Colorblind (The Soul Light Chronicles)

by Aaron Slade

“Michael Valentine? The physics teacher’s son?”

  Adam nodded.

  It wasn’t great news. I didn’t know Michael, or at least the two of us had never spoken. I didn’t trust him enough to ask about Evee’s future.

  “We just have to get through the day,” Adam said. “We don’t need to see the future. And don’t worry, because I’m going to be there when they examine you. If anything goes wrong, I’ll teleport you a thousand miles away before anyone can react.”

  I swallowed hard. “Thanks.”

  “What are brothers for?” He forced a happy expression, but I still hadn’t seen his aura.

  I left Adam outside the school and walked to Dad’s office. He wanted to see me this morning before I submitted to the examination. The secretaries allowed me to enter his office, and I found him sitting at his desk with the paper as if it were any other morning. His office was hauntingly quiet, except for the crinkling of the paper, which he lowered when he noticed my presence.

  “Have you read the paper this morning?” he asked.

  “No,” I answered. “Should I?” I angled my head so that I could see the article that he was reading. I saw that it was the same picture as yesterday’s paper of me flying above the street.

  “The Military put their twist on the story,” he said. “The new article says the person in the picture is dangerous. The whole town is going to believe that the person flying is a criminal or murderer after they read the paper.” He slammed the paper down on his desk.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said. I needed him to be strong so that I could be strong. It was easier to not be scared if the people around me could be brave. At the moment, Dad’s aura was gone, which I interpreted as a sign of his fear.

  Dad caught his composure. A small smile returned to his face. “Did I ever tell you about the day I heard I was going to have a child?”

  I shook my head. “You don’t have to…” I began.

  “I know,” he interrupted. “But I want you to hear this.” The emotion grew stronger in his voice, forcing him to whisper. “Too much could go wrong today for me to not tell you this story.”

  I took a seat in the empty chair in front of his desk. “Tell me.”

  He gathered his thoughts, and cleared his throat. “Your Mom was having trouble getting pregnant. Eventually we gave up trying, because it was killing both of us. We wanted a child. It nearly killed me to think that I wouldn’t be a father. It’s always been my dream to be a father.” He took a deep breath. “Having a child isn’t always easy. But one day– one random day– your mom told me that she thought she was pregnant. We rushed to the base to have the doctors look at her. Amanda didn’t want to get her hopes up, so she wouldn’t say a word to me until the doctors had seen her.” His smile grew bigger, allowing his aura to return. “The whole day, I wondered if it would be a boy or a girl, or what kind of personality they would have, or if they would look like me or Amanda.”

  A thin, silvery tear glistened in the corner of his eye. “I wanted a son. More than anything… I wanted a son, and I wanted to name him Casper... Casper Vance.” He stood up and walked around to the side of the desk where I was sitting. “I’ve dreamed about you my whole life. I never wanted anything more than you… and nothing changed when they told us that you were human.”

  I felt a wet heat in the back of my eyes.

  “The day you were born, I was speechless. I’d never seen anything so beautiful. When I finally got to hold you, I remember thinking just how perfect you were. I knew you were special the first time you smiled.” He picked up one of my pictures of his desk, and focused on it.

  “I guess you got more than you bargained for, huh?” I said.

  “It’s not your ability that makes you special, Casper,” he said. “I’ve known for a long time that it’s your heart that makes you different from everyone else.” He exhaled, closed his eyes, and then continued. “If your extra-human trait is connected to your ability to love… then there’s nothing you can’t do.”

  “That’s what Uncle Jesse said,” I told him.

  “He would know,” Dad said, grinning. “He’s helped me keep an eye on you all these years, and he’s told me several times how unique you are. He said being in your head was different from other people’s minds. He told me that you show more compassion than anyone he’s ever met… except for maybe your mother. Jesse told me when you were thirteen that any other person would have given up if they had to face the hate you tackled every day. If you can survive that, then this family can survive today.”

  It was easy to believe him. His aura came to life, shining a faint rosy shadow around him. I felt its energy and I became more positive as well. The light in the room sent chills down my spine, and goose bumps began to form on my arms.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I responded. “It’s just really intense being around you right now.” I explained to him that his aura was brighter than I could stand at the moment. The endless wave of chills was impossible to escape when we were this close.

  “I love you,” he said. His aura gave a brief flash with the words.

  “I love you, too.”

  I left his office and made my way to first period. The soldiers in the narrow halls made the school even more crowded and cramped. I recognized some of the soldiers. Some of them graduated from Fallon and recognized me. They didn’t have a clue what they were helping the Military to do, following their orders without question. I wondered how mortified they would be to discover the truth about everything.

  Mrs. White wasn’t in a good mood today. While at school, her peach aura was never more than a dim hue, but today it was non-existent. I guessed she was angry about the presence of the Military, which was more evident by her stern facial expression. I took my seat behind Evee, who for the second day in a row came to school in her phantom body, and like most everyone else, her aura was nearly gone as well.

  “Are you nervous?” she whispered.

  “I have no reason to be nervous,” I replied. “I’m human– they’re not going to find anything.”

  Mrs. White took her position behind the podium at the front of the classroom.

  “Well, class,” she started, “we won’t be learning any history today with the registration happening.” Her nostrils flared and the muscles in her face tightened. “Your teachers will be dismissing their students all day long by alphabetical order to go down to the gymnasium for the examination.”

  Sara’s hand immediately shot in the air. “Are we supposed to have any birth records with us? It would be really hard for me to demonstrate my extra-human trait. They would just have to take my word for it that I’m a brain.”

  “Recite the number Pi to as many decimal places as you possibly can,” Mrs. White replied. “Make sure they listen and write it all down.” She smirked. Her peach aura flashed as she made the suggestion to Sara, but the light vanished when her lips straightened out of the mischievous grin.

  The class laughed, but it was clear not everyone found Mrs. White entertaining.

  “Isn’t this registration a good thing?” Molly asked. She sat behind the twins. “If this person who can fly is as dangerous as the Military says, we should want them to do this so they can find this person.”

  The twins, Kristy and Kelly, nodded in agreement, followed by a few other students, who now carried the Military’s version of the newspaper article. I rolled my eyes thinking how the day before the girls had been doting admirers of the person in the picture.

  “I’m not disagreeing with you,” Mrs. White said. “But I can’t imagine one of this school’s students being involved in the type of criminal activity like the Military is claiming.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a joke.”

  “If they don’t find the culprit today, the Military is going to conduct a registration for the entire town,” Evee replied. “I don’t think it’s a student either, Mrs. White.”

  “Is that what your dad thinks?” Sara asked.


  Everyone in the class waited for Evee’s response. All heads turned toward her.

  “I can’t say,” she responded. She acted as if she had already said too much. The class burst into conversation when Evee quit talking.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her. I made sure nobody was paying any attention to us.

  She smiled. “Now they think it’s not a student. If they all think that my dad thinks it’s not a student, this should go a lot smoother.”

  “What does your dad think?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t know whether it’s a student or an adult,” she divulged. “But if the students all believe it’s an adult, he won’t be looking as hard today.”

  I laughed. Her skills of manipulating large crowds were something she must have learned from her father. Sara looked nervous, as if she had forgotten to study for a test. Evee reassured her that the examination would be quick. I felt bad that Sara was the only one in our circle that didn’t know the truth, but the information was too dangerous. Mom and Dad agreed that I shouldn’t tell anyone else.

  When she’d finished taking roll, Mrs. White ordered the class to be quiet. “If your last name begins with A though H go down to the gym for further instruction.”

  Only a few people in the class stood up and gathered their belongings, including Evee and Sara. Evee did her best to stay positive, but her struggle was something that only I could notice. Her cyan aura was nonexistent.

  When the students left, Mrs. White addressed the class again. “You can either talk quietly or read. I suggest you make use of your free time– you have a test next week.”

  With Evee and Sara gone, my options for talking were limited. The students that remained in the classroom weren’t chatty. I opened A Guide to Extra-human Traits, and found the chapter labeled Precogs - Seers. The chapter was several pages long, but one paragraph stood out.

  All the research that’s been conducted on precogs reveals that the future cannot be easily altered. The future is not as random and shapeless as some might believe, but rather a place where certain events happen regardless of human interference. Can the future be changed? The answer is yes, the future can be changed by manipulating certain variables, but some events cannot be avoided. The Universe is like a scale working to keep all finite energy balanced. When the future deviates from the Universe’s natural course, a balance will be found.

  The reading was over my head, but I struggled through the paragraph several times, attempting to further my understanding. The important thing was that Dr. Miller believed the future could be changed. Evee didn’t have to die, but what variables did I have to change in order for that to happen?

  By second period, Evee and I reunited. She told me the examination was a joke– for her at least. Colonel Ford had been there, and he got her information and told her she could leave. For some reason he didn’t want her to have the neuroimaging scan. Evee didn’t think her father’s behavior odd. She assumed he wanted the obvious out of the way. He knew Evee couldn’t fly.

  “The longest part was waiting in line,” Evee said.

  She spent the rest of the morning doing her best to reassure me that it was quick and painless. The morning had been filled with tension, but by the afternoon, once more students passed the registration, the student body calmed down. So far, as I expected, everyone passed the examination, but a little less than half of the students still hadn’t been dismissed to the gymnasium.

  Since my last name started with a V, it was bound to be after lunch before my examination. It started to feel like less of a big deal. My fear lifted as the day passed, and each student returned from the gym as if it was nothing to worry about. The neuroimaging concerned me, but Mom and Dad said that several had scientists searched for Ghost Matter in my brain and found nothing.

  The only thing that worried me was the general hate that everyone now had for the person in the picture. Yesterday I was the hero for being able to fly, even if nobody realized it was me. But today I was hated like usual, even though they still didn’t realize it was me. The new article that the Military wrote did its job. Flying was no longer miraculous, but a horror and a threat. The article gave contact information for anyone that knew anything about the person seen flying. I hoped no one else had seen me and that there would be nothing else to report.

  I ran into Dad several times in the hallways between classes. Each time we saw each other, our eyes met. It was a simple gesture of encouraging the other to keep up the charade and be strong. The day was halfway over, and all the pressure would be off me soon enough.

  Evee and I walked into our fourth period class. Randy sat next to us again when we took our seats.

  “Have either of you been registered yet?” Randy asked.

  “I have, but Casper has to wait until after lunch,” Evee said. It was easy for me to be strong when she was so close. Evee seemed to believe without a doubt that I would be fine. Her change in confidence only happened after she’d returned from the gym.

  “Are you even required to do it, Casper?” Randy asked. “I’m only asking because you’re human.” He had a suggestive tone that Evee and I both detected.

  Randy had seen me use my ability, but he’d only seen me withstand fire. I worried if he might connect me to the picture in the paper. He had no reason to think I could fly, and I doubted he would be able to figure it out. He wasn’t the brightest person.

  “I’ve been examined before,” I said. “My parents have medical documents declaring that I’m human. If the Military can prove differently, I’ll be glad to see what they find.” I did my best to keep my poker face strong and saw the doubt shroud Randy’s face.

  “Wouldn’t it be awesome if they did find something?” Evee suggested. She did her best to play along, and she captured the attention of the class. “If they found out that you did have an ability, Casper, what would you want it to be?”

  Answering the question, I thought, could be potentially dangerous, but several students waited for an answer.

  “I bet he would want to teleport like his dad,” I heard from across the room. It was Shaun Stivers, who was one of Randy’s friends. It was the first casual thing he’d ever said to me, even if he said it indirectly.

  “Nah,” I replied. “I would much rather have telekinetic abilities.” I remembered being younger and telekinesis being the ability I wanted most.

  “My mom has that,” Kristen Nephew said. It was her first time to talk to me as well. “It looks fun, but I would rather have what my dad has if I got to choose– he has extra-human strength. My car got stuck in a ditch last week and he was able to get it out with no problems.”

  She waited on me to respond. “Being stronger would be fun, but I also wouldn’t mind having extra-human intelligence.”

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” another student answered. “I think Evee’s ability is the best EHT I’ve ever heard of– I would want that one.”

  “I like Evee’s ability a lot,” I confessed. “But it’s hard to interact with her phantom body sometimes.” Some people in the class snickered when I said this.

  “Show us Evee,” Randy urged. “I’ve never seen you do it.”

  “I’m in my phantom body now,” she said. “But I don’t like showing off.” Her smile was genuine and her aura shined strong. Everyone in the class had a colorful hue around them. After much pleading from Randy, Evee decided to show everyone her ability.

  The class marveled at her ability as she walked through the walls and doors. She even walked through some of the students. A few people needed Evee’s ability explained, thinking that she could merely phase through solid objects. Some of our classmates tried to touch her body, and the same look of shock hit them as it had me the first time.

  “I change my answer,” Shaun Stivers said. “I would want mental projection too.”

  “Okay, Casper,” Randy said, gathering everyone’s attention. “Since you’re human, you can give an unbiased answer. What are the three bes
t abilities?”

  I paused before I answered. I didn’t want anyone to know that I had secretly thought about this before– my whole life actually. “I’ll base my answer on how useful an EHT is. Teleporting would be my number one, and then I think I would choose mind reading.” The room erupted with people agreeing and disagreeing. “And my other choice for best abilities would be… flying.”

  This grabbed everyone’s attention. I answered the question honestly, and I didn’t think it would cause any speculation.

  “Can you imagine being able to fly?” Shaun asked. “I would never step foot on the ground again.”

  My answer started a poll in the class. Everyone talked about what they would do if they could fly. “I would fly so high, Fallon would be nothing but a dot,” Mallory Horn voiced. As the hypothetical scenarios continued, even Randy said that he would rather fly than control fire.

  “What about you, Evee?” Randy asked. “What would you do if you could fly?”

  She took a moment to think. “I’d dance on a cloud,” she said. She twirled in place to give a demonstration. Some of the guys in the class laughed, but the girls seemed to sympathize with her answer. Evee’s eyes caught mine, and our silence did all the talking for us.

  It was as if I was a normal student. People looked at me as if I had something worth saying for the first time in my life. They treated me like an equal, not an unworthy subhuman.

  Suddenly, it hit me that Evee hadn’t charmed just me, but others as well. It was because of her that Randy and I had become friends. I guessed that the rest of the class followed his lead by acting friendly towards me. I was amazed so many people had questions that they’d wanted to ask me and that they were truly interested in my answers.

  I wondered how much of the prejudice directed at me might be my own fault. I’d never tried talking to many of them, and I assumed since they weren’t talking to me they had no interest in me. I discovered that some of them had a lingering curiosity about me. Many of my classmates assumed that because I didn’t have an ability my life must be much more difficult because of it. I told them that my life was fairly simple, and being human wasn’t as difficult as they might think.