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Jul. 9th, 2005 01:38 amIt goes without saying that class was over at this point. The mumbling groups of youngsters went their way while tossing the occasional glance back at the dumbfounded boy.
The girl called “Seer” got up and left along with some assistance from Mickey’s mother.
He had been so hopeful to find out about his growing role in this world, and now he was frightened by the possibility that his role might be to end it.
He stood in the middle of the gym floor as all the chairs were put away. Only then did he notice that Hank had not left. The big man walked over to him.
“That could mean a lot of things,” He said, referring to what the girl had seen, “I can promise you that.”
“Sounded pretty certain to me,” Mickey admitted.
“I told you I am called ‘Prophet,’ right?” The big man asked. Mickey nodded affirmatively and the large man continued, “It’s because I can do what they call ‘Astral Projection.’ That means I can leave my body and send it somewhere else.”
“What does that . . .” Mickey began to ask.
“Where it goes, at least so far, is 15 minutes into the future,” Hank told him. “I would like,” He went on, “To go all over the world, but so far I just go into the future and come back at
the second after I left.”
“So you can see what is going to happen?” Mickey tried to grasp the statement.
“There is the problem,” Hank smiled, “Just by my being there, even astrally, the future changes. I see one way things could be, how they may be. But I never know if my being there might
not just change it enough to make it become something different.”
“And the ‘Seer’ . . .” Mickey realized.
“Might do just the same thing,” Hank reassured him, “But there is no way to know sure until we are there. What we can do is be ready to handle the situation when it happens.”
“Hey, McCauley,” A youthful voice called from across the room, “We’re playing a pick-up game o’ hoops. Ya’ wanna play?”
Mickey looked up and saw a half dozen other boys coming into the gym. The boy looked up at his friend who smiled and his eyes told the boy to play. So Mickey ran to join the others and they chose up teams.
Hank watched the game, with nothing much to report of exceptional nature, until the last couple of minutes.
The boy who had been addressed as Billy Joe was dribbling to the end of the field, and was going to take a shot when the ball was stolen from him by another boy Mickey know only as “Frazz.”
Frazz was short but fast and it would be hard for him to run the field and take a shot, but Mickey was rooting for him. The largest boy, whose name was Bill, came right at Frazz and looked to be blocking his progress, when the most amazing thing happened.
Frazz disappeared.
The ball, however, did not.
It bounced, as if still being dribbled, around Bill and continued down to the basket.
Everyone on the court stood a bit stunned as the ball flew up and through the hoop.
Then Frazz’s voice was heard saying, “What, didn’t it count?”
“Nobody’s supposed to use powers during the game,” Billy Joe said.
“Wha. . .?” Frazz’s voice came.
“You turned invisible,” Mickey explained.
“Uh-huh,” Frazz denied, just as he started to fade back into sight.
All the players were on him in a flash.
“Yes, you did,” Billy Joe said.
“I can’t,” Frazz said, “My power is that I can become liquid. I could have been a bucket of water, but I couldn’t have turned invisible.”
“Unless someone MADE you invisible,” said Bill, turning an accusing eye to Mickey.
Now everyone looked at Mickey.
Mickey gulped guiltily, and then, unconsciously turned all the players invisible.
“Hey,” Frazz, the only one besides Mickey, still visible said, “Cut it out!”
“You can’t play,” Phil said, “Rules are ‘No Powers.’”
All the boys began to become visible again as Mickey and Hank trudged out of the gym.
“I thought it was very cool,” Hank said to his young friend, but Mickey only felt rejected.
