Those Who Hear

Synopsis

Those Who Hear is a YA novel of approximately 57,000 words. It is the first book in an adventure series entitled Journeys of the Astropaths, which will chronicle the life of Cody Gallas and the astropaths. It is a multicultural piece which has, as part of its focus, a global theme. Characters will, as the series develops, come from all over the world, and the astropaths will travel the globe in their adventures.  

Our story opens when Cody is only 8-years-old; he witnesses the brutal murder of his mother by street thugs. He survives their attack, but his screams of agony have forever damaged his vocal cords, making him sound like a baritone demon, despite his infant frame. While he is unconscious, his mother says goodbye to him in a vivid dream. His father, who always said he loved his wife more than life itself, commits suicide. Cody dreams of his father's death with such clarity than when he tells the nursing staff, who already know his father has died, they become afraid of this peculiar boy. 

GRANDMA GALLAS is a remarkable inspiration for him. She devotes her life to his upbringing after his parent's death. For six years he is blessed with a wonderful home, but his grandmother's health fails her and when she passes away, just a month after his fourteenth birthday, Cody is alone in the world. It is at this point, that while he is praying to God, Michael hears his telepathic call and answers him. Michael is an Astropath, a person with an innately advanced mind capable of telepathy and astral projection. He heard Cody's prayer and is shocked to hear that Cody believes he has been chatting with the spirit of God over the years. Michael forces Cody to rethink who—God or powerful astropath—he has really been talking with.  

But Cody's biggest shock is that he, as Michael explains to him, is also an astropath. He's not just any astropath, but the youngest to ever find his inherent powers. Michael shows him the most powerful talent an astropath has, astral projection, which allows him to journey to anywhere his mind can picture clearly. Tibetan monks have long claimed that astral projection is possible, but theirs is only a journey of the spirit; astropaths travel to a location and then become physical there. Their weakness is that the body their intellect leaves behind is completely helpless and vulnerable while they are traveling.  

As the story unfolds, Cody is forced to run away from his caseworker TAWANA who intends to put him in foster care since he is technically an orphan. She is a caring social worker who is impressed with Cody and wants to help, but in the end he must betray her trust in order to escape and find the truth on his own.  

The book follows 2 camps, in brief chapters, as the plot builds towards a confrontation between two teachers who are vying to be Cody's mentor. TEARLACH is an intimidating visionary who wants to train all three of the prophesized boys who share not only a tremendous talent, but also their birthday. He hopes to groom them in his image and build an unstoppable force with the three young astropaths, and his current student TUYEN, a Vietnamese woman who was his first apprentice. He has recruited all three boys through visiting their prayers, CHENZIRA from his Islamic prayers, PONGSATORN from his Buddhist meditations, and of course Cody. Being telepathic by nature, the mental disciplines of their religious studies developed their talents quickly, and gave them a head start on their development. Even when Cody knows the truth about Tearlach's deception, it is hard for him to cut ties because he had been his personal solace for so many years.  

Michael, although far more interested in using his telepathic powers to seduce women and win at poker, feels responsible for Cody and implores his teacher DR. MARLOW PEGONIOUS to save Cody from Tearlach. While trying to find Cody, they discover that Tearlach is setting a lot more in motion than just recruitment, and that they are up against a very powerful and ambitious astropath.  

Cody doesn't know who to trust. He does his best to get by on his own with his new found talent, even using his powers to help THEODORE, a kid his age that was being bullied by jocks. The two become instant friends, especially since neither really has any other friends. Together they meet ELENA, a young Mexican girl who works as a waitress. Elena and Cody have an instant attraction and it is Elena who, near the end of the story, is Cody's first telepathic reading; however, before these teens can enjoy their new found friendship, Cody's astropath life catches up to them.

Cody is not powerful enough to stand alone, which he finds out through a near death experience. Marlow and Michael reach him just in time to save him, after he errantly thought he was strong enough to stop an armed 7-Eleven hold up. It's then that Cody understands that he needs a teacher – Marlow.

Tearlach knows how powerful Cody will become, so if he is not with him then he is against him. He finds and confronts Cody one last time. It is in this battle that we see, after Michael is defeated quickly by Tearlach's strength, that mild mannered and philosophic Marlow is capable of defending Cody.  

Cody surprises all when as Tearlach fades to return to his physical body, he seizes him and looks into his eyes so that he can go with him. Once in Tearlach's stronghold he confronts Tearlach's students and demands a truce. 

"I'm Cody, Cody Gallas. I was trying to pray."
 He could hear laughter. "Praying? Is that why you're coming through with all this white light? Man, that's annoying. Can you cut the light show, please? And that booming voice of yours - you don't have to disguise your voice for my sake. I really don't care who you are. I'm not going to tell anyone, so stop disguising it so I can listen to you more clearly."
 "Disguising? I don't understand," Cody complained. "I'm not creating the light. God is creating the light."
 "You've created it. You're the sender."
 "I don't understand. How can you speak to me? Who are you? How is this happening?"
 "Listen," he interrupted. "Allow me to call to you. I'll take us to a nice place which will be far more comfortable for us to have this chat."
 "How?"
 "Just picture where you are. Look around the room you're in right now. Picture it with your mind, and I'll find you."
 Cody didn't bring himself out of the trance but rather switched from picturing the lights to seeing the church he was in. Instantly, he was snatched up into a field of chartreuse green grass, where thick white clouds rolled beneath a seemingly endless blue sky. Before him, sitting with one leg stretched out and the other bent with his foot resting upon his thigh, was a man of about 30, handsome, model-like with long blond hair, and noble blue eyes that were welcoming and friendly. He was dressed in loose-fitting cotton clothes, the type he could wear for either working out or relaxation; even beneath these, his muscular physique was obvious. As he crossed his arms to examine Cody, his sinewy limbs and chest bulged beneath his shirt. He was like the senior who ran the top floor of the school, and Cody was the unwitting freshman who'd stumbled upon his turf.
 "I'm Michael. And you, guessing from your youthful face, don't know who you are. Or I should say, you don't know what you are."
 Confusion was overwhelming Cody, swarming him like a sea gobbling up the beach in high tide. He was panicking, feeling as though he was drowning. 
 "Don't be afraid of me, Cody. You and I are alike. But I'm a little worried about this God thing. There are rumors out and about that someone is tricking young astropaths before they've been awakened. Tricking them and possibly manipulating them, but nobody seems to know why."
 "Young astropaths?" he asked, frustrated. "What are you talking about? What is an astropath?"
 He leaned back upon his left elbow. "Man, that voice of yours is hard on my ears. Let me explain. I am an astropath or perceiver, a clairvoyant, a telepath with astral projection ability, if you will; a sojourner who is capable of moving outside of my body through the portal of my mind for a limited time. We were once called splitters in old Europe. Honestly, none of these terms truly describes the power that my mind has. I should say the power that our minds have. 
"We call ourselves astropaths or perceivers because we have an incredibly heightened aptitude for telepathy, astral projection, and extra-sensory perception. We were once known as the Savahn, or people of the mental plane. In a way, we are vehicles capable of traveling between both worlds in ways that average people can neither comprehend nor imitate."
"There are a lot of you?"  
"Not a lot," he explained, "maybe as many as 50 in the entire world. Of course G.G. has a theory that for every astropath we know, there are two we never find. And I'm sure many of them go to the grave thinking they are suffering from nothing more than extremely vivid dreams." He observed Cody's surprised expression. "Oh, I see, you've had dreams, haven't you boy?"
 "Yes."
 "That's always how it starts. Well, having them and knowing how to control them and learn from them are different things. You'll need to learn that."
 "You mean," Cody blurted, "I could have saved them?"
 Michael sat upright quickly. "Son, your dreams are different than anyone else's. I'm not sure what you mean, but if someone has died that you love or were close to, you probably saw it or experienced it with them – in a sort of fantasy."
 "In a desert. My parents and grandmother they went into the desert, and clouds took them away."
 "You've lost your parents, and your grandmother?"
 Cody nodded yes. "I've lost everyone. I'm the last of my family."
 "That's why you've come out so young. Trauma will usually trigger your abilities, like an inborn defense mechanism. Most of us don't find ourselves until we are much older, but so many tragedies probably drew out your powers," he said. "You are actually very lucky."
 "Why?"
 He reached out. "Take my hand."
 Cody hesitated, fearing that this could have been some kind of trick, but something about Michael made him feel at ease. In fact, nothing about Michael, other than his muscular build, came across as aggressive or threatening. He was easygoing and carefree. And in any case, Cody didn't have anybody else to turn to anyway.
The instant their hands joined and Michael's eyes fixed on Cody's, they were gone from the picturesque scene and instead were standing in the church where Cody was praying. "Look at yourself," he directed. "You're sleeping peacefully. At least that's what others see if they come across you. Let me teach you your first lesson. Meditate somewhere private. If somebody was to find you like this you'd be completely helpless. For all intents and purposes, you don't exist in that body right now and unless you were projecting right here, you'd never even know if someone were to attack you. It is a very dangerous and vulnerable state to be outside your body like this. Leaving your body is called transcendental movement or astraltraveling. Some humans can astral project their spirits – like Tibetan monks and such — but we are physical. It is our greatest strength, and it is our greatest weakness." 
 "Can I touch myself?"
 "Go ahead."
 Cody reached out and gently nudged his sleeping body's head, moving it from one side of his shoulder to the other. It was like touching a mannequin. "So then I could also touch someone else while I'm in this state?"
 "Yes. You're learning quickly."
 "Well, not really. It's still very confusing."
 "Perceivers can separate their subconscious mind and entity from their conscious mind and body. We can fuse them just like regular folks, or we can separate if we chose."
 "Subconscious? What is a subconscious?" Cody asked.
 Michael chuckled at his naïveté. "You are young. How old are you, kid?"
 "I just turned 14 a few weeks ago."
 "With a voice as loud as a bullhorn you're only 14. I didn't find myself until I was 24 years old. It has been almost six years ago now. My sister died in a car accident, and well, I dreamed I was in a forest with her and we were hiking, and then the snow came. It snowed so hard that she disappeared in whiteness. You have a lot of potential starting so young. You will be much stronger than I am."
 "I'm sorry about your sister. What am I starting? Can we go somewhere else? I mean can we go anywhere we want to? Take me somewhere else," Cody pleaded excitedly.
 "Kid, I am a busy guy. I've got a social life. I don't have time to play tour guide for you." He could see and sense Cody's disappointment. "Okay, I guess this is a pretty special day for you. Where would you like to go?"
 Many places flashed through Cody's mind, locations he'd never seen but had heard about in the books his grandmother had read to him. Still, there was only one place on Earth that he truly longed for. "Take me to my parents' grave in Texas."
 Michael's smile faded. "To their grave?" He hesitated but then complied. "Picture it for me. I can't go where I can't see, and I don't know the scene. Then look into my eyes so I can see what you see."
 The instant Cody pictured the cemetery where his parents lay, they were there. They stood before the double headstone that Grandma Gallas had picked out. It was in a new area of the cemetery where there were still tall weeds and very few new residents. In every other direction there were tombstones of every shape and size. This was one of El Paso's oldest graveyards. 
 Cody felt a strange mixture of both joy and remorse. He hadn't been able to visit them in a long time, not since the previous Christmas when Grandma Gallas had taken him. Yet, visiting always brought back the horrible images of their deaths. 
 "Would you like me to wait over there?" Michael asked.
 "It's okay." Cody knelt down tugging a couple of weeds out of the ground near the stone. Then he placed his hand on the cold granite, tracing their names with his index finger. Each letter he caressed brought back another memory of them. "I could visit them anytime," he whispered more to himself than to Michael. "If you'll teach me how to do this, then I could visit anytime."
 "Yes. Well, when it comes to teaching, I am probably not the guy for that. I could show you enough to get you started, but there is another guy whom you'd learn a lot more from. He has more patience or maybe just fewer ladies in his life. Actually, he's practically a monk. He's the one who taught me everything I know. Marlow Pegonious is his name, actually Dr. Marlow Pegonious, but he likes to down play the PhD. Not a name you will forget nor a person you could ever forget."
 "How do I find him?"
 "Easily. He has a very powerful mind. If you search for him, he'll pick you up. We need to speak with him about this God thing anyway, so I'll introduce the two of you."
 "What do you mean? Why are you so angry about my prayers?"
 Michael chuckled, "Is that what you sense? You're not reading me very well at all. I'm not angry. I'm curious and perhaps a bit concerned." He didn't speak, but seemed to look inside Cody for a moment. "Oh, you are very confused, aren't you? I sense fear, joy, curiosity, all wrapped so tightly you may burst. And, a loyalty to God that has you wondering if I'm an evil spirit of some kind sent here to question the will of God."
 "You can read my feelings?"
 "Your feelings I can perceive loud and clear, that's easy. But your thoughts are a bit more difficult," he said, this time without moving his lips. "You see," he continued without any lip motion. "Our conversations are taking place through telepathy. My lip movement is to make you feel comfortable - there's no need for it. All that we hear from each other is a mental signal anyway. We could be sending it in feelings or emotions --more confusion, huh? You know I'm really not the teacher type."
 "What is the teacher type?"
 "I don't know, poorly dressed civil servants who got A's all through school and got picked on, so they decided to go back to give F's to the younger generation who are picking on kids just like they were. I don't know, patient, and someone who likes kids and, son, I'm the bachelor type and that doesn't exactly mix with kids." 
 Just then Cody felt his knees buckle as his strength began to wane. He was feeling woozy and unsteady. He composed himself with a deep breath. "But, why is my voice the same?"
 "Change it."
 He kept his mouth shut and began to form words in his mind. He could hear himself speaking aloud with mere thoughts. At first the tone was still deep – his own, but slowly he heightened it until it was as crystal clear and as normal as Michael's. "My voice is normal. I can control it. It sounds so beautiful. It sounds so natural, like a weather man on TV." 
But just then, things began to spin wildly as if the rotation of the Earth was accelerating beneath his feet. His vision blurred and he felt as if he would pass out.
 "And I'd prefer that when you and I converse you remember to control it. No offence meant, but it sounds very creepy hearing that voice coming from your little body. Like some kind of demon or something," Michael said. Seeing Cody's weakened state, Michael reached out to him and grabbed his arm. "Are you okay? You're fading a little."
 "I feel like I'm going to vomit or pass out or something."
 "We've overdone it. This is a lot of traveling on your first journey. We had better get back."
 "I think I'm okay, just drained. So do you know everything I'm thinking?" Cody asked.
 Michael smiled a knowing smile. "Right now, I know most. You'll learn to censor thoughts the same way you've always censored words. Even when you speak there are often many words flashing through your mind at the time, alternative answers or statements, but you chose to say the words you chose and that's what people hear. Censoring thought communication is the same thing. We receive your strongest idea and the rest fades. Now, when you're reading non-perceivers we know everything and usually all at once. They don't hold anything back, because they have no idea anyone is inside their head. The hard part for us about dealing with them is filtering out the garble of their undisciplined and cluttered minds. Their thoughts are scattered, often bouncing endlessly from topic to topic with little rhyme or reason. It can be downright depressing to realize just how clueless most of them are."
 "Clueless? You mean stupid?"
 "Well, what we read is sort of a pattern. Most non-perceivers are basically fixated on a few certain fears, such as death, loneliness, or appearance. No matter what they are experiencing they tend to interpret it all through a basic filter, and it's the filter that we really pick up on strongly. They think about a mistake in their life or a lost loved one or a current love and no matter what happens around them, they float back to trying to figure out that old issue."
 Cody was feeling as if his head was going to explode. Michael's words were even bigger than his Grandma's had been and he seemed to be talking to him as if he was a grown adult, and despite enjoying the feeling of being treated like an adult, he could not comprehend everything.
 "I'm sorry, Michael, but I don't understand."
 "Okay, take a girl whose father died when she was young. Most of her life she feels that loss, and often her thoughts will turn to it. Now someone says to her, did you hear that Jack's father was fired from his work. Instead of thinking of Jack, she will think about what happened to her own father because he is always there within her mind's eye."
 "Why couldn't I read people's thoughts before? You keep saying I've always been a perceiver."
 "You weren't listening. You lived with non-perceivers and so why would you think of yourself as different? But, my boy, you've always been perceiving - you just didn't turn on the channel."
 Cody shook his head. "No, this is getting crazy."
 "Didn't you notice," he began, "how you formed answers to many people's questions before they'd even asked them? How you would always know, intuitively, the end of someone's story long before they'd finished telling it to you? The punch-line of jokes came to you before the joke finished? You were always right on what was going to be on the test, weren't you?" 
 It was true, Cody had always been able to complete other people's sentences. However, his grandmother had scolded him about this, saying that it was rude to finish someone's thought for them because they just might change their minds. When he thought back though, they never did change it.
 "Let's go back," Michael suggested. 
 Cody nodded and they were back in the church.
 "Let's go somewhere else," Cody insisted.
 "No. You're not safe here. I want you to come to my home. We can travel together then, behind the safety of locked doors. Never forget that you're helpless in this state. I live at 9th and Logan. It is a pale blue Victorian home. You can't miss it. Just head back away from downtown until you get to Logan, and then turn right. I'll be waiting for you. Hurry, though - I've got a sense that something strange is going on. I think you may be in danger."
 Cody broke from his meditation, jolting to wide-eyed consciousness. He'd never communicated with God for this length of time, and he was mentally and physically exhausted. He needed several deep breaths just to gather the strength to get up. It was a similar feeling to when he'd just dragged himself out of a pool after swimming in the hot summer sun all afternoon. His body was so weary that his head felt like a boulder teetering on a cliff-edge. A short walk or not, he was not confident that his legs could get him there. 
 The cool air rushed within the church as he pushed open the heavy front doors. The breeze snapped him to a more alert state of mind. It was an icy-cold walk, but his excitement was urging him on. He barely felt the temperature at all. Cody knew, deep within himself, that Michael was going to change his life. Perhaps he would be the big brother he had never had or the mentor for this marvelous magic that he was discovering within himself. 

Cody was hungry. He really hadn't taken the time to get himself a good solid meal. The bags of chips he'd eaten were not holding him over – he needed something filling. Grandma Gallas had seldom taken him to fast-food restaurants, claiming they were high on calories and price but low on nutrition and flavor, so seeing a Wendy's excited him.
The parking lot of the restaurant was nearly deserted. It was the day after Christmas and most people were still getting by on leftovers from their holiday meal. There was just one car in the lot, a sleek four-door Mercedes that had been polished and waxed so meticulously that the falling snow was sliding right off the glossy black paint. 
"Hello," a voice called. "Hello, is there someone there?"
Cody froze in his tracks. There was no one around. He peered into the car, but there was no one in either the front or back seat.
"Hello?" he heard again.
"Are you in my head?" Cody asked out loud, "Calling out to me inside my head?"
"No. Are you crazy or something?" the voice asked.
Cody spun around looking in all directions, but there was no one in sight.
"I'm in the trunk of this car," the voice continued. "Seth Nelson threw me in here. He said it was my Christmas joyride. I guess he has so much Christmas cheer he doesn't know what to do with it all so he shared a little bit with me." 
Cody patted the trunk with his hand.
"Yes, in here."
"Well, what do you want me to do?" Cody asked.
"Wow, are you sick or something? Your voice sounds like my grandfather's. He has smoked a cigar every day since he was 12. Do you smoke cigars?"
"No."
"Well, you're an adult. Could you tell the high school boy in Wendy's, he's wearing a purple letter jacket and is with another boy, that they had better let me out or you'll call the police or something? It's cold in here and I'm laying on something metal."
Cody was not an adult. Furthermore the idea of confronting a high school bully by demanding he let someone out of his trunk sounded like a good way for him to end up joining the kid who was already in there. Bullies spend their lives searching for character flaws that they can exploit, and Cody's voice was an easy target. Bullies also prefer not to be told what they should or shouldn't do, and especially not from someone younger or smaller than them.
"I'll help you," Cody said, "Just hang on."
"Kind of tough to breathe, too. I hope I'm not suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning or something."
"I'll be right back." Cody knelt down beside the car hiding within the shadow of its frame. He knew this was reckless. To depart his body and leave it in a parking lot was going against Michael's primary advice of always being in a secure place when he traveled. However, it was all he could think of. 
He concentrated, but because he was nervous, it took him a few minutes to actually project himself out of his frame. Once outside his body he started in to the Wendy's to confront the bully.
When he pushed through the doors it was easy for him to find the boys the kid in the trunk had described. There was one table with an older Hispanic woman and two small children and then sitting at a center table were two high school jocks. Seth's letter jacket had a football across the front. He was thick, meaty, and had a square head which looked as if it might have been deformed from spending too much time in his football helmet. His friend was in a leather jacket. He was taller, but not nearly as muscular. 
Cody could feel the warmth of the heaters blowing on him as he entered. It was a reminder that he could feel while he was out of his body, and it was heightening his fear. If he could feel things, pain was not avoidable and therefore this could be a very painful journey. 
Seth was languidly feeding himself French fries one at a time after dipping them in a lump of ketchup he'd poured on a sandwich wrapper. He had his head thrown back and was making a ritual of his feeding. His friend was devouring a hamburger, gobbling it down by cramming huge bites into his mouth as if he was in some sort of eating contest.  
Cody was in luck. Sitting on the table in plain sight were the keys to the Mercedes. Cody walked toward the counter, watching the boys out of the corner of his eye. Neither one of them cast a glance in his direction.
"Good lord, Baxter, have you been starving for weeks or something?" Seth asked his friend. "You're gobbling like some sort of homeless person at a soup kitchen." Then he threw his head back and laughed at his own joke.
"Give me a break Mr. silver spoon, I'm hungry."
Seth chuckled, "Well hungry or not, that's no reason to eat like some kind of animal."
Cody didn't have a specific plan, but he needed those keys, so he turned away from the counter and the tall black man who had been watching him approach and headed in the direction of Seth and his friend. The Wendy's clerk wrinkled up his nose as if Cody had cheated him out of finally doing something during this quiet day. 
Seth was facing Cody, but while Cody approached he may as well have been invisible, because Seth just kept dangling fries into his mouth like worms being dropped into a caged bird's beak and munching down the crispy fries. Cody was within arm's length of the table when finally Seth's dark eyes fixed on him. "What do you want, kid?"
Cody fought back his urge to walk away, then shot out his hand and snatched the keys from the plastic tray upon their table. Seth had not been expecting that. He processed the theft slowly, not even rising to his feet until Cody was pushing through the door to escape.
Cody hit the door that led to the parking lot on the opposite side of the restaurant. He knew he couldn't get to the car in time if he ran directly to it.
Seth was fast. He lurched from the table with an indignant howl, "You little brat! Come back here with those keys!" Then he began running full speed in pursuit of the bandit. 
Cody had a good lead on him and was running with all of his might. Seth's surprise was gone now and he was far too fast for Cody in an open space. He would catch him quickly.
There was a mesh fence at the far end of the parking lot and Cody was headed right for it. He could hear Seth's tennis shoes pounding against the pavement just a step behind him. He reached the fence and dove through a small hole in it. He slipped through and then tumbled headfirst down a little bank that led to a run-off creek from the road.
"Hey! I'm going to kill you, you little thief!" Seth shouted, but he was too big to fit through the hole easily. He began pulling at the fence to squeeze through, but it snagged against his jacket and jeans.
Cody hit the rocky ground hard and slid to the bottom where there was a concrete drainage pipe. He scrambled inside the tube to hide. 
Above him he could hear Seth curse as his friend helped him get unsnarled from the fence. "Hold still, Seth, you're going to tear your jacket to shreds, man."
Then he brought himself out of his meditative astralprojecting state. He entered his body with such force that he lurched backward banging his head violently against the back fender of the Mercedes. 
He felt sick to his stomach, and his head was throbbing as he stood up. Within the palm of his right hand he could feel Seth's keys. He pushed the key into the trunk's lock, and as he prepared to free the boy, it occurred to him that he had brought something back to his body from his perceiver's form. He'd never done that before and felt relieved he'd never asked himself if it could be done or not.
The trunk popped open smoothly. A relieved boy of about Cody's age scrambled up and lunged out of the trunk. He was a pudgy kid with round cheeks peppered with light red freckles. He had round blue eyes and the pinch marks on both sides of his nose that told of many years wearing eyeglasses, even though the frames where not on his face at the moment. His red hair was cut very short and his casual clothing, both his white shirt and his jeans, were smeared with grease from the tools in the Mercedes trunk. "What happened? You helped that guy free me?"
Cody shook his head. "I'm that guy."
He lurched back at the sound of Cody's voice. "I thought you were an adult."
"No. Just an adult voice."
"How did you get the keys away from Seth?" the boy asked in bewilderment. 
"It wasn't easy. We'd better get running. He'll be back very soon," Cody suggested.
"Right, he's going to be furious."
Cody went to throw the keys into the trunk, but the kid grabbed his arm. "Don't do that," he pleaded. "Seth is going to kill me if you lock his keys in there. I have to go to school with this guy. Just leave his keys on the car so at least he can get back to the dorms." He took the keys from Cody's hand and set them on the cab of the vehicle. 
Just then, both boys turned to the street where they could see a lone bus lurching toward the bus stop in front of the Wendy's. Cody pointed at it, but the kid was already running in its direction.
"Hey! There he is!" Seth shouted coming from around the back of the restaurant. 
"Run!" Cody ordered. 
The two boys made it to the street just as the bus was slowing down for the bus stop. The doors opened and they both leaped inside. 
Seth arrived too late. The bus was rolling and with the light traffic, it had gotten up to speed and left the angry teen behind.
The boys slipped change into the bus's cash receptor and then walked back toward the back of the bus. They were panting as they plopped down into their seats next to each other.
"How did you get those keys from Seth?" the kid asked.
"First things first. What is your name?"
"I'm Theodore Walsh. Well actually I'm Theodore Walsh the third. But my nickname at school is Door."
"Door?" Cody asked.
"Well door is at the end of Theodore, but actually it's more like, 'here comes Theodore so slam the door.' I'm not exactly popular at my school. I go to The Worthington Prep School here in the Springs. It's really close to Colorado College. Our dorms look right into the campus." 
"My name is Cody. I'm from Denver."
"Wow, the big city. No wonder you weren't afraid of Seth."
Cody was rubbing his temples trying to sooth the pain in his head. "Who said I wasn't scared?"
"Well, you saved me. Scared or not you saved me."
"I grabbed the keys and ran, nothing more than that."
Theodore laughed as if he'd just heard the best joke of his life. "You out ran Seth Nelson, the star linebacker for our football team? Wow, that's amazing. You didn't seem that fast when we were running for the bus. You were just ahead of me."
Cody nodded his head. "Fast enough I guess."
"Well, I owe you for rescuing me. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Cody reached down and pulled off his left shoe. His feet were blistered and sore from all the walking and running he'd been doing in these dress shoes. "You wouldn't happen to be a size 9 would you? I need some tennis shoes."
Theodore nodded his head. "I am a 9 ½, but I think we can come up with something. Don't worry. Let's go to my dorm room so I can find my glasses, and once I can see again, I think I can see a plan to solve this little problem."

Michael emerged from the men's room of Jilly's Piano Bar, a swank Chicago club known for its quality music entertainment and for its celebrity patronage. It was not an especially busy night. Still, the limited seating during winter, as the cold prohibited patio seating, gave it a crowded feel. A Sinatra song was playing on the stereo while a jazz band set up their instruments for their up coming performance. He weaved through the tables in a fog of cigar and cigarette smoke, catching the occasional glance of a female patron, but too lost in thought to notice.
 "Marlow," he greeted, arriving at a table where Marlow Pegonious was enjoying a martini. His crane-like figure — skinny and tall — always made him seem cooped up when he was sitting in a chair but especially when the next table was only a foot behind his back and making him scrunch to fit in the space. He had a receding hairline that had only a few inches to go before the back of his head met his forehead, but his tuft of hair was thick and black. His blue eyes were vibrant but squinty with intensity. When he smiled or laughed, his eyes widened in an odd fashion that made those who didn't know him wonder if he was faking his delight so that he could simply observe their reaction. Michael knew that it was because he was always observing those around him and especially when he thought something was humorous. Thoughts he could read, and so Marlow found body language somewhat ineffable and for that reason it was fascinating to him. 
 "Michael, welcome to Chicago. Have a seat, my friend. It has been a long time since you've joined me here."
 "I've been busy."
 Marlow was reading Michael's thoughts, and he knew that there was much more than his usual womanizing, gambling, and journeying going on. "So tell me about this boy. Tell me about Cody Gallas."
 "Yes. That's why I'm here. I was going to bring him to you right away when I met him, but--"
 "--Oh he's tangled up with a very powerful astropath and you didn't want to confront this guy. You're usually such a tough guy Michael. I'm not accustomed to sensing fear in you."
 "He's an astropath with object projection ability."
 Marlow took a sip from his drink. "So am I."
 "Yes. That's why I think maybe you need to deal with this. I really am worried about Cody. He's a nice kid, but, man, is he confused. This astropath has him all mixed up."
 "Posing as God is not as unusual a path to deceiving someone as you might think. It's been used many times before by astropaths and humans alike. Believing you are working for or fighting for the almighty one is a powerful motivator. People love winners, and let's face it, you can't get any more of a sure thing than that. Still, I am certain that something is going on. G.G. mentioned to me that he had been astraltraveling in Laos, visiting an ancient ruin, when he got a feeling an astropath was near. 
"When he reached out to communicate, he didn't find anything, just a block. Someone didn't want to be found out."
 "G.G. couldn't break it?" Michael asked with surprise.
 Marlow sighed. "G.G. is getting old, 103 next month, as he keeps reminding everyone. Besides, he is not in the business of communicating with someone who doesn't want to be communicated with. He let it go, but I'm not so sure something isn't happening or perhaps about to happen. Something new seems to be developing in the world."
 The band was almost finished tuning up and smoking their final cigarettes and drinking their final drinks. Marlow was looking at the group longingly. "Well, as much as I'd like to hear this band tonight, I think we have somewhere we need to go. Is he still in Denver?"
 "No. I think he has run away."
 "Then we must hurry. I'll go to Denver, and we'll search for him together. If his perceiving powers are awakening, then he won't be censoring his powers at all – he won't know how. He'll be easy to locate. I'll catch the next flight out and be at your place as soon as I can."
 "Okay. Thanks, Marlow. I think I'm a little over my head with this one."
 Marlow finished his drink, setting the glass down as he waved for his check. "Michael, it will be a pleasure to spend some time with you, and if your intuition about this is correct I just might be the teacher Cody Gallas needs. It'll be quite pleasant to have a student again. It gives me a captive audience for my rambling and pontificating. He might even be able to assist me with my research – if he is as sharp as you perceive him to be."
 "Hopefully he'll be a better student than I was."
 "You learned what you wanted and learned it very well. Teachers always want their students to learn what they want to teach, but in actuality it is our charge to provide what our pupil needs instead of what we enjoy teaching."
 Michael sighed, "I could have gone further."
 "Certainly, you're talented, but it wasn't your path to go any further than you chose to."
 Michael fell silent.
 "When you get to my age you'll realize it's best to let go of the past and keep a keen eye on the future and even more importantly, the right now," Marlow said. "G.G. may have 50 years on me, but I've been around 20 or so more than you. There is still a lot of learning ahead for both of us."
 "You're probably right about that."
 "See you in Denver, Michael. I believe we are headed for some interesting days."

The sun set over Pike's Peak, casting Colorado Springs into an eerie twilight. The day, although chilly, had been brilliantly sunny. Now as the sun dipped below the Rocky Mountains, that lined the western edge of the city, there was a bitter chill in the air. 
Cody and Theodore rode the bus back to Theodore's dorm. The day they'd spent at the mall had been a full one. They shopped for Cody, ate lunch, and then went for a video game marathon in the arcade. During their sixth rematch of Zombie Night Three, a game in which two players get to blast away with pistols at the living dead who are attacking them, Cody felt a gentle finger upon the elbow of his gun hand. He turned from the game and much to his surprise, found Elena standing behind him.
"Elena," he mouthed.
She smiled. Then Theodore began laughing, "Man, you just got eaten. I win again!" He kept playing without noticing Elena's arrival. 
"Hi, are you off work?" Cody asked.
"No, I'm taking a cigarette break."
"Do you smoke?" Cody asked with an air of disappointment.
"No, but don't tell my boss. I tell him I'm going for a smoke, but then I just wander around in the mall for a few minutes and then go back. Actually, I need to get back to work right now but --."
Cody nodded that he understood. 
"--You could offer to walk me back," she suggested.
"Yeah, sure. I'll be right back Theodore. I'm just going to walk Elena back," Cody told Theodore who kept firing away as if unaware of their conversation. 
Theodore looked momentarily away from the game and then quickly returned his focus to his video battle. "Okay. I'll be here. Hi,Elena."
"Hi," she said. "Goodbye." 
Cody couldn't find much to say to her during their walk, but as he sat in the bus traveling away from the mall that evening, he couldn't help but feel as though he'd made a friend. She had talked enough for both of them. In fact while they strolled past the mall's shops, she told him everything about her life in the restaurant and at school where she was a sophomore and a member of the debate team, and even about her family that she made fun of for being far too stereotypically Hispanic — although Cody didn't know what she meant by that. But it was when she talked about her hobby that Cody thought perhaps they were kindred spirits. "I draw. I draw all the time - on the back of napkins or sometimes even on the menus. When I'm at school, I fill my notebooks with drawings and doodling."
When they arrived at the Texas Chili Station, Elena started inside with just a wave, but as Cody turned to go, she changed her mind, rushing back out and pulling from her back pocket a pen sketch of Theodore and Cody sitting at a table and eating chili, and her smiling face hovering above them in the corner like a clock upon the wall. "For you," she said, and then shyly retreated back inside.
Cody's only regret of the day was that he hadn't said thank you, or anything else for that matter, when she handed it to him. Still, knowing that the drawing was folded in his front pocket made him feel as if he had a lucky charm. He had two of them now; his grandmother's watch was in his left pocket, and Elena's drawing was in his right.
"Hey, Cody, let's get off a stop early and go to 7-Eleven. We can get a big bunch of chips and Cokes and stuff to take back to my room," Theodore suggested while pointing out the window at an upcoming bus stop.
"Sounds like a great plan."
Theodore reached up touching the electronic pad which in turn chimed a soft bell that let the bus driver know they wanted to stop. The brakes squealed, and the boys came off their seats and headed for the front door.
Stepping out into the cold from the warmth of the bus took their breath away. "Yikes, it's downright arctic out here," Theodore said.
The convenience store did not have gas pumps, and in general didn't seem to be a very busy store. There was only one car parked in front of the building.
"So, she gave you a sketch. Did it have her phone number on it? I'll bet it did," Theodore said, a few steps away from the doors of the store.
Cody reached into his pocket to check the napkin; it hadn't occurred to him that she might have jotted her phone number on the sketch. Theodore kept walking, pushing his way through the swinging doors and into the store. Cody turned the napkin over in his hands looking at all corners of it, but other than the sketch she had simply put her signature, a very looping and elaborate drawing in its own right. "Oh well," he said to himself, "I know where she works if I want to find her."
Suddenly he heard a muffled cry. He looked into the store sensing that something was amiss. 
Theodore was being pulled backward by someone dressed in jeans, a jean jacket, and a black ski mask. His arm was wrapped around Theodore's neck, and in his right hand he held a gun.
They had walked right into the middle of a robbery. 
Cody quickly ducked back behind the only car in the lot. He hadn't been seen. There was a payphone on the wall so he thought if he could get to it he could call the police for help. He scrambled over staying low to the pavement. 
Reaching the phone he lifted the receiver to dial 911, but the cord had been severed. There was no one who could help them, but he was not going to let Theodore down. It was up to him to do something.
He rushed to the side of the 7-Eleven where the trash bins were squeezed between the store and a storage building. Wiggling his way in between the two trash bins, he sat with his legs tucked underneath him on the frigid pavement. The stench of the garbage was a distraction as was the cold. However, nothing was going to keep him from helping his friend. He focused on relaxing and pictured the space behind the counter inside the store.
When he appeared within the store he was directly behind the counter, giving him a hiding place to watch the robber. So far he had remained unnoticed.
"Now, get the cash out so that this little kid doesn't die!" the gunman shouted. "Hurry up!"
There was only the clerk and Theodore in the store. The clerk was a middle-aged woman standing in front of the counter. She hurried around to the cash register as she had been told.
When she came behind the counter she saw Cody hiding there but was able to conceal her surprise. The gunman was losing his patience, and she was confused and terrified. However, she sensed Cody was there to help.
"What are you waiting for? Get the money!" the man shouted again, his voice distorted slightly by his cloth mask.
Cody slithered past the woman's feet as she shuffled up to the register and jabbed at the buttons to open the cash drawer. Cody was able to get out from behind the counter, staying on the floor and out of sight. 
Beneath the arm of the robber Theodore was struggling to breathe. His face was flushed, and he his eyes were wide with the horror of the situation. He began coughing and gagging for air. The gunman impatiently shoved him to the floor but kept the barrel of his gun trained on him.
Cody pictured the space directly behind the gunman. He needed to travel — to project himself behind him.
He appeared behind him and was still undetected, but he didn't know what to do. Then he heard the cash register pop open and the gunman's attention switched from Theodore to his money. The thief stepped up snatching the cash from the woman's hands.
"This is it? No. No. No! This ain't enough! Open that vault or something!" the gunman ordered furiously.
Theodore's teary eyes fell upon Cody. "What are you doing?" he whispered.
Cody motioned for him to be quiet. Still, what could he do? The gunman was big, strong, and seemed half-crazy, and not to mention that the pistol he was swinging around wildly could mean death for him or the clerk or Theodore. 
"I, I can't open the vault," the woman said, her voice quivering with fear. "Only the manager can. I just work here." 
"You'll open it. You will find a way or someone is going to get shot," he slurred, waving the gun in her face. 
Cody was getting angry. This guy was the worst kind of bully there was - the kind who enjoyed scaring people, the kind who took pleasure in making everyone around them feel fear. With his gun in his hand he manipulated others by tapping into their primary fear for survival, and it was this terror that the gunman craved even more than the money that it brought. Cody was an astropath; he was special, and he had to believe that he could do anything when he was outside of his body — that he was invincible — and without reservations he understood that this gunman had to be stopped.
"Get ready to run," he mouthed to Theodore while pointing to the back of the store. Then he stood up, grabbing a can of soup from the counter next to him and hurling it in the direction of the front doors.
The can hung in the air as Theodore watched it in flight wondering what would happen next. It hit the glass doors with a loud thud and then dropped against the floor. The gunman whirled around to see what was going on.
Theodore scrambled to his feet and began running toward the back of the store. He was able to crouch down behind the back row and hide.
"What was that?" the gunman demanded. When he turned toward Theodore and found him gone he lurched back against the counter, his eyes searching frantically. "Hey! What's going on?"
Cody was not running for cover. He stood directly in front of the gunman with his arms folded in front of his chest as if he were a teacher standing and watching his students take an exam.
"Where did you come from?"
"You need to take the money you were given," Cody began, "And go now. The police are on the way. I called them before I walked in."
"I cut the payphone's cord before I came in," he said.
"You ever hear of a cellular phone? Nobody uses a payphone these days," Cody returned coolly, patting his front pocket.
The gunman was losing control. He slowly raised his right arm directing his pistol's barrel right at Cody. "You shouldn't have done that."
"You shouldn't be doing this," Cody said.
For a moment the two locked in a confrontational stare. Cody's will was seemingly too strong for the gunman. He wanted Cody's fear, but it was never offered. Then there was the thunder clap of his pistol discharging, and it rang out so loudly that both the clerk and Theodore screamed.
Cody swayed, his feet wobbly beneath him. He looked down at his stomach where blood was beginning to soak through his new shirt. 
The gunman watched as the boy in front of him fell backwards into the aisle, and then he turned back to the clerk. "Now open the safe."
Cody's vision was blurring, the pain was more than he had ever felt before and nothing else mattered to him but making it stop. Death crossed his mind and the horrible feeling that this could be that moment, but it was shocking to him that this could happen while out of his body — while traveling. Yet his instincts were crying out to him — astraltraveling or not — that this was his end. 
Just when his vision was beginning to fade to black, there was a flash of action in front of him. The gunman was violently slammed against the counter. His gun went flying in the air, landing on the floor and then sliding against the far wall. He could see a blond mane of hair flutter from one side of the gunman to behind him and then another blow landed against the back of the gunman's head and he went down limply. 
It was Michael. Within seconds, Michael appeared in full form, standing with his boot on the thief's neck.
"Don't kill him, Michael, that will lead to far more questions," a voice behind Cody ordered, and Cody agonizingly turned his head to see a tall, thin man in a long black leather coat walking up the aisle to stand beside him. "Cody Gallas, I presume. You are one brave lad. But we must work on your attack style. Reckless can get you killed, even outside your body." 
Cody wanted to feel relieved as if everything were going to be okay, but he didn't feel anything but anguish and fear. The hurt in his stomach was real, and the blood that was leaking out of him was real as well. 
"Cody, listen to me. My name is Marlow Pegonious, and I'm here to help you. Now, do not give into the pain. You must endure it. You must concentrate and you can survive, but if the pain is too much for you and you go to sleep you will die, in both your bodies."

 "Welcome, Cody," Marlow said with a wide smile. "I'm going to take you somewhere you have never been, somewhere marvelous."
 "I'm ready."
 "Now, before we go. Focus on me. See me, and you need to look into my eyes so that you know exactly who it is that you are traveling with. I'm guiding us, so as long as you focus your mind on staying with me, you'll be by my side," Marlow said. Cody looked at Marlow's body from head to toe. He had been able to follow Michael with little trouble and felt certain that he could do the same with Marlow. 
"Are you ready Michael? Okay you two, let's go."
 The trio disappeared from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and appeared on the other side of the world in Bhutan, within the teeming heat of a tropical jungle at the foot of a giant set of cliffs that completely shielded the valley below. Atop the rocky cliffs, the temperature was subzero, ice capped, and snowy. However, down below — so far down that it took more than a day to reach by rappel rope — a timeless hidden tropical paradise lay. A powerful river cut through the valley, and its water roared angrily as it rolled over the stone base of the waterway.
 "Wow," Cody exclaimed as his eyes roamed over the plethora of foliage while breathing in the countless fragrances this valley held. Breathing this verdant air was like an elixir curing any bit of weariness he might still have been feeling. 
  "A team of explorers from America rappelled down those cliffs and found this place about five years ago. Until then, it had been a local secret for hundreds, maybe even for a thousand years," Marlow said, pointing to the twin peaks that loomed above. "Those cliffs hide this garden from even the most sensitive satellite imaging. Each cliff takes turn shadowing the other, and when the sun is directly overhead it would make it impossible for the satellite to photograph. The truth is, its beauty could not be discovered until someone took a blind leap of faith and descended down into the shadows of those cliffs. 
"Rumors abounded that this valley existed somewhere here in Bhutan - they called it Shangri-La or the Garden of Eden, but there was never any proof. Those men had to weather a blizzard above and the unknown below before they discovered this."
 "It's the first place Marlow brought me as well," Michael said while tossing a stick into the river. "Of course it hadn't been discovered by the west in those days."
 "But if it hadn't been discovered, then how could you guys have come? I thought you had to see a place before you could travel to it," Cody asked.
 "You're learning. But in my younger years, I did a great deal of exploring. Bhutan was one of my favorite regions."
 "You came here, I mean inside your body?" Cody asked.
 "Yes. I may look old and fragile now, but I was once a very skilled mountaineer. But once I'd seen all of this, I had no desire to take credit for finding it because I didn't want the world to come."
 "Why? You'd be famous!"
 "Exactly why I would not want to do so. But actually the reason I didn't want others to know of this valley is rumbling behind you. That river is very powerful. In the world today, rivers like this are dammed for hydro-electric power plants. Already, since the discoverers found this, the Chinese have set their minds to creating some sort of power system near here, and of course, if they do so, it will destroy everything you are looking at."
 Cody's face pinched into a frown.
 "Don't blame them," Marlow said. "Energy is desired by the entire world. Places of peace and tranquility offer very little to the world of man."
 "I'm not as old as Marlow," said Michael, "But I've already seen some of my favorite traveling spots destroyed by developers, and you'll see a lot more of it in your lifetime. You guys enjoy yourselves. I'm going down to a little pool down the river for a swim." Michael nodded his chin in the direction he was headed and then walked away.
 "So now that I've been here, I can see it in my mind and I can come back. Thank you, Marlow."
 "Yes, you are quite welcome. Have a seat and get comfortable." They sat down in the grass facing each other. "Now, are you ready for your first lesson?"
 "Yes."
 "When I am teaching you, you'll need to face me and look into my eyes — the eyes of your instructor — because I am not teaching you, but rather we are developing knowledge together. You must trust and believe in not only my ability, but in my intention to enhance your comprehension and to put your development in front of my interests. A pottery teacher does not sling clay about and hope that his pupil catches some of it. He must put his hands on the back of his student's fingers and help him knead and form the clay until it is time for him to slide back to the student's shoulders so that he doesn't get in the way," Marlow paused, looking into Cody's thoughts and then, certain that the boy was grasping the analogy well, began again.
 "Cody, the lessons I teach you will be simple. To learn what I'm teaching will not be difficult, but to comprehend it thoroughly will take time and possibly experience before you can truly apply this to your life."
 In the distance, they could hear Michael playfully diving into his swimming spot and splashing about. Cody's thoughts wandered to how much fun swimming in this majestic river would be.
 "Focus, Cody," Marlow began. "Michael's lessons are finished."
 "Sorry, Marlow. I'm paying attention." 
 "First of all, there are things you need to remember and then there are things you will need to develop. We'll start with what you need to remember, it's easier. First of all there are five categories for our training, like subject if you will: survival, traveling, perceiving, strengthening and imagining. These are for remembering. What are they?"
 "Survival, traveling, perceiving, strengthening and imagining," Cody repeated.
 "Today we will only talk about one of these and that is survival. The three basic principles of survival are: never travel outside your body unless your body is completely safe; never draw attention to your powers; and never stay out of your body for too long. Now, tell me why each of these is important."
 Cody wrinkled up his nose with confusion. "But, you're the teacher. Aren't you supposed to tell me?"
 "Cody, tell me why do you think these rules apply?"
 Cody did not need to deliberate. He had been — even as Marlow had been giving the list — considering what they would probably mean. "When I am out of my body, my body is helpless. If I draw attention to my powers people will see me as different and anyone who is not ordinary, in this world, is in danger. And, staying out of my body too long wipes out my energy. I've already felt that."
 "You see, you understand a great deal. Now let me be very specific about rule number two — drawing attention to your special talents. Humans are dangerous animals because they are primarily motivated by fear. If they believe that you are a threat to them, they will plot and plan and do anything they can to bring about your end and relieve their worries. To draw attention to your abilities can result in death and has, as my research keeps discovering, led to the deaths of many astropaths throughout our history."
 "Am I human?"
 "You have a human anatomy, but we are much more. I believe in the theory that my teacher taught me and that is that we are an evolvement or an anomaly with normal human gene pool. We do have something different in us in that our brains are hyper-developed in certain facets — far beyond what human brains can do, even with superlative development. As far as I know, no one has found an answer as to why that is. So your question is one that I ask as well. In my opinion, I believe we are still fundamentally human."
 "Have there always been astropaths?"
 "I hold a PhD in history and it has become my quest to find our history and record it. Sadly, when I find possible historical figures that may have been like us, there is nearly always a violent death which ends their story."
 "I think I understand why we have to hide our powers," Cody said, adjusting his legs beneath him on the grass.
 "Now, one more thing that you absolutely need to know about staying out of your body too long: it is more than just exhausting, it can result in what we call complete separation. If you stay out too long, you can be unable to return to your body and quickly your body will die and once it dies you will exist, more or less, like a spirit."
 "A ghost?"
 "Basically, if this happens, the ability to take physical form is lost."
 "A ghost."
 Marlow nodded approvingly and then pushed himself out of his sitting stance. Cody waited patiently. "Now we are finished with your first lesson."
 "That's it? We just started," Cody said.
 "You have many things you need to contemplate and mull over from what we've just discussed. Besides, we have a lot of time. There is no need to rush. If we stop now, you'll have time to go for a swim with Michael, and we will still have plenty of time to get back without straining your energy."
 "A swim sounds great."
 "While you're swimming, think about what we talked about today. Swimming is a superb form of exercise for your astraltraveling concentration just as it is for your physical body."
 "Okay. Are you coming, too?"
 "No. I'm going to go for a little walk up that hill and, as the saying goes, see what I can see. Enjoy your swim."
 "Marlow," Cody began, forgetting to use his traveling voice and instead reverting to his normal croaking — which startled Marlow for a moment before he switched back - "When we travel outside of our body to someplace. How long does it take for us to get there? It feels like an instant. Is it?"
 "It is not instant. Nothing, not even us, lives outside of the fabric of time."
 "Does distance change the time?"
 Marlow smiled. "Slightly, but yes it does. We are almost on the opposite side of the planet from Colorado. To travel here is a few seconds more than to travel to, say, New York. But one thing you must also remember is the clarity of your vision. In other words, if you can really see the place clearly, the way I see this one, then you'll arrive quickly. If your vision is a bit fuzzy, uncertain, unclear, then not only might it take time, but it may not happen at all."
 Cody nodded that he understood. "Thanks!" With just a half wave he spun on his heels and ran in the direction of Michael's pool.

 "Okay, Marlow, but what should I do with the kid here if he can't go into town with me?" Michael asked.
 "I'll keep myself busy until you guys get back. I'll do some sketching or reading. Don't worry about me," Cody said.
 Marlow was in a bit of a rush. He didn't want to keep G.G. waiting. "Okay. I'll probably be about an hour. Michael, don't forget another sketch pad for Cody."
 "I'll try. Lake George is not exactly an art commune or anything, but there's a general store that I think will have something."
 Marlow walked to the hatch under the floor and went below. 
 "Sorry I can't take you with me," Michael said, "but I do know what could take you about an hour. Do the dishes. We've got a sink full over there. By the time you have them all washed and dried, Marlow should be finished and I should be on my way back."
 Cody looked at the sink stacked with cooking pans and dishes from not only breakfast but the dinner from the night before. He shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, I guess it is my turn. I'll have them finished before you get back."
 "Hey, no hurry, but we are going to Hawaii today, so you wouldn't want to miss the trip because of kitchen patrol," Michael teased. He pulled on a thick down-lined coat and headed out the door. A winter breeze rushed in giving Cody the shivers.
 "Hawaii," he mouthed to himself as he continued eating. Before he could swallow he realized the chill had not departed. In fact the feeling was hanging about as if a fan was blowing cool air directly at him. His eyes traveled to the door that he expected to see half open. However, it was firmly shut. He felt it again, even deeper this time, and in fact his hand shook and he lost control of his fork and dropped it loudly on the plate. 
Someone was calling out to him, and it wasn't Michael or Marlow and therefore, he concluded with trepidations, it had to be God.
 He pushed back from the table so hard that his chair tipped over behind him. His instincts were screaming at him to run, but how could he escape? Where could he hide? He had been found in a place no one could possibly have thought to look. Still if God knew exactly where he was, he would appear there, so perhaps he was not discovered just yet.
 It crossed his mind that perhaps God was searching the roads and projecting his call out in all directions from a moving car. He rushed outside and began running in the direction of the main road at the end of their long driveway with the hope that a car might be passing and within that car would be the astropath whom he had known as God. He wanted to see him, to see his true form and know with certainty that Michael and Marlow were right, and that he was not God, but just a powerful astropath who had been playing tricks on a young boy. 
 A few inches of fresh snow had fallen the night before. Cody's tennis shoes were slipping on the tire tracks Michael's car had left behind. In his recklessness, he began to slide upon the snow as if upon miniature skis; however, the driveway was rocky and when he struck the pointed edge of one of these rocks it sent him head over heels into a snow drift.
 It was the pain from the fall, the shock of it as his head banged against the gravel that lay beneath the snow, that gave away his position, because his mind was in a state of panic. His face was caked in snow as he pushed himself to his hands and knees. As the white flakes melted and fell from his cheeks, he was certain he could hear car tires crunching as they came to a stop just down the driveway. "He's close."
 "No, Cody, I'm here," he heard in his head. He jumped to his feet spinning around and trying, in vain, to see him.
 "I want to see you! I want to see who you really are. No more smoke and mirrors! No more glowing cross!" Cody shouted to the sky as he continued to turn in all directions.
  An ominous man with eyes as fiery as supernovas appeared in front of him cloaked in a long brown leather coat. "I am Tearlach. I am the one you knew as God." His gaze was so intense that Cody was certain he could see directly into his thoughts and feelings, past any block he cold pretend to have and all the way into his soul. 
 "Why did you lie to me?"
"The deception you are feeling is justified, but you need to understand the state of mind I found you in. Your grief was nearly more than you could endure. The loss of your mother and father, and your guilt for witnessing your mother's murder and being powerless to assist her was too much. You needed deception, you needed unbridled hope, and you needed what you believed in most, which was God. So why would I take that away from you? As time passed our communication comforted you, and you grew strong, very strong. It was then that I told you we needed to meet. Of course this was because I wanted this misunderstanding resolved. When I asked you to come to me, all would have been explained and divulged to you. I never wished this secret to remain between us. I have prepared a family, and I have prepared a place in that family for you."
 "What?"
 "You do not need to be alone. There are others like you. In fact, they are your exact age. They want you to train with them and live with them. It is the perfect situation for you to grow."
 Cody was staring at him, studying him with a sense of awe. He couldn't decide whether to fear him or to embrace his new-found honesty.
 "Cody, you were too young then to grasp all of this. You know I'm not lying to you. Don't let your anger over the way we communicated cloud your decision. Cutting off your nose to spite your face, that's how your grandmother would have seen this. She always knew you best. Don't hurt yourself because you're mad at me. I could hardly have come to you with the truth until she passed away. Then I knew you would need me. I have always been here for you and I still am."
 "I understand, but that was in the past." Cody was feeling forced and cornered. He didn't want to choose.
 "You know, making decisions about one's future is quite difficult as sometimes those decisions are truly final. But you are an astropath. Use your instincts and make your decision," Tearlach said with a sharper tone. He was rushing Cody, wanting him to select so that he could either welcome him home or do the other task that the opposite answer would bring.
 "I will stay with Marlow. He is a good teacher for me. He has already shown me a great deal, and I enjoy the way he teaches. He's my friend."
 Tearlach was silent. He looked at Cody with complete concentration, and Cody knew he was reading his mind, but he could do nothing to fight against this probe. "Yes. You are already quite loyal to him."
 Cody could not hope to read Tearlach's thoughts, but he sensed danger and took a full step back from him.
 "Cody, run!" he heard someone yell. It was Michael, sprinting up the driveway with a shining pistol in each hand. "Leave him alone!"
 Tearlach turned to face Michael and when he did Cody saw, gleaming in the brilliant sunlight, two long daggers that had been hidden behind his back. They were drawn and Cody knew they were intended for him. He tried to take a step in the other direction, but the slippery snow caused him to fall again. He hit the ground chest first and his legs twisted to his side unnaturally.
 Michael's guns each cracked twice. Tearlach vanished, reappearing behind Michael momentarily, but when Michael turned to fire again, Tearlach appeared a second time a long step behind him and thrust both his blades deep into Michael's back just above his belt. Without hesitation Tearlach withdrew the bloodied blades, and then swung viciously in the direction of Michael's neck as if to chop his head off. Michael vanished and the blades collided with each other in a spark of steel as they failed to collect their target.
 "Michael!" Cody cried out.
 "Slow, that one was very slow. Only three moves to overcome him," Tearlach said. "I didn't even need to project anything to confuse him. He's hardly an astropath worthy of a student." 
 Cody rose to his feet, but he was not going to run. He had seen Michael's defeat and realized that running from Tearlach was pointless. Fear and rage — similar to what he felt all those many years before when his mother had been brutalized before him — seized him, shaking up through his entire body, and he stood to face Tearlach. "You say you want to be my teacher, but why are you so willing to kill me if I don't join you?"
 "I am committed to my family. I want you to understand if you join us you will experience power these two fools could never hope to bring you. They have no vision! I have a financial empire established in the world of man that will be the cornerstone of something much bigger. Together we will be unstoppable!"
 Cody shook his head from side to side defiantly. "Your family is all about you, and that is not what the head of a family should be concerned with."
 "What would you know about family?"
 "Only that love is unconditional. Only that it is not made up of needs. If you didn't see a need for me you wouldn't be here, and you never would have been there for me! You never would have been my friend."
 "Family is all about needs. The parents will see to the proper growth and training of the children, and then the children will see to the future. I am strong and will survive for a very long time, but there will of course come a day when my children will rule over what I have built with them. Pity you will never see any of it."
 Cody braced himself for the blows that would take his life. No matter how horrified he may have been — and despite the fact that Tearlach could read his mind and know it — he would not allow Tearlach to see his fear. His face was a mask of bold indignation as he stood firmly chest to chest with his killer.
 "You would have been the best of the three, Cody Gallas. Your bravery is most honorable, but foolhardy and a tragic waste." 
"Your ambition has made you blind. I would guess it is better not to follow anyone than to follow someone who can't see," Cody said with his last ounce of defiance.
  Tearlach was silent for a moment as he realized the completeness of Cody's rejection. "So be it, Cody." He had waited one second too long.  
 "Executing a boy is inexcusable," Marlow said, appearing beside Cody. "Inexcusable and impossible now that I am here."
 Tearlach pulled back to study Marlow and then ceremonially crossed his daggers in front of his chest in a formal challenge. "Ah, Marlow, isn't it odd you never sensed me? I know all about you."
 "I'm flattered," Marlow said calmly. 
"My challenge has been made, an astropath duel. But I fear you have no training to match me in this."
 "A misplaced fear, have no doubt." Marlow took a hold of Cody's shoulder firmly. "When the fight begins, you return to the cabin. Take my coat." He removed his long black leather coat and handed it to Cody and then crossed his arms revealing two long daggers that turned like flickering flames from the handle to their glinting points. His salute was greeted with an arrogant grin upon Tearlach's face.
 "I want to train the boy," Tearlach said. "If you give me your blessing and allow that, I will take him away from here and give him a place to study and develop his potential to its utmost. You cannot hope to help him reach greatness."
 "The student has chosen. But I will fight you for proof of his decision, and because I know your intentions here were to take him with you or to take his life."
 Cody did as he was told, walking back toward the cabin with his eyes fixed on the two men who stood, only momentarily, in a frozen, silent, confrontation. Then there was movement, so fast that Cody's blinking made it impossible for him to keep up. He widened his eyes in an effort to concentrate and follow their rapid jousting.
 Sparks from their blades reflected on the white snow, and the sound of metal clanging against metal rang out in rapid fire like machine guns popping. The two men were here, there, they were everywhere about the cabin flashing briefly to parry a blow or attempt one. Their minds were so quickly transporting them from one spot to the next that Cody became dizzy trying to focus on them. This was speed beyond anything he could comprehend.
 He had a mission to return to the cabin as he had been told. He ran inside. He was frantic and uncertain, but he felt it best for him to leave his body before he went back out. He rushed into the safe room where Marlow was lying silently. Michael was not there, so he assumed Michael had traveled out of his body from his vehicle somewhere down the road. When he'd first seen the knives penetrate him, he'd feared perhaps Michael had not been out of his body, but when he disappeared before being beheaded, Cody knew he was safe, at least for the moment.
 He lay down beside Marlow, fighting to calm himself, and pictured the front of the cabin. He arrived momentarily and searched everywhere for the combatants, but could neither see nor hear anything. It was a haunting silence ripe with anticipation.
 Cody wanted to call out to Marlow. Was it over? Could Marlow have possibly defeated the man who had so easily gotten the better of Michael? The question crossed his mind that if Marlow lost, what would his defeat mean for Cody? Even more worrisome was the reality that if Marlow lost in a fashion that took his life quickly, before he could return to his body, he could be lost forever. Cody felt guilty for getting Marlow into a fight that could cost him his life. 
 He took a few steps forward, still searching all around. The hair on the back of his neck was bristled and tingling. The wait was maddening.