The Gifted (7 page)

“Smile?” said Han.

“I think it's a girl thing,” said Guido.

“Okay, so you trust him?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said, “What’s not to trust?”

“That’s what I think,” I said. Then I
whispered in Guido’s ear, “But I think Tracy likes Abe.”

“Hey, what are you guys whispering about?”
she said. But before we could say anything there was another knock
at the door. Guido opened it.

A skinny boy with long dark hair said, “Seven
o’clock. It's time for our morning run.”

“Run?” Tracy said.

“We do it every morning,” he said. “It keeps
us in shape. By the way, you won’t need that sweatshirt.”

“Okay!” I took it off and we followed.

He led us outside where a large group of kids
were gathered in front of the school. The sun was just rising over
the ocean but it was already very warm. Kids were warming up,
stretching, doing jumping jacks and push-ups on the beach. When we
got there, Abe stood up from a deep stretch. “Let’s begin!” he said
and started to jog along the flat terrain. We followed.

“It’s hot out here,” said Han who ran next to
me, a little out of breath. “The tropics.”

It certainly was. We got to see a bit more of
the island having run around much of it. A lot of the shore was
rocky and covered by white lichen. In some spots there were sandy
beaches, and I felt it would be nice to be in the water there. As I
looked to my left, I saw an area much like a park with short,
scraggly grass.

After perhaps 20 minutes, we came upon a
small harbor for ships. Most of these looked small, like private
boats, but as we passed I saw two men loading guns onto one of
them.

We ran in a long loop for perhaps half an
hour and if it had not been for our training, I’m sure I would have
not been able to keep up. The heat became unbearable as we jogged a
couple more miles before returning back to the main brick building.
For some reason, the heat made the run seem harder.

Fortunately, it was much cooler inside. We
showered and got ready for breakfast which was eaten in a large,
well-lit dining room. Besides the fluorescent lights, windows were
lined up on one side, bringing in sunshine and a view of a long
grassy slope. At breakfast we had oatmeal and fruit, very
healthy.

We huddled together but didn’t talk much when
we ate. All of us were still tired from our run. Tracy, usually the
talkative one, just picked at her food silently. When we had
finished we didn't know what was next, so we watched those around
us hoping for some clue. When we saw others cleaning up, we did the
same. Afterwards we noticed that students went in one of two
directions: some left the room on the north side and some on the
south side. We didn't know what to make of this.

“I don't get it,” Guido said. “Is it a
boy-girl thing?”

“No,” said Tracy, “See, there are girls going
both ways.”

“Well then what do we do?” said Guido
again.

“Confused?” said a friendly voice. It was
Abe. “I'm sure you are. A decision will need to be made at this
juncture. On the north are the Mixed Arts kids. In the south are
Focused Arts. Each of these has advantages, but you cannot be in
both, so choose carefully.”

“What’s the difference?” asked Tracy.

Abe gave her a bright smile. “Focused means
you focus on your specific ability. There, you will learn proven
techniques that will greatly enhance the use of your power.”

“The Mixed Arts kids are a sharing group. If
you go with them you will lose some of your own ability, but you
will also gain parts of other people's abilities. It is a
phenomenal thing!”

“I didn't even know that was possible!” I
said.

He smiled. “We have learned some things here
that I don't think have been discovered anywhere else,” he said.
“Stick around and I think you'll be impressed.”

I looked at the others. “Can we think about
this?” Tracy asked.

“Sure, but remember, once you chose you must
stay on that path. That’s the rule. Stay here until you decide,
then chose a direction. And don't worry, you will still see each
other back in your rooms and at meals.”

“Thanks,” said Tracy with a big smile on her
face. And then Abe turned his face toward me with a look of
confusion, and paused as if thinking about something. After a
moment, he smiled again and turned towards Focused Arts and walked
off.

“Which way?” asked Han.

“Let's not split up,” I said.

“I agree,” said Han.

“As much as I want to agree with you,” said
Tracy, “I really think if we stay together, we won’t learn as much.
We should try both types and then report on what we learned. If we
ever get out of here, we’ll have more information.”

“Good point,” said Guido. “So how should we
divide?” Everyone was looking at me. Then as if realizing what they
were doing, they all looked away.

“Well,” Tracy said. “
I
would like to
learn other gifts, even if it means losing some of my own.”

“I’m in the same camp,” said Guido.

“Han, you want to go with me?” I said.

“Okay,” said Han, barely above a whisper.

“Great,” I said, “we'll meet back here for
dinner to talk.”

We split up. Tracy and Guido went north and
Han and I went south.

Once we walked through the south entrance,
Han and I entered a hallway that led straight for a little while
with a couple of small rooms on both sides. Each room had a blue
mat on the floor, like in a training dojo. We followed everyone
else to the end of the hallway where it finally opened out onto a
large auditorium. This was the auditorium where we had been
captured on the balcony, but no one was using the balcony now. We
could see a bunch of kids already assembled inside. They were
sitting in chairs and some had notebooks out.

Dozens of rows went downward in steps toward
a stage at the bottom. Someone was standing on the stage. “That
looks like Abe,” I said.

“I think so,” whispered Han.

“Shhhh,” said a kid sitting in front of us.
We found some chairs at the back and sat down.

Abe was already talking, “. . .and remember
that at this academy you are the weapons of choice. If you were to
encounter a situation, and you knew that you had a power that would
be useful, you are the expert on your own ability. I don’t have to
direct you. You are more powerful than you realize on your
own.”

Han whispered, “I can feel it from here.”

“What?” I asked.

“His gift,” said Han.

Abe kept talking. “You should know that we
trust you completely.” He gave a warm smile. I felt that he really
did trust me and I felt privileged. “That's one thing this place is
built on, trust. You trust me and I trust you, because it’s only
together that we can change the world!” I felt like maybe I could
make a difference in the world. “So practice hard. Be the expert in
your field. No two people have yet been found to possess the same
exact powers. That means you’re special. Duplication is what Mixed
Arts students are good at, but you are my black belts in your art.
Be the best you can be in order to crush the enemy. We have powers
which place us above others, so let’s use them to rule!”

Students clapped and he walked off of the
stage while a girl, who looked a little older, came up front. She
was tall and had a large dark braid running down her back. I didn’t
feel the same confidence I did from Abe, but she was pretty and
smiled nicely. She spoke with a low voice for a girl. “Get together
with your trainers and spend some time on the basics before you
move on to specialized training. Trainers, your goal is that
someday those you train will become trainers as well. Today’s focus
will be confusion to the enemy. Have a good session, and remember:
Power to conquer!”

Everyone yelled back, “Power to conquer!” She
walked off the stage and we all got up to leave.

Han and I just looked at each other and stood
up. “Hey, Abe sent me to get Andy,” said a boy about my age and
height. “I will be your trainer.” He looked surprisingly muscular
for his age.

“That’s me!” I tried to act more confident
than I felt and shook his hand. “What about Han here?”

“That would be my job,” came the voice of a
girl. When I turned to see her I was surprised at how pretty she
was and how short.

I could tell Han was a bit embarrassed.
“Sorry about that,” I whispered to Han. He just nodded back.

“Follow me,” said the boy. “I already got a
training room checked out for us.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem,” he said, “My name is
Derek.”

“Hi Derek.” He led me through the hall and
down a series of turns so that by the time we found our training
room I was totally lost.

“Here we are,” he said. “Room 54.”

We stepped inside to a small rectangular
room. The floor had a blue mat on the ground, like the rooms I saw
on the way in, and on it, to one side, I saw a strange collection
of objects lined up along the wall: a punching bag, a unicycle, a
set of dice in a clear box, a stack of notebooks, some pens and
crayons, a small stack of books, a jar of pickles, two bowling
balls, two pillows, a double-bladed axe, a cheap guitar, a large
flashlight, some Legos, and a small, broken laptop.

Derek turned to me and smiled. “Two targets
today: focus and confusing the enemy. Since you’re new, we’ll
probably spend most of the time on focus. What have you got?”

“I've only got me,” I said.

“Right,” he said, “but how can you improve on
the power that already comes naturally?”

“Improve?” I asked.

“Yes. The whole point of this practice is to
focus your power. Have you learned how to do that?”

I looked at him, confused. “You can do
that?'

“Okay, I see we’re starting from scratch
here,” he said. “They should have brought you through the basic
training module first, but I'll give you the highlights.”

“I can't take you through all five
disciplines of course, but I can tell you a little. This power you
have originates in your brain. In order to focus it, you must have
control over your thoughts. You have to focus on your goal,
ignoring all else.”

“Okay,” I said. “What do I do?”

“I can tell your gift influences a person’s
emotions because I can feel it, but I don’t know the details.” If
he just knew about that smile of his. “How about you focus that on
your target and then make it bigger than life in your mind. This is
like using your imagination, but stronger. It just means you think
about what you want to do and concentrate on it.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll try.”

“To begin, imagine what it is you want to
accomplish.”

Since all I could do was get people to like
me or help me, I focused on getting Derek to pat me on the back. It
felt silly, but I did it. I tried to focus, imagining him taking
steps over to me to pat me on the back. I saw him doing this in my
mind. I was surprised when at that moment I felt a solid pat on my
back a few times. It somehow didn’t feel right that I was
manipulating this guy. “Hey, I’m sure you can do it if you try,” he
said.

“I just did,” I said.

“Really? Was that your goal, to get me to pat
you on the back?”

“That was it,” I said.

“Wow,” he said. “I thought I came up with
that on my own. I just felt like giving you a pat on the back. If I
knew better, and was trying to resist, I would have been able to.
If, however, I didn’t know you had such a power at all, I would
have been putty in your hands. Now let's keep working on this. Pick
another thing, and try not to embarrass me too much.”

This went on for a couple more hours and I
got him to give me a handshake, pick up something I dropped, and
even give me a backrub. I still wasn’t sure I felt right about what
I was doing though. After that, we went to lunch.

At lunch I sat with Han and we talked about
what had happened. “Let me guess,” I said. “Did he talk about
focusing?”

“Yes, that's it,” he said.

“Did you learn anything about their plans?” I
asked Han.

“No, not yet,” he said.

“We still don’t have anything on their
intentions,” I said. “Or why they’re kidnapping kids. That’s what
we came for. Did you hear that thing about power to conquer?”

“Yeah, scary,” he said.

“And what happened to the others?” I
asked.

“I don’t know,” said Han.

Just then I saw Abe walking towards our
table. “Hey, since you are the new guys, I wanted you to know that
after lunch everyone from both sides meet in the main auditorium
where the Focused Arts kids meet. It’s our lecture time.”

“Great,” I said with a groan, “lecture
time.”

After eating, we cleared our table and headed
toward the auditorium again. We saw Tracy and Guido sitting halfway
down the room and sat next to them. “What happened to you guys?” I
asked.

“We’ll tell you later,” said Tracy. “I want
to hear this.”

The students got quiet as a portly man in a
white lab coat stood up front and began to speak. “I would like to
present to you some recent groundbreaking research from our labs,”
he said. “You have heard much about our research into the
phenomenon you call powers. As far as we know, no other countries
have learned as much or delved as deeply into understanding these
powers. In fact, most have yet to discover them!” He seemed excited
by this. “What you possess is so rare, that there may be small
countries that don’t even have a single child with your abilities.
And always around the age of ten! This, we cannot figure out.”

He paused for a second, as if he forgot what
he was talking about. Then continued, “This has made discovery very
difficult because not everyone who has these abilities want others
to know about it. For instance, in Tanzania. . .” I began to tune
him out. He just got started and I was already bored. And tired. I
closed my eyes and nodded off.