Part 19: Lessons from the past 2

It was a ritual we'd repeated so many times before. She would place her fat hands on either side of my face and look into my eyes or was it my soul. It felt that way. Then she'd ask, "Have you used your powers this week?" I had tried several times but I soon came to realize that I could not lie to her. She always knew; in great detail. No matter what my answer was she neither scolded nor praised me. She just stared into whatever it was she stared at. During the visit I would go over the lessons she gave me and learn new ones. All of them centered around concentration skills. At the end of our time she would give me something she'd baked and kiss my forehead. "Don't use your powers this week." she'd say "Mother Mental loves you."

She was very structured in her lessons and I fell into the pattern of it very easily. Children need structure and at that point in my life things were unraveling quite a bit. One day I entered obviously upset. My mothers depression was getting worse and it was beginning to take a toll on me. That day Mother Mental looked a little longer, a little deeper. She didn't ask me her usual question. She just smiled and pointed towards my chair. "Sit lil' maiden, sit. Mother Mental is going to show you something."

"Yes ma'am"

She sat in her usual plastic covered easy chair just oversized enough to fit her large body quite tightly and smiled even wider.

"I don't normally do this but I think you need to see this. You are a good little girl and a great student. Maybe the best I've seen and I work with adults as well as children. It's not easy being special and repressing the urges to perform, but trust me my maiden, you will gain so much more by learning to control these things. We aren't ready for this. Not yet, it's too early" I thought she just meant I was too young to have powers but later I would realize she was talking about mankind taking the next step in evolution. We weren't ready and she was there to teach us to control it. "I want to show you what I can do. Would you like that?"

I nodded enthusiastically expecting her to play "read the mind" with me; then something wonderful happened. At first I thought a train was going by the neighborhood as the house trembled ever so gently then stopped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a teacup still on its saucer floating to my left. One by on every little bobble and knickknack in the clean but cluttered room became airborne and began circling me like the most beautiful mobile. After the small objects made a few passes some larger objects began to dance like the others until everything in the room was orbiting my little body. I could feel my mood become sunny and my face hurt from smiling and I laughed for the first time in a while. I was even more amazed when the room itself began to spin only to be more amazed when I realized it was me that was spinning in an orbit opposite the content of the room. The feeling was so wonderful I couldn't get sick to my stomach, which in hindsight I realize now I probably should have. Then suddenly I stopped spinning and I was facing her again, her fat face with a smile of pride as wide as mine. I watched as everything floating began returning to the exact place they came from. Books were shifting around making sure they were in alphabetical order. Blanket were folding themselves and pillows fluffed up before settling back down. All under her control. When the cup and saucer (the first to move the last to land) settled on the shelf where they were stationed she looked at me.

"I don't show that to people very often..."

"But, why Mother Mental....."

"Shhh child I'm tired and I have something to say." she was spent. I could see it took a lot from her to do this. "I am going to teach you how not to use your powers and you have to trust me that as you get older you will be tempted to use them trust me, girl. I've seen it dozens of times. It never fails, but you must understand that you are here because your momma and your daddy and you yourself asked me for your help. Trust me my little maiden you are better off never using them. Because once you do there is no turning back. Your life will forever be attached to them and that life leads to loneliness, suffering and maybe death. And Mother Mental wants to see you die an old lady with your grandchildren by your side. You are special in so many ways, so smart, so beautiful. You don't need what this old lady has seen. No you don't." And then as if the earth began to turn a little slower and her voice became more clear she said this. "If you do ever decide to use your powers you must learn to control them or they will control you. And you must promise me you will only use them to help people." Her voice became more demanding and her brow furrowed. "Promise me this maiden or our lessons will end today." I nodded. "Promise me!" she yelled her voice shaking me like the house before her earlier display.

"Yes ma'am" I said almost in tears.

She came over handed me a cookie, kissed my forehead and said, "Don't use your powers this week." And she led me out the door. "Mother Mental loves you."