Chapter 5
The Dorm
As I walked up the sidewalk to Joe’s dorm I could see that the football game was over and I could see the players and spectators were inside the dorm’s great room. The great room had large floor to ceiling windows about six feet wide on each side of the front door I could see through as I walked up.
There were a couple of pool tables, a ping pong table, four or five couches, a big screen TV, and a few vending machines set up in the great room. The commons area was designed for students so they wouldn’t be isolated to their rooms, or maybe so there was less incentive to pack forty-five kids into a small dorm room.
As I opened the door a guy standing by the soda machine yelled out, “There he is!”
Everybody in the room turned and started clapping and whooping. They were all trying to congratulate me for saving the little girl.
Apparently college students do watch the news. Joe was in the back of the room with a big smile on his face just nodding to me. I was now getting my back slapped by the majority of the football team, and I’m pretty sure I had my ass slapped by a few of the female spectators. That was a nice perk to getting my fifteen minutes of fame.
After everyone had a chance to celebrate the little girl’s survival the crowd quickly thinned out and I flopped down on one of the well-worn couches. Joe jumped over the back and landed on the side arm.
“You never told me you were the lone ranger, saving the town and then riding off into the sunset.”
Laughing, I thought now might be a great time to mention my other big news, since I had his undivided attention.
“Well I’m no lone ranger, I just got lucky the car and gas pump didn’t explode on me. The story on the news could have been spun a lot different you know. ‘Look at the smudge where this idiot used to be standing…’.”
We both laughed again as Joe slapped me on the back like I was kidding or something.
“I did however make it into the SA program today. What do you think?”
“I guess it makes sense, what you did is the kind of stuff you see from people in the SA program. Top-notch man, I’m proud of you. So, I guess you’ll be moving out then, over to their building?” I saw that the realization of that just crossed his mind.
I could tell he was comfortable with me as his roommate just after a couple of days, but it was no big deal. He would probably be assigned another roommate, maybe even a freshman jock he could watch over. Talking about this made me wonder again whom I would be rooming with.
“We have three days before classes start, so what do you say we make the most of it?” I said slapping Joe’s back, trying to focus on the short-term fun we would have.
“Yeah, I like the way you think. And that stunt you just pulled will probably land us a few good dates and some free meals all around town for the next three days until some other wild local story breaks, and there are usually a few.”
Two days of dancing, eating, and beach volleyball. Most of the time I was having a blast, except for that four hours of surfing, or anti drowning, however you wanted to look at it.
Joe was a great surfer, but I was just happy to have not drowned myself or to have lost any of my teeth. I didn’t get the chance to practice surfing too often in Michigan, so it would definitely take some getting used to. I did find out quickly though that you have to wear a tee shirt while surfing or else the board rubbing on your chest will leave you nipple-less quickly.
Those days off flew by too fast. I didn’t bother to switch rooms until the last day so I needed to get over to my new dorm and get settled in. My new roommate wouldn’t arrive until tonight I was told, so I hoped to get my stuff unpacked before he arrived. He better be cool.
I hadn’t unpacked too much at my old dorm so it was pretty easy to get my car loaded back up. I drove back over to the admissions building which also housed the dorm rooms for the SA students.
Outside there was a large wide stairway leading up to the second floor balcony. All the dorm rooms had windows that faced out over the balcony, and the back rooms had a nice view of the ocean. The side rooms on the left and right had good views of the other campus buildings.
I had room 210, so aside from having to carry all my stuff up a flight of stairs I would at least have a good view from the second story. I took my stuff in the front door and up the half moon stairway on the left. Down the hallway I saw the rooms were numbered starting with 200. There were only doors on the left side of this hallway so I followed it down looking for 210. I reached the end of the hall at room 209 and had to make a right turn, so my dorm room was the first room on the back left corner of the building. This meant I would not only have a good view but a great view. A view of the ocean, and the white sandy beach.
As I slid the new keycard into the lock the green light flickered and let me in. WOW… The room was huge, decorated with contemporary furniture and fixtures but still in keeping with the historical detail and design work in the ceiling and baseboards. Even the wallpaper and carpeting looked new but still was inline with the building’s motif.
The kitchen was to the right as you walked in. It had a stove/oven, family size frig, double sink, dishwasher, and large eat at counter divided it from a good-sized living room and study.
Two desks faced each other on the right side of the room. Both had a touch screen computer built into the desktop kind of like the Dr. Ishmail’s. I wouldn’t need my TV, stereo, or computer. So I would have to figure out what to do with all the stuff that I brought that I didn’t need now. I could figure that out later.
There was a long couch in the center of the room facing the flat screen TV that hung on the wall. At the far end of the room was a large bay window overlooking the beach and ocean.
On the right wall were three doors side-by-side. The two on either side lead to the bedrooms, and the middle door led to a bathroom. Each bedroom had one bed and one closet. The bedrooms were small in size compared to the rest of the rooms, but that really wouldn’t matter since I wouldn’t be spending much time in there anyway.
This place was better than anywhere I had ever stayed. It made me wonder again if I was the one that was supposed to be here, or if they had made a mistake and got me mixed up with someone more deserving.
I was just getting pretty familiar with the desk computer when I heard the door lock click. I turned around to see my new roommate dragging in way more stuff than he was going to need as well. He had a trunk with a TV and stereo tied down to the top trying to pull it all in at one time. I hurried over to the door to give him a hand.
“I got this, if you could grab the two suitcases in the hall. By the way, I’m Marty Lambert.”
“Hi, I’m Wilson McClain.” I introduced myself as I grabbed the two suitcases in the hall. I could barely get the one off the ground, as I more dragged it in than carried it.
“What do you have in this case… cannon balls?” I remembered seeing a cannon out in between the buildings, I guess that’s why that popped into my head but he looked serious like there were cannon balls in his suitcase.
“Well, yeah…sort of.” He said sheepishly.
“No really, what do you have in here?”
“Lots of steel balls. They aren’t for shooting out of cannons, but they sort of look like they could be I guess.” We both looked at each other and chuckled at his explanation.
I was defiantly going to get more details later, to find out why anyone not in charge of loading 1812 cannon carries around a suitcase full of steel balls.
Marty made a few comments about how cool the room was and then asked which bedroom was his. They were both identical so I had put all my stuff away earlier thinking it wouldn’t matter which one I took. I pointed out the one that was empty for him.
“Wilson, when I get this stuff put away would you like to get something to eat?”
I thought about showing him the pizza parlor but I sort of wanted to try something new. “Yeah sure, I’ll help y
ou unpack, how about we try barbecue or Chinese?”
“Either one is good, I can eat anything.”
“Me too. Hey, have you been in to see the council yet?”
“No, I don’t have to meet with them. They had me recruited when I was in the fifth grade.”
“No kidding?” I said in amazement.
“Yeah they knew about me way back when. I made a few headlines and most of the medical journals years ago when I was real young.”
“You got a third eye or something I should know about?” I tried to sound as jokingly as possible, but who knows.
“I’ve been able to control my electrical energy field better than most people since I was born.”
“Yeah sure, what does that mean in English?”
“I’ll explain it to you over dinner. I think I’m all set now. I wish they would have told us how well supplied these rooms were. Wonder what I’m going to do with this TV?”
“There’s always E-BAY.”
There was a Chinese diner right beside the pizza joint and just across from a barbecue shop. I was glad Marty walked into the Chinese diner without veering off to the pizza parlor since they were both side by side.
We ordered and sat in a booth by the window so we could watch the people on the strip walking by as we ate. Marty was about five inches taller than me with short wavy brown hair and light blue eyes. He was built pretty well too, like he was used to doing a lot of heavy work or something. He kind of had that bad boy rock and roll look going on. He was wearing a Molly Hatchet tee shirt and holey jeans even though it was in the mid nineties outside. He seemed really laid back and easy going though.
“So tell me about electrical energy thing you do.”
“Ok, first watch this.” He held out his hand about a foot off the table, over a knife and fork that was wrapped in a napkin resting on the table. He said to watch the silverware. Right before my eyes the silverware rose off the table and flew up into his hand.
“No way, that’s a pretty good trick. Let’s see some more.”
After he sat the silverware on the table, he opened up his other hand that was resting on the table facing the tea pot. “Watch the pot, Wilson.” The pot of tea sitting on the table slid over smoothly into his hand. He then grabbed the handle and poured us both a cup.
“Well do you get it?”
“Well I saw it… but I don’t get it!”
He grinned and realized he was going to have to explain in detail. “It’s like this. Everyone has an electrical field that surrounds their body. This field is usually very tight to your body, and can be manipulated to some degree. In a study I saw recently they demonstrated that the electrical field is visible under ultra violet light. To show how the field is controlled or manipulated they had a man put his hand flat on a table. Then a woman put her hand down about a half-inch across from his. The ultra violet light showed both their electrical fields very tight up against their skin and very still. Then they had the man and woman kiss. As the seconds passed and their kiss grew more passionate, you could see the electrical field on their fingers start to extend out toward each other and after about a minute the two fields were connected.” Marty smiled as he remembered this example.
“Think of it like this, I have a very loose field that I can manipulate out from my body with little effort. So, I’m able to extend it out around objects and then I can contract the field and move the object within the field. Does that make sense?”
“I see, but can you move buildings from one side of the street to the other?”
He laughed out loud, and a few people coming in the door turned to look at us.
“Think about it, if I can’t physically lift it, I can’t to do it with in my energy field. That’s what the steel balls are for, practice. They were the council’s idea a few years ago to try to exercise and strengthen my ability. I am working to increase the weight of things I can lift.”
“How much can you lift now?” I said before grabbing another fork full of fried rice.
“I can lift about sixty pounds but I have to be within about six feet of the object. I’m also working on the distance I can stretch my field.”
“Now I understand why you’re here, that’s a pretty cool ability.”
“Thanks. So tell me, what’s your ability, Wilson?”
“Well the council believes I work well under pressure.”
“What! No shooting fire from your finger tips?”
“Nope, nothing that grand. I do sort of have this sideshow trick, but I don’t want it to get around because it’s kind of dumb.”
“The council doesn’t know about this?”
“No, I didn’t think they would be too interested.”
“Well what is it?”
“I’ll show ya, but this is just between us, OK?”
“No problem,” he agreed.
“Did you happen to hear the manager when she seated us in this booth?”
“I guess so. I didn’t pay too much attention though.”
“That’s OK. It’s a habit of mine to listen very closely. If you’re done, I’ll call the waitress over and ask for our check, I’ll buy today.”
“You don’t have to do that, Wilson.”
“Just watch. Miss…Miss, I will take the checks please.” She dug the checks from her apron pocket, scribbled the totals down on them and walked over to place them in front of me. As she got to the table… “First dinner for new students is free.” Came the manager’s voice from the back counter window. The girl looked back toward the counter tilted her head, ripped up our bills and wished us a good night.
When we got outside we headed down the beach.
“So you can tell the future?” Marty asked, still a little confused by what had just happened.
“What…” Oh, he must have thought the manager had actually given us the dinner for free. I laughed out loud.
“What’s so funny?” Marty looked miffed, like I was laughing at him or something.
“You don’t quite understand. I wish I could see the future, now that would be a true SA talent.”
“Then how did you know she was going to comp the meal?”
“I didn’t. What I mean is she didn’t. That was me. I mimicked the manager’s voice and threw it from the back so the waitress thought she was supposed to give us the meal.”
“Really?” Marty needed a minute to process the whole scene again. “Hey, that is pretty cool. Can you do anyone’s voice?”
“Hey, that is pretty cool. Can you do anyone’s voice?” I threw Marty’s voice back at him.
“No way, that’s amazing. Why are you trying to keep this from people, its way cool?”
“Well in high school it sort of made me stick out and I just wanted to fit in here and make some friends.”
“I think in the SA program, you standing out is not going to be much of an issue.” Marty held out his hands as we walked past three girls playing hacky sack. One girl tapped up the sack in the air with a sidekick and at the top of the arch the sack took a left turn and zipped into Marty’s hand.