Saved and SAINTified (13 page)

“I understand it. When I was little, I did it too, but I
—”

“You can do it too, Daddy?” Hassani asked excitedly. “Really?! Let me see!”
He bobbed up and down on the bed. “Let me see, Daddy!”

S
aint smiled. “Well, I haven’t done it in a while, but yes, I can move things, too. It takes a lot of concentration; it can make you exhausted, right?”

“
Yes, I get real tired, Daddy. But it’s fun!”

“What made you decide to try it the first time?” S
aint asked as he relaxed and leaned back onto the bed. 

“You and Mommy made me come to
my room one night. You said I was being bad.”

S
aint laughed. “Okay, so you came in here and then what?”

“I was bored. I looked at Mr. Rob.” He pointed across the room to the three-foot robot with large oval green eyes and
a wide cartoonish smile.

“Mr. Rob, the robot? What did you do next?”

“Daddy, I looked and looked and looked at Mr. Rob for a long, long, long, long, long, long time, and then he moved.”

“Mmmm, hmmm. What happened next?”

Saint clasped his hands together. Just then, he saw Hassani’s bedroom door open. Xenia stood there, her purple robe wrapped around her body as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

“You were taking so long, honey, I wanted to see what was going on. You were whispering so I couldn’t understand what you were saying over the monitor
  ...  then I realized you’d cut it off! Hassani, are you okay?” she asked as she shot Saint a look.

Hassani nodded.

“Xenia, it appears we have a little magician in the family.” Saint gave her a knowing look. “Come, have a seat next to me and let’s watch Hassani put on one final show for the evening.”

Xenia
scratched her scarf covered head and made her way over to Saint and Hassani. Saint grabbed her around the waist, and playfully pulled her down onto his lap, eliciting a little scream of delight from her.

“Okay, what have you two been up to?” she asked
when she got situated and crossed her legs.

“I was telling Daddy, Mommy, how I made Mr. Rob move.”

“Yes. He has an ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch and a remote control. We’ve seen it.”

“No, not like that,
Mommy.”

“
Xenia, just watch this,” Saint said quietly as he patted her thigh. “Go ahead, Hassani. Make Mr. Rob move.”

Xenia
looked over at Hassani as he stared intensely at the robot. After several minutes passed, she said, “What is going on here? It’s getting late, Saint.The boy needs to go to bed.”

“Shhhh!” S
aint whispered. “It takes a minute to get back into gear once you’ve stopped. Just watch, baby.”

A couple minutes later,
Xenia’s legs flew in the air as she backed into Saint so hard, she slammed him against the corner of the lower bunk bed. Her scream rang out as she watched Mr. Rob light up, then float into the air toward them.

“Oh my God! He doesn’t fly
. He isn’t supposed to fly!” she screamed, clutching Saint at the neck for dear life. Suddenly, Mr. Rob crashed on the ground.

“Hassani, you need to practice your shut
off and let down. Do it gently. It requires patience and self-control,” Saint said calmly as he moved from around Xenia and sat behind his son. He took each of his arms and pushed them out in front. “Now, I want you to lift Mr. Rob back into the air and keep him there and then I will take over and show you how to do a gentle let down.”

“A gentle
let down? Shut off? What the hell is going on in here?!” Xenia stayed glued in the corner of the bed, her robe wound so tight around her, all of her curves and dips were clearly identifiable.

S
aint put his finger up for more time. “Baby.” He looked over his shoulder at her—the poor thing was a ball of nerves. “I will explain it all in just a second. Okay, go ahead Hassani.”

Mr. Rob floated back into the air, teetering. “Okay, leave him there, and I will take him.” S
aint continued to hold out his son’s arms. “Do you feel that?”

“Yes
,” Hassani said quietly.

“What does it feel like?”

“It … it is hard to say.”

“Does it vibrate through your body?’

Hassani nodded.

“Right, that is a transfer of power. I’m taking over, but you can still feel what I’m doing. Now, because you are tired, it is easy to let the toy just fall to the ground, but then you risk breaking him. So, what you want to do is narrow your eyes, concentrate even harder and straighten your back.”

Hassani straightened his back.

“Good, now breathe out, deep and slowly.” Hassani
did as told. “Very good. Your back is straight—you are sending a directive for the robot to go straight down. The deep breath means slowly. Exhale with your mouth open … and the object, or whatever it is, will do exactly as you wish.”

Hassani smiled as he watched Mr. Rob go slowly to the floor in an upright position.

“Wow, Daddy!” Hassani jumped off the bed and ran over to the robot. “Do it again!”

“Not tonight, partner. As you can see, it took a lot of energy and that is why you never see Daddy do it. When I have done it, as an adult, there was always a reason. Anyway, we will discuss this more later. You need to go to sleep.”

“Awwww!” Hassani pouted as he rolled around on the floor.

“Does anyone in this room, besides Mr. Rob, care to tell me what the hell just happened in here?”
Xenia asked as she peeled herself away from the corner of the bed. “What do you have my baby doing, Saint?”

S
aint looked at her. “Your
baby
was doing this all on his own, Xenia. This is why he has been so tired. He figured out he can move things around. He—”

“So you
both
have ESP?”

Hassani leapt off the floor playfully and began to pick up his toys.

“It appears so. We both can do telekinesis and I’m guessing he will be able to, once he is fully developed, have telepathic conversations.”

“What’s that,
Daddy?” Hassani looked over at his parents.

“Telekinesis is the ability to move something without physically touching it
. It’s what we just did with Mr. Rob. Telepathy is the ability to dialogue, to talk with another person, without opening your mouth. Essentially, you can read their mind and communicate back and forth with them, but you aren’t using your lips.”

Hassani looked perplexed.

“Hassani, we will talk more about this in the morning. It’s late, you’re tired and sleepy.”

Xenia
leaned over to Saint and whispered, “This is the beginning of it …
isn’t
it?” He could hear the tremor in her voice. He moved closer to her to soothingly rub her arm and felt her shaking. “I’m worried for him, Saint…”

He knew she just wanted her children to be, well, just children
  ...  but they had his genes; there was no way to avoid this.

“Baby, I’ll take care of it. This really isn’t anything to be concerned about
,” he assured, and he meant it.

Abruptly,
Xenia turned away. “What if, what if someone finds out about it and tries to take him away? What if he tells someone and they think my baby is crazy?” He could feel her mother’s love filling the room. She was in protect mode and Hassani was the cub she was willing to sacrifice everything for.

“
Xenia.” Saint lowered his eyes as he hugged her. “Don’t you know people like me are all over the place? You walk past us probably more than you know and we manage. But even better than that, he has help, Xenia. That’s what he has
me
for. He will
never
have to guess, or be alone in this…”

Xenia
looked over at Hassani. She stood and took her son into her arms, kissed the top of his head, squeezed him tight.

“Now look, don’t baby him,” S
aint said as he chewed his bottom lip. He lay back onto the bed, bringing the two of them toward him. “He’ll be okay.”

“You can forget about that, I’m his mama.”

Saint smiled down at her as he cradled her between his thighs and kept Hassani close to his side. He closed his eyes and sighed.

“Now, Hassani, I need you to promise me, son, that you won’t tell anyone about this and don’t let anyone see you doing it, except your mother and I. I’d prefer you not do it at all, but I know it is still too exciting
. However, you must be careful, do you hear me?”

“Okay, I promise
,” Hassani said as he twirled a corner of his light blue blanket.

“And don’t show Dakarai this yet, please. It won’t have to always be a secret, but it’s best he not see you do it right now. It could upset him.”

“Uh  ...  really?”

“Yes, really.” Perplexed by Hassani’s response, S
aint sat up and turned his son toward him. “Have you already shown him? I thought this was happening late at night only?”

“No, he hasn’t seen me, but…”

“But what?” Xenia asked, her tone full of concern.

Hassani looked down at the ground.

“Hassani.” Saint sighed. “Look, you have nothing to be scared about, little man. What is it? Can Dakarai do it too?” His heart beat out of his chest. He really didn’t want the answer, but he already knew it as soon as the question left his lips.

Hassani shrugged
. “I don’t know, Daddy … but the babysitter got mad at him.”

S
aint and Xenia looked at each other. “About what, baby?” Xenia asked. She whispered to Saint. “Chantel tells me
everything
they do!”

“Dakarai can’t even read. He only know tha alphabet.”

“What does reading have to do with this?” Saint asked as he ushered Hassani onto his lap.

“Chantel said
… Chantel said Dakarai was on her computer readin’ her perboneal stuff and…”

“
Personal
stuff, and what?”

“Because she said
…” Hassani looked down at the ground and kicked his legs frantically back and forth over the side of the bed, “…she said he had read her stuff because he told her what she was typing … But he just turned three. He can’t read good.”

“He can’t read
well
…” Saint ran his fingers through his hair, his nerves frayed. “How could I have missed this?!”

“Missed what, Daddy?”

“Never mind, so are you telling me that Chantel was typing something and then a little while later, Dakarai told her what she typed?”

“Yes, that is what Chantel said. She said it was perb, I mean, personal.”

“What did Dakarai say?”

Hassani smiled sheepishly. S
aint rolled his eyes and slapped his own knee, “Come on, now … what did Dakarai say, Hassani?”

“She was writing to her booooyfriend!” Hassani giggled.

Xenia’s eyes bucked. “No wonder she didn’t tell me about this.” She chewed her lip as she rubbed her legs over the thin, purple silk fabric.

“She was talking about
  ... kissing him. That’s what Day-Day said.” Hassani burst out laughing and covered his reddened face with his hands, while jumping up and down.

Dakarai can read thoughts? I will have to talk to him about this later, in private…

“Okay, I think we’ve had enough excitement for one evening.” Saint ushered Xenia up. They stood and waited for Hassani to lie down. Saint tucked him in and rubbed his son’s thick waves back, smiling down at him.

“This is just our little family secret. Don’t tell grandma, auntie, grandpa, not anyone. It will be our little fun time together, okay?”

“Yes, Daddy, I understand. You tol’ me that a bunch of times now.” Hassani huffed in annoyance.

“
Fine. Don’t test me then. I need you to know I mean it.” He kissed his son’s forehead, then he and Xenia walked hand in hand back to their bedroom. He closed and locked the door behind them.

“Alright, where were we?” S
aint said as he slid his robe off, exposing himself unashamedly. She slid fretfully under the sheets, visibly still shaken from the early morning’s charmed events.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, S
aint!”

He slipped under the covers next to her, bumping his pelvis
playfully against her backside.

“What?”

“What?” Xenia turned toward him with a glare. “You’re
honestly
asking me
what
? Uh, I just watched our son and my husband send a damn toy robot into orbit and you think I have a clear enough mind to pick up where we left off? Now, this may be all typical for you. You know, a bunch of shit flying around in the air all by its lonesome is obviously something Mr. Saint sees on a daily basis, but I…”