Wonder Ears

In the following days, whenever these sensations came to him, Jade started trying to focus on them and try to feel them as much as possible. He wanted to understand them, and more importantly to be able to control them.

The first step he took was to try memorizing the sensation he felt whenever these anomalies happened to him. He spent weeks trying to do so, and after a certain amount of time he was able to perceive this sensation the same way he perceived his heart beat. Even though he wasn't even near to being able to control it, it has become to him a natural sensation and stopped bothering him as much as it did before.

He thought of it like a cough or a sneeze, something that he can't control but he can simply live with.

In all this time, his family was in daily contact with him, making sure that he is well. The most worried person was, of course, his own mother. She always asked him about his health state, and his answer was always "I feel fine, there is nothing to worry about".

He didn't share with them the new insights about his sensations, partially because of the contract he signed, but most importantly because he didn't want to worry them even more, or make them think that he was starting to lose his mind.

As for his father and sister, they weren't nearly as close to him as his mother, so their conversations were usually shorter. None the less he appreciated their gesture.

In the next few weeks he had to minimize his worries about these sensations and focus more on the exams that were getting closer. After all, whatever these abnormalities were, his plan to keep on studying and developing his app was like an unfazed tree.

In the end, he managed to perform as well as he always did in his exams and wasn't really hindered by any kind of thought about "it".

After the exam period has ended, he wanted to try turning these sensations into abilities that he could control at well. He knew this might be a tall order, considering that mysterious man had demanded of him quite a commitment in order for him to teach him how to control it.

He started with the one that seemed the most natural to him at the moment, the 'wonder ears' as he called it. Whenever Taofik was not in the room, he would put on two audio sources, one from his phone and the other from his laptop, and he would try to focus on one of them.

He kept on doing this for around 5 days. However by the end of day five, he only managed to do it once, and he supposed that it was achieved just by coincidence. After all, considering the frequency of the activation of hearing wonders these days the possibility was high enough for such a doubt to be true.

He felt like he was missing some crucial step that should be followed in order to achieve control. He couldn't put his finger on it yet. After another 3 days, he finally came up with an idea that was almost guaranteed to function.

He realized that the problem was in his way of thinking. He used to only try recalling the feeling in his body while -wonder ears- was activated and at the same time focus on the source of the voice he wanted to hear. Now though, he tried to think of the voice as a vibration that propagated to his ears, in other words, he needed to think of his target more deeply and give it a clear definition.

And just like that, by changing the way he perceived the voices, he was finally capable of isolating it and thus having his first ability realized.

'Who knew physics classes would pay off that well' he remembered his high school days, but that led him to remember a certain memory he really wanted to forget so he tried changing his train of thought.

'Now that I found out about this physics thingy, I could turn all these sensations into controlled abilities. However, I still don't know how to stop them from randomly happening'

All that being said, his control over his new found abilities was meek at best. In order to achieve that control over any of them, be it isolating voices or visuals or feelings in his skin, it needed his undivided attention over a period of time that could reach minutes!

None the less, he started to think how he could use these new found abilities in his daily life. In one way he could use it in the amphitheater to hear the teacher's voice clearly over all the noises caused by the other students. He could also tell what was served in the canteen from his own dorm room just by using -wonder nose- thus deciding whether to eat there or not without having to go all the way there.

While the latter had not some obvious flaws, the former was still pretty hard to achieve, in order for him to isolate the professors voice, he needed to focus very hard on it, and so he could not pay much attention to the information he was receiving.

Another persisting thought he had, was the fact that he couldn't help but wonder if this was what he would have learned if he signed the second contract. A part of him believed that to not be the case, simply because the mysterious man talked about controlling more than just the senses, but rather the whole body, something that he still could not fathom how could be done.

He could've followed the same method he used to his senses, but he was afraid of the repercussions this could have on his body, especially because he would be trying to control his inner organs, something that was without a doubt dangerous and stress inducing.

And so, for the time being, he decided to keep enhancing his -wonder senses- to the maximum point he could reach, at least in this part, he could see a tangible improvement over time.

***

One day when he was working on his -wonder nose- ability, he became so surprise when he saw a phone call from the person he least expected to call him, his big brother Ayman.

"What do you want?" Ayoub answered the call and spoke with a tone as cold as ice if not colder.

"I want you to confess!". Ayoub was confused hearing these words

Ayman used to be a good student who excelled in scientific subjects, especially math. However after a certain incident, his situation started to worsen slowly until he ended up becoming a drunkard and an addicted gambler.

"Confess of what?"

"You know exactly what I mean. So either you do it or I'm telling mom and dad" Ayman started to loose his patience.

Ayoub couldn't hold it anymore.

"I confess brother. I confess that I am still hurt from what you did to our family. I confess that I can't understand you anymore. I confess that I feel sorry for your sorry a*s to ending up this way. Other than that, I honestly don't know what you mean and frankly could not care less" After going back to his stone cold voice in the last part he hanged up the call.