Mind Calling

"Interesting. OK, I'll let them know. They should be through by the end of the week. We should have everything installed by Friday. Oh, and Bob Foster is sending over a tech with your radio gear on Wednesday. I'll get a desk in there and have a computer with an Internet connection installed too. You'll want to be able to do research in private."

"This is wonderful. Thank you for doing all this."

We went down the back stairs to the workshop. When I snapped on the lights, I saw that Bambi had covered the motorcycle with a large blue tarp.

"I thought it would be best if the number of people who saw that here was kept to a minimum," she said.

"Good idea. I'll ask Neeka to move it around and put it in the back of the garage while the work is going on in here. I don't dare do it myself. I just about peed my pants when I started it up last time. I'm not about to try to drive it." I almost clapped a hand over my mouth when I remembered that I had had to hunt for the hidden key to do that. Bambi looked at me, but said nothing about me poking my nose into things.

There was a pile of gray mats in the corner near the outside door. I went to pull one off the top.

"Those are heavy. Let me help you," Bambi said without thinking. She reached for the other end of the mat and then pulled her hand back and giggled. "Sorry. Let me get out of the way."

I took hold of the loop handle on the side of the mat and braced my legs. I pulled and twisted and the mat sailed across the room and landed on the floor with a loud thump. I put another one next to it. The 5' by 10' mats had Velcro on the edges so they could be connected and would not slide apart. I laid down four of them side by side across the middle of the room so they formed a 10 by 20 foot strip from wall to wall. Now I had a good-sized area to work out in that would not shift around underfoot as I tumbled on it.

I did a few cartwheels and somersaults to break in the exercise area. It felt good to be able to stretch and the workout put me in a good mood. After I was warmed up, I convinced Bambi to get down on the mat with me for a different kind of workout that put both of us in a better mood.

I was still humming a happy tune when I went to do my homework at the desk in the family room. It was mostly 'read chapter so and so' and I was able to get it done in a couple of hours. After that I decided to give Neeka a call to let her know about the Kung Fu lesson on Wednesday. She might need some time to get someone to cover for her at the coffee shop.

I had just put my hand on the phone when I remembered that I was about to make the same mistake that Bambi had earlier when she started to help me with the heavy mats. I was forgetting to use my abilities. I sat back in the desk chair and put my hands palm down on the top of the desk. I closed my eyes and thought, "Neeka?"

Instantly, her voice rang in my head, "Right here. What's up?"

"Where are you?" I thought/said.

"I'm still at work. Just cleaning up and getting ready to leave. Why?" This was interesting. The coffee shop was over behind the mall. That was over five miles away and I could hear her as clearly as if she were in the room with me.

"Did you feel anything from me earlier? About two hours ago?"

"No, not a thing. Did you do something interesting?"

"Ohhhhhhh, yessss." I sent her a quick flash of Bambi and me rolling around on the new mats, giggling like idiots with our legs scissored around each other, tickling and trading pussy-kisses.

"Aaaaaagghh! Don't do that. Damn! You made me almost fall into the freezer. Don't show me any more right now. I want to be somewhere I can enjoy it, first."

"If you didn't pick it up when it was happening, then you must be outside our contact range. I had to call before I could hear you."

"Yah. You fade out after a few blocks. I can hear you all day at school, but when we get more than a mile apart it gets fuzzy."

I could tell I was distracting her from her work, so I got to the point. "Stop by and see me when you get home. I need to talk to you about the class Bambi has signed us up for and I have a chore I need help with, OK?"

"Sure."

"Great! Later, then."

"Later."

When she hung up, signed off, went away, whatever — I still hadn't figured out what to call it. How do you talk about something that isn't really talking? After she was gone, I opened my eyes. It had been so easy that all the closing my eyes and sitting still probably wasn't needed. I remembered sitting on the roof and picking up on strong emotions in the neighborhood. It probably wasn't necessary to be on the roof to do that, either.

I thought about listening-out for trouble, but I really didn't feel like running off after something at the moment. I was still relaxed and buzzed and happy and I really wanted to keep it that way for a little bit. I sat and tried to zone-out, just relax and chill. That lasted about a minute. I could not leave it alone. I had to check. I had to listen.

I closed my eyes and tried to make myself receptive.