That night, while lying in his bed, Jacob was going through what Brenda had told him to do if the ‘old man’ visited him again. While thinking about it, he fell asleep. He woke up to a noise in the corner of his room, and he looked over to see what it was. Jacob had not even realised he had fallen asleep for the last half hour. All of a sudden, Jacob saw the old man in the corner of his bedroom, and he was walking towards his bed. Jacob was terrified; all of a sudden all he could concentrate on was the thumping of his heart in his chest as he hid under the blankets, as his eyes starting welling up with tears. He started to think about what Benda said again, and he started to say the Lord’s Prayer. After he was done, he stayed under the blanket for another five minutes, and then he slowly lifted the blanket of his face until his eyes could see the room. The old man wasn’t by his bed. He slowly lifted his head to look towards the door, and the old man wasn’t there. He pulled the blanket off his face and started to dry the tears from his eyes. He felt a sudden lightness in the air. He felt that the old man had actually left his room. His heart stopped racing, and he lay back down on his bed. He rolled to his side, thinking “I’m finally rid of him. The old man is gone.” He smiled as he shut his eyes and went back to sleep.
Back at William’s house, he was laying in the recreation room reading the book he received from Brenda. He started reading it to see what it was about, but he was so interested in the lessons, he just couldn’t stop reading. The first lesson taught you how to prepare your body in a relaxed state. As he was starting the lesson, which had you visualize energy flowing into your body from your toes upward, he fell asleep.
Jessica was still a little puzzled with the image she saw of her mother talking to a stranger. She was laying in bed trying to figure out who it was. She knew it was a woman by the skirt, but that was all she could remember. She also remembered her mother smiling. She was trying to make sense f the vision, right up until she fell asleep.
All the other group members were at home in their beds, that is except Matthew. He was having trouble sleeping so he grabbed a cold drink and went out into his back yard to look at the stars. It was a clear and warm summer’s night with a gentle breeze blowing. Matthew was just staring at the stars, thinking about what Brenda said about being more open minded. He was trying to figure out how to do that. He saw a shooting star go across the sky. As he watched it burn out, he said to himself, “I wish I could be more open minded.” Matthew smiled as he put his head down into his hands and whispered; “Now you’re wishing on shooting stars. What’s next, believing that you are actually psychic, that everyone is? I know Brenda said to try to keep an open mind, but how can you do that when you don’t have anything to use as a guide to tell you what’s real and what’s fantasy? I do not want to be like the other gullible kids. I want proof of things so I know that they are real. The so called vision I had at Brenda’s was simply a fantasy of me being at the river fishing, since that’s where I would have rather been.” Matthew took a sip of his drink and just sat there staring into space. After a while he started feeling a bit drowsy, so he headed back to bed.
The next morning, as William woke up, still in his recreation room, he bolted up when he realized he’d fallen asleep while trying the lesson. He thought about what Brenda had said whenever she had anyone do a relaxation exercise, how not to do it lying down because you will fall asleep. He went upstairs, and surprised his father, who was sitting at the table having some toast and coffee. Mr. Rogers looked at William as he walked up from the basement, “Good morning. Do you want some toast for breakfast?” William was sure he was late for school when he woke up, as he was fully rested and since he usually slept in was surprised to find his father still at home. “No thanks Pops, I’ll grab some cereal. What time is it?” William’s father looked at his watch and told him, “its six thirty, why are you up so early?” William was just as puzzled as his dad, “I don’t know? I just woke up so I figured I might as well get out of bed.” William’s dad smiled, “There might be hope for you yet.” He then went back to reading the newspaper. William went to the kitchen to get his cereal, an after eating it went to wash up and get ready for school.
Over at Jessica’s house, she was rolling out of bed around seven o’clock. As she opened her eyes, she reached to her night stand to grab the paper and pen she had placed there. She was hoping she had woken from a dream last night and had written down some information from it, but unfortunately, the page was blank. Disappointed, she put the pen and paper back on the night stand and got out of bed. She went to the kitchen to grab a glass of orange juice. As she was closing the fridge, her mother handed her a stack of pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on it. “What’s this for?” she asked her mother. Her mother just shot her a smile, but didn’t offer any explanation. Jessica sat down to eat her pancakes. When she was half way through, her mother placed her hand on her shoulder, saying “I’m sorry I was riding you the other morning about joining some other club or sport. I just want to make sure you are doing what you want, and not missing out on something because your friends aren’t involved in it.” Jessica looked at her mother, “Mom, you’ve met my friends. You know none of them would treat me different if I wanted to do something that didn’t involve them.” Her mother agreed with her, “I know dear, I just want to make sure you’re still aware of it.” Jessica asked her mother, “Where’s dad?” She simply replied, “He had an early flight this morning.” Jessica finished her breakfast and went to get ready for school.
Jacob woke up feeling better than he had in a long time. He wasn’t exhausted from being kept up all night by the old man, who never returned again that night. He got out of bed with a bit of a spring in his step and a smile on his face as he went to see what his mother had made for breakfast. As he entered the kitchen he shouted “Good morning mom.” She was rather surprised at his enthusiasm, “Well aren’t’ you wide awake and chipper this morning? What’s gotten into you today?” He replied in a cheerful voice, “Nothing, I just think my sleepless nights will be over from now on.” He sat at the table and stared out the window while he waited for his breakfast.
A little while later, the group started arriving at school. William, Jacob, and Jessica were all standing by the big tree as the rest of them started to arrive. Everyone had noticed how happy Jacob seemed. He had already told Jessica and William about how after he said the Lord’s Prayer, the old man disappeared, and how the air and the room felt lighter. All the other kids had arrived when Matthew asked Jacob why he was so happy on a Friday morning, Jacob just cheerfully said, “I think life is going to be better from now on.”
Matthew, still tired from the lack of sleep just looked at Jacob like he was a little crazy, “Don’t tell me you’re falling for all that junk Miss Waters fed us last night?”
Alexis: “Way to keep an open mind Matt.”
Matthew: “What am I supposed to do? Because some lady tells me I need to be more open minded I should jus believe everything I see and hear? My brain doesn’t’ work like that.”
William: “Jacob was telling us how he was visited again last night by the old man in his room, but this time he did what Brenda said and he vanished, maybe for good.”
Samantha gave Jacob a little hung: That’s wonderful Jacob. So that stuff really worked?”
Jacob, a little red faced from the attention: “Yeah. At first I was so scared that I forgot what to do, but when I remembered and tried it, everything was peaceful. It was the most amazing feeling of calmness in the room.”
Matthew wasn’t convinced: “So you did what you were told and everything is all roses now. Did you ever think the whole thing was just in your mind?”
William was not in the mood for Matthews negative comments. He walked up to Matthew and quietly told him, “Whether it’s real or not, doesn’t freak’n matter. The kid is happy and believes his life will be better. Just because you don’t believe something doesn’t give you the right to tell others they are wrong. Either support him, or leave, because I am not putting up with this crap today.”
Matthew turned to Jacob: “Sorry bud, just a bit cranky because I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept trying to figure out what I need to do to try to open my mind to all this paranormal stuff and it has kept me up most of the night.”
Matthew looked at William to make sure this was good enough, and William nodded his approval.
Alexis touch Matthews hand to get his attention. As he turned to her she handed him a deck of playing cards. “Brenda said we should try to train our minds to be aware of our gut response. Why don’t you try to see if you can get to know your gut response with these? All you need to do is take a card and ask yourself if it is read or black. Just try to see what type of a sense you get in you stomach and see if it was right or wrong. When you think you have it figured what sense is positive and where you feel the negative, or no response, try the cards again. Anything greater or less than fifty percent is considered progress.”
Matthew, a little confused: “What do you mean less than? I thought proof would be that you got at least seventy five percent correct.”
Alexis: “No, law of probability says you should get fifty percent right. So if you get any large percentage of the cards, either more or less than fifty percent, than you are starting to train your gut response.”
Sarah: “It’s like Miss Waters said, we all have these abilities, but you need to exercise them to make them strong, just like your muscles.”
Matthew cracked a bit of a smile: “Thanks Alexis, I’ll give it a try. What Sarah said does make logical sense. If you don’t regularly exercise something, it will become weak over time. And I don’t ever remember exercising my mind to believe in any psychic stuff. Even as a kid I didn’t have imaginary playmates or nothing. My toys were all educational, no fantasy.”
Jessica was a bit concerned: “So just because your parents are both academics at the university doesn’t mean they should rob you of being a child. Imagination is why so many cool things have been invented over the last fifty years. We’d still be writing on stone tablets if people didn’t imagine what changes could make something better.”
Matthew: “I know. I’ve heard that before. They wanted me to be there little whiz kid. That’s why I make sure to get at least one B on ever report cardandnot straight A's. They want me to be like them, but I want to be like myself. When I went to school for the first time and seen the other kids using their imagination playing with toys, I didn’t understand what they were doing. I grabbed a book and started reading. It took a while for me to catch on to the whole fantasy world thing. I guess that’s part of the reason why I wanted to hunt with you guys. You all have this fascination, yet fear, of the paranormal. I don’t have any fear, not because I’m brave, but because I don’t think there is anything like that out there.”
William: “Well maybe if you practice with the cards like Alexis suggested you’ll be able to tear down some of those walls in your mind. It’d be great for you to be able to sense the world with a bit less cynicism, and be able to just enjoy some of the things that just are.”
Matthew looked at William: “I hope you’re right bro. Because treating everything logical in an illogical universe just isn’t easy, and definitely isn’t any fun.”
The discussion quickly changed to what to do about what they experienced at the old mill. “What’s our next step?” asked Jessica. “Well”, said William, “we could just get everything together for tomorrow so that we have everything we need when we go with Brenda to the old mill. We will need to make sure all our batteries are charged in our cameras, and I think we should also take along some spares for the recorders.” Jessica agreed, “Sounds good. Maybe we can go over all the information we gathered from the last visit.” The group agreed. They would meet at Williams that evening.
The group headed off to class.
During lunch, while everyone else was discussing what was going on in their lives, Matthew sat off to the side going through the deck of cards. First he got forty eight right, then he got fifty two correct, now he was about to try for a third time. Alexis noticed the frustration on his face and walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, “Don’t try so hard. Just let the sensation come to you.” Matthew looked up and when he realized it was Alexis he suddenly felt a warm sensation in his gut. He smiled at her, “I guess I could use a little help.” Alexis smiled back at him as she sat down beside him and picked up the cards, “I’ll hold the card, and you look in my eyes and tell me the color.” Matthew was more than happy to stare into Alexis’s beautiful blue eyes.
William, who was reading the book he received from Brenda, looked up and tapped Jessica and pointed over to Matthew and Alexis, “I guess there might be hope for those two yet.” Jessica smiled, “I guess sometimes opposites do attract.”
Matthew was staring into Alexis eyes and just calling out red or black with each card she held up. He was so lost in the moment; he didn’t realize they had gone through the entire deck. Alexis smiled, “We’re done.” Matthew couldn’t believe they had gone through all fifty two cards already. As Alexis was counting them, Matthew was disappointed that he had only twelve cards right. Alexis corrected him, “Those are the cards you got right,” pointing to the stack of forty cards. Matthew was amazed. He was so busy concentrating on Alexis and the warm feeling in his gut that every time it would get stronger he would say the color that was in his mind. He thought that he was getting the feeling from staring at Alexis. She crabbed the cards in one hand and Matthew’s hand in the other and said “Let’s tell everyone.” Matthew was still a bit stunned by the results. He definitely didn’t want to let go of Alexis hand so he followed her to the other kids.
Sarah: “So how goes the training?”
Alexis: “Awesome. Matt got forty correct.”
Jessica was amazed: "Forty? That’s quite a lot for a coincidence.”
Matthew: “I’m just as shocked as everyone else. I don’t know what changed, but when Alexis was holding the cards while I stared into her eyes, I seemed to be able to read them better. I guess I shouldn’t try so hard to concentrate and just go with the first impression.”
William was just finishing his book: “Or maybe you are just more in tune with Alexis mind, so as she was thinking of the card, you received the impression from her? You know, like a form of Telekinesis.
Alexis face turned a bit red as she lets go of Matthew’s hand: “I hope you can’t read everything that I’m thinking? That would be just too weird to know what ever goes through your mind is picked up by someone else. What color am I thing of?”
Matthew looked at her: “Your thinking of the color red.”
Alexis was relieved: “Nope, I was thinking the color green.”
Matthew: “I played the odds. Most people think ‘red’ when asked to pick a color. And don’t worry, I have no idea what goes through your pretty little head.”
William, laughing: “I don’t think there’s a man alive who can tell what a woman is thinking.”
Jessica: “Bet you can tell what I’m thinking?”
William stops laughing: “Shut up?”
Jessica smiles: “See, you can do it if you try.”
The group heads back to class as the warning bell goes. William reminds them that he and Jessica are out earlier, so they will just meet at his place tonight.