Kinetic

"Who is this?" a woman's voice asked a short time later.

I decided to play it straight. I introduced myself as a close friend of Melanie who wanted to cover any payment issues there might be with Melanie's enrollment. We talked for a minute, and then the woman decided to level with me.

"We've sent so many notices! The deposit was required to be here by the end of January. There's a one-month grace period, but it's a strict cut-off after that. Melanie's enrollment is about to be terminated."

I blinked. "She'll lose her option for early decision?"

"No. Regular enrollment is a completely different rotation. She's about to lose her chance to come to Harvard period."

"Oh my gosh," I said without thinking. "Can I wire you the money?"

"Yes. It absolutely has to be here by tomorrow though, $11,984."

I let out an explosive gasp. I was still thinking in terms of an application deposit. "Uh, could you break that down for me?"

"Sure. The charges for the first year will be..." and then she read me a list of numbers. "$24,707 tuition, $4,461 Room, $3,945 Board, $1,082 Health Services, and $1,755 misc. fees. The first third was due in January, then two payments of $11,983 each are due the end of May and mid September. You want a breakout of the fees?"

"Uh, no, that's okay..." I thanked her in a daze. Fortunately I was with it enough to get all the bank routing codes and account numbers I would need to wire the money. The Bursar also asked for my contact information. Right before I was about to hang up, I said, "May I ask? Wasn't there a payment sent in January?"

There was a pause on the line and then a grunt. "I remember this one. We sent our final notice over a week ago! All the paperwork on the acceptance form was fine. But there was a stop-payment order on the check."

"Ah... Will you be sending a letter to Melanie's parents about this new payment?"

"Well... Normally the receipt notice just goes to the person paying the bill. Do you want one to go to Melanie's parents too?"

"Uh, no actually, I guess not."

"Hmmm. Okay. Then their next notice from us will be in mid April, for the May payment."

"Uh, could you send that to me instead?"

There was a long pause. "That's not normal... But parents putting a stop-payment order on a tuition check isn't normal either..." There was another long pause. "Done. Expect to see the bill by April 15'th."

I thanked her and hung up, and spent the rest of the school day doing a lot of soul searching.

I told everything to my dad that evening, as we were washing the dinner dishes. I must say, he didn't seem too surprised, at least about the lack of payment from Melanie's parents.

He sighed as he dried a pot. "Now that I think about it, I seem to recall something similar happened to Patricia. There was some registration mix-up, and she missed going to college right after high school. I can't remember the particulars..."

I stared at him. "I didn't know that. I don't think Patty ever did go to college."

"No, I don't think she did either... Eric, after we finish here, let's sit down and talk."

A short time later we were in the living room, dad was just sitting and smiling at me. I realized he wanted me to take the lead in the conversation.

"Dad, do I have your permission to pay for Melanie's tuition?"

"Do you need my permission?"

"Well... No... But I'd like to have it just the same."

"Then go to it!" My dad laughed and then thought of something. "Actually, maybe you do need my permission. I'll pick you up at school during lunch, drive you to the bank. The bank will probably consider tomorrow the day before your birthday. They might still think of you as a minor."

"Thanks..." I leaned back in my chair and sighed, mentally going over my finances. Mom had a $50,000 straight term life insurance policy which she left to dad. She also had a $300,000 accidental death policy which listed dad and me as equal beneficiaries. Dad had assured me he'd pay for any undergrad program I wanted. Mom and Dad had already saved up for that. I had thought with my $150,000 and all the other money I've saved up, I would come out of college in fine shape. But four years of paying for Melanie would really take a bite out of my savings...

"Well, worst case scenario, we both graduate with still a little money and no debt. That's not so bad."

My dad frowned at me. "Don't jump the gun Eric."

"Huh?"

"Eric, Melanie needs to learn how to be independent, not jump from being dependent on her parents to being dependent on you."

"But?! Didn't you and mom depend on each other?"

My dad laughed. "Sure! After we were married! Son, think! How can Melanie freely decide to marry you, if she has no other option?"

Dad's point left me thunderstruck. "Holy shit! I didn't think of it like that..."

"Don't get me wrong Eric, I'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money. But I would think Melanie will qualify for financial aid once she can document her parents have abandoned her. You might just have to pay for the first year." My dad paused. "I'm not trying to tell you who not to marry either. What I'm trying to say is, help her stand on her own two feet first... Eric..."

"Yeah dad?"

"If things get tight, come and talk to me. Assuming you two stay together, medical school for Melanie might be a big expense. I'd like to help." My dad sighed. "You'll probably wind up borrowing from the bank for most of it. That would be normal, and nobody will be loaning me money to retire on. Still, I'd like to help."

I nodded gratefully, and got to thinking. Even with Melanie's expenses, boy, I couldn't complain. And my new abilities, so amazing... Any way of turning them into money? I had to smile. No combination lock could withstand me. Are there * legal * ways of turning my abilities into money? There must be something! No, I guess I shouldn't worry about money after all...

Chapter 7.

Time: Saturday, March 23, 2002 1:30 PM

I'm riding a bus over to a service center to pick up my car. I want it to be in good shape for my trip to Illinois next weekend. I'm getting some new tires and an alignment, new front and rear brake pads and shoes and an oil change. My car is a simple 1998 Chevy Cavalier that I bought used last year. It's never given me any trouble, and I try to take good care of it.

I bought myself a multi-meter a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to track the growth of my power output on a daily basis, and didn't want to risk getting caught in the High School physics lab alone. What would be my reason for being there?

My power output has been growing rapidly, much faster than the expansion of my sense sphere. The force I can exert on objects is also increasing, at a rate just a bit slower than my power growth rate. At 11:30 this morning, I measured:

My sense-sphere radius was 2.024 meters, still doubling every 31 days and 20 hours.

My maximum power output was 19 mW. I pushed the voltage across the 4.7k-ohm resistor up to 9.45 volts. My power growth rate is a clean exponential, with a doubling time of 7 days and 15 hours.

And my maximum force is about 0.0027 Newtons, as close as I can measure it, nine times stronger than when I first discovered it with the paper clip. I'm guessing it's also exponentially growing, with a doubling rate of 7 days and 23 hours. I built a torsion scale in my bedroom to measure this. A stiff steel wire with another stiff wire crossing it at the bottom. I push against the tip of the horizontal cross piece, torquing the main vertical wire, and the maximum angle of my push give me my force.

Last week I indulged myself and bought a high-tech min-flashlight. It runs six high- output white LEDs with 1.4 Watts from a single AA Li-battery, providing 50 lumens of light, 250 candlepower. It's not much compared to a light-bulb. A 100 Watt light-bulb produces 1600 lumens. But for a really tiny flashlight, 250 candles isn't bad.

According to my graphs, I should be able to generate 1.4 Watts in less than two months, May 9'th at 9 PM. Man, that would be so cool, lighting up the flashlight all by myself! And if not, well, I've bought myself a $60 toy...

A guy with a really ugly boom-box boards the bus and sits right next to me. He had the thing blaring, and looked even uglier than the box, a real mean-looking biker dude. He was snarling and trying to make eye contact with anybody who would dare look at him.

I don't back down from necessary fights, but I really don't like to fight. I thought about putting up with the noise and just letting the matter go. My stop was only about ten minutes away. But I got to thinking...

The boom-box was in his lap, the speakers pointing right at me, a little less than two meters away and just within my sphere of influence. Hmmm... I started probing the box, tracing the circuitry. My ability to zoom into details is growing exponentially too, though I haven't thought of a good way to measure it. If I had to guess, I could focus down to about 300 micrograms.

I isolated a single input on a chip in the boom box. I traced the wire coming out of the chip on the printed circuit board and then PUSHED 19 mW in the opposite direction.

The awful rap music continued with the same volume, but it suddenly started to sound very hissy. The biker dude looked down at his box and frowned and started trying to tune the station. I let go after a moment, and the hiss went away. Another idea had occurred to me. I zoomed down with my sense as tight as I could go. At maximum magnification, it was a sphere of about 300 microns radius, and I zoomed right into a transistor-rich region of the micro-chip. And then I pushed that sphere with everything I had, 0.0027 Newtons.

I felt my target area zip away from me in an instant and the boom-box went silent. The biker dude looked extremely, extremely annoyed and I turned away from him so he wouldn't see me smiling.

I got to thinking about what I had just done. Holy shit! I had probably PUSHED that micro-sphere of transistors with hundreds of gravities of acceleration. Where the hell did it go?! Grateful that I didn't seem to have injured anybody, I got off the bus a few minutes later.

Time: Thursday, March 28, 2002 11:47 AM

I picked a quiet area outside the main cafeteria area to eat my lunch. I wanted to be able to talk in private if my cell phone started to ring...

I checked my power level this morning at 6 AM, 11.73 volts on my multi-meter, 29 mW, right on track. Last Saturday night, I also did a few calculations on the boom-box micro- chip I destroyed. My best guess is I accelerated my micro-sphere for about one millisecond at about 1,000 gravities and then hit my power limit. At that time it had probably moved 2.6 mm and was moving around 16 mph relative to the rest of the chip. So, my micro bowling ball probably never left the chip. I've got to watch myself though, and think through the implications of what my capabilities are before I try new stuff...

Sunday and Monday I started having a lot of second thoughts about going to Illinois this weekend. Melanie turns eighteen on Monday. I certainly don't want to drive off with her before that. Until Monday, she's still her parents' minor child, and I'm a legal adult now. I could probably be arrested. But even after Monday...

I kept thinking... Melanie still needs her High School diploma. Her parents might be totally wacko, but they also have a lot of power in town. Maybe it would be better for Melanie to continue her ruse for another two months and peacefully pick up her diploma. But then again, I don't know how bearable her situation is. I kept re-reading her letters, and finally decided I needed some input from her. I decided to ignore her request not to ask for some third-party help...

Greg was my closest friend at Sterling High and a good friend of Melanie's too. I swore him to secrecy and told him about Melanie's act and how her parents had almost succeeded in sabotaging her enrollment at Harvard. He was stunned, and then readily agreed to slip Melanie his cell phone if he got the chance.

A few minutes after noon on the 28'th, my cell phone started to ring. My hand was shaking so badly I had trouble answering it.

"Eric?" It was a whisper, Melanie's voice!

"Yes! Are you safe to talk?"

"Yes, for a few minutes. I'm very grateful to two old friends. Jason is usually guarding me, but Greg got his sister to make a fake pass at him, and Jason's gonads won out over the money he's getting from my dad to monitor me. Greg is nearby right now, keeping watch for him."

"Jason? Oh shit, not C.J.?!"

Melanie laughed. "Yes, Creep Jason! How did you guess?"

"Hell... Melanie, I've got some important news to tell you..." I spent the next few minutes describing the situation with Harvard. There was silence on the line when I finished. "Melanie?"

"My God... my God Eric," Melanie whispered. "I'm living with monsters! Cruel and manipulative monsters..."

"No argument from me on that one..."

"Eric, this changes everything! What should I do?! Wait! Eric! I can't accept you paying for Harvard!"

"Sure you can. Melanie, I'll help you move out of your parents' house on Monday if you want, or do you want me to wait until you graduate?"

Melanie paused, and then gave a soft whisper. "Oh Eric, I love you!"

"I love you too."

"... This changes everything... My gosh Eric... Uh, wait till I graduate. Can you come to my commencement?"

"Count on it!"

"Okay! I will! What?!" I heard her call out, probably to Greg. "Eric, I have to go! Bye!"

I sat nervously for ten minutes before I got another call. It was Greg's voice. "Eric?"

"Yeah. Everything cool?"

"Yep. Mission accomplished."

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Greg, thanks a million. Thank Lisa for me too."

"Thank her yourself. She's right here..."

"Lisa?"

"Eric! You and Melanie owe me big-time! I almost had to let C.J. start pawing me to keep him distracted!"

"Shit! Really?!"

"Yes, really. He is a true creep! But I'm just joking about a debt. I was glad to help. Uh, my brother wants his phone back."

"Greg? I can't"

"Oh hell Eric, don't mention it. Really. I just wanted to let you know, Melanie got back under C.J.'s radar without being discovered. I had the chance to tell her if she ever wanted my phone again, just to make eye contact with me."

"Greg, you the man."

"Glad to help, ole buddy. Hell Eric, this situation is right out of a horror novel."

"I agree."

"Don't worry about Lisa or me. We will be tombstones about this. One more thing. Melanie had a chance to hand me her social security ID. She asked me to mail it to you."

We chatted for a few more minutes and then Greg had to go. I felt incredibly relieved, and then a little foolish that I didn't try to do this earlier. Having two friends in Sterling helping us was such an enormous benefit. I stared at my cell phone and realized my hand was still shaking.

Chapter 8.

Time: 12:03 AM Friday, May 31, 2002, DeKalb Illinois

I had checked into a motel late Thursday night, shortly before 11 PM, an hour's drive east of Sterling. I had been on the road since early morning, had driven close to 800 miles, and now I was lying in bed trying to get some rest. Melanie's commencement is tomorrow, two days after mine. No, wait. It's after midnight. Her commencement is later today. I still don't know how events will play out, but I'm hoping Melanie and I will drive back to Pennsylvania.

My sensing and pushing abilities have continued to grow. I can now sense things from 9 meters away, exert a force of 1.05 Newtons, and generate over 9.5 Watts of power. I found I really don't need my expensive flashlight. I can just lock 2 cubic mm of air and pour 9.5 Watts of power into it, raising the temperature to 4000C in a millisecond. The incandescence is quite brilliant.

I've come to realize that I can be quite deadly to anyone within my sphere, lock and fry their heart pacemaker tissue in an instant. I've vowed to myself never to use my powers to attack anyone's body unless it were truly a life-or-death situation.

I felt exhausted from the drive. I had a concern I'd be so worried about Melanie, I wouldn't be able to sleep, but I soon met her in my dreams...

The commencement was unreal. Melanie was valedictorian, and had asked to speak at the very end of the program, after the diplomas were handed out. Graduation papers in hand, she went on stage and gave an incredible speech, stressing the importance of both self-esteem and love for others, the importance of both courage and consideration, and how utterly she had personally failed these ideals. She described how her parents had been manipulating her and degrading her for months, how she had allowed them to strip her of her dignity, and then she denounced them for trying to sabotage her enrollment at Harvard.

Both her parents started screaming at her from their seats. Her dad was incoherent, and her mom was screaming that Melanie was committing slander. He parents then both stormed out of the hall. The rest of the auditorium remained sitting stunned and silent.

Melanie finished her speech, bidding her friends goodbye and walked off the stage. She handed her graduation robe to Lisa and then came straight to me. "Eric," she said simply, "Get me out of here."

We got to my car in a tie with C.J., and he started standing in front of my driver's door, glaring at me and itching for a fight. "Eric, you piece of shit! You think you can just walk in here and steal my girl?! You pervert! She's promised to me!"

Melanie shook her head in pity, "C.J., let go of your delusions."

C.J. whipped his head around to Melanie and seemed to notice her for the first time. He seemed astonished by what she had just said. "Don't call me that, you bitch! My name is Jason!"

I was confused by his words. He hadn't said Melanie belonged to him. He said Melanie was promised to him. Promised by whom? "Let it go, Jason," I finally said, trying to be reasonable. "There's nothing you can do to stop us from leaving, short of breaking the law, and Melanie's dad isn't paying you enough for that."

C.J. turned back to me and shot me a look of wild hatred, and then threw a punch at me. I was more than half expecting it, and ducked and launched my counter-attack. I had scanned C.J. a moment before and knew he had a cheap butane lighter in his pants pocket underneath the graduation gown. I melted a hole near the top of the plastic lighter in less than two seconds, and my 10-Watt incandescent power point easily ignited the butane. C.J.'s expression flashed instantly from pure hatred to stark terror as he realized his pants were on fire.

As C.J. was running around desperately trying to pull his pants off in the center of the street, Melanie and I jumped into my car and drove off.

"Wow, that was fortunate," said Melanie. "What an incredibly lucky break."

"... Yeah..."

We were both too keyed up to start talking with each other. I just drove south over the bridge on Route 40, driving through Rock Falls to pick up I-88 East.

One mile from the Interstate, I was stopped at a red light at the intersection of West Rock Falls Road, and I looked up into my rear-view mirror. I could not believe my eyes, the moment seemed completely surreal. Melanie's parents were right behind us. Melanie turned and saw them too and started to whimper.

"It's okay, just relax!" I said. I probed their car and waited. Just as the light was about to turn, I fried the micro-chip controlling their electronic fuel-injection, and then calmly stepped on the gas a second later. The car behind me was dead in the street and the people further behind started honking.

"Wow, that was fortunate," said Melanie, looking back and seeing her father open his car hood in the distance. Her mother was also out of the car, and she seemed to be gesturing wildly at both her husband and the traffic trying to pass them.