Chapter 20

"You ever been told to read the room?"

"Yeah, a few times when I was younger. Why?"

"Some guy at the sandwich place left me a note that I should 'read the room' after he told me I dropped my wallet."

"Maybe he's just warning you to pay attention to your surroundings? Although, that's not really what 'read the room' means."

"Anyways, I hate that stupid phrase. And that guy creeped me out. Just warning you that I'm even more pissy than when I left."

"Great."

" Now, let's get back to this thing!"

I bounce the ball against the gym floor, still trying to get it to stop in the air.

Same as before, nothing changes.

Again and again. With each failure, the frustration builds. I can't stop thinking about it. What did he mean by that note? Was it passive aggressive? Did he hate how stupid I was for dropping my wallet? Did he think it was an annoyance to have to tell me? What the hell does read the room mean?

'Read the room.'

I feel it… for a split second. The room, something beyond the room. A field of unseen energy all around me. All around the gym. It even surrounds the ball.

"Holy shit!"

Terri says it before I even have the chance to mentally think the same words. The ball is staying perfectly still, five or so feet off the ground.

"You- really. I mean, really? Really?"

"Really."

I look at Terri's rapidly changing expression, then hear the ball fall back to the floor.

"I stopped focusing on it. That's why it fell when I went for my camera."

I try to replicate it again, focusing intently on the ball. Again, back to the fruitless display we'd been dealing with all day.

'Read the room.'

I think those words yet again, and same as before, I sense the energy occupying the room, then I immediately focus on the energy surrounding the ball and pin it in the air. This time, I continue to focus on that energy I sensed and keep the ball up indefinitely.

"Am I psychically holding the ball in place?"

"Psychically."

"Again, this coming from the indestructible guy."

"Come on, psychic powers are a bit of a reach, even for me."

"If I am psychic, maybe I can predict the future."

Suddenly, a small piece of plastic just barely taps me on the head. I look down and see one of those things you hit back and forth in badminton.

"You predict that?"

"Yes, actually, I did; just thought it'd be better if I let this thing hit me."

"That's a shuttlecock."

"Watch your language. Now, back to the ball."

I continue to display my power over and over again; freezing the ball in the air and holding it as long as I can keep my short attention span focused on it.

"Amazing, Yuri. I can't say it's psychic, but I can't deny you have a power."

"You can also say I'm not crazy as well."

"I haven't finished my assessment on that one yet."

"This is frankly amazing and all, but this isn't all I think I can do."

"You're not satisfied with just this?"

"It's not that. This isn't breaking the speed of light. The first time I saw my power, it wasn't freezing a ball, it was making it jump up into the air."

"You think you can move things at the speed of light?"

"Potentially. It was so fast, it didn't even look like it moved. It was on the ground, and then it was suddenly in the air. I just… how the hell did I do it?"

I think about it. Reading the room. Whoever that guy was, I think he was, somehow, telling me what to do. Maybe I need to take a new reading.

I think about reading the room again and the energy field appears to me. Appears isn't the right word. It's something beyond sight or feeling. It's like a sense of whatever this is. I can sense the field around the ball, the field around the basket, the field around Terri, and the field around me. The field embraces everything in the room and even the empty space.

'Maybe…'

I focus on the field around the ball; presumably the ball is now pinned to the ground. I then focus on the field in the air a few feet above the ball.

"Holy crap, I did it!"

The ball is now in the air, frozen in place. It didn't move, it- it teleported?