Chapter 28
The life or death-
I flew down to the side of the road. I was pretty sure no one had seen fly, since no cars were around. As a group of cars approached, I put my thumb out, and in twenty minutes a car pulled over. It was a lone man. His aura was mustard yellow. Something inside me screamed, run!
Without waiting to hear what he had to say, I turned and ran from him. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go, except up the steep mountain side, or to fly. I didn’t want him to see me fly, so I climbed up. He screamed at me to stop, and I heard him come out of his car, and followed me up the mountain. I wished I had listened to Mandy and not hitch-hiked. Twigs and branches snapped as he gained on me. My head felt light, and I really needed to pee. I could hear him breathe for he was almost directly behind me. Having him so close made my hair stand up as I shook. He was dangerously close to capturing me. I didn’t care what he saw, I had to get away. I picked myself up and flew around and over the trees. He stood behind watching me until I vanished from view.
I had learned my lesson. I would never hitch-hike again! I decided to fly the rest of the way home. Since it was dark, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seen. It got cold, and I formed my shirt into a jacket, but it didn’t help much. I excited the energy around me and created heat which kept me warm all the way home. I don’t know how late it was when I got back, but I went straight to the shed and to my cot.
…
The next morning Peggy was anxiously waking me up.
“KRL news is here!” she said. “And they want to do a story on you!”
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Why do they want to do a story on me?” I asked. I could feel my muscles ache from the hiking I had done.
“Because they found out about your Doctorate you are getting at Harvard.”
“Did you tell them?” I asked.
“No, I promise I didn’t.”
I guessed they must have heard about it from someone at church. Peggy had bragged to everyone about my Harvard opportunity. I don’t think she was proud of me. I think she liked the bragging rights of being my foster mom. She would tell everyone how I could neither talk nor read. But, after staying with the Sanibels, I had become a genius.
Trying to figure out how the news knew, I picked out one of my best outfits out of the suitcase. It was a small business suit designed for teens. It made me look sophisticated and hip. I wasn’t sure what to do with my hair. I looked out into the yard and found two people from the film crew bustling about. I didn’t want to look stupid as I made my way into the house with undone hair. I took the fibers in my hair and made them go straight and smooth. I looked at my spindly arms. I hadn’t cared for how skinny I was. Living with the Sanibels hadn’t added any meat to my frame. I decided to bring a little definition to my body. I hypertrophied my muscles, making them bigger and added a little fat to my hips. I caused the door to become reflective as I looked at myself. Still not satisfied, I infused dark highlights in my golden white hair. I smiled big at my image. I liked the new way I looked.
With my improved appearance, I went into the house through the side door. It was a bit messy, but it was still relatively clean from Monday. I was so glad I had fixed up their house. I would have been humiliated if the news crew had come into their house when it had been trashed.
When I walked into the family room, the news anchor stood up and with her hands stretched out, she ran to me and shook my hand. Her hands were sweaty and I wanted mine back.
“Hi, I am Karen Pieffer from KRL news. We heard about your admission to Harvard and we wanted to do a news story on you. Is that alright, Alora?” She said still shaking my hand up and down.
“Sure,” I said.
“Is that still alright with you, Mrs. Sanibel? We talked to your husband on the phone last night and set everything up.” I looked over at Peggy. She was staring at me. I think she could tell I looked different, but she couldn’t place it. “Is Mike Sanibel here?”
“He’s at work, and he didn’t mention this to me.”
“Is that alright with you?” Karen asked again. “We already got written permission from Child Protective Services. We need yours.” she said.
Peggy snapped out of her trance. “What do I get out of it?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Karen asked, squinting her brow.
“What do I get if I let Alora on your news show?”
“Well, you get to share with Utah what a wonderful daughter you have.”
“But, you are not going to pay me anything for it?”
“That’s not how we do it. We don’t generally pay to put someone on the news. Most people are eager to be on it for free.”
“I see, so you make a profit off my daughter’s expense, and we make nothing.” -Peggy, always looking out for herself.
“Stop it, Mom,” Angela said in embarrassment.
“Stay out of this, Angela,” Peggy said. She turned back to Karen. “I know you can’t put Alora on without my consent. I will only give it, if you give me something for it.”
Karen’s producer stepped forward. He was holding two fifty dollar gift cards to Olive Garden. “How about some nice gift certificates for dinner,” he said.
Peggy thought about it for a moment. “Fine, but I want to be on it with her.”
“Great,” they both responded, happy to have gotten her permission.
I was given a quick briefing, while the film crew rearranged the room.
“I really like it outside. Can we do it with the reservoir behind me?” I asked.
“Yes, that sounds like a great shot,” the producer said. “Everyone, outside.”
We followed the camera crew outside. They pulled chairs out of their van, and within seconds, they had a set put together. They put us directly in front of the reservoir, and they had Karen sitting across from us, to our left sides.
“Remember, this is live,” she reminded us. “Don’t be scared, Alora, you will do great.”
The cameraman counted down, and before I could breathe, we were on live TV. It was then I remembered I hadn’t used the bathroom yet.
“This is Karen Pieffer with KRL news. I am here today with Alora Funk, who has quite a story. Alora is thirteen years old, and if you will remember, we brought you the exclusive story how she had been found captive in a cement room earlier in March. We have been watching this story, to keep you, the viewers informed. I believe you will all be relieved to learn Alora has found a loving home with a beautiful family, and she has been well cared for. But what makes this story amazing, is Alora is not like most thirteen year olds girls. She is exceptionally brilliant, and while other girls her age spent their summer waterskiing and chasing boys, Alora was at an exclusive summer camp at Harvard University.
“We have a conference call right now with Dr. Van Hassel, the director of the science program at Harvard. Hello, Dr. Van Hassel.” I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him in my earpiece.
“Hello, Ms. Karen Pieffer.”
“Doctor, how did you find out about Alora’s exceptional gifts in the sciences?”
“I had been given a tip by a well trusted source.” By that, he meant Ms. LeAnn.
“I heard you personally flew to Mantua to meet this starlet and invite her back to your elite summer camp.”
“Indeed I did.”
“Is it true you get over a thousand applicants a year for this camp, and you only accept twenty?”
“That is true.”
“And is it true Alora hadn’t even applied to this camp? That you flew all the way out here and begged her to follow you back?” Karen looked so natural at what she did. How was it she wasn’t scared with the camera constantly on her? Her aura was blue-violet, one of confidence. Peggy’s was light pink, I don’t remember seeing hers that color before, she was pretty giddy sitting there, the mother of a genius. My aura was ice blue since I was so scared. I could har
dly concentrate as the need to use the bathroom was overpowering.
“Now Karen, don’t put words into my mouth. I did not beg, nor would I ever beg. I opened the opportunity for this child, and she accepted it,” I heard Dr. Van Hassel say in my earpiece.
“I heard she had a private sponsor who paid for her airfare, her admission to the program, her wardrobe, and other expenses in the amount of eighteen thousand twenty two dollars.”
“Karen, I don’t believe you dragged me to this phone interview to talk about the expenses, did you?”
“Let’s talk about Alora’s performance at the school.” Karen responded.
“-Stalwart!”
“Were you disappointed by your decision to make a spot for her?”
“I never regretted it. She was the best student we have ever had in our program.” I could hear the pride in Dr. Van Hassel’s voice. I beamed at his compliments.
“And is it true your university is willing to give her a Doctorate right now?”
“We will not GIVE her a doctorate! She will earn it.”
“What are your plans for her?”
“She is brilliant and we intend to assist her in adding knowledge to her skill set. After she graduates, we are prepared to offer her a position on our faculty to help aid us in our research and development programs. Ms. Alora Funk has a promising future, and we want to hold her hand every step of the way.”
“Thank you Dr. Van Hassel.”
“And thank you, Karen Pieffer.”
“Let us turn to Alora. This must all come as a big shock to you. You didn’t know who you were back in March. You didn’t even know how to speak. What changed? How did you find this intellectually brilliant side of yourself?”
I didn’t know how to answer her. I wanted to crawl back into my cocoon. I didn’t know how I had found my intellect. It had slowly appeared, but it felt familiar as if I already knew how to use it. Karen looked uncomfortable by my lack of response, so I shrugged. Peggy didn’t miss a minute to fluff her own feathers.
“She found her intellect because our family took her in and we used every opportunity we had to tutor her and educate her.”
“So you are saying because of your influence, Alora has become a child protégée?”
I tried to keep from wiggling in my chair, because I had to go the bathroom so bad. My bladder expanded, threatening to pop right there on live TV. The pressure was all encompassing.
“Darn straight,” Peggy gloated.
Karen turned back to me. “Will you keep us informed on your journey at Harvard? Can we come and visit you out there?”
“Sure,” I said. I could feel my face flush.
Thank you, Sanibel’s, thank you Alora. This is Karen Pieffer from KRL news doing an exclusive interview with Alora Funk. I turn the time back to you, Grant.”
…
Within minutes, the news crew was gone. I was left feeling weird. I couldn’t imagine all the people sitting around in their homes watching me on TV. It didn’t seem natural.
As we walked back into the house, Peggy turned to me. “You look different today,” she observed.
“Hmm, I am not sure why,” I responded.
“Well, whatever you did, it looks good.”
I ran to the bathroom. When I was done, I looked at myself in the mirror. I liked the fuller face. I had always looked so thin and sickly, even my darker highlights was a big improvement. Before, my hair had been so blond I always thought it looked white, like an old ladies. The highlights made me feel more normal. The reformations I made suited me well. When I was done gazing at myself, I joined everyone for our fast-paced breakfast. When breakfast was over, I was very antsy to get back to my cave; my castle.
As I walked to the highway, I could feel a burst of negative energy. My hair stood on end, and I knew something was wrong. I looked around until I saw a stray dog rushing toward me. It was a huge Rottweiler, and it was snarling as he came straight at me. Full of fear, I turned and ran. As I did, the Rottweiler began barking and ran faster toward me. I couldn’t think as it reached my side. Foolishly, I tried to push it away. Its sharp teeth sunk into my skin. The pain exploded in me, coupled with even more fear. I could hardly breathe as I tried to free my arm from its teeth. I could feel the hot saliva soak my skin. I had to do something. I decided to channel my fear to my Zen. When I did, I sent it at the dog- everything I had- and the dog shot through the sky. I had hit it with a deadly force. Its body limply dropped to the ground, all signs of life gone. Fearful at what I might have done, I cautiously went to the supine dog on the ground. I didn’t want to get too close, because I knew it was vicious. I looked around until I found a long stick, gently poking the stick into its side. Nothing happened. Its aura had changed from mustard yellow to grey. I poked a little harder. Still no reaction. I shoved the stick hard into its side. Nothing. I looked at its chest to see if it was breathing. There was no movement. I was sick when I realized I had killed the dog.
I dropped to the dog’s side and wrapped my body over its. I bawled to the horrible thing I had done. I was only trying to protect myself, I never meant to kill it. With my Zen, I had taken life. I was disgusted with myself.
“Please come back to life, please,” I begged, shaking it. Horror and dread filled me.
As I cried, I had an idea. If I killed the dog with my Zen, then maybe I could bring it back to life with my Zen. With that thought, I filled the dog with positive energy, hoping to bring it back to life. Nothing. I gathered the largest amount of energy I ever had and shot it into the dog. Its body flew two feet, but still no signs of life.
I again draped my body over the Rottweiler and howled in sorrow. I had never meant to kill it. As I cried, I could hear a car coming around the corner. I quickly stood up and hid behind a hedge. I didn’t want to get in trouble for killing a dog. To my terror, the car noticed the dead dog and stopped. I crawled along the hedge, trying not to be seen, until I was around the corner and out of sight. Then I ran.
I was so disturbed. I had to get to the cave and figure things out. Even though I knew how to fly, I didn’t dare do it in the daylight. So, again, I took my chances on hitch-hiking, being more careful as to who I held my thumb out to. I found a ride with a young adult.
She was on her way to USU and took me to the top of the parking lot. Logan Canyon was up the street. It took over an hour to find another ride, but I was able to grab a spot up the canyon with a group of college students. They didn’t care one bit about dropping off a young girl in the middle of a canyon. Once they pulled away, I hiked up through the thick mountainside, then when I was sure I was out sight from the road, I picked up the energy around me and flew to my castle cave.
When I got there, I landed, and instead of going inside, I sat outside the cave in meditation. A small flame of fire radiated next to me. I had generated fire and for a moment, it was hovering above my hand, until it burned it, so I created the fire a ways in front of me. I experimented with making it get bigger, then smaller. I even tried to make it burn without the intense heat. As I practiced with fire, I thought of the time back in the study group when everyone was choosing what super power they wished for. Nathan said he wanted to fly. Steve picked the ability to control fire. What would they think if they both could see me now? I could fly and control fire!
My hand throbbed, and my thoughts returned to the dog I had murdered. I was sick. My hand was swelling and getting really sore from where the dog had bitten it. I thought about healing it, but then I decided I didn’t deserve to heal my hand. I had killed a dog. The bite was my punishment. I didn’t want to get sick from bacteria, so I used my Zen to clean out the cut, but I left it to heal naturally.
After spending most of the day on the mountain, it got dark, and I flew home. I hadn’t even gone into the cave.
…
It was pizza Friday. I didn’t go to my castle-cave. I realized s
ummer was almost over, and I would be leaving to Harvard soon. It wore me out to think about returning, for the work load had been so intense. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that yet. I lounged around the home and joined the Sanibel’s in their laziness. It felt good to do nothing and not think about molecules and other scientific things. I watched a teen movie with the others and tried to be a kid that day. In the evening, the house was packed with neighborhood kids. My stomach growled as I smelt the pizzas cooking. I looked at all the other watering mouths, and I realized there was some steep competition there. There was no way six pizzas were going to be enough to feed the hungry crowd, six rarely ever was enough. As Peggy pulled the last two pizzas out of the oven, I had an idea. I gathered the pizza molecules, and added them to the molecules all around us. With them, I created more pizza.
Peggy started shutting the oven door after she took the last pizza out.
“Wait Mom, there is another pizza in there,” Angela said. She had noticed it first.
“There is not. I got all of them out.”
Angela reached past her mom and pulled open the oven door. “No really, Mom, it looks like you missed one.” Angela reached in to grab it. She had forgotten it was a hot oven. As soon as her hand touched the scorching pan, she screamed out in pain.
“You twit, you need a hot pad,” Peggy said as she reached in to the oven with the hot pad on her hand. She didn’t even take time to comfort Angela for her burn. I looked at Angela’s hand and noticed a large blister in the middle of her palm. She was moaning in pain.
Peggy pulled out the pizza and as she was shutting the door, a neighbor kid yelled, “Hey, it looks like there is still another pizza in there.” Angela ran to the sink and put her hand under the tap. She was crying, and no one was attending her.
Peggy dashed the seventh pizza into the dining room with strict instructions no one was allowed to dive into it yet. She came back into the kitchen, opened the oven door, and sure enough, there was another pizza in it.
“There is no way this is happening,” she said. “I only made six pizzas, and we already have eight pizzas. I only made six pizzas, right?” she asked us.
“Apparently you made more than that,” Cordon said.
Peggy pulled the pizza out. “There’s another,” Elizabeth said, squealing in delight. There was a crowd gathered around the ‘magical’ oven. Peggy took the pizza to the dining room and came back to get pizza number nine. “That has to be the last one,” she said as she pulled it out.
“There’s another one!” everyone yelled. There was intense excitement around the oven. Angela had wrapped her hand in ice and forgot about her pain as she watched the pizzas being pulled out.
“Mercy me,” Peggy said as she took the pizza to the dining room table. She returned and grabbed the tenth pizza. “Are there any more?” she asked.
“The oven looks empty now,” Cordon said.
“Well, I sure don’t know how to explain what happened,” she said as we all followed her back to the dining room. She put the tenth pizza on the table where she sliced them into pieces, and without giving any more thought to the mysterious pizzas, she said, “Dig in!”
It was great. There ended up be enough pizza where everyone got at least two slices, if not more. I was proud with my contribution to dinner. Later, I saw Angela sitting on the stairs silently crying. She was holding her burnt hand. Peggy had done nothing to help her with the burn. I sat on the couch and looked up to Angela. With my Zen, I took the skin tissue in her hand and healed it. She watched as the blister disappeared along with the redness and swelling. I could tell the pain had subsided as her face relaxed.
“Mom, mom, my hand healed,” she called in delight as she ran to the side of Peggy’s recliner.
“I told you were fine,” Peggy said, barely glancing up.
“No, I wasn’t fine. I had a huge blister, and it hurt so bad. But, as I was sitting there, I watched as it healed itself.”
“Like I said, I knew you would be fine.”
“Ugh, you don’t get it,” Angela said as she spun away from her mom. She looked over at me. I pretended I wasn’t paying attention.
“Something weird is going on here. First our house fixes itself. Our oven makes extra pizzas, and my hand heals itself. Something weird is going on,” she said as she went up the stairs.