“Then why didn’t you kill your brother? He was the one who announced to the world a fraction of what you can do.”

Her words had struck me deeper than the 20 separate attacks had. My hands barely found the bed before I lost my footing. My head fell to the pillow but the weight of her words continued to push down on me.

My first obvious instinct was to deny this. A woman I’d just met, one who had captured me, just said my brother had started this entire mess. It wasn’t possible. Aihi was my brother; he wouldn’t put me through this willingly.

“No, you’re lying,” I said through clenched teeth and sat up. “What the hell do you know about my brother?”

“He approached a messenger of the A Faction’s president seven months ago, Auryon,” she said. “That president then came to us with this information. Aihi, your brother, said you could kill people easily, and that we would be greatly interested in such a psychic.”

She was calm; her words devoid of any emotion. As if we were talking about whether or not it was raining outside. I started to hesitate.

Aihi? He had told the A Faction about me? I wildly thought of how he had protected me from the factions, everywhere from lying to them to fighting against them alongside me. He’d always encouraged me to find a faction, but he would never have gone so far. How had he even remembered what I could do? I’d shown him a few examples when we’d been children but…how?

“You’re a liar,” I said again, “My parents –”

“Don’t remember your abilities because you never showed all of them. I know what all you can do, though. Thanks to your brother telling us, I now know a lot about you, Auryon.”

“My brother would never have done that to me. He wanted to join the same faction as me!”

“Then go join him because he chose the A Faction. A Faction psychics loyal to this Corporation have reported to me that he discouraged them from asking you to join. Auryon, I believe his intentions are to kill you when he thinks he’s powerful enough.”

“What?” I said. The lights went out again and threw everyone into confusion.

She…she…how dared she suggest that?

My own brother?

Of course not. I would go check, I would know absolutely that this woman was lying. Of course she was lying. She was the enemy, kidnapping me like this. Of course she was.

But I needed to check. There were three people in the world who had any possibility of knowing what I could do. My parents and Aihi.

Every psychic in the room attempted to subdue me, but I pushed them all aside. My fury enhanced my powers beyond my own comprehension.

Through the haze of chaos, I could only focus on one goal: Find Aihi.

The A Faction based their headquarters at a public university. I looked up at the psychics watching this, and demanded they tell me where the A Faction’s headquarters were. The mind’s of every psychic in the room unwillingly told me to go to Nocciole University in Italy.

Before the psychics could attempt another assault, I ripped through the ceiling and flew eastward, toward the other side of the country. Time folded, and I somehow arrived on the Italian coastline minutes after I’d been in America.

Aihi. I landed a few paces away from him, grabbed his shirt collar and continued running until he slammed against a wall.

He cried out in pain and shock, but wouldn’t meet my eyes.

That was when I knew.

“You told the factions about me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, inches from his ears. “You watched me kill all those people knowing that you had sent them! Am I a weapon to you, Aihi? Is that all I am to you?”

He stared at the ground. “You’re my enemy.”

“Do you want me to join the A Faction? Venki said that you told this faction not to send anyone. Why?”

“My dear sister,” he said, “you’re not hearing me. You are now, as you have always been, my enemy. You received so many great abilities.” He twisted his body out of my grip and kicked at a stone in the road. “Look, I’m sorry that I lied to you, but I don’t care anymore. It’s not my fault that you never tried to read my mind, Auryon. Much like it’s not my fault that I took advantage of your trust. Not once did you ever see how much I hate you. Not once.” At last, he looked at me, his eyes blazing like he’d come across a cockroach crawling up his leg. “Why did you never show anyone your abilities? You made me hide my own, too. I realized that even though I’m just as incredible as you are, I was afraid to disobey you. Because I know you’re the only one who could ever stop me. I want this world, Auryon. I want this world in my hands. But you, you think you’re above that desire? What the hell makes you so superior to everyone that you’d hide that power? Why can’t you act like anyone else would in your situation?”

“It was NOT because of I felt superior to everyone that I hid my power!” I screamed. “It was to protect my family!” Aihi’s eyes widened. The thought had obviously never occurred to him, but it had haunted me for years on end. “Think for one second, Aihi. If the entire world knew, as it does now, that I had such power, do you think they’d welcome me? No. I’m a threat. They’d hold my family captive to keep me in check or they’d have my family secretly killed and keep me under control by pinning the blame on their enemies. They’d manipulate me. It would take them very little time to discover what’s important to me. I can’t protect my entire family; my friends; my acquaintances, all the time. The one second that I would finally fall asleep or make some kind of mistake, they would kill everyone I ever knew. Or worse.”

“I never – ”

“No, you didn’t think about that,” I said.

“I was going to say that I never cared about you like that,” Aihi said. “Not the way that you obviously seem to care about me. I’m frankly infuriated that you never discovered my true feelings about you, Auryon. Not once did you ever notice how much I hate you. I can’t believe it took this stupid mess to make you see that. Do you have any idea how much I’ve wanted to fight with you?”

“Never, Aihi,” I said. “I’ll never fight against you.”

“For your sake, you’d better,” he said. I could see his body shaking with anger. “Because I’m going to kill you one day. The A Faction is going to help me do it. Every other faction wants you dead, anyway. I made it that way. The A Faction is going to someday unite the other seven factions all for the sake of destroying you. The entire world will crush you because I want it to. Then I’ll finally be free to use these powers.”

“You’re not my brother!” I said. “My brother wouldn’t do this!”

I could still see my brother slowly smiling, saying that he wanted to protect me. To somehow save me from the world. There had been hatred behind the smile that I only noticed when he smiled in front of me then.

He knew that I wouldn’t kill him then. I could still see my brother in him.

Venki hung up the phone in her office when she heard me crying in the chair across from her. She leaned against the desk, still with blank eyes. It was strange, because I didn’t sense any of the strange black boxes on her. Why couldn’t I read her?

“We only just found your parent’s bodies,” she said.

My heart fell to the floor; pieces of my mind seemed to shatter. What had the years of secrecy and suppression been for if this would still happen? What had been the point?

“Aihi killed them, didn’t he?” I wailed. “My own brother killed them!”

“Will you please reconsider my offer to join us? Mr. Ross really would like that.”

“I have to kill the psychics or somehow get them away from Aihi,” I said, shaking my head vigorously. “All the powerful ones. Every single one. The Corporation’s job is to watch them, protect them from one another. I don’t want that. Not if they’ll eventually help my brother.”

“Perfect. Just what I wanted to hear,” she said. “Auryon, I am a hunter. I’m the head of one of the Corporation’s more, ah, secretive departments. Our job is to hunt the most powerful psychics down or recruit them to join our company. The Corporation can’t afford to have the factions have psychics like us, Auryon. We’re too powerful for them.”

“Then, I’ll join you,” I said.

“Good,” Venki said. “I was hoping you’d say that. It will be my job to recruit the strong psychics, then, and, if they refuse, I’ll have you kill them. Can you help me with that? Does that sound ok to you?”

“This has to stop. This system of having factions needs to be destroyed.” I didn’t mention specifically the A Faction, though the memory of its location had burned itself into my memories. I knew exactly where Aihi was. I knew, but vowed to do nothing. He wanted me to kill him. I didn’t want to give him anything he wanted.

If I could kill the powerful psychics or put them with The Corporation, then there would be no one left to teach Aihi how to be stronger. I could force him to stay at the level he was at without having to ever hurt him.

“You must report all of your cases to Mr. Askai Ross, the president of The Corporation and our boss.”
 “Fine,” I said again.

“One day you might have to kill your brother, I hope you know. The A Faction is starting to throw its weight around because of the C Faction and it’s making us nervous.”

I buried my head in my hands. If everything went how I wanted, then I wouldn’t have to kill him. Even if it meant I’d have to kill everyone else; as long as I didn’t hurt anyone I cared about.

As long as Aihi was focused only on killing me, and as long as I could stop him indirectly from becoming stronger, then everyone would ultimately be safer. That alone would keep me alive, I thought. Maybe I wouldn’t have to kill anyone. Maybe they’d just join The Corporation. Could I trust that they would stay loyal to The Corporation, though? Maybe if I kept threatening them.

“Fine,” I said. “If you promise that you won’t ever help my brother become stronger.”

“That goes without saying,” she said.

Venki slid a piece of paper across the table to me, followed by a pen. I skimmed the contract and signed it.

She smiled.

“Welcome to The Corporation, Auryon.”

“AH! Bloody hell!” Screamed Reginald as he quickly pulled his foot from the boot. Something fell out and scurried to a dark corner.

“What’s happened?!” Reginald’s assistant burst into the tent brandishing an iron cooking pot.

“Are you all right sir?”

“Yes, yes, Percy. I’m fine. I merely forgot to check my boots before putting them on and I seem to have been bitten by something.” Reginald waved to the corner where the creature had retreated.”The little bugger headed over there.”

“We better find him, sir.” Percy raised his upper lip as he squinted into the dark corner. “Could be dangerous, sir.”

“Quite.” Reginald said as he tried to stand. Pain shot through the bite area causing him to hiss through gritted teeth.”You sure you’re alright, sir?” Percy asked.

“I said I’m fine. Do make yourself useful, and help me find the damned thing.” Reginald said impatiently. He limped towards his desk and grabbed a large rock he had been using as a paperweight. Percy went to another table and lit a small oil lamp.
Weapons in hand, both men carefully crept towards the dark corner. Eventually, Percy’s lamp revealed an inky black scarab beetle.

“There’s the offender!” Reginald hissed while raising his rock high overhead. Percy moved first however, and swung his pot down to the floor with a hollow bang. Unfortunately, he missed and the black insect took flight straight at him. Eyes wide, Percy ran from the counter attack hooting.

“Calm down you twit!” Reginald chided as he took the pot from the floor. “I’ll handle the little bugger.” Reginald focused on timing his swing just as Percy ran past and successfully connected with the perusing insect. The pot dinged like a bell and the scarab hit the far tent wall with a soft puff.
“That’s how you do it.” Reginald said proudly as Percy continued running around the room.

“Settle down Percy! It’s over!” Reginald yelled. Percy gave a surprised look and panted to a stop.

“Sorry sir,” He bent over leaning on his knees. “I aint never had such an insect chase me before.”

“Yes well, perhaps the next time you find yourself in such… mortal danger you’ll do better to keep your head about you?” Reginald stood over his kill. “Remember, I’m the one who was stung. Besides, it’s merely an insect. What harm could it do really?”

Little did Reginald know that, even as he spoke those words, a metamorphosis was beginning to take place within his body. Fortunately, Percy had taken Reginald’s chastisements to heart and was able to dispatch the man-sized scarab he later found occupying Reginald’s room.

Chapter Three
Roy
Witness (Measure 1)

The newspaper’s headlines weren’t even worth reading anymore.

“Canada Welcomes New Zealand’s Ambassador.”

That wasn’t news. The only real article worth reading was buried in the Metro section.

“Anonymous Man Found Strapped to Roof of Car. Head of Victim Still Missing.” Now that was a thrilling headline. That’d make anyone choke on their Frosted Flakes. Why was it buried in the Metro section? At least the headline was good. Nice, big print in bold lettering across the top of the section. It teased me into reading the rest of it. I had an enjoyable few minutes reading while sipping at a warm cup of coffee after every paragraph. The kitchen was cold but the coffee warmed me up. The drugs had already eased their way into my memories, making the article all the more interesting.

I turned the page and sighed looking at how poorly the newspaper had been tossed together. There were marks at the top of every page. As though someone’s fingers had been dipped in red ink before they let the paper run.

The clouds outside parted and an intense ray of sunlight sparkled through my windows, illuminating my red hands. I laughed at my own stupidity.

It’s not ink, you idiot.

I looked down at my coffee mug and realized that I hadn’t washed my hands since last night. I would have thought that the stuff would have dried by then at least. Why were they still wet? When had I taken the stupid memory drugs anyway?

The cell phone rang.

I shoved my newly finger-painted mug away from me and casually folded the newspaper along the creases. It looked perfect sitting on my little kitchen table. I had time to stand there and admire it while answering the phone. Wonderful how I could simply stand there and stare at something as quaint as a newspaper. Gruesome images usually swarmed my mind before I could even notice the newspaper. It honestly makes me wonder why I subscribed to the paper all these years.

The memory drugs were good. I don’t know how I’d survived so long without them.

“Did you see the newspaper? I’m reading it online now.”

She was always angry on the phone. Always nervous that I might let her down, which amused me.

“They didn’t even tell me the name of the ambassador in that front-page article,” I said. “What kind of a newspaper leaves that information out? I really wanted to know the name. What if I wanted to name my kids after him someday?”

“You know which article I’m talking about, Roy,” she snapped. “Take care of the other one before they see our headline.” She said all this, coldly, completely unappreciative of my good, little joke. “We’re not the only ones looking for the rest of the Sound, I hope you realize. The Corporation might get involved if you make things this obvious, and then they might start looking for you.”

“And, without me, you would have over 100 witnesses to what your little messenger man is doing,” I said. “So do me the one favor of being civil on the phone. All right? Even people like me know you should have better manners on the phone. Laugh at my jokes, at least.”

Without even wishing me a good morning, she hung up. I smiled at the wet cell phone, turning it in my hands while watching the red liquid catch the rays of the morning sun as it dribbled down my knuckles. Red was a really beautiful color. It was so full of life. So vibrant.

Right.

The other one.

That would explain why the blood wasn’t dry yet. It was interesting to forget things I’d done as recent as ten minutes before; especially when my boss railed on me because she thought I hadn’t even done it yet. The memory drugs were just that powerful, I thought with a shrug. My aching fingers didn’t feel like they’d done anything out of the ordinary. The drugs simply helped me draw a convenient blank on the red finger paint, sore muscles, and blocked out a few bad images that could’ve driven me into a crying fit for a few months.

Where had I even put the other one? Maybe the metro section would tell me tomorrow. I reached for the newspaper and saw my hands again. I needed to wash them before the entire room was soaked in red.

I went to the kitchen sink and turned the tap on. A mixture of hot water and a little bit of cold. That got it off faster. I’d have to wipe down the phone and coffee mug. Maybe I could throw the mug out. I never liked that mug anyway.

It was still early in the morning. Maybe 9 a.m. I still had time before cleaning up after the rampaging lunatic again. He usually called at 9:10 a.m., frantic that I wouldn’t be able to bleach whatever stain he’d created. I washed my hands three times. They started throbbing by that point, but, at least, they were clean.

The other one. Where’d I put her? Had it been a her? My mind said yes for some reason. I looked around my apartment to make sure I wasn’t stupid enough to leave her there. I checked every drawer, closet, bathtub. I even checked the cabinets in the kitchen.

No, the other one wasn’t there. Maybe my boss’ henchmen had taken care of her for me. That would explain why I had enough time to sit there reading a newspaper before I got the next official call.

I looked out the window and remembered my cup of coffee. Using my least favorite washcloth, I carefully wiped off the mug and threw the cloth into the sink. I’d have to burn the towel along with the newspaper. But, at least, I didn’t need to do that just yet. Maybe in the evening.

The last two I’d killed hadn’t said a word; that much I remembered. Why would they talk anyway? The lunatic had emptied their heads of anything, especially the ability to carry on any kind of conversation. The last two had been crying, though. I shook my head and wondered if I needed to take more of the memory drugs. Why could I remember that much? I could nearly make out their faces when I closed my eyes. I’ll have to speak to my boss about this if it gets any worse, I thought as I glanced out the window.

I stretched in front of the window and noticed the white shirt I was wearing. Damn it. Red stains spotted my new shirt like I’d been shot several times. My sister had just bought me that shirt. I’d have to tear it to shreds and tell her I’d lost it. At least I still had time to get changed and maybe I could shred the shirt at work. Could I actually shred a shirt through a paper shredder, though? That was something worth contemplating as I stared out the window.

The city was glorious in the mornings. It hid things so well for me. I smiled at the skyscrapers that held my secrets better than I did. The buildings remembered what I’d done a lot better than I could.

I laughed.

How could anyone say that the city wasn’t beautiful? I’d heard tourists say that of Chicago. It was too crowded. Too dirty. It was full of thugs just waiting to slash your throat. Maybe they’d change their minds if they saw it from my level. When the clouds parted and the sun blossomed in front of your eyes, somehow making it past the buildings just to reach you. My God, all of heaven smiles at you then.

Cry.

Soft gray light through the blinds

No, not this early

Ma ma ma ma ma

Fumbling for glasses on windowsill

Ugh, exactly what time is it?

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Creaking knees, stiff joints, eyes refusing to focus

Oh my gosh, five o’clock

DA DAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Stumbling across room,

reaching for door,

soft carpet under bare feet

Why so early, why?

Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Make it to bathroom, relief

I’m almost there, just wait, be patient, too early

Ma da ma da ba ba ba …

waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Wash hands, open bedroom door, step in

Okay, okay, I am here, calm down

Ma ma ma ma……HI!

Pick up happy child, hug deeply, smile

Mama is here, early or not, I love you.

Mama.

She really didn’t look forward to the Cub Scout dinner. The annual Blue-Gold Banquet was one of the few times that all of the dens got together. It was the night that they presented the merit badges that the boys had earned. To Judy’s nine year old son it was a big deal, and of course she would be there for him. It was important to her to provide him and his younger sister with some of the things they might miss because of her divorce. Her ex-husband had moved to Hawaii and rarely saw his children.

But spending an evening with a bunch of kids and their parents did not seem like a treat, especially since she earned her living by taking children into her home all day. The younger ones came for a full day, and the older ones came after school. She really liked kids, but kid activities were not really her idea of a night out. When she got to the grade school gym where the meeting was, her son took off right away to see his buddies. So she sat down away from the chaos to relax a little. Shortly Ron wandered up, looked down and struck up a conversation with her. “I guess your son is a cub scout, too.”

“Yes, he really enjoys it.” And so the chit-chat went on. Then it was time to eat, and they got in the buffet line. As Judy put her last spoonful of spaghetti on her paper plate, it gave way in the middle, folded over and the spaghetti went flying on Ron’s shoes.

“Oh, I am so sorry. I should have used double plates. I didn’t realize they were so flimsy.”

“That’s ok. I hope it wasn’t something I said,” he joked.

She laughed and said “No, this is how I get acquainted with people.”

He chuckled. “Whatever works for you! Well, I guess I have to go sit at the table with my son’s den. It was nice talking with you.”

They each started walking toward their sons’ den table—the same table!

“So we meet again,” Judy said.

“I guess our sons are in the same den,” Ron commented.

They sat across the table and talked, finding that they were both single parents. She had been in the community for years; he was a relative newcomer to the area. She had been divorced for a number of years, while he had his final court date coming up soon.

Later, as the meeting broke up, Ron said, “Mind if I call you and continue our conversation?”

“No, I don’t mind at all. Are you sure you will call, or are you just being nice?” Judy joked.

“No, I really will call. Scout’s honor.”

So he called that night and they talked for 3 hours. Then they had their first date, and they started going places together with the two boys and her younger daughter. One of the first places was the Van and Camper Show. They found that they both enjoyed travel and the out-of-doors. One day, after several months of dating, he showed up with a new full size van. He had traded in his two door hatchback for this much larger vehicle.

“What would a guy be doing with that big van, unless he thought his family was going to grow?” Judy thought while a smile formed on her face. “Nice van,” she commented.

“I thought it would be big enough to carry camping gear,” he replied.

“That too,” she thought with a slight smirk.

Six months later they were able to spend a weekend away together without the kids. He picked an old inn in Northern Michigan, with a beautiful view of Little Traverse Bay which connects to Lake Michigan. They went out for dinner, and Ron seemed unusually nervous. “Maybe he has something to ask me tonight, or maybe he will tell me that this relationship is not really going anywhere,” Judy thought.

After dinner they took a walk down by the bay. After some uncomfortable small talk, he finally blurted out”Will you marry me?”

“Hot doggie!” she exclaimed spontaneously.

“What?” he asked.

“I said hot doggie. That means yes. Yes, I will marry you.”

“One thing before you decide for sure,” he said slowly.

Her heart skipped! “What’s that?” she asked cautiously.

“I kind of rushed into my first marriage. I need some time before we actually get married.”

“How long?” she asked. Was this going to be something drawn out over several years? She had just gotten out of a relationship that had gone on too long before it had dwindled out. That guy was a little older, and his kids were raised. It became evident to her that he really wasn’t into raising another young family. What was going to be the barrier this time?

“I need at least six months,” he said. “I just want to give it a little more time now.

“I think I can handle that.”

Six months later they were married, with their three children as their attendants. It was 12 months to the day from the Blue-Gold Banquet where they had met! Judy was still very glad she had gone to the Cub Scout dinner. And so was Ron. Scout’s honor!