His hand jerked back, as if the watch had physically burned him. How strange, I thought, even as the metal of the watch warmed from my own body heat. It wasn’t as if there was any way for the watch to have actually burned him, unless...
Cautiously, frightened of my own guess as to why Chris had reacted as he had, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
As I watched, the faint strain on his young face vanished. I wondered if he’d done so on purpose, if he’d only just realized the expression he’d worn after the shock of picking up more than he’d thought from my watch. With a mental shake, I dismissed the idea. I was wrong about Chris; he didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary from my watch. He couldn’t have power like that, power that had to be bound for everyone’s safety.
“Nothing,” Chris said quickly. For a moment, I relaxed, feeling sure that I really had been mistaken. Then he added, “But he broke your heart when he left.”
My hand closed tightly over the watch. I’d never told anyone about how I’d ended up with the watch. There was no way for Chris to have learned about it other than to have read the part of my past that was bound up in the watch in that oh so brief moment when he’d touched it. Which meant he did have psychic abilities and that he’d have to go into bound service for everyone’s good.
I slipped the watch into her pocket. “You should go home.” I couldn’t tell him what I was about to do, since it would mean being torn away from his family. He’d survive, of that I was sure, because he had always seemed able to bounce back from the things life had thrown in his way. “It’s getting late, and your parents will worry.”
He looked at me silently. There was something uncomfortable about the look in his eyes that made me unable to look directly at him. He didn’t say anything to me before he left, hands firmly in his pockets as if to avoid contact with anything else.
The nearest Center wasn’t close enough that I could just go there to report Chris’ abilities in person. Nothing stopped me from placing a phone call. By the time I had gotten through to the Center, I had made my peace with what I was doing. Better Chris be somewhere that could keep him from turning his abilities to things that would harm others than from staying here. After all, there was nothing stopping Chris from developing more abilities that the one I had witnessed, some of which could easily turn deadly.
“Yes,” I said once I had another human voice on the other end of the line, “I’d like to report a rogue psychic.”
Watch Exposure, G
Cautiously, frightened of my own guess as to why Chris had reacted as he had, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
As I watched, the faint strain on his young face vanished. I wondered if he’d done so on purpose, if he’d only just realized the expression he’d worn after the shock of picking up more than he’d thought from my watch. With a mental shake, I dismissed the idea. I was wrong about Chris; he didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary from my watch. He couldn’t have power like that, power that had to be bound for everyone’s safety.
“Nothing,” Chris said quickly. For a moment, I relaxed, feeling sure that I really had been mistaken. Then he added, “But he broke your heart when he left.”
My hand closed tightly over the watch. I’d never told anyone about how I’d ended up with the watch. There was no way for Chris to have learned about it other than to have read the part of my past that was bound up in the watch in that oh so brief moment when he’d touched it. Which meant he did have psychic abilities and that he’d have to go into bound service for everyone’s good.
I slipped the watch into her pocket. “You should go home.” I couldn’t tell him what I was about to do, since it would mean being torn away from his family. He’d survive, of that I was sure, because he had always seemed able to bounce back from the things life had thrown in his way. “It’s getting late, and your parents will worry.”
He looked at me silently. There was something uncomfortable about the look in his eyes that made me unable to look directly at him. He didn’t say anything to me before he left, hands firmly in his pockets as if to avoid contact with anything else.
The nearest Center wasn’t close enough that I could just go there to report Chris’ abilities in person. Nothing stopped me from placing a phone call. By the time I had gotten through to the Center, I had made my peace with what I was doing. Better Chris be somewhere that could keep him from turning his abilities to things that would harm others than from staying here. After all, there was nothing stopping Chris from developing more abilities that the one I had witnessed, some of which could easily turn deadly.
“Yes,” I said once I had another human voice on the other end of the line, “I’d like to report a rogue psychic.”