Out of Touch by Clara Ward Read Free Book Online Page B

But do you know what makes it work? There must be a price.”
                  He shook his head, “It’s a gift. You never use it for fun?”
                  Sarah’s eyes tightened. Part of her scorned his recklessness; part felt needlessly deprived.  “I did a few experiments at first. I’ve made some small tests around my relatives and friends to see if anyone would notice and admit they could do it too. But mostly I’ve saved it for when I was sure it was right.”
                  “Like with the car crash?”
                  Four pairs of eyes seemed to watch how she’d answer, and her own eyes studied the delicate soup bowl. In all the times Sarah had imagined telling someone about herself, she’d never envisioned herself as the guest at a family luncheon with fine china and asparagus soup. The dancing orchids weren’t far off the mark though.
                  “Well, by the time I saw the car was going to crash, it was too late to stop it. Earlier I might have been able to nudge a tire or something. But I couldn’t possibly stop a moving car. Could you?”
                  “Dunno. I turned a parked Bug once,” Howard shrugged. Sarah gaped, but he said, “Go on.”
                  “Anyway, the car landed upside down in a ditch. The driver was unconscious, suspended by his seatbelt. I knew the rescue team would have trouble getting him out gently, and there wasn’t anyone around yet. So I wrapped him in constant pressure and floated him up to the road. I kept my hands under him; so if someone happened to see, they could convince themselves it wasn’t completely impossible.”
                  “What do you mean ‘constant pressure’?” Howard asked, leaning forward.
                  Sarah glanced at Lisa, wondering if the term was specific to her pre-med background, but Lisa only looked away. Robert and Mei Mei weren’t looking at her either.
                  “Well, you wrap a wound tight to stop bleeding, or hold a child tight to keep them calm.  When I was just a kid I learned to use -- telekinesis -- to wrap myself up, like a caterpillar in a cocoon, so I could feel something pushing in all over me. I liked it, and I guess it became my model for how to move something carefully.”
                  “How old were you?” Mei Mei asked.
                  “Maybe ten.”
                  “Did you, um, had you become a woman then?”
                  Sarah felt herself blush, was embarrassed about blushing, and blushed more. “Well, a few months later, by the most obvious measure. Are they linked?”
                  “Yes, especially with girls. But I didn’t mean to interrupt. Why did you want to wrap yourself up?”
                  Mei Mei asked so innocently, like a perfectly nice person who had always lived a perfectly nice life. Sarah remembered how often she’d been terrified as a child and didn’t know how to explain.
                  “Howard, did you ever notice yourself being over-sensitive to stuff, especially touch? Like having to cut the tags out of t-shirts or being annoyed when your fingernails were rough?”
                  He shook his head but still leaned onto the table, giving her his full attention.
                  “Oh well. I thought it might be related to the other. As a kid I was oversensitive to touch. For a while I had to sleep with even my face under the covers because air currents in the room could wake me up.” No need to mention that despite years of trying to desensitize herself, she was still mostly that way. No need to mention the emotional part of her need to hide, either. No need to be telling these people anything really. What if it was all a trap, and she was showing them weaknesses to use against her? But for the first time she