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MidReal Story
The storyteller recounts their troubled upbringing as the illegitimate child
Anonymous
May 29
Scenario:The storyteller recounts their troubled upbringing as the illegitimate child of a relationship-destroyer mother, their ability to read thoughts, their strained relationship with their father, the birth of their younger sibling Nathan, and Nathan's subsequent removal from their care by their father's wife Elizabeth.
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He was handsome, I thought.
And he loved my mother so much.
I wished I could find someone who loved me as much as he loved her.
"Emily, what did you say?" my mother asked in a low voice.
I didn’t know what to do.
I’d heard her thoughts, and I’d repeated them out loud.
She must have known that I’d heard her.
But she couldn’t know that I’d heard her thoughts, could she?
I was so confused that I didn’t know what to do.
Before I could think of a response, she turned back to me with a smile and said, "How about I read you a bedtime story?"
"Okay," I said, relieved that she wasn’t angry with me.
She sat down on the floor behind me and picked up one of my favorite books.
As she began to read, I realized that the voice I’d heard wasn’t mine at all.
It was hers.
She was talking to herself inside her head, and I’d heard her.
I didn’t understand how it had happened, but I knew that it had.
The next night, after she’d tucked me into bed, I asked her to tell me a story.
"Once upon a time," she began, "there was a prince who could hear the thoughts of others."
"Like me?"
I asked excitedly.
She smiled at me.
"Sort of," she said.
"But the prince had another gift as well."
"What was it?"
I asked.
"He could control the thoughts of others," she said.
"He could make them think whatever he wanted them to think."
"That’s not a very nice gift," I said.
"No," she agreed.
"It isn’t."
But the prince used his gift to help his kingdom.
He listened to the thoughts of the people in his village and used what he learned to make their lives better.
"He must have been a very good prince," I said.
"Yes," she said with a smile.
"He was."
"And did he use his gift to control people’s thoughts?"
"No," she said firmly.
"He knew that it would be wrong to do that."
"But he could do it if he wanted to?"
"Yes," she said.
"He could. But he chose not to."
"Why not?"
"Because he was a good prince," she said.
"He knew that it would be wrong to use his gift in that way."
I thought about what she’d said for a moment before asking, "Can I hear people’s thoughts too?"
She hesitated for a moment before saying, "Yes. You can."
"Why didn’t you tell me before?" I asked.
"I didn’t know you could do it," she said with a frown.
"You have a very special gift, Emily."
"But how does it work?"
"It’s like listening to the radio," she said.
"You have to tune in to the right station before you can hear anything."
"I don’t understand," I said.
"Think of it as listening to the sounds around you," she said.
"All the people in your village are like different radios stations. You just have to learn how to tune in to the right one."
"How do I do that?"
I asked.
She smiled at me and said, "You just have to clear your mind and listen for the right sound."
