Another Genesis

Chapter 3: Confrontations



“Hey, Cameron! Wait up!”

Caleb jogged down the humanities hallway of the West Pacifica Academy for Gifted Students. He darted around preoccupied students as he made his way towards the gorgeous, brown-eyed girl in the olive green sweater. She was standing next to a tall boy Caleb didn’t recognize.

“Hey Caleb,” Cameron called, as she and her friend stopped walking to wait for him.

“Hey,” Caleb said when he reached them. “I was hoping I’d catch you.”

“Oh yeah?” Cameron said. “You treat all the new girls this well?”

“Nah, just the ones who are super mysteries in my life.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, funny thing. You know how we met briefly a couple of days ago?”

“Yeah,” Cameron said, as she shuffled her feet nervously.

“Well, when I got home from school, my sister said there was a message from you.”

Cameron’s eyes were wide. Her friend turned and glared at her. “You called him?” he asked her.

“I’m sorry,” Caleb said, turning to the mystery boy. “Have we met?”

“Yeah, this is--” Cameron began.

“No,” the boy interrupted. “We haven’t. I’m Gage.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Caleb said. “This is kind of a private conversation, though. Would you mind…?”

“No, Caleb. It’s ok if he’s here,” Cameron said.

“Yeah,” Gage said. “I rather think it might be better that way.”

“Ok, fine,” Caleb said. He turned back to Cameron. “Well, I wanted to ask you was if you called my house saying that I had fallen into a river and had passed out?”

Cameron looked at Gage, who shrugged his shoulders. She looked back at Caleb and said, “Would you excuse us? I need to talk to Gage for a moment.”

“What? No. Sorry, but, how hard a question is that to answer?”

“I’m sorry,” Cameron began. “I just…I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, how about the truth?” Caleb said.

“The truth?” Cameron asked.

“Yeah, the truth,” Caleb said.

“The truth?” Cameron looked to Gage.

“Sure,” Gage said, “Why the hell not. Just keep me out of it.”

“I can’t keep you out of it!” Cameron protested.

“What the hell is going on?” Caleb asked.

Everyone just stood silent, staring at one another.

“Listen. I’m really sorry. Can we—all of us, go someplace more quiet?” Cameron asked, beckoning to the end of the hallway.

“Where?” Caleb asked, looking where she was pointing.

“I know Miss Lenore has this period free and so she’ll be in the Teachers’ Lounge. We can use her classroom.”

“Fine. Whatever,” Caleb said. “As long as we get this straightened out.”

Caleb followed closely behind Cameron as she led the way to the vacant classroom, while Gage leisurely strolled behind them. Gage shut the classroom door behind them, and turned to look at Cameron.

“Well now, Cam,” Gage said. “I believe you have quite an interesting story to tell.”

“Just shut up!” Cameron cried. “I don’t see why you’re suddenly so calm! This isn’t a funny situation.”

“Please,” Caleb said. “All I want is to get to the bottom of this.” He looked Cameron in the eyes, and said, “I promise, I can handle whatever it is you have to tell me.”

“I hope so,” Cameron sighed. “First, let me ask you…do you believe in magic?”

Caleb scoffed before he realized Cameron was serious. “Seriously? Magic? Yeah, sure,” he said offhandedly, “Why not?”

“Good. That’s a start,” Cameron said. “Ok, so, let’s say that some people have certain magical abilities--”

“Would you consider that to be a good thing?” Caleb interrupted nervously.

“Oh yeah!” Cameron exclaimed. “Definitely! Would you?”

“Oh, totally. Definitely,” Caleb said, his feet shuffling on the ground.

“Ok, good,” Cameron said again.

“Oh…my God. This period only lasts for another,” Gage took a look at his watch, “thirty-two minutes. You two might want to speed this up.”

“Thanks, Gage,” Cameron said through gritted teeth. “Ok, well, basically, Caleb, brace yourself, because what I am about to tell you is going to rock your world.”

Caleb looked at Cameron expectantly, with a quick glance at Gage. Cameron continued on.

“We have special magical powers,” she said quickly, looking down at the ground.

“You have special magical powers?”

“Yeah,” Cameron said slowly. “Why do you say it like that?”

“I just…oh,” Caleb said. “So the two of you have some special powers? What kind of powers? Tell me more about them.”

Cameron looked at him, as if she were surprised that he wasn’t backing away in fear, or throwing a desk at her. “Um, well, I can read minds,” she said. “Human minds only,” she added. “And I can communicate with people with my mind.”

“Cool, you’re telepathic?” Caleb said.

“You know what that is?” Cameron asked.

“Of course. Why do you seem so surprised?”

“I don’t know,” Cameron said, glancing at Gage. “I just…I guess I didn’t expect you to be so cool about this.”

“Yeah, well, I have my share of unusual experiences,” Caleb said. “I’m actually surprised that you don’t already know about them, being telepathic and all.” He peered at Cameron. “How well developed are your powers?”

“They’re very well developed, thank you,” she said defensively. “And for your information,” she gestured to Gage, “We actually do have speculations about these ‘unusual experiences’ you’re referring to.”

“Is that so?” Caleb asked. “Well, then, please. Tell me about these ‘speculations’ of yours.”

“Well,” Cameron began. “It’s my suspicion that part of the reason why you seemed so unfazed to hear that I had powers,” she paused, and looked hard at Caleb. “Is that you possess some special powers yourself.”

Caleb didn’t even blink. “Why is this just a suspicion of yours?” he asked. “Why haven’t you been able to use your telepathy to get a definite answer?”

“I don’t know,” Cameron said, a note of aggravation in her voice. “It’s not that I haven’t been trying, but you seem to have some sort of block in your mind, and I can’t get past your surface thoughts.”

Caleb smiled. “Yeah, I have a friend who is going through that right now.”

“What?” Gage said, coming out of his quiet reverie. “You know someone else who is telepathic?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. Mind you, I’m only telling you two this because I assume that I can trust you. I mean, if you’re trusting me enough to tell me your secrets, then I assume that I am safe to do the same.”

“Of course,” Cameron said. “Why do you think I ushered us into this empty classroom? You think I want the whole student body to think Gage and I are freaks?”

“Oh, right,” Caleb said, turning to face Gage. “So what’s your power?”

“Wait a minute,” Gage said. “You have yet to answer if you’ve got a power yourself.”

“What do you think?”

“I think you do. Problem is, I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“I see,” Caleb said.

“Well, aren’t you going to tell us?” Cameron pleaded.

Caleb chuckled. “I suppose I just did.” He continued at the blank look on Cameron and Gage’s faces. “I have special vision powers. I see things in a way that others don’t.”

“What, like you can see into the future?” Gage supplied.

Caleb scoffed. “Of course not. That’s would be cool, though.” The corners of Gage’s mouth were quivering, as if he were suppressing a smile. “No, like, I can see through solid objects, and I can see to really far distances. Things like that.”

“Wow,” Cameron said breathlessly. “I never would have guessed.”

“That’s pretty awesome,” Gage admitted.

“Thanks,” Caleb said, bashfully. “Now, what’s your power, Gage?”

“I can see into the future,” Gage said.

“No, seriously,” Caleb said.

“I am serious,” Gage said. “I really can see into the future. Every once in a while, I get visions about events that have yet to pass.” He paused and looked at Cameron. “I suppose that brings us to the events of a few days ago.”

“You mean the whole, me falling into a river while simultaneously being at school? Yeah, I suppose we should start talking about that,” Caleb said. “So does this whole discrepancy have to do with you guys having special powers?”

“Yeah, actually, it does,” Cameron said. “You see, last week, Gage got a vision of you falling into the river.”

“My visions are more than just seeing something happen like on a t. v. screen,” Gage said. “I can feel things that the people in my visions feel too. I felt that you were powerful, and I knew that it was really important to save you. Like, important for my life, as well as for Cam’s,” he added.

“So, Gage told me about his vision, and we went to the river to get you. We brought you back to a cabin my parents have, and that’s when I called your parents to tell them that I had found you, and that you were all right.”

“Well then, why didn’t I remember that?” Caleb asked. “How come I remember being at school, and meeting you here?”

“You want to tell him this part,” Gage asked Cameron, “Or shall I?”

“’I’ll do it,” Cameron said. She took a deep breath. “Remember when you asked me how well developed my powers were? Well, knowing now that you have special abilities, I can only guess that’s the reason why I’ve been unable to penetrate your mind farther than just hearing your surface thoughts--.”

“Which I’m sure was enough,” Caleb interrupted, shaking his head. “Please, remind me later that you have to tell me what it was you heard me thinking. I’ll be mortified if I don’t find out.”

“Sure,” she said, smiling. “Anyway, with most people, I can hear any thought that I want, and also communicate with them, if their minds are open enough. Also,” she continued slowly, “part of my powers enable me to somewhat alter people’s memories.” She looked at Caleb, checking for his reaction.

“So, you’re saying that the day I fell into the river, you altered my memory so that I wouldn’t remember any of it, and would just think that I went to school that day instead?”

“See, he’s not just a pretty face,” Gage said, joking.

“Shut up, Gage,” Cameron said, hitting him lightly on the arm. “Yeah,” she said, looking nervously at Caleb. “That’s what happened.”

“But why?” Caleb asked. “Why didn’t you want me to remember that that had happened?”

“That’s his fault,” Cameron said bitterly, pointing to Gage.

“Hey,” Gage said, his arms up in protest. “It was for a good reason. How was I supposed to know that it was gonna backfire?”

“Well, I guess you didn’t get a premonition about all of this,” Caleb said, rolling his eyes.

“Actually, I think I did,” Gage said. “Except, when I first saw it, I thought that it was supposed to happen a lot sooner than, well, today.”

“What?” Cameron asked, turning to Gage. “What are you talking about?”

“You remember why I asked you to alter his memory in the first place? It was because I had gotten a vision that he had heard us talking about our powers, and he was asking us about them. I was scared that him knowing about us was going to be really bad.” He turned to Caleb. “We weren’t sure yet if you actually did have powers or not, as Cam couldn’t get a good read on you, and we didn’t want to take any chances. We weren’t sure yet if we could trust you. We thought that we’d just observe you for a while and see if you showed any signs of having special abilities.”

“What, you thought that I would just, use my powers all obviously and out in the open?” Caleb asked.

“Well, I dunno. Regardless, we wanted to be sure you were legit, before we told you about our powers. But little did I know, that Cam here,” he said, throwing a finger in her direction, “had been giving you hints that she was able to hear your thoughts, and so you already had suspicions. Then I got that vision of you asking us about our powers, and I freaked.”

“Oh great! So you freaked, and I had my memory wiped?” Caleb yelled.

“Hey wait,” Cameron interjected, placing a hand on Caleb’s arm. “You have to understand. He got that vision, right after we had been carelessly talking about our powers right under your open window. He had good reason, really.”

“Still though,” Caleb said. “I can’t believe you guys did that.”

“Well, don’t cool off yet, it gets worse,” Gage said.

Caleb narrowed his eyes, and he and Cameron both said, “What do you mean?”

“Well, that day I got the vision of Caleb asking about our powers. To this day I can still remember the exact words he said. It chilled me to the bone at the time. I assumed that he was going to ask us about our powers as soon as we got back into the cabin. But I realized a few minutes ago, that those words he said in my vision, he just said today.”

It took a moment for Cameron to register what Gage had just said. “You mean, that that vision was of today, and not a couple of days ago?”

“It seems that way,” Gage said, nodding his head.

“Wait a sec,” Caleb said. “Clue me in here? What did I say today that you saw in your vision?”

“I saw you saying, ‘So the two of you have some special powers… tell me more about them,’ and I, obviously wrongly assumed that it was a premonition for that very day. But you said it in here, right after Cam told you that we had powers. I’m sorry, man. It’s possible that you hadn’t even heard us talking that day, and that you didn’t need to have your memory altered at all.”

“Great,” Caleb said. “That’s fucking wonderful! So, am I like, going to get a tumor or something, from my memory being messed with?”

“No, no,” Cameron said hurriedly. “It’s nothing like that. It’s totally harmless…I mean, besides the obvious effects. But there are no additional, harmful side effects. I swear.” She had a sad frown on her face.

Caleb sighed. “I’m sorry I’m so angry,” he said. “I understand that you two were just trying to protect your identities.”

“That’s really all that it was.” Cameron said.

“Speaking of identities,” Gage said. “Who else do you know that’s telepathic?”

“Oh, well, you promise not to tell?” Caleb joked. “It’s my friend Logan. We’ve known he was telepathic since we were small kids playing on the swings together. We’d always manage to wordlessly communicate to one another to jump off at the same time, but we never knew how till we were older.”

“That’s so cool,” Cameron said. “He and I should talk sometime. It’d be great to have someone to talk to about it, who understands.”

“I’ll let him know,” Caleb said. “I’m sure he’d be down for a little bonding/study session. He’s been having a hard time getting a grasp on his powers, as he’s only recently started honing them. And you seem to be really far along…I’m sure there are things you two could learn from each other.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Cameron said.

“You know anyone else with powers?” Gage asked offhandedly.

“Actually yeah, one more person,” Caleb paused. “It suddenly feels weird to tell you guys. I dunno, like I’m talking to the government.”

“Oh please!” Cameron exclaimed.

“I assure you,” Gage said, laughing. “We do not work for the government. They are the last people we want finding out about us.”

“Honestly,” Cameron said.

“I know. I didn’t mean to imply anything negative. I’ve just never been able to talk so candidly about this topic with anyone besides Logan, and well, Jocelyn, my twin sister. She’s telekinetic.”

“Oh! I’d give anything for that power!” Cameron exclaimed.

Caleb laughed. “Yeah, she has fun with it. Just the other day she attacked me with a couple of forks. Sort of,” he added, at the sight of uncertainty on Cameron’s face. “She was joking around, but she has gotten really good at being able to move things with her mind. It’s rather remarkable.”

“That’s totally sweet,” Gage said. “I wonder how there are so many of us in this area.”

“And whether there are more of us, and we just don’t know it,” Caleb said. Cameron and Gage glanced at each other quickly, but Caleb didn’t notice.

“Well,” Cameron began, “I just wanted you to know that I knew you were a special guy when we first met. That’s why I let you remember that you had met me. I didn’t want that part of your memory to be erased. I wanted to try to start fresh with you.”

Caleb couldn’t help but smile. “Well, I am glad that I met you, to be honest.”

“I know,” Cameron said, smiling. They heard the bell signaling the end of the period ringing in the hall outside their classroom. “Remind me later to tell you what else I heard you thinking about me,” she finished with a wink.