The Thought Pushers (Mind Dimensions #2)(44)

“Yes,” he says. “They told me a woman gave me to them. A woman they’d never met before or after the adoption. Someone whose identity I was never able to discover.”

There seems to be a deep sadness to that part of the story. He clearly yearns to know more about his origins. I can relate, but I don’t want to share my version of this story. Not if I have to reveal the names of my parents. So instead I say, “What about your abilities? Did you, like me, discover what you can do on your own?”

“Yes. It was during a car accident that I discovered that I was able to stop time—what everyone here calls Splitting into the Mind Dimension.”

“For me, it was a bike accident,” I say, smiling. “And I called it the Quiet.”

Thomas returns my smile. “Did you also Guide someone on your own?” he asks. “I called it Hypnotizing.”

“No. The first time I was able to do that deliberately was today, when Liz decided to test me to see if I’m a Guide,” I say. “You discovered it on your own?”

“Yeah, it happened during a fight. I got into a lot of those as a kid,” he says, his eyes getting a faraway, nostalgic look. “I stopped time to practice punching the bully I was fighting. As I was practice-hitting him in that mode, I also really willed him to trip. He was much bigger, and getting him on the ground was my only chance to walk away without some serious damage. Afterwards, he did trip. I, being a kid, wondered if that was because I’d willed it so hard. So the next time I got into a fight, I tried to repeat that trick. I did it during other fights until one day, I realized that I could do more than just make people fall over.”

“Oh, I am so jealous,” I say earnestly. “The fun I could’ve had if I’d discovered this as a kid.”

“It only sounds fun in theory,” he says seriously. “I thought I was completely insane.”

“Ah, I was about to ask how it happened that you know Liz also.”

“Well, before I was able to Guide people, I tried telling my parents about time stopping—”

“I did that too,” I interrupt, excited.

“Right. So the result was probably the same too. They took me to see a psychiatrist,” he says.

“Yep,” I say, nodding my head.

“Did Liz tell you how in cases like ours, all roads lead to her?” he asks, glancing in her direction.

“No, she didn’t. Are you saying I was led to Liz on purpose?”

Thomas smiles again. “This is how it works,” he says. “She made herself known as an expert on the exact sort of ‘delusional symptoms’ someone like us might report. She wrote a few articles on the step-outside-the-world delusion, giving this phenomenon a psychobabble explanation, something about it being a way for some intelligent and slightly-too-introspective kids to cope with the world going too fast around them. So after a few doctors didn’t know what to do with me, they referred me to her, the expert. The same thing happened to you, I bet.”

“That’s exactly what happened, yes.”

“I think that happens to pretty much anyone in our situation in NYC—not that our situation is common, of course. Once I met Liz, and once I shared my Guiding experiences with her, she brought me into this world,” he says, waving his hand in a gesture meant to encompass the whole room.

“Okay, I’m even more jealous now. Just to think, had I not avoided getting into fights, I would’ve discovered Guiding and joined this community much earlier in my life,” I say.

“You don’t want to have had my childhood.” Thomas’s face darkens. “Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted to join the Guides at that price.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to trivialize. I’m just saying it must’ve been cool to know what you are and that you weren’t crazy. Besides, I bet eventually the bullies had to leave you alone.”

“They did,” he says curtly. I have a feeling some bullies of Thomas’s past got a lot more than they bargained for. Good for him. Hell, if people stop trying to kill me for a few days, I’m tempted to make the time to find John, my own childhood nemesis. Now that I can Guide, he might get the urge to literally go f*ck himself.

“It was nice to know I wasn’t insane,” Thomas says in a lighter tone when I remain silent. “I guess you had it tough in your own way. But hey, all’s well that ends well, right?”

“Exactly,” I say, happy that the topic is getting less sinister. I’m about to say more, but I notice Liz making her way back to us.

“Can you guys continue this later?” she says, sipping a pink drink. “I still need to introduce Darren to everyone, and since I have to leave early today, I’d like to get that task out of the way.”

“Of course. I have to leave anyway,” Thomas says.

“Okay, I’ll give you a call, and maybe we can do coffee in a few days,” I say.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agrees with a smile.

“Okay, now that you have a man date, let’s go,” Liz says teasingly. Seeing my shrink joking and clearly buzzed is weird, to say the least.

As we walk away, she takes me by the arm and leads me around, introducing me to the people in the room.

I’m terrible with names, so I hope there isn’t a quiz later, because I would fail it. I do notice a pattern, though. We all have some facial features in common, in the way Liz alluded to earlier. And whatever it is, I haven’t noticed it with Readers. All these people seem rather interesting in their own ways, and I hope that with time, I’ll get to know all of them.