Chapter 23

Posted: October 04, 2006 - 09:34:21 pm

My new employee was working out well. Not only as an employee, but also as a member of our little group. There was one strange thing, though. Tom had sent him to the alternate world for the training, as usual. But when Roger returned, he did not mesh like the others had. He acted more as an employee than as a partner with abilities. It was rather peculiar.

Roger had been thrilled to know he was not alone in the talent department. When we told him about our 'council' and what we did, he seemed grateful that there were others. After training he seemed more than willing to do whatever it was we wanted, but there was no chemistry like there had been with Tom, Brenda, Courtney, Debra, or myself. I didn't know if he was unsure of himself, or what. He was agreeable to anything we suggested, but wanted someone else to be responsible for his abilities and direction.

We discussed his attitude at my final meeting as director. It was finally decided that some people, even with training and encouragement, were very introverted and shy.

Nothing we did or said could get him to interact on an equal basis with us. He seemed in constant awe of us. The fact that I was giving him what seemed to him, to be huge pay for minimum wage work, amazed him. He was worth it to us, though. While he would never be a close friend, as the rest of us now seemed to be, he was friendly enough.

Courtney was the next person to be nominated and elected as director of our 'council'. The first thing she did when I turned over the meeting to her, on my final day as director, was to ask us to come up with a specific name for our group. She said that the 'council', while good for the moment, conjured too many images for her, from that little group that Tom had been fighting and exposing for a while. He had been pretty much destroyed them, in America.

So we all started to kick names around. I was relieved to be out of the hot seat. The renovation of my old building was coming along fine, and new machinery was coming in and being installed. Some of it I bought used from other places that had gone under. I got them for a very good price. Tom's alternate world even supplied some equipment.

I had the offer of something called an extruder, but it was big, and would need a very large space for efficient operation. Tom could not move it as an assembled unit. The weight was just too much for him. I decided to hold off on that item, because it had to have what is referred to as a 'clean room'. This building was not built well enough for that. If I had to build something from scratch, then I wanted it located elsewhere, anyway.

Roger had no problems getting a new parole officer assigned to him from a nearby large town. Our local mayor/police chief had told the office that ran parole and probation, that an officer would keep an eye on him locally. Roger was such a retiring person, that soon most everyone relaxed around him, even the police force... all three of them.

Well, I said the town had been dying. These were the core people who were staying and fighting the good fight. Only a couple thousand people were left. Even the mayor/police chief took a turn at patrol duty. The 'lock up' was in the same building as the city hall and the council chambers. It had two cells, and the city clerk doubled as the intake officer, doing paper work in case someone got thrown in jail for some reason.

In the meantime, Tom's computer had been running correlation programs. It came out with more names of possible talents. I personally think it cheated, and knew them from 'future history', but the AI denied it when I asked.

The next person brought in, was a very valuable asset, indeed. She was a PA (physician's assistant). The computer noticed that the people who were treated or seen by her, had an almost perfect record of recovery. The diagnoses were always dead on. She had something, but what?

So Tom did his thing, and raved about her. She was a black woman, of about thirty-five. She tried to keep a very low profile while using her ability. She made house calls to certain patients, and that's where she used her ability. She rarely used it in any type of hospital/clinic setting. Again, she was trying to keep a low profile.

It was up to one of us to make an appointment and see her. That job fell to me. Tom would accompany us in his 'almost there' state. He would attend my appointment, and would be there in case I wanted him.

When I showed up for my appointment, I gave a song and dance. She checked me out. When she was finished she said she could find nothing wrong with me.

"Trying to get out of work, Mr. Garner?" she asked me twenty-five minutes later.

I grinned at her. I made the shushing gesture of my vertical finger at my lips. I opened my briefcase, and took out a device Tom had given me. I checked the room for bugs or electronic monitoring. The only one that I could detect, I neutralized easily.

"Actually, I'm the boss. I don't have to get out of work. No, I am here for a totally different reason. I represent a group of people with, shall we say, special abilities? We were considering asking you to join us," I told her straight out, putting my device back in my briefcase.

"You a gov'ment man?" she asked suspiciously.

"No. I was forced to work for them at one time, but I got free of them. No, I am my own man, and a damned independent one, too. All of us are," I responded truthfully.

"Hmm. I can usually smell bullshit, but you seem honest. What's this 'special group' you talking' 'bout?" she asked me curiously.

"Perhaps a demonstrations?" I asked.

I concentrated, and lifted her blood pressure cuff off the countertop. I moved it around to her with my TK ability. She checked it thoroughly for wires or anything else, and then looked at me.

"How?" she asked, large eyed.

"I have an ability called telekinesis. Others in the group can do other things. I can also find anyone, anywhere in the world, if they are alive. I have to have at least a clear photo of them or know them personally to find them, though" I said, and waited.

She asked tons of questions. She laughed and cried. She had assumed she was alone in the world. She tried to keep a low profile. She knew the government liked to take control of people such as her, for the slightest reason, or for no reason at all. Her paranoia was more from a personal experience. Racism still reared its ugly head from time to time, and Blacks seemed the more visible targets than some others.

Still, she was friendly enough. She seemed relaxed around me. I asked her if she would like to meet another one of my group.

When she asked when, I replied, "How about now?"

I gave Tom his signal. He phased into the room, in the 'here and now', and she gasped.

More explanations were given. Ruth, that was her name, laughed and cried some more. She seemed a very straightforward, if an emotional person. She also seemed to be into hugs. Made me glad Brenda was not there, after the fiasco with my half-sister.

Tom explained a little more about our group, and then asked her if she would like to meet the rest of us, when she came off her shift.

"Sure. Give me your address. I'll drive out to wherever you are after work this evening," she responded.

"Well, I am in Oregon, and Tom is in St. Louis. Long drive from Maine, if you ask me," I told her.

"Ok. Tell me your hotel or motel. I know them all," she waved that off.

"You didn't pay attention to Tom's ability, did you? We teleported in. We are not staying at a nearby motel. We do have homes to go to, you know," I said with a grin.

"This will take some getting used to. The lord sure does work in mysterious ways," she half said to herself, and half to us.

So we made arrangements to teleport her out to us, after she got off shift. She would drive home, and then Tom would fetch her. He had 'charged' one of her pens by placing it into the 'between'. He told her to keep it on her person at all times, as that was his connection to her for teleportation. All she had to do was call him, and he would do the rest.

We teleported out of her office, back to my house. I had three calls pertaining to renovation matters, at the factory I was building. Roger called, wondering what he should do. He had already finished the make work tasks I had given him.

"Hang on, Tom. I have to take care of a couple things," I told Tom, who nodded and went to the kitchen to make coffee.

I took care of the business at hand, and Tom returned with two cups of coffee. It had taken me about ten minutes to resolve all the new problems, and to promise to look into something else.

"Tom, I'm worried about Roger. He is the most exasperating man I have ever run across. Nothing seems to anger him, yet he was willing to go to prison for his part in revealing that mortgage company's fraud. I just don't know what to do with him," I said finally.

"Have you thought about giving him more responsibility? Maybe if you gave him a specific function until the company starts running..." Tom responded musingly.

"I thought that's what I had been doing," I said.

I then told him of the make work I was giving Roger, and Tom listened.

"I think he knows it's 'make-work', and not the real thing. Try a real job. Make him the on site contact for the renovators. Take Roger aside and tell him you're going to make him responsible for a part of the reconstruction and renovation of the building.

"I know!" Tom added, his face brightening, "Put him in charge of the factory floor. He'll be responsible for every aspect, from the installation of the wiring, to the plugs and power outlets. He has to know where it all goes, anyway. Take him aside tomorrow, and tell him that by god, he will earn that princely sum you're paying him," Tom said, then drained his coffee.

"Refill?" he asked, looking at my empty cup.

I shook my head, and he wondered off to the kitchen.

'Damn, ' I thought. 'Tom has the answer there. Now why didn't I think of that?'

Putting Roger specifically in charge of where the machinery was to go, and in charge of all the hook ups (electrical and otherwise), was exactly the right thing to do. The question was, why the hell hadn't I thought of it?

"Don't beat yourself up, Scott. It takes time and experience to see these things. You're getting it," Tom said, clapping me on the shoulder as I admitted my shortcomings to him.

We killed time until we got the call from Ruth Miller, the PA in Maine. Her mother had a total of four boys and two girls, and everyone had a name straight from the bible. Her mother and her family were deep into religion, specifically: Baptist.

Shortly she was standing before us, and she gasped at her sudden appearance in my living room.

"Welcome to my home. Care for refreshments?" I asked her, smiling.

She looked around silently, taking it all in.

"It's real. It's all real, isn't it? I just didn't hallucinate this afternoon?" she asked breathlessly.

"No, Ma'am. Everything is real. Your ability is most likely real. Our abilities are real. You are standing in my brother's living room. We would like you to join our group, but you should really know who and what we are, first," Tom said seriously.

So we got her a cup of coffee, and we explained a little of our group and its history. She listened as Tom outlined how he had discovered his abilities, and had developed them as he discovered other things as well.

He explained we were looking for a name for the group, besides the temporary one we had adopted. It reminded us of 'the council' that Tom had spent a lot of time gathering information on and fighting against.

"Finally, there is an alternate world where I will send you for training. They are familiar with people with 'talents' and 'abilities' there. They can train you and help you focus. The best part, is the fact that no time will be lost, here.

"I would first move you and myself backwards a short distance in time, then we would transfer to the school and training facility located there. It is usually a six-month course, but that varies with the amount of control you already have. The decision is yours," Tom said.

"Can anyone join this council of yours? Become a director?" she asked.

"Definitely. Once you're in, you have a voice, same as everyone else, and you will have a turn as director too," Tom told her.

"Count me in, then. You sound like my kind of people," Ruth said with a smile.