Hyllis Family Story 1: Telekinetic by Laurence E Dahners Read Free Book Online Page A

hand.
    He had pulled the hand back to throw the pebble when a sudden clammy sensation came over him. He paused motionless, hand cocked back ; envisioning the use of his talent to guide the pebble after it had been thrown!
    However, b efore he could cast it, he heard Benson’s stock boy say, “What are you doing?”
    Suddenly Tarc saw the stock boy standing there beside him, a big bag of potatoes in his arms. He realized that he must look pretty odd sitting there motionless, arm cocked back to throw the pebble. “Uh, nothing.” He dropped the pebble and reached out for the bag of potatoes, helping guide it into the back of the wagon. “Thanks.”
    Before he got back on the seat of the wagon, Tarc bent and picked up one more pebble. He clucked Shogun up and started back to the tavern, waiting until he thought no one was looking. Then, as he passed the baker’s place, he focused on their hitching post and threw the small stone. Tarc had never been terribly accurate with his throws in the past. In fact, most of the pebbles he had just been tossing at the knothole at Benson’s had missed the entire post. Embarrassingly, they’d missed the post even though he was only about 10 feet away. This time Tarc was about 30 feet from the post and sitting on a moving wagon. When he threw, he knew he had missed his mark.
    But, as he had intended, he focused his ghost on the stone as it flew, trying to guide it to the post with his mysterious talent. It seemed almost as if his eye followed directly behind the stone, letting him see exactly where it was going! As he had noticed when he’d first started trying to lift pebbles, the farther the stone flew the less influence he seemed to have over it. Nonetheless, during the first 5 feet the stone traveled, he had already set its course. As it got farther from him, he was less and less able to change its direction, but its path had already been shaped to near perfection.
    The rock hit the post with a solid “thock.”
    Tarc felt goosebumps form on his skin as he thought; Could I do that with an arrow?
     
    Back at the tavern, Tarc unloaded the wagon then took Shogun and the wagon back to the stable. When he returned to the kitchen his mother gave him an apple turnover, crisp from the oven. “Thanks Tarc. But, no rest for the wicked,” she said, one of her favorite sayings. “Denny Smith is out at the table with something wrong. She didn’t say what it was. I told her that I couldn’t help her until we’d finished the dinner rush, so she’s waiting. But why don’t you go out and see if you can figure out what her problem is? It’ll be good practice for you.”
    “What if it’s a female problem?!” Tarc knew that Denny was newly married. He didn’t really understand all that entailed, but was sure Denny wouldn’t want to talk to him about it. He was a boy; three or four years younger than she was. Just the fact that Denny was pretty intimidated him.
    “Well, we won’t know until you ask her, will we? Besides, if you’re going to be a healer you’ll have to take care of women’s problems too, you know?”
    Tarc knew that look in his mother’s eyes. He let his shoulders sag and turned to go out to the big room.
    His mother called after him, “Don’t go out there looking like that . Part of caring for people is looking like you want to help and are confident you can. If you go out there looking like the only reason you’re there is because I sent you, she won’t have any faith in your treatment.”
    As if there were any chance she’d trust my treatment without thinking it came directly from you! Tarc thought to himself. Nonetheless, he straightened his shoulders, pasted a smile on his face and went out to see their patient. “Hello Ms. Smith,” he said sitting down across from Denny at the little corner table where his mother usually saw patients.
    Looking a little wan, the young woman looked up at him with a strained smile. “ Tarc Hyllis, just because I got married