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Order this writing in the collection book Layers of Creation available for only 1795 |
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This appears in a pre-2010 issue
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Fortunate Prodigy
Ken Dean
He woke up shivering, with the kind of cold pressing against his body that was numbing. Opening his eyes revealed white. Sitting up, he scanned the horizon and saw more of the same as far as his eyes could see. The wind was howling and blowing numbing snow against his face. Looking down he discovered that he was dressed in plainclothes which did nothing to keep the extreme cold out. Try as he might to force his memory into action, he couldn’t recall past events. The cold and numbness were getting urgent. He wished there was some way to get warm. Suddenly, there was a twenty meter circle of green grass surrounding him. The temperature had climbed dramatically also. The clothing he was wearing was perfectly adequate now. Holding his hand outside the circle he could still feel the wind howling and biting. Inside the circle was springtime. He sat down cross-legged on the grass. It felt warm and natural. Apparently nature was at his mercy. But why didn’t that surprise him? It seemed very natural. He wished there was something to eat; he was starving. There in front of him appeared a small buffet consisting of bread, meats, fruit, and iced tea. He consumed most of the food and iced tea until he was full. He had been famished.
Now that he was warm and fed, his mind drifted off to other questions. How had he wound up here? And why couldn’t he remember anything? He wished he knew the answers. He was suddenly standing in a dining room. There was a family eating what he presumed was dinner, judging by the smell. The man glanced up and saw him. He jumped to his feet, startled, his chair crashing to the floor.
“What are you doing here, Charlie?” The man blurted out. The woman, young boy and girl were sitting there dumbfounded as to the appearance of the strange man.
“Daniel, who is this man and how did he get into our house?” The woman asked urgently.
“His name is Charlie Keen, and he is extremely dangerous,” Daniel said nervously.
Daniel pulled an automatic from the waistband at the small of his back and pointed it at Charlie.
“You should have died somewhere else, but since you’re here, this will have to do.”
Daniel pulled the trigger. Time seemed to slow down for Charlie. He could see the bullets emerging from the pistol in slow motion. He thought to himself, ‘I am invincible’.
Time sped back up to normal, the bullets bouncing off Charlie’s head and chest. Luckily the ricochets struck the floor and the far wall, digging out splintered holes and missing the family still sitting at the dining table.
“Daniel, what are you doing? You’re scaring the hell out of me and the children,” she exclaimed.
“Angela, I’m doing whatever I can to stop this monster. You have no idea what he is capable of,” Daniel said excitedly.
The children were crying.
“What did he do?” Angela asked.
“Go ahead and tell her, Daniel,” he taunted.
His memory was beginning to return.
“And children, be quiet.”
The children stopped crying.
“Charlie was one of the voluntary test subjects we were using at the DOD research facility. We were trying different types of brain function enhancing drugs to gauge the effects.”
Charlie held his hand out and began to raise Daniel telekinetically up the far wall. Daniel began to gasp for breath.
“Finish, Daniel. We’re dying to hear all about it,” Charlie said sarcastically.
“Mommy, the man is scaring me. Make him stop!” the little girl screamed.
Charlie was getting tired of the interruptions. He yelled “Enough,” directed at the rest of the family. Angela and the children became as statues, frozen in time.
“Fill me in on the rest, Daniel, before I squash you like an insect.”
Daniel gasped out answers. “One subject died, two others went insane, and then there was you. You were showing some amazing abilities, causing items to appear or disappear at will. We realized how dangerous you had become and we had to stop you.”
“We?” Charlie screamed. “I want to see the others.”
Instantly, four other individuals appeared in the room. Two males and two females.
“Oh God,” one of the females exclaimed, “I had a feeling this would happen.”
“Shut up,” Charlie yelled, “how did you people manage to get rid of me?”
One of the females spoke up. “We slipped you a drug to keep you unconscious, along with something to affect your memory. Then we managed to get you on a flight to a part of Alaska that was uninhabited for miles. We had to pay off certain people to make it happen. You were left there to die.”
“But lucky for me I came to just in time. Not so lucky for you, though.”
“What are you going to do to us?” Daniel pleaded. He was still hanging from the wall.
“First, since they were all innocent of this, I’m going to implant a memory into your family’s minds that you’ve all been dead for at least two years. Died in a tragic laboratory accident. Next, I’m going to send you all to the surface of Mars. Take a quick look around when you get there, because you won’t last for long.
Oh, I almost forgot, thanks for the gift.” He tapped his temple.
With that, Charlie snapped his fingers and sent them on their way to oblivion. He glanced at Daniels family. They returned to normal but were oblivious to him. Charlie smiled to himself. He had a world to conquer.
