Eavesdropping

Mari sighed. She didn’t ask for this to happen. She was a typical teenage girl having fun and enjoying life to it’s fullest. and life was good.

Until the accident. She merely sustained a slight head injury, (i.e. a goose bump,) and they kept her in the hospital for three days to make sure she didn’t have a concussion or a brain bleed. The driver, her best friend, had more serious injuries and was going through physical therapy to learn how to walk again.

A drunk driver had slammed into the rear of their car while they were at a stop sign. While the girls sat in shock the other driver wobbled over to ask if they were ok. They nodded yes. He nodded back and nearly fell over. He then got back in his car and drove away.

Someone had seen the accident and called 911. The police officer asked if she was able to get the plate numbers. Terra grinned, reached down to her back bumper and retrieved his license plate.

It took them all of 2 minutes to find him. He had hit a parked car and was unsuccessfully trying to untangle the two.

The ambulance arrived and were beginning their assessment of the two girls. Mari felt as if all her body was one giant bruise. Terra was saying she felt dizzy and lightheaded And then she collapsed. They immediately got her in the back of an ambulance and took off. Mari was also taken to the hospital and it turned out that she did have a lot of bruises all over her body. Terra was suffering from a brain concussion and had some damage but nothing permanent.

Everyone thought they were extreme lucky to not have life threatening injuries. Which was true. In a way.

But for Mari it was life changing and it could also become life threatening.

A week after the crash Mari began to have headaches. She had another brain scan but all was normal. After another week the headaches were lessening.

One morning her mom came in to her room to see how she had slept. She thought she heard her mom ask her if she wanted oatmeal and she answered that she would like to have pancakes. Her mom looked at her puzzled and left to make them. It happened again at lunch when her dad was of the notion they should go out for pizza and was wondering what the name of the fave place of hers was and if she wanted pizza. Mari looked at him and said yes and yes. MOD is my fave. She didn’t notice the startled look he had when she spoke up.

These incidents kept occurring but Mari was unaware of it until she had a chess game with her brother. Halfway through a game he accused her of cheating. He accused her of reading his mind. At first she thought he was just being a sore loser and it’s not her fault he kept announcing his next move Then the thought that struck her also caught her off guard. As impossible as it was, it seemed to explain what was happening. She could read their minds but, it sounded as if they speaking out loud. Probably because she when she read their thoughts it would come through in their voice. She was starting to hyperventilate. She took in deep breaths and looked at her mother. She was in the kitchen looking over a recipe. She zeroed in on her ignoring all else around her. She heard her thoughts. “That’s just way to much salt. It will ruin the gravy.”

She felt her world tilt. Just to make sure she cleared her throat and said-“Hey mom, did you just say something?” Her mother answered “No, sweetness.” Mari sucked in her breath and squeaked out

“It was probably just the TV I heard.” She hated her mom calling her sweetness. She glared at her mom and was shocked at her mother’s next thought. It started with an audible sigh then as she mixed what was in the bowl out from her heart came the next thought...”I did it again,“ another audible sigh. “If she only knew how much I treasure her. If I could only tell her without seeing her roll her eyes. I miss my sweet little girl and the days of angel kisses and bear hugs.” She didn’t know. Mari thought she was a disappointment to her mom. She was not interested in the things most girls liked. Like cheerleading, sleepovers, cooking in the kitchen together. She blurted out “Would you like some help in the kitchen?” Her mom was ecstatic. And Mari was hit with a strong wave of...well, waves of warmth and happiness from her mom. At first she used her ability to make her mom happy. But the better she got at ’dropping in‘ to ppls thoughts the more she had to work at blocking them out. It got to the point that when she went out with her friends the cacophony was literally blocking out what her friends were saying. and the effort she used to quiet them left her tired, drained and unable to participate. She became a recluse. Her parents noticed her gradual descent into an introvert. Her personality changed also. Her happy go lucky chatterbox self slowly morphed to a quiet, withdrawn almost morose individual. They had sent her to therapists. They were certain it was guilt over the accident and coming away virtually unscathed.

Mari went but she couldn’t tell anyone about what happened to her. They would either lock her up in psych thinking she had gone looney, therefore a danger to herself or they would be frightened of her and lock her up as she would be seen as a danger to others.

At the moment she was watching a movie about the X-Men. A bunch of ppl like her trying to prove to the world they weren’t dangerous. They probably could have but a few of them were not that altruistic. Then they would get into fights and destroy half the town along with cars, buses and trains. Mari mused if that actually happened ppl would need superhero insurance to cover damage to their property. She wondered what she should do. She thought about the girl in the True Blood series. Sookie. She could read minds and it drove her nuts. It also made dating hard. She rolled over onto her back. Looking at the calendar she realized that summer would be over soon and she would have to go back to school. Mari groaned in desperation. She didn’t like half the ppl there. A bunch of rich, entitled, I am so much better than you snobs. The last thing she wanted to know was their thoughts. ‘argh’ she thought. There was no antidote for her super power like there was on the movie. She needed to start practicing on ignoring the background noise and keep her attention on what was going on. She decided to try the museum first. Surely the voices there would be easier to manage. She would go alone then as she got better at shutting out random thoughts from those around her she would bring her mom and practice not only ignoring the others but carrying on a conversation with her mom at the same time. True this isn’t something she asked for or wanted but she was determined to make it work.