Free Salem's Sight by Eden Elgabri Page B

my mom
ratted me out before Berkley said any more. It had been in her
voice and in her expression. She had the ‘that’s sad, wow your life
sucks even more than I had imagined’ look. The one that was an iota
more pity than I could stand seeing.
    That look was the reason I never gave
the details. I didn’t want people to pity me, didn’t want anyone to
see how truly pathetic I really was. I mean, like who
would?
    I shrugged when I realized she
actually was waiting for a response. “It’s still too new. I don’t
like to talk about it.”
    “ I get it. But you could
have saved an argument if you’d just said why. I wouldn’t have
pushed.”
    I did the cool one eyebrow thing. She
laughed, took off her coat as she entered the room and tossed it
over the back of the desk chair along with her backpack. “Okay,
maybe I would have pushed a little, but I wouldn’t have made you
talk about the accident. But since we’re back to driver’s ed., what
if you only took the class, the written part? You don’t have to
take the driving lessons or actually go for a road test,” she
pleaded. “Think about it.”
    If it’s one thing I learned early on,
it’s pick your battles and cut your losses. There was no reason I
couldn’t accommodate her with only the class part. I mean, how bad
could learning the driving rules be? “Okay,” I said more to shut
her up than anything.
    She threw her arms around me and
hugged tight. “I’m sorry about the other day. And I have a peace
offering,” she said as she released me.
    Out of her backpack she pulled a few
books and what looked like a deck of cards. “These are some books
on ESP. They talk about the different kinds and how to develop that
psychic thing you’ve got going.”
    Yeah, great. Just what I always
wanted. How to be a freak in just a few easy lessons.
    “ And I’d want to develop
this for what reason?”
    She gave me the look. Like I’d just
asked her something stupid like how to spell the word dog. You know
the look I mean, the one that says, how could you possibly be so
dense?
    “ To control it. If you
don’t control it, then it controls you.”
    I grabbed the books and was really
grateful Berkley was as smart as she was. She nailed it. If I
understood it more, then maybe I could get it under
control.
    That could change
everything.
    “ What are those?” I asked
pointing to the cards, hoping they weren’t some kind of Tarot
cards. Like I said, I wanted to understand my abilities and all,
but I had different career choices under consideration. Becoming
the headliner at a carnival just didn’t do it for me.
    “ Zenner cards. They’re used
specifically to test the amount of ESP you have and they can be
used to increase your ability. I guess it comes from focus or
something.”
    “ Cool, thanks.” I took a
closer look at them. The pack consisted of twenty-five cards, five
of each kind. A star, square, plus sign, circle, and three squiggly
lines that looked like water.
    This could be interesting. If nothing
else I’d get a fix on how much ‘ability’ I actually had.
    “ Do you want to try it?”
Berkley asked. So much excitement bubbled over in the pitch of her
voice, I couldn’t disappoint her by refusing.
    By the third time we went through the
entire deck I was nailing it four out of five cards. If there’d
been a question before, there wasn’t now.
    And I have to admit; I was pretty
impressed.
    Berkley was more than impressed; she
acted like I just came out of a bottle in a puff of smoke. Unlike
her, I couldn’t see how this ‘gift,’ as all the books called it,
could in any way enhance my world.
    Right now it was just a royal stinking
pain in the butt.
    “ So, do you see anything
happening at the dance tonight?” Her eyes sparkled awaiting the
gossip she expected me to impart before it even
happened.
    “ Wait.” I closed my eyes
briefly as if a news flash just interrupted the programming in my
mind. “I do see something.”
    “ What?” she