Psy Touch

by A. D. McLain

  All across their community, people were leaving their homes and walking to a large building connected to the back of the church.

  “You’re welcome to join us.”

  With her hand still in Jared’s, Lexy followed. The building had thirty-foot high rafters. Wood double doors towered fifteen feet. Inside, ten long wooden tables stretched across the floor. Hundreds of lanterns lit the room. There was a performance stage. The musicians’ had rested their instruments on their chairs as they sat at their own smaller table to eat. Lexy, Jared, and Paul sat on an elongated bench that ran along one of the tables, and were handed a bowl of fresh rolls and a dish of butter. The smell of the bread was enough to ease any of her tensions. Jared buttered a roll and handed it to her. The flavors were rich and creamy, unlike anything she could remember. Steam escaped as she tore open the bread. The butter melted on contact. Jared took another roll for himself.

  “They get the butter fresh from the dairy,” he said.

  “This is wonderful.” She took another roll with butter and scarfed it down.

  Jared laughed.

  More food dishes were passed down. Bowls of thick stew filled with cooked vegetables, meat, and broth. Every other plate had either steak, roast, bacon, or fowl. All the meat was seasoned and fell apart in her hands. They drank glasses of honey mead and ate their share of potatoes and corn. When she didn’t think she could eat another bite, an assortment of cookies and cakes was passed down, bursting with molten chocolate or filled with nuts and berries.

  After the last plate was passed, people walked behind the benches and carried the dirty plates away in open bins. Everyone stood and pulled the benches and tables back. The tables weren’t actually ten long tables, as she’d first thought. Each one was made up of several smaller tables. They cleared the floor and the musicians took their seats. A man in a priest robe stood at the center of the stage and the room became quiet. Even the children were hushed and still.

  “We thank God for seeing us through another good week and providing this meal for us to share.” The man’s voice carried even though he didn’t have a microphone. “Now let us celebrate into the darkness, knowing he is always with us. No matter what the dawn shall hold, we have been blessed. So let it be as God wills it. Amen.”

  The crowd gave a united, “Amen,” and applause. As the musicians played and the people dance,. Lexy felt their energy expand and brighten, as it had in the church service earlier that day. Silver sparkling lights danced in the air. It surrounded her without pressing in or suffocating her. She felt energized, excited, and jubilant. Her energy grew in response to the contact. She looked over at Jared and saw that his glow was brighter as well.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked.

  She looked at the people on the floor. They were doing some kind of group dance she didn’t know.

  “I’ll teach you.” Jared took her hand and brought her to the edge of the crowd.

  Standing behind her, he held her waist and helped her to move in time to the music. After a few passes of practice, he spun around to face her and continued to dance. He guided them sideways, then waited for an opening and pulled them into the group. Partners spun and danced around in a large circle. She stumbled a couple times, uncertain of tempo changes and confused when new moves were added, but Jared kept her going.

  After a few songs, other people also helped her. A middle-aged woman in a red cotton dress showed her how to bow at the end of the song. A teenage girl in jeans and a tank top showed her the shuffle-and-spin move during one of the group-centered dances. Elderly couples dipped and waltzed, challenging her and Jared to do the same. Just like the homes and apparel, the music was a mixture of time periods and styles. Lexy laughed when she realized some of the tunes were adapted from songs she knew from the radio or clubs. They sounded strange being played with flutes and guitars instead of electric keyboards and synthesizers, but she kind of liked the change. This really was a place outside of history, with the best of every era preserved.

  After a time, too much mead and all the Psy energy began to take their toll. Lexy became dizzy and stumbled into Jared. He guided her out into the night air. With his arm firmly around her, he led the way as she leaned her head against his shoulder. The sky was clear and the stars were visible. She thought of kissing his lips.

  “Um, Lexy?”

  “Hmmm?” She thought of kissing his broad chest and even lower.

  “Lexy, you, ummm, wow, okay, um, you… you’re pulsing, you know?”

  “Hmm? What? Oh.” She stepped back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

  Jared cleared his throat and adjusted his pants. “Not a problem. At least now you know you can. I guess that means we share a strong connection. Come on.” He pulled her in close and looked down at her. “I’ll drive us back to the treehouse, and there we can… revisit this discussion.”

  She felt a fleeting touch inside her and melted into his embrace. Jared grinned.

  He jumped and squirmed several times during the ride home. She tried to clear her mind, but the thoughts always led back to him. He finally stopped the car beside the lake and leaned over to grab her seat lever to push it back, then got on top of her.

  “I’m going to have to teach you some more control techniques. But first…” He kissed her hard and grabbed her wrists. Pinned her down with his body and legs.

  Then he let loose an onslaught of psychic fingers to explore every inch of her body. She didn’t argue. After some of the things she’d imagined doing to him…

  He sucked in a breath and she realized she had done it again. His sweet torture became more intense. She longed to move her hands and touch him back, but her mind did that for her. She felt him plunge inside her, and imagined covering him with her mouth, though his lips still physically covered hers. She was amazed by how real he felt. In her mind, her tongue and teeth raked down his shaft, even as his physical tongue moved in her mouth. She felt him move inside her lower regions, filling her with his entire length. Crying out against his mouth, she shook and grabbed his back, not with her real hands, but he felt it all the same. Then he was shaking, too. They breathed and kissed. He eased this grip on her wrists and she raised her hands to touch his back and hair.

  “Now," He said as he pushed a hair out of her face and looking down on her with more love than she’d ever thought possible. "I'm going to teach you to control it."

  “How?”

  “Well…” he nibbled at her neck, sending shivers down her spine. “I’m going to spend the rest of the night bringing you extreme pleasure.”

  “Hmmm, I’m liking this plan so far.”

  He chuckled. “Only, no Psy. Every time you pulse, I’m going to stop what I’m doing.”

  “That doesn’t sound fair to you.” She arched into his leg as he shifted his weight.

  “Oh, you can do stuff to me, too. Just no Psy. Now, up to the treehouse.” He opened her door and pushed off of her. “Time for your lesson.

  8

  Lexy loaded a stack of papers into the scanner and sat down to wait for them to finish running through. She touched her band. Putting it back on was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but as they drove closer to the city limits, she began to feel the pressure of uncontrolled Psy energy and knew she had no choice. Jared offered one of the disabled bands to her, but she still needed the active band. Even with it, her senses were heightened now. She was constantly distracted by people moving through the building, pulsing during their Psy session breaks, and the like. She tried to focus as she was taught the previous day, but it was difficult when all she wanted to do was leave this life behind and escape to the freedom of The Valley.

  She took the papers from the output tray and saved the file on her computer, then saved another copy to her private flash drive. After checking for any other new files, she copied them over and ejected her USB. All these years she’d done this, she never knew what to do with the information. But something told her it needed to be save
d, so she did it. Now she felt the time was finally right to do something. She still didn’t know what that something was, but that would come.

  Lexy remained quiet and let Kara do the talking on the ride home. She spoke of Curtis, at the exclusion of all other topics. Lexy grinned. Kara hadn’t been angry that they were late to work today, which took her out of the running for her bonus Psy session. She didn’t even mention it or how Lexy had spent the entire night away from their apartment. All she talked about was the day she had with Curtis and how she couldn’t wait for the following weekend.

  Lexy poured them both a glass of leftover birthday brandy and joined Kara on the couch.

  “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if the bands were never invented?”

  Kara paused her channel surfing and turned to face Lexy. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what if everyone had learned to control their Psy energy without them. Sure, it would’ve taken some time, but then we wouldn’t be slaves to bands and crystals. We could just be who we are.”

  “But Psy crime was too bad. They couldn’t not have done something about that.”

  Lexy sighed and stood. She was tired of hearing that lie. It had cost her father his freedom. Ruined her family. Kept millions of people in slavery, year after year.

  Kara stood and put a hand on her shoulder. Lexy felt the warmth of her glowing touch.

  “Crime never went down after the bands. Criminals just found ways around them or went back to using their old methods. All the censorship and control didn’t change anything. Crime actually went up, because they were rooting out and arresting all the police officers who knew how to fight it.”

  Kara took a step back, her hand still raised. “What makes you think all that?”

  “My father was on the Reader Force. He saw it happen. And when he was of no further use to them, they took him away, too.”

  “Your father was a Reader?”

  “And so am I.”

  “Oh, wow!” Kara put her glass down and paced. She turned off the TV and looked at it for a moment, then bent down and unplugged it. “That’s why you never take off your band?”

  Lexy nodded.

  “Crime didn’t go down?”

  Lexy’s heart skipped. “No.”

  Kara sat back on the couch and looked down at her clasped hands. “I don’t know what to do with that.” She brought her gaze back up. “If we tell anyone, they’ll just arrest us.” She lowered her head to her hands.

  “That’s assuming we could even get anyone to believe us if we did tell them.”

  “They wouldn’t. Not without proof.”

  “What if there was proof?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like M.E. reports and their conflicting death certificates over the past twenty years.”

  Kara looked at Lexy with steel eyes. “You have that?” she whispered.

  Lexy strode to her room closet and brought back a shoe box. After she sat next to Kara, she pulled out the flash drive from her pocket, opened the shoe box and dropped it in. There were dozens of other flash drives and SD cards already in there.

  “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but History Remembered keeps copies of all the documents we scan or transcribe. They’re saved on a shared network which connects every data center in every state. It’s their way of limiting the number of analysis agents they need. I got one of our local analysis clerks to tell me about it once. The people who actively censor the files are stationed in D.C. They access the records we save and make their changes before releasing the information to the public, but they never delete the old records. Those sit there in the archived files, untouched. I made a copy of everything. This is part of my collection of everything that’s been censored or banned since the Storm. There are several other boxes. This is just my most recent.”

  “Okay, so you have the proof, but what do we do with it?” Kara’s eyes were wide with panic, but she managed to keep her voice calm.

  “I don’t know. I wish there was some way to distribute it to everyone before it could be scrubbed. Not that I know if anyone would care. But even if people did care, what could they do about it?”

  “They could choose to remove the bands.” Kara reached up and took off her band, and her glow brightened. “They could choose to live without fear. We have to find a way to tell people.”

  Lexy hugged her friend as tears ran down her face. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that.”

  Kara hugged her back and Lexy felt her warmth everywhere they touched.

  “What about you?” Kara asked. “What about your band?”

  Lexy sat back and swiped the wetness from her eyes. “I’m working on that. Jared’s helping me.”

  Kara gave a toothy grin. “Oh, he’s helping you, huh? Is that why you didn’t make it home last night?”

  Lexy play-slapped her roommate and giggled. “Yeah, well, I need a lot of help.”

  “I’ll say.” Kara sighed. “Please tell me you’ve at least gone Psy with him.”

  “Oh, we’ve done more than that.”

  “Syntercourse?” Kara’s eyes widened.

  “I’m not going to talk about that.” Lexy got up.

  “Oh, no you don’t, Lexy Smith. You’re going to sit your butt down and tell me every single sordid detail.” Kara pulled her back down to the couch. “Is it really great? What about the risks? Is it worth it?”

  “Why? Are you thinking about taking things to the next level with Curtis?”

  Kara’s cheeks flushed. “I don’t even know if he would want to do something like that,” she blubbered. “I mean, we haven’t talked about any kind of commitment or exclusivity or anything.”

  “Then why didn’t you go to the Psy sessions today.”

  Kara’s face went blank. “How… how could you know that?”

  “It’s part of my gift.” Lexy shrugged. “When everyone was gathered in the lounge, I felt that your Psy energy wasn’t there.”

  Kara gasped, her eyes wide with fear. “You could feel where I was in the building?”

  “Only because I know what your energy looks like. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint it with my band on. There just isn’t usually anyone on your side of the building during the afternoon session, so I got curious and looked closer. Besides, focusing on your energy helped to distract me from all the pulsing. But none of that’s really important here. Why didn’t you go?”

  “I was about to, but the last one I went to this weekend wasn’t much fun. My head wasn’t in it. I couldn’t stop thinking about Curtis. Afterwards, I just wanted to clock out so that I could go see him. And we had a great day yesterday. He took me to breakfast and then we spent the day at the zoo.” Her eyes glowed. “I haven’t been there since I was a teenager. We walked and rode the carousel, and we talked. We talked all day. I really like him. When we pulse… I don’t know. It’s different. I never knew it could be like that.”

  “There’s a lot of things we never knew.”

  “So what do we do? How do we tell others without getting ourselves killed or thrown in jail?”

  “I wish I knew. I’ve never been much of a planner.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you have me. I happen to be an excellent planner. We’re going to need a pen and paper, more brandy, and some chocolate.”

  Lexy grinned. “We don’t have any chocolate.”

  “You might not, but I have a secret stash hidden in my room. You get the other stuff, and I’ll be right back.”

  Kara swept back in the room a few minutes later, with a large box filled to the brim with snack cakes, candy bars, and other candies.

  “Where did you get all this?”

  “For years, I’ve been trading psygasms for chocolate.”

  They both picked out something from the box. Lexy refilled their glasses. Then they brainstormed a plan on how to change the world.

  It was almost midnight. The regulars ordered their last round and prep
ared to leave. The changeover would be happening soon. Jared helped Mick bus some tables and then waited at the bar. With Brian out for the next week, they would need all the help they could get. The recreational clubbers and experimental crowd always clogged the floor on weekends, but the Psy addicts turned out during the week.

  “You should’ve seen her.” Jared accepted a club soda. “She really came alive out there. Her face lit up. I swear, I could feel the energy she described. I wish I could see what she sees.”

  “You must really love this girl.” Mick tilted his crocodile and cow leather hat at a couple of patrons as they stood to leave.

  It was a movie replica complete with a row of crocodile teeth around the front. He wore a matching leather vest, with a crocodile tooth necklace.

  “Yeah, I do. I know how crazy that must sound since we just met.”

  “Nah. Brian was the same way. He proposed a week after they started dating. She said no. It was too soon. So he waited a week and tried again. After three months of that, she finally said yes. Brian was so shocked he knocked over a table, spilled all their food, and broke three dishes. He cut his hand so bad on the glass shards that they had to rush him to the doctor to get ten stitches. They got married two weeks later and have been together twenty years. Sometimes, crazy works.”

  The door to the back office opened and two men came out. They were dressed like everyone else in the bar, but their eyes gave them away. Information brokers, hiding in the club crowd. Brokers and suppliers came to see his father every night. Some even partook in some libations and pulsing to better fit in. Jared knew them by site, and these men were no exception. They worked for a company that developed herbal-based drug remedies, and stopped in at least once a week to schedule shipments to The Valley. They would slip out with the regulars and hurry to be out by twelve.

  “Have the freezer boxes been switched?” Jared asked.

  “Don’t think so. You want to do it?” Mick handed him the key and lanyard from around his neck.

  “Sure. I’ll be right back.”