Hyllis Family Story 1: Telekinetic by Laurence E Dahners

when he compared Denny to himself. He recognized his bladder because it was filled with urine. It seemed to him like the bladder must have something to do with her symptoms since she complained so much about peeing. Shifting back to her he realized that she also had a bladder, though hers didn’t have much urine in it as compared to his. Hmmm, the wall of her bladder seems thicker than mine, he thought wonderingly, tugging at it with a ghost finger.
    “Oh!” Denny squeaked. She stood so quickly the bench fell over behind her and she said, “Oh! I have to go really bad! Sorry! I’ll be back in a minute.” Her hand made an abortive motion towards her crotch as if she wanted to hold herself . She turned and scurried for the back door that led to the outhouse.
    Worried that Denny might recognize that he’d done something to her bladder, Tarc stood quickly enough that he nearly tipped over the bench on his side of the table too. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he walked around and set Denny’s bench back upright.
    He started back into the kitchen, but bumped into Daussie at the door. “Hey,” she said angrily, “if you’re done chit-chatting with Denny, the rest of us could use some help!”
    Tarc drew a breath for a furious retort, but before he did Eva interrupted. “Daussie, back off. I told Tarc to talk to her, she’s a patient.”
    “Why’s Tarc talking to her? I could have talked to her!”
    “I’m trying to teach both of you how to be healers. Tarc’s at the stage of his training where he needs to see some patients and try to figure out what’s wrong with them.”
    Daussie’s eyes flew wide , her expression stricken. Turning to her mother she said, “Why Tarc ? Why not me ? I want to be a healer… I don’t think he even cares!”
    “Because…” Eva said slowly, as if she dreaded the words herself, “Tarc can… do some things… that you can’t do. Maybe in a couple years…” she trailed off.
    Daussie bang ed down the plates she’d been holding and, knuckling her eyes, turned and ran out the back door with a moan.
    For a moment the ir mother looked sadly after Daussie. Then she turned to Tarc, “I hope to God she gets some talent too. It’ll break her heart if she doesn’t.” Eva’s eyes went to the plates Daussie had put down and she looked back up at Tarc, “Will you take those out? They go to the two strangers by the door.”
    Pissed that he had to take up Daussie’s slack, but not wanting to cause his mother any more grief, Tarc picked up the two plates and headed out into the big room. Denny Smith hadn’t returned, so he didn’t have to say anything to her. He went to the two strangers at the door, sullen and not paying much attention. He set the plates down a little too hard, then looked at the men while waiting for their coppers. With a sense of déjà vu he realized they had a very hard look about them. Somehow, they reminded him of the big man who’d had a thing for Daussie the week before.
    The men looked up at him and one grunted in irritation. He made a sucking sound over his teeth and said, “What happened to the pretty blond girl?”
    A sick sense of apprehension settled in Tarc’s stomach. He said, “She got sent on an errand.”
    “Well,” the stranger said with a greasy gap toothed grin, “ she’s the one that took my order. Therefore, she’s the one I’m givin’ my coppers to.” His eyebrows bounced up and down, “When she gets back from her errand , send her on back out here to collect the money.” The man picked up his fork and turned away from Tarc, effectively dismissing him.
    Tarc stood there uncertainly for a moment, trying to think how to demand payment from someone who frightened him. “We take payment when we bring the food here at Hyllis’ Tavern,” he said, but without the authority he had hoped to project.
    “Oh, I’ll pay , make no mistake,” the man said, glancing up at Tarc from under a lowered eyebrow. “But, I ain’t