By Christmas, Mary had settled into her routine and Beverly was extremely happy caring for me. Lorain was walking now and she treated me like a little brother.
Christmas was on a Sunday this year and the classes at school, would not resume again until January 2nd. I was almost five months old and crawling around like a wild prairie dog. I was getting into everything and exploring every device in the house.
Both Mary and Beverly enjoyed my enthusiasm for mechanical devices. Lorain would always hide when her mother ran the noisy Kirby vacuum cleaner, but I loved the sound and action, the device made.
By March 1961 I was standing on my own. I moved around the house holding on to the furniture. I was only seven months old and would be walking on my own, by eight months. I also had a fascination for books and magazines. I was not interested in the stuffed animals or dolls, Lorain always wanted me to play with.
By my first birthday, both Bradly and Mary knew I was an exceptional child. Even Beverly could see I was not the normal one year old. Lorain was now almost two and I was equal to or had excelled beyond her intelligent. At eighteen months I had a fifty to sixty word vocabulary. By my second birthday, I was carrying on conversations with my mother and father. I was also reading at a first grade level.
My father was deep into the X-15 hyper supersonic, high altitude space plane and spending long hours on the flight line. He piloted the B-52 heavy-lift airborne launch aircraft that took the X-15 aloft. People around the base were now starting to get use to the sonic booms, from the supersonic jets that were always in the air.
A lot of things were changing around Edwards Air Force Base. On May 5, 1962, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard Freedom 7, launched by a Redstone booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Bradly Steele was with Alan when they rode the elevator to the top of the launch platform.
Eleven months later, John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit by an Atlas launch vehicle on February 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7. Bradly was once again with John, as he rose to the top of the launch platform, where he made the final checks of John Glenn’s equipment, before closing the capsule.
The Mercury program came to a close with the twenty two orbit flight by L. Gordon Cooper, May 15 and 16, 1963 in the Faith 7 space craft. Bradly Steele was proud to be a part of all the Mercury launch programs.
The Astronauts were training in the X-15 trying to go higher and faster than the other pilots. They would push the endurance of their own physical condition as well as that of the plane. On August 22, 1963, less than three weeks after TJ’s third birthday, pilot Joseph Walker flew the X-15 at Mach 5.92, three thousand seven hundred ninety four miles an hour, at sixty miles high.
My mother took me to the base to watch the action. I had no trouble understanding everything going on around me. I would even explain the dynamics of the flight to my mother. At night I would spend time on the patio with her, looking through her telescope, at the stars.
I would spend hours staring at the constellation Aquila in the northern sky. Aquila constellation is located near the celestial equator. The constellation’s name means, the eagle, in Latin. Aquila is home to two very famous stars, Altair and Tarazed, as well as to several interesting deep sky objects. Astronomers have long thought these stars could have planets that could sustain life.
At three years old, I showed no interest in the normal things a three year old would do. I was only interested in astronomy, engineering, and reading. I was becoming smarter every day. During the winter I would teach Lorain what I knew, but she had trouble understanding. It was difficult for Beverly to get me down for a little nap in the afternoon, because I was so high energy.
It’s August 1, 1964, my fourth birthday. I was perched at the dining table on my knees in the chair, leaning on the table, reading an elementary science book, my father had given me as an early birthday present.
Mom was baking me and my father’s favorite, double layer chocolate cake, with thick chocolate icing. I heard my mother squeal and drop one of the nine inch round cake pans down on top of the stove. She closed the oven door and walked over to the sink, where she placed her wrist under cold running water.
I slid off his chair and walked over next to her. I slowly and gently reached over and took her arm, pulling it towards me, so I could see the injury. My mom had accidently placed her wrist against the hot upper rack in the oven, while removing the second cake pan.
Her wrist had a three inch burn. The steel rack had pulled the skin off her arm leaving a bright red wound. I placed my left palm, under my mother’s wrist. I then put my right hand over the top of the burn. I could feel the pain my mother was enduring, as I held her wrist. I closed my eyes and continued to hold her wrist, until I felt the pain subside.
When I turn loose of my mother’s wrist, the serious burn was gone. Only the slight shadow of the injury remained. Mary was no longer in pain, but was stunned by what I had done. She now knew I was not a normal human boy. I was special, unlike any other child on this earth.
I went back to reading my book, not thinking about what he had just done. Mary couldn’t take her eyes off her special little boy. While she prepared dinner for her family she stared at me, as I flipped through the pages of my science book.
My mom never told my dad about the events of that day. I never said anything about it either. I actually thought everyone could do what I had done. It was as normal, as taking a drink of water, to me.
That evening Todd, Beverly, and Lorain came over and we all sat out at the picnic table, on the patio and ate cake and I opened gifts. My dad bought me a deluxe size Erector Set.
I spent a lot of time building things with the erector set, but soon became disinterested with the toy. It lacked the technology I was really looking for.
My dad started taking me to a martial arts class with him on Saturday mornings. The instructor, Tom Hines, worked with the airmen on the base through the week and with the officers on Saturday’s.
I would stand on the sideline and watch the movements performed by the instructor. After several weeks, I was moving in formation with the instructor and the officers in his class. One day, after the classes were over, Tom asked me if I would like to come out on the mats and perform some of the exercises with him. I didn’t have to think twice and ran out into the center of the gym.
My dad sat on the bleachers and watched Tom work with me. It was as if I were both physically and mentally remembering every move the instructor was making.
Tom Hines was a master of aiki. This principle was used for destructive purposes. You seize an advantage and kill one’s opponent. The modern art of aikido is founded upon the principle that control of the opponent can be achieved by the successful application of aiki. It may be used to defeat one’s opponent, without harming them.
Each week I was becoming better at martial arts, even though I was so much younger, than any other participants. I no longer sat on the sideline, but was right in the thick of things. I found the movements from martial arts to be relaxing and helped me control my mental state.
It was the first week in June, 1965. The Anderson’s had left Lorain with my parents, while they attended the funeral for Todd Anderson’s father, in Baltimore, Maryland. I was happy, Lorain was staying with us. My mom let us camp out in the living room on two sleeping bags. Lorain was my best friend and we liked spending time together. Kenneth Jones was my only male friend, who lived a block over from me.
It was Wednesday and extremely warm out. My mother was fixing me and Lorain lunch, when she heard Lorain screaming. She ran out the back door to the patio and saw me trying to pull Lorain out from under the picnic table. Help me mom, I yelled. Mary got on her knees and lifted Lorain. She stood up with Lorain in her arms and the child was screaming in pain.
Mary sat down on the seat of the picnic table with Lorain on her lap. She saw Lorain had a severely dislocated wrist. She also had a large bump on her head just above her right eye.
/> I took Lorain’s arm and cupped my hands around her wrist. She was screaming and mom held her tightly. I felt all the same pain that Lorain was feeling, as I held her wrist.
I struggled not to cry out, from the severe pain, I was feeling. After several minutes, the pain subsided and I released my grip on her wrist. The swelling was gone and her wrist was back to normal.
I then placed my hand on the bump on her head and held it there for about a minute. When I moved my hand the bump and bruise was gone. There was also a large raw scrape on the inside of her thigh caused by the rough edge of the picnic table. I placed my palm on the scrape and held it there for another minute or so.
When the pain was gone and the crying had stopped, my mom took Lorain into the bathroom and washed her face and the blood from the scrape on her leg. After she had cleaned the leg injury, there were no signs of the scrape. Lorain told my mom she was playing Superman and was jumping off the picnic table. She got twisted up in the cape she had made from a small blanket and fell.
Mom had me sit down at the table with Lorain and eat some lunch. When we finished we went into the living room instead of going back out in the heat of the day. Lorain and I were lying on the couch with me at one end and her at the other, watching Bozo the Clown on television.
Before the show ended Lorain had fallen asleep and I went into the kitchen, to be with my mom. She sat down with me at the table. She said I was never to do, what I had done on Lorain’s injuries, with anyone else. I was confused and didn’t understand what I had done wrong. My mom explained, if people knew I had the ability to heal the human body, I would never get a moment’s piece.
She told me about a young minister’s son in Summersville, West Virginia who thought he had healing powers. She had read in the Saturday Evening Post about the young man, who supposedly healed a man, who had cancer. The man was attending church one Sunday. When the sermons were over, people came forward, to the alter, to be healed by the minister.
The minster allowed his son to place his hands on the parishioners as they marched by. Several weeks later, the man with cancer, came back to the church and told everyone. He was now healed and free of cancer. In reality, the man had been misdiagnosed by his small town country doctor.
As weeks went on, people from around the country heard about this small church and began to flock there in droves. When the minister found out the cancer patient had been misdiagnosed, he started hiring healthy people to show up in wheelchairs and on stretchers. He was now making tons of money off the sick and injured.
One man was rolled into the church in a wheelchair and the minister told his congregation, the man had been crippled since birth. The minister’s son placed his hand on the man’s head and he began to shake and stood up. He walked out of the church under his own power, with a five hundred dollars in his pocket.
People were flocking into the little town of Summersville, blocking the streets and sleeping on the sidewalks. The stores in town loved all their new customers. They tripled all the prices on everything, forcing the locals to go elsewhere for food and fuel for their cars.
The governor finally sent in the military, to bring order back to the small community. The state police began to arrest people, who the minister had hired to fake illnesses. The minister and his son were also arrested and imprisoned. The son told everyone, he really thought he could heal and didn’t know his father, had been lying to him. The state released the minister’s son, but gave his father fifteen years in prison.
I stared down at the table for a few seconds, then looked at my mother and said I understood, and would never do it again.
Later that afternoon, Kenneth Jones came over to play with me. Lorain woke up from her nap and joined Kenny and me, out in the back yard. I was the youngest, with Kenny only two months older and Lorain almost a year older. We played cowboys and Indians for a while, and then I grabbed a book and sat on the patio and read, while Kenny and Lorain played in the back yard.
Lorain was going to be six years old a few days after school started in September. The school system allowed her to start the first grade at five, because her birthday was only three days later. Mary also talked the school administration, with help from the air base’s high command, to allow me to start the first grade as well.
On September 7, Lorain and I started the first grade. It was actually a step backwards for me. I dominated the class. I was not only completing my first grade assignments, but was also doing the lesson my mother was teaching the second graders.
It was at this period in my life, I discovered I could read other people’s subconscious. In the classroom, I was hearing the thoughts of every child in the room. It was as if everyone was talking at the same time. I had trouble tuning them out, but after several months of dealing with the simple thoughts of my classmates, I learned how to tune them out.
While other kids were outside at recess, I was in the poorly stocked library. I would tutor Lorain every evening and help my mother with the slower children at school.
After the school’s administrators had seen how advanced I was, over all the other children, they allowed me to advance to the third grade skipping the second. I was now six years old in the third grade. Even here I dominated the class and sometimes the teacher. My classmates were a mix of third and fourth graders. I was doing both my assigned third grade work and the work of a fourth grader. The teacher had difficulty keeping up with me.
One day during the morning recess, I went outside to see Lorain. She was standing with a group of kids over by the swings. When I approached the group of children, I saw a fifth grader bulling a smaller boy. The fifth grader had knocked the boys glasses off his face and was tearing up a children’s book that belong to him.
I stepped up next to the bully and grabbed the boys arm, twisting it behind his back. The fifth grader dropped to his knees in tremendous pain. Say you’re sorry, I yelled at the bully. I’m sorry he said to the small boy. Pick up his glasses, I told the bully. He could barely move, because of the pain in his arm, but he picked up the glasses and handed them to the small boy.
I released the bully’s arm and told him, if I ever saw him touching another kid at this school, I would break his arm. The bully ran off crying towards the back of the school.
My mother once again went to the schools administration and convinced them to allow me to skip the fourth grade and move on to the fifth. I was now studying and reading college prep books in the library. Even the fifth and sixth graders were no challenge for me.
I was spending my Saturday mornings in martial arts training and the rest of the day in the engineering department, on the base. Sunday after church, I would spend with my best friends, Lorain and Kenny, who was starting to miss me. They were both in the third grade and I was bouncing through school in a breeze.
When I was eight years old, I was a freshman in high school, which was in a new building on the base. Mom and dad both knew, I was smarter than what the Air Force base schools could handle. I was not the typical eight year old. I was so much smarted and mature than anyone else my age. Most people were nervous around me and could not warm up to me.
I had no time for stupid people and that included the students in my class. I tolerated them, but never understood why they couldn’t get the simple lessons, the teacher was dolling out.
For the next two years, I strolled through my freshmen and sophomore classes. I was struggling, trying to slow myself down, as I dominated my high school years. I was now studying college degree classes on my own and was becoming an engineering expert.
The summer of 1970 brought Lorain running over to our house crying. My parents and I were sitting at the table eating dinner. We looked at the screen door and Lorain was standing there, bawling her eyes out. I quickly got up and ran to my best friend. I pushed the door open and Lorain jumped into my arms.
It took me a little time to get her to settled down. She explained to me, her father was leaving the Air Force and taking a job with Lockheed Co
rporation, in Santa Monica, California.
Lorain has only known, Edwards Air Force Base, as her home. I was her very special best friend and now she was leaving me and her home forever. My parents have known for several months, the Anderson’s would be moving soon, but they didn’t tell me.
I put all my regular summer activities on hold, so I could spend every minute with Lorain. A week before my tenth birthday, the Anderson’s were gone and their house was empty.
CHAPTER-2 After my tenth birthday, my parents took me to UCLA, to meet a psychology professor, Dr. Leonard Alford. My mother has known the doctor for years. UCLA has created a special school for gifted children. Dr. Alford spent five hours with me, to see if I would be a good fit, for the new school.
While Dr. Alford and I talked, Mary took Bradly on a walking tour, of the UCLA campus. She was surprise to see all the changes made on campus, since she was here in 1952.
By the time she and Bradly returned to Dr. Alford’s office, he was absolutely convinced, I would be the perfect fit for their new program. He was also convinced that my IQ was higher than any of the other gifted student, now enrolled in the program.
After spending another day at UCLA, mom and dad told Dr. Alford, they will let me make up my own mind, about attending school here. We drove back to Edwards Air Force Base and I was quiet, sitting in the back seat.
I knew the schools on the base, could not give me the education I deserved. I was still only ten years old and leaving home was worrying me, as well as my parents.
The program at UCLA would place the young students in separate secured dorms, with constant adult supervision. The students would be well fed and would have access to the dorms kitchen for snacks, twenty four hours a day.
I knew it was an excellent program, but it would not be like home. I have the best mother and father any child could want. They loved me deeply, although they didn’t always understand me.
My parents and I only had a few days to make a decision. I would need time to settle in at UCLA, before starting classes September 8th.
Alien Among Us (TJ Steele Book 1) Page 3