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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Action & Adventure
- Subject: Courage / Heroism
- Published: 11/27/2020
Mindbender
By Lea Sheryn
“Rania,” Mrs. Hellman stated as she approached the twelve-year-old African-American girl standing in the school lunch line. The sudden calling of her name made the young girl shrink back in horror. What had she done now? was the first thought that crossed her mind. Children who were called out of the lunch line were usually in some kind of trouble. “Come with me, Rania,” the assistant principal continued as she gently removed the plastic tray from the strengthening grip of the student.
Hesitating for a moment that seemed the stretch into eternity, Rania Jackson allowed her shoulders to sink into a posture of defeat before she resigned herself to following the older woman into the corridor leading to the principal’s office. The amazed glare of the students she passed on the way to the cafeteria’s double doors didn’t help her feeling of unease.
Mrs. Hellman was the strictest of the assistant principals at Booker T. Washington Middle School. Tall, slim, and prone to wearing straight skirts and no frills blouses in various shades of yellow, the student body nicknamed her Penelope Pencil behind her back. Not so long ago, Gavin Brock and Dante Mills had been given a one week’s suspension for mocking Mrs. Hellman with the moniker in the hallway between classes. But Rania had done nothing wrong; why had she been singled out?
More surprised than ever was Rania when she was ushered into the principal’s office to find not only Mr. Slack—the head of the school—but also her parents seated around the big desk. Standing with his back to the room and gazing out of the window was a strange white man of ordinary height and weight. Quizzically the girl turned toward Mrs. Hellman seeking an answer only to find the door closing upon the departing figure in yellow.
“Ms. Jackson, this is Mr. Parker,” Mr. Slack introduced the man standing in the window. “He’s from the Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities. He would like to speak to you for a moment.”
Without further ado, the newcomer turned from his place at the window. Striding toward Rania, he gazed down upon her, fixing his eyes with hers. “You have nothing to worry about, Ms. Jackson,” Mr. Parker calmly announced with a friendly smile. “You’re not in any kind of trouble. I came here today, at the request of Mr. Kent, to ask you to study at our institute. We’re interested in your outstanding abilities.”
“Outstanding abilities? What outstanding abilities?” Rania’s voice went up a few octaves as she poised herself to deny having any abilities at all.
“Now come, Ms. Jackson, I think you understand what I’m talking about,” Mr. Parker remonstrated in his soothing voice. “You can’t say you haven’t noticed anything different about yourself.”
Cautiously Rania allowed her gaze to travel amongst the people in the room. Her mother and father sat with their chairs close together. Between them their hands were clasped together. Perceptively she noticed her father squeeze her mother’s hand in reassurance. Mr. Slack leaned back in his own chair his large black hands held together in a knot in his lap. Mr. Parker waited in anticipation of her response.
Rania continued in an attitude of confusion for some moments wondering what could be different about her. She was just an ordinary little girl doing things that were ordinary for little girls. She went to school every morning, played Double Dutch in the schoolyard with her friends after the last bell had rung; on the weekends she rode her bike over to her best friend Chantel Michael’s house then over to the park to watch the boys play basketball on the court there. What outstanding ability could she possess?
Then a thought slowly occurred to her. Could Mr. Parker mean the fact that Rania could make people do what she wanted just by fixing her gaze upon them? Perhaps this was the Outstanding Ability he was talking about. But why would he want her to go to Mr. Kent’s school because she could use her mind to get her own way?
Rania had discovered her knack of mind control while she was still only a very small girl. At the time when she could only crawl around, her mother would place her into a round playpen in the middle of the living room in order to contain her. Even at such a tender age, she had hated being confined to a single place for long periods of time. By standing with her wee hands placed on the top ring of the enclosure, she had been able to concentrate on her mother’s mind, slowly working the thought of freedom into her brain thus compelling her to release the child from her captivity.
It had worked so marvelously that Rania continued to use her skill to achieve her goals almost all of the time. When she went to school, she quickly realized she could pick test answers from her teachers’ minds in order to achieve high scores with little effort on her own behalf. In games and sports, she could win most of the time by forcing her classmates to stumble and fall or to simply play less effectively than was their ability. The fact that nobody knew what was happening was the best thing about it, according to Rania.
“I haven’t noticed a thing, Mr. Parker,” the twelve-year-old child finally lied with a rolling shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well,” Mr. Parker responded as though he hadn’t realized what Rania said, “why don’t you think about it then talk it over with your parents before making a decision. In the meantime, your mother and father have agreed to bring you to the institute on Thursday afternoon for a tour.”
“I can’t see why. It’ll be a waste of time.” Without waiting to be dismissed, Rania turned on her heel and marched out of the principal’s office.
Rejoining the corridor bursting with students hurrying to their next classes, Rania headed for her locker to pick up her afternoon load of books. Chantal was already there, ahead of her. “So, what was that all about?” her best friend asked as she began filling her arms from the storage space. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” Rania shrugged.
“C’mon Ray-Ray, it had to be something.”
“Nothing really. Just some crazy white guy recruiting for his school. The Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities or something like that.” Another shrug as she turned to make her way to her next class.
Before Rania could move away, Chantal had her by the arm, restraining her. “The Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities? You gotta be kidding, girl! Superhero School?”
“What?!” Rania’s deep brown eyes grew wide in disbelief.
“Superhero School, Ray-Ray. Where they train kids with outstanding abilities to become superheroes. Girl, what you got the rest of us ain’t got?” Suddenly Chantal seemed more excited about the prospect than Rania did.
Without responding to her best friend, Rania drifted away from the lockers and through the crowded hallway as though no one else were there. Her mind fully awake to encompass her surroundings, students parted on each side of her as though Moses were parting the Red Sea. Superhero School. The thought was too daunting for one little girl to grasp. How could she use her ability to force people to do her bidding to help others? Wasn’t that what being a superhero meant? Flying in to the rescue in order to save the world?
Rania couldn’t see herself as a superhero. Just an average little girl, her thoughts were all about having fun and manipulating people into doing exactly what she wanted. Although she had seen her guidance counselor, Ms. Plumb, on several occasions during the school year, she hadn’t been able to decide what she wanted to do with her life, even when prompted to do so. She was still too young to consider her future self or any kind of career to study toward. Superhero would never come close to the top of her nonexistent list.
Clearing her mind of all further thought on the matter, Rania continued to drift from class to class until it was time to catch the bus for home. As usual, she sat beside Chantal near the rear of the bus. Scoring the seat over the back wheel ensured a bouncier ride so the two girls made sure they were amongst the first to arrive in the pick-up zone. Snuggling close to the window with her friend’s hip pressed against her own, she felt happy and secure with her surroundings as the vehicle began to move.
“So what is this outstanding ability you’ve been hiding?” Chantal asked as they pulled away from the school building.
“Nothing,” Rania responded. “I don’t know.”
“Girl, it’s gotta be something otherwise they wouldn’t have picked you. C’mon, what is it?”
“Are you gonna wear a cape and learn how to fly?” Ramon Hernandez questioned, turning to face the girls from the seat ahead of them.
Groaning, Rania sunk back into the cushions of her seat. How many kids already knew she’d been approached by the Kent Academy? Calvin Michaels, Chantal’s brother and Ramon’s seatmate, turned to face her also with a huge smile covering his face. “Maybe it’s X-Ray vision. Can you see all of us with no clothes on? How cool is that?” Sharply nudging his seatmate in the ribs, he widened his grin.
“Ain’t cool, Calv,” Rania sulkily responded. “Ain’t no one wants to see you with no clothes. Ugh!”
Quickly grabbing her backpack and slinging it over one shoulder, Rania pushed her way to the front of the bus as it neared her stop. All she wanted to do was get away from the staring eyes of the kids she had gone to school with all her life. Word got around quickly amongst the community of young people putting the subject of the gossip into an unwanted spotlight. And she was one little girl who didn’t want anyone to know of her ability to manipulate minds.
When she opened the front door of her home, she was greeted with the sound of voices coming from the den. Her mother and father were in the midst of a rare argument. Hearing her name mentioned again and again, Rania realized it was all about her. Attempting to make as little noise as possible, she silently pulled the door closed behind her and approached the staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms on tiptoe.
“Come in here a moment, Rania,” her father called from the doorway.
Turning from the stairway, Rania slowly walked into the den followed closely by her father. Tall and lean with a slim face and short curling hair, her father looked down upon her as though he were seeing her anew. “Would you mind explaining this outstanding ability Kent is interested in?”
“I dunno.” How many times was she going to shrug her shoulders today? Rania wondered.
“She’s a mindbender, Charles,” her mother cut in from where she was sitting, tense, on the couch. “She can influence your mind just by gazing at you. How do you think she got that raise in her allowance last month? The one you were so adamantly against?”
“How long has this been going on?” Charles Jackson inquired, surprise filling his voice.
“Since forever,” the mother responded making Rania stare at her in amazement. “I knew from the first moment I held her. That’s why I named her Rania; it means to gaze.”
“This is news to me,” the father stated as he allowed himself to fall to the couch next to his wife.
“Look, Charles, Granny Cheevers was a mindbender. Even though she kept it to herself, the whole family knew about it. There was no getting around her with a lie because she knew what you were up to before you were up to it,” Monique Jackson explained. “It runs in my family. It might skip a generation or two, but it always shows up sooner or later. Our little girl is a strong one. She’s been working on our minds since she was crawling around in diddies.”
This time it was Rania’s turn to sink into a chair. All this time and her mother knew exactly what she was doing. It was all going to blow up in her face now. No more could she get away with getting her way. Everyone was going to know what she had been up to; her manipulative days were over.
“So, I’ll ask again, what does Kent want with a little girl who can maneuver your mind into achieving her own goals?” the father asked as he turned upon his wife.
“Darned if I know,” Monique Jackson answered. “Darned if I know,” Rania repeated after her mother.
“I guess we’ll find out when we visit the institute on Thursday,” the mother finally concluded.
“Ain’t going,” Rania announced as she folded her arms tightly across her chest. Without further ado, the little girl rose from her seat and headed out of the room. Picking her backpack off the floor at the foot of the stairs where she dropped it, she climbed them to her bedroom. Setting her homework out across her desk, she propped her chin in her elbow as she started to turn the pages of her algebra book.
The next day, Rania did something she had never done before in her life. She played truant from school. It was for the best, she considered, as she made her way to the secret hideout she and Chantal had used since they were small. Cautiously looking around her to be sure no one saw her slipping away, the little girl slid into the wooded area two blocks from her home. Skipping over the wisp of a creek winding its way through the dense trees, she pushed her way further in until she came to a small clearing and entered the leaning plywood shack built against a towering pine.
Leaning against the back wall and pulling her knees up under her chin, Rania began to think. Could she use her power to help others? She didn’t think so. No matter what way she considered the subject, she couldn’t figure it out. As the day wore on, the little girl opened her backpack and drew out her lunch sack. Slowly she set out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, a homemade chocolate chip cookie and a bottle of fruit juice. Her stomach told her she wasn’t hungry; it was all tied up in knots. Still she nibbled her sandwich then took a huge bite out of her apple. Saving the cookies for a snack later on, she tipped the juice bottle against her lips and drank.
Superhero School. Why her? Rania wondered for the umpteenth time. Probably full of white kids anyway, she decided. White kids had all the opportunities, she thought. What would they think of her? Would they tease her or shy away from her because she was black? Or would they accept her as one of them? She was almost considering going just to show them up with her power of mind control.
If she went, she would lose her friends. It had been Ray-Ray and Chantal all her life. The two girls had been inseparable since before the first day of school when they went to daycare together. She would miss the banter between girls and boys in their friend/non-friend relationship with Calvin and Ramon. Secretly she held feelings for Calv although they had a way of putting each other down. Weaving deeply into Chantal’s mind, she knew her friend loved Ramon with an unbridled passion; on the other hand, she knew Ramon was too shy to ask Chantal out although he wanted to. How could she leave all she knew to go to the unknown in a new school?
Absently, she snacked on her cookie before gathering her belongings together to head for home. It was just about the right time for her to come home from school. It wouldn’t do for her to arrive too early or too late. Her mother had probably already received a text message telling her Rania hadn’t shown up for classes, but she could easily lie her way out of that by claiming they missed her in assembly. If that didn’t work, well there were other ways…
Her home was eerily silent when she entered. Usually her mother was at her work desk in the den tapping away at her computer keyboard while talking on the telephone with a client. Monique Jackson worked from home as a health insurance agent for a well known firm. Strange, Rania thought, as she made her way to the kitchen to see what was for dinner. As she passed the stairway, a strange feeling overcame her. Casting her mind around, she felt her mother’s presence in the upstairs bedroom, her mind in distress. Diverting her path from the kitchen to the stairs, Rania climbed to the upper floor feeling her mother’s agony strengthen.
Her heart pounding strongly in her chest, she passed her own bedroom door with hurrying footsteps. Pushing her eye to the slightly ajar door of her parents room all she could see was the hovering back of a strange man kneeling on the bed. Sweeping the door opened a little further, she nearly gasped at the sight of her mother beneath the hulking figure. “Mama,” she whispered in a barely audible voice.
“GET OFF MY MAMA!” her mind screamed at the maniac on the bed. Twice she repeated it, mentally sending the thought across the room. As she began to send it again, the man-form rose mechanically and stood to attention above her mother. “TURN AROUND.”
Slowly the body turned toward her exposing the features of the man. Ollie Cummings faced her. Always a little on the strange side, Ollie lived in his mother’s basement three doors down. Huge of body but small of mind, he was the odd child in the neighborhood. Even at age nineteen, his mental capacity was that of a six-year-old. Often in the afternoons, he could be found hovering behind the hedges in front of his home at the time the school bus let children off on the corner. It was the little girls who he liked the chase and grab if he could get a hold of them. Ever watchful from the picture window of her home, his mother, Emma Jean Cummings, would fling open the door to call him back from his unwelcome activities.
Now he was in Rania’s house attacking Rania’s mother. It was up to her to act and act quickly. Reaching out with her mind, she told Ollie to take out his cell phone and call 911. Slowly, connecting her thoughts with his, she dictated what she wanted him to say. Word by word, he repeated that he had been a naughty boy and had done something terribly wrong. Would they come to help him? As soon as he ended the call, Rania told him to sit down on the floor with his back against the foot of the bed. In the meantime, the little girl ran to comfort her mother.
From the far distance, the sound of sirens began to wail. Within moments, the police were at the door and escorting Ollie Cummings away in handcuffs. Along with the arriving ambulance, Charles Jackson rushed into the home. As her mother was wheeled out in a stretcher, her father drew Rania close to him.
“It was awful, daddy.” Rania cried into her father’s chest. “I…I made him stop; I made him call 911.”
Suddenly a calm feeling overcame the distraught little girl. Rania realized she had used her power to influence minds to do something good. She had saved her mother from a terrible experience. She had an outstanding ability to help others. With this new idea in her mind, she was ready to go to the Kent Academy.
Two weeks later, Rania Jackson entered the Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities. She was pleasantly surprised to find amongst the student body, boys and girls of white, African-American and Asian descent; there was also a little Eskimo girl from the Aleutian Islands. All, with differing talents, were there to learn how to become Superheroes.
Standing in the mirror of her new dorm room, Rania envisioned herself in a tight-fitting blue suit with a yellow cape flowing behind her. A diamond shaped symbol on her chest held an interwoven capital M & B. Mindbender, she styled herself as she placed her hands firmly on her hips.
Mindbender(Lea Sheryn)
Mindbender
By Lea Sheryn
“Rania,” Mrs. Hellman stated as she approached the twelve-year-old African-American girl standing in the school lunch line. The sudden calling of her name made the young girl shrink back in horror. What had she done now? was the first thought that crossed her mind. Children who were called out of the lunch line were usually in some kind of trouble. “Come with me, Rania,” the assistant principal continued as she gently removed the plastic tray from the strengthening grip of the student.
Hesitating for a moment that seemed the stretch into eternity, Rania Jackson allowed her shoulders to sink into a posture of defeat before she resigned herself to following the older woman into the corridor leading to the principal’s office. The amazed glare of the students she passed on the way to the cafeteria’s double doors didn’t help her feeling of unease.
Mrs. Hellman was the strictest of the assistant principals at Booker T. Washington Middle School. Tall, slim, and prone to wearing straight skirts and no frills blouses in various shades of yellow, the student body nicknamed her Penelope Pencil behind her back. Not so long ago, Gavin Brock and Dante Mills had been given a one week’s suspension for mocking Mrs. Hellman with the moniker in the hallway between classes. But Rania had done nothing wrong; why had she been singled out?
More surprised than ever was Rania when she was ushered into the principal’s office to find not only Mr. Slack—the head of the school—but also her parents seated around the big desk. Standing with his back to the room and gazing out of the window was a strange white man of ordinary height and weight. Quizzically the girl turned toward Mrs. Hellman seeking an answer only to find the door closing upon the departing figure in yellow.
“Ms. Jackson, this is Mr. Parker,” Mr. Slack introduced the man standing in the window. “He’s from the Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities. He would like to speak to you for a moment.”
Without further ado, the newcomer turned from his place at the window. Striding toward Rania, he gazed down upon her, fixing his eyes with hers. “You have nothing to worry about, Ms. Jackson,” Mr. Parker calmly announced with a friendly smile. “You’re not in any kind of trouble. I came here today, at the request of Mr. Kent, to ask you to study at our institute. We’re interested in your outstanding abilities.”
“Outstanding abilities? What outstanding abilities?” Rania’s voice went up a few octaves as she poised herself to deny having any abilities at all.
“Now come, Ms. Jackson, I think you understand what I’m talking about,” Mr. Parker remonstrated in his soothing voice. “You can’t say you haven’t noticed anything different about yourself.”
Cautiously Rania allowed her gaze to travel amongst the people in the room. Her mother and father sat with their chairs close together. Between them their hands were clasped together. Perceptively she noticed her father squeeze her mother’s hand in reassurance. Mr. Slack leaned back in his own chair his large black hands held together in a knot in his lap. Mr. Parker waited in anticipation of her response.
Rania continued in an attitude of confusion for some moments wondering what could be different about her. She was just an ordinary little girl doing things that were ordinary for little girls. She went to school every morning, played Double Dutch in the schoolyard with her friends after the last bell had rung; on the weekends she rode her bike over to her best friend Chantel Michael’s house then over to the park to watch the boys play basketball on the court there. What outstanding ability could she possess?
Then a thought slowly occurred to her. Could Mr. Parker mean the fact that Rania could make people do what she wanted just by fixing her gaze upon them? Perhaps this was the Outstanding Ability he was talking about. But why would he want her to go to Mr. Kent’s school because she could use her mind to get her own way?
Rania had discovered her knack of mind control while she was still only a very small girl. At the time when she could only crawl around, her mother would place her into a round playpen in the middle of the living room in order to contain her. Even at such a tender age, she had hated being confined to a single place for long periods of time. By standing with her wee hands placed on the top ring of the enclosure, she had been able to concentrate on her mother’s mind, slowly working the thought of freedom into her brain thus compelling her to release the child from her captivity.
It had worked so marvelously that Rania continued to use her skill to achieve her goals almost all of the time. When she went to school, she quickly realized she could pick test answers from her teachers’ minds in order to achieve high scores with little effort on her own behalf. In games and sports, she could win most of the time by forcing her classmates to stumble and fall or to simply play less effectively than was their ability. The fact that nobody knew what was happening was the best thing about it, according to Rania.
“I haven’t noticed a thing, Mr. Parker,” the twelve-year-old child finally lied with a rolling shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well,” Mr. Parker responded as though he hadn’t realized what Rania said, “why don’t you think about it then talk it over with your parents before making a decision. In the meantime, your mother and father have agreed to bring you to the institute on Thursday afternoon for a tour.”
“I can’t see why. It’ll be a waste of time.” Without waiting to be dismissed, Rania turned on her heel and marched out of the principal’s office.
Rejoining the corridor bursting with students hurrying to their next classes, Rania headed for her locker to pick up her afternoon load of books. Chantal was already there, ahead of her. “So, what was that all about?” her best friend asked as she began filling her arms from the storage space. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” Rania shrugged.
“C’mon Ray-Ray, it had to be something.”
“Nothing really. Just some crazy white guy recruiting for his school. The Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities or something like that.” Another shrug as she turned to make her way to her next class.
Before Rania could move away, Chantal had her by the arm, restraining her. “The Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities? You gotta be kidding, girl! Superhero School?”
“What?!” Rania’s deep brown eyes grew wide in disbelief.
“Superhero School, Ray-Ray. Where they train kids with outstanding abilities to become superheroes. Girl, what you got the rest of us ain’t got?” Suddenly Chantal seemed more excited about the prospect than Rania did.
Without responding to her best friend, Rania drifted away from the lockers and through the crowded hallway as though no one else were there. Her mind fully awake to encompass her surroundings, students parted on each side of her as though Moses were parting the Red Sea. Superhero School. The thought was too daunting for one little girl to grasp. How could she use her ability to force people to do her bidding to help others? Wasn’t that what being a superhero meant? Flying in to the rescue in order to save the world?
Rania couldn’t see herself as a superhero. Just an average little girl, her thoughts were all about having fun and manipulating people into doing exactly what she wanted. Although she had seen her guidance counselor, Ms. Plumb, on several occasions during the school year, she hadn’t been able to decide what she wanted to do with her life, even when prompted to do so. She was still too young to consider her future self or any kind of career to study toward. Superhero would never come close to the top of her nonexistent list.
Clearing her mind of all further thought on the matter, Rania continued to drift from class to class until it was time to catch the bus for home. As usual, she sat beside Chantal near the rear of the bus. Scoring the seat over the back wheel ensured a bouncier ride so the two girls made sure they were amongst the first to arrive in the pick-up zone. Snuggling close to the window with her friend’s hip pressed against her own, she felt happy and secure with her surroundings as the vehicle began to move.
“So what is this outstanding ability you’ve been hiding?” Chantal asked as they pulled away from the school building.
“Nothing,” Rania responded. “I don’t know.”
“Girl, it’s gotta be something otherwise they wouldn’t have picked you. C’mon, what is it?”
“Are you gonna wear a cape and learn how to fly?” Ramon Hernandez questioned, turning to face the girls from the seat ahead of them.
Groaning, Rania sunk back into the cushions of her seat. How many kids already knew she’d been approached by the Kent Academy? Calvin Michaels, Chantal’s brother and Ramon’s seatmate, turned to face her also with a huge smile covering his face. “Maybe it’s X-Ray vision. Can you see all of us with no clothes on? How cool is that?” Sharply nudging his seatmate in the ribs, he widened his grin.
“Ain’t cool, Calv,” Rania sulkily responded. “Ain’t no one wants to see you with no clothes. Ugh!”
Quickly grabbing her backpack and slinging it over one shoulder, Rania pushed her way to the front of the bus as it neared her stop. All she wanted to do was get away from the staring eyes of the kids she had gone to school with all her life. Word got around quickly amongst the community of young people putting the subject of the gossip into an unwanted spotlight. And she was one little girl who didn’t want anyone to know of her ability to manipulate minds.
When she opened the front door of her home, she was greeted with the sound of voices coming from the den. Her mother and father were in the midst of a rare argument. Hearing her name mentioned again and again, Rania realized it was all about her. Attempting to make as little noise as possible, she silently pulled the door closed behind her and approached the staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms on tiptoe.
“Come in here a moment, Rania,” her father called from the doorway.
Turning from the stairway, Rania slowly walked into the den followed closely by her father. Tall and lean with a slim face and short curling hair, her father looked down upon her as though he were seeing her anew. “Would you mind explaining this outstanding ability Kent is interested in?”
“I dunno.” How many times was she going to shrug her shoulders today? Rania wondered.
“She’s a mindbender, Charles,” her mother cut in from where she was sitting, tense, on the couch. “She can influence your mind just by gazing at you. How do you think she got that raise in her allowance last month? The one you were so adamantly against?”
“How long has this been going on?” Charles Jackson inquired, surprise filling his voice.
“Since forever,” the mother responded making Rania stare at her in amazement. “I knew from the first moment I held her. That’s why I named her Rania; it means to gaze.”
“This is news to me,” the father stated as he allowed himself to fall to the couch next to his wife.
“Look, Charles, Granny Cheevers was a mindbender. Even though she kept it to herself, the whole family knew about it. There was no getting around her with a lie because she knew what you were up to before you were up to it,” Monique Jackson explained. “It runs in my family. It might skip a generation or two, but it always shows up sooner or later. Our little girl is a strong one. She’s been working on our minds since she was crawling around in diddies.”
This time it was Rania’s turn to sink into a chair. All this time and her mother knew exactly what she was doing. It was all going to blow up in her face now. No more could she get away with getting her way. Everyone was going to know what she had been up to; her manipulative days were over.
“So, I’ll ask again, what does Kent want with a little girl who can maneuver your mind into achieving her own goals?” the father asked as he turned upon his wife.
“Darned if I know,” Monique Jackson answered. “Darned if I know,” Rania repeated after her mother.
“I guess we’ll find out when we visit the institute on Thursday,” the mother finally concluded.
“Ain’t going,” Rania announced as she folded her arms tightly across her chest. Without further ado, the little girl rose from her seat and headed out of the room. Picking her backpack off the floor at the foot of the stairs where she dropped it, she climbed them to her bedroom. Setting her homework out across her desk, she propped her chin in her elbow as she started to turn the pages of her algebra book.
The next day, Rania did something she had never done before in her life. She played truant from school. It was for the best, she considered, as she made her way to the secret hideout she and Chantal had used since they were small. Cautiously looking around her to be sure no one saw her slipping away, the little girl slid into the wooded area two blocks from her home. Skipping over the wisp of a creek winding its way through the dense trees, she pushed her way further in until she came to a small clearing and entered the leaning plywood shack built against a towering pine.
Leaning against the back wall and pulling her knees up under her chin, Rania began to think. Could she use her power to help others? She didn’t think so. No matter what way she considered the subject, she couldn’t figure it out. As the day wore on, the little girl opened her backpack and drew out her lunch sack. Slowly she set out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, a homemade chocolate chip cookie and a bottle of fruit juice. Her stomach told her she wasn’t hungry; it was all tied up in knots. Still she nibbled her sandwich then took a huge bite out of her apple. Saving the cookies for a snack later on, she tipped the juice bottle against her lips and drank.
Superhero School. Why her? Rania wondered for the umpteenth time. Probably full of white kids anyway, she decided. White kids had all the opportunities, she thought. What would they think of her? Would they tease her or shy away from her because she was black? Or would they accept her as one of them? She was almost considering going just to show them up with her power of mind control.
If she went, she would lose her friends. It had been Ray-Ray and Chantal all her life. The two girls had been inseparable since before the first day of school when they went to daycare together. She would miss the banter between girls and boys in their friend/non-friend relationship with Calvin and Ramon. Secretly she held feelings for Calv although they had a way of putting each other down. Weaving deeply into Chantal’s mind, she knew her friend loved Ramon with an unbridled passion; on the other hand, she knew Ramon was too shy to ask Chantal out although he wanted to. How could she leave all she knew to go to the unknown in a new school?
Absently, she snacked on her cookie before gathering her belongings together to head for home. It was just about the right time for her to come home from school. It wouldn’t do for her to arrive too early or too late. Her mother had probably already received a text message telling her Rania hadn’t shown up for classes, but she could easily lie her way out of that by claiming they missed her in assembly. If that didn’t work, well there were other ways…
Her home was eerily silent when she entered. Usually her mother was at her work desk in the den tapping away at her computer keyboard while talking on the telephone with a client. Monique Jackson worked from home as a health insurance agent for a well known firm. Strange, Rania thought, as she made her way to the kitchen to see what was for dinner. As she passed the stairway, a strange feeling overcame her. Casting her mind around, she felt her mother’s presence in the upstairs bedroom, her mind in distress. Diverting her path from the kitchen to the stairs, Rania climbed to the upper floor feeling her mother’s agony strengthen.
Her heart pounding strongly in her chest, she passed her own bedroom door with hurrying footsteps. Pushing her eye to the slightly ajar door of her parents room all she could see was the hovering back of a strange man kneeling on the bed. Sweeping the door opened a little further, she nearly gasped at the sight of her mother beneath the hulking figure. “Mama,” she whispered in a barely audible voice.
“GET OFF MY MAMA!” her mind screamed at the maniac on the bed. Twice she repeated it, mentally sending the thought across the room. As she began to send it again, the man-form rose mechanically and stood to attention above her mother. “TURN AROUND.”
Slowly the body turned toward her exposing the features of the man. Ollie Cummings faced her. Always a little on the strange side, Ollie lived in his mother’s basement three doors down. Huge of body but small of mind, he was the odd child in the neighborhood. Even at age nineteen, his mental capacity was that of a six-year-old. Often in the afternoons, he could be found hovering behind the hedges in front of his home at the time the school bus let children off on the corner. It was the little girls who he liked the chase and grab if he could get a hold of them. Ever watchful from the picture window of her home, his mother, Emma Jean Cummings, would fling open the door to call him back from his unwelcome activities.
Now he was in Rania’s house attacking Rania’s mother. It was up to her to act and act quickly. Reaching out with her mind, she told Ollie to take out his cell phone and call 911. Slowly, connecting her thoughts with his, she dictated what she wanted him to say. Word by word, he repeated that he had been a naughty boy and had done something terribly wrong. Would they come to help him? As soon as he ended the call, Rania told him to sit down on the floor with his back against the foot of the bed. In the meantime, the little girl ran to comfort her mother.
From the far distance, the sound of sirens began to wail. Within moments, the police were at the door and escorting Ollie Cummings away in handcuffs. Along with the arriving ambulance, Charles Jackson rushed into the home. As her mother was wheeled out in a stretcher, her father drew Rania close to him.
“It was awful, daddy.” Rania cried into her father’s chest. “I…I made him stop; I made him call 911.”
Suddenly a calm feeling overcame the distraught little girl. Rania realized she had used her power to influence minds to do something good. She had saved her mother from a terrible experience. She had an outstanding ability to help others. With this new idea in her mind, she was ready to go to the Kent Academy.
Two weeks later, Rania Jackson entered the Kent Academy for Outstanding Abilities. She was pleasantly surprised to find amongst the student body, boys and girls of white, African-American and Asian descent; there was also a little Eskimo girl from the Aleutian Islands. All, with differing talents, were there to learn how to become Superheroes.
Standing in the mirror of her new dorm room, Rania envisioned herself in a tight-fitting blue suit with a yellow cape flowing behind her. A diamond shaped symbol on her chest held an interwoven capital M & B. Mindbender, she styled herself as she placed her hands firmly on her hips.
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