Hyllis Family Story 1: Telekinetic by Laurence E Dahners Page A

paying you . I’m payin’ that hot little blond chica.” He grinned at the man across the table from him, “Hell, I’d pay some extra coppers just to rest my weary eyes on her again,” he said with an ugly laugh.
    His stomach in a knot, Tarc stood for another moment, then abruptly turned and headed back to the kitchen. How can this be happening again? he wondered. He’d worked in this tavern his entire life. He’d seen fights, of course. It was a tavern after all and men sometimes drank too much. Sometimes, the fights were over women. But not the women in Tarc’s family ! Could Daussie really be so… pretty that she’s driving some of these men crazy?
    Tarc just couldn’t see it.
    Back in the kitchen with his mother, Tarc realized he’d just walked past Denny Smith without acknowledging her presence. Worse his mother turned to him and said, “So, what’s wrong with Denny?”
    Tarc dithered a moment. He knew he should tell his mother about the two men, but didn’t want to confess that he’d failed to obtain their payment. He was supposed to pick up their plates and bring them back to the kitchen if they didn’t pay, but they’d reminded him too much of the big soldier from the week before. He didn’t want to admit it, but he’d been afraid to try to take their plates.
    He didn’t want to talk to his mother about Denny Smith either, but it seemed the lesser of two evils. “Um, something’s wrong with her bladder.” He shrugged, “I think?”
    His mother looked at him consideringly. “Okaaay. So, tell me the story.”
    “Um, she says it… burns , down there,” he waved nebulously down towards his own crotch, “when she pees.”
    Eva grinned at him, “And you’re embarrassed. And I suppose she is too?”
    Tarc nodded, feeling himself blush again.
    “Well, if you’re going to be a healer, you’re gonna have to get over being embarrassed. Tell me the rest of her story.”
    Tarc stumbled through the story Denny had given him, and her answers to the questions he’d asked.
    “Does her urine smell bad?”
    Aghast, Tarc hissed, “I didn’t ask her that !”
    “I just finished telling you, if you’re going to take care of people , you can’t be embarrassed about these things!” She lifted an eyebrow, “If you act embarrassed, they’ll feel embarrassed.” Eva turned and opened the cabinet where she kept her medical supplies. She pulled out a small glass cup, one so perfect it had to be from the old days. It had no warping or discolorations in it like new glass would have had. She handed it to Tarc, “Go ask her to pee in this.”
    “Mom!” Tarc said, eyes wide, “Can’t you ask her? Besides she just went out to pee. When I…” Tarc ran down, not knowing quite how to explain what had just happened.
    “When you what?”
    “Uh, I was using my ghost to… you know… see what was different down there. But I, I, wasn’t sure what was different because she’s a girl…”
    “Oh Lordy,” Eva grinned at him over the pot she was stirring, “you were comparing her parts to yours?”
    Tarc felt a hot flush come over his face, “That’s what you said to do!”
    Eva started with a little giggle but was soon laughing so hard she bent over and tears came to her eyes. Still snorting, she stood, wiped at her cheeks, and said, “Found quite a few differences, did you?”
    Still embarrassed, but also angry, Tarc nodded. “The wall of her bladder is thicker than mine, but I didn’t know if that was just a boy-girl difference or something wrong. So I tugged on it a little…”
    “ Tugged on it?” Eva’s eyes were very wide. “You can move things like your dad?”
    “Um, yeah.” He had just been assuming, he realized, that his mother and father could do the same things with their talent. “You can’t?”
    “No,” she breathed, “I can only feel the insides of things. Your dad told me that you could feel a silver inside his fist , but he didn’t say you could move things. Does he know