"I can tell."(Kevin Hughes) I don’t know why I can tell. I just can. Other than that, I am just like you. Mostly.

I guess I should start at the beginning. That would be around my Senior Year of High School. Yeah. That would be the beginning.

I didn’t date much. Most girls weren’t interested in a shaggy haired thin guy with a forehead filled with pimples. One girl, Tracy…well, she was always nice to me. She had a girlfriend named Becky who sometimes sat with the two of us at lunch. Barry was my only real friend. He was basically a loner …like me. He wrote these beautiful sad ballads that made me cry.

He would play them on his acoustic guitar while we sat in his garage. He just liked making music. He never wanted to be a Performer. He was way to private for that. But Becky came with Tracy and me to sit in his garage. She recorded his songs on her smartphone. That was all it took. He never even finished High School…he was a Star.

In between gigs, or studio sessions he would come see me. He liked my little apartment.

“You are the only person, and well…Tracy too, who treat me like …me. I never wanted to be a Star. Sometimes I wish Becky would die, so I could go back to just being me. Even with all the money she stole from me, and who knows how many deals she made in my name that I don’t even know about, I still have more than enough money to live in a nice cabin by the Lake up near the mountains.”

We talked a lot about Becky. Of course we never called her Becky. We called her “Schemer.” She did everything without Barry’s permission. Even right from the beginning when she put that clip up on YouTube and another on Tik Tok, yet another on Instagram, and…of course, on her Home Page too. Barry was a Star almost overnight. The Schemer said:

“I made you Barry, you owe me! I am your Manager and always will be.”

Barry tried to get her to let him take a break, or at least stay in a Studio and Write. She wouldn’t listen. She was making money off of Barry. Lots of Money. She could care less about his needs, wants, or mental health.

I listened. I guess that is when my gift came to me. Or curse.

It just kinda crept up on me. I started to notice little things about people. Things that most folks wouldn’t notice. Like how Tracy always looked down when Becky’s name was mentioned (after she “outed” Barry’s talent on Social Media). I noticed that Barry always tugged at his left ear when a lyric hit him. He would close his eyes and hum…then tug at his ear. Once he stopped tugging on his ear…I knew he had a verse, or chorus…whatever.

Mrs. Simpson, our Math Teacher. I watched when she fiddled with her Wedding Band, while looking at Steve McKnight. Steve was six foot two, a Star Athlete, and filled with enough charm and charisma for an entire gender to dream about. I knew what she was thinking. Mr. Boardman, our Biology Teacher, used to set a microscope up on one side of the lab table, he would stand directly across from whoever was bent over to look at a slide. He only put that microscope out, in that position (since we all had our own microscopes, just not as powerful as his was) when the girls had on button blouses with one or two more revealing buttons casually unbuttoned.

They would lean over to see…and so would he.

I noticed that Cindy Smith only wore make up four days a month. The rest of the month she didn’t care about her looks. Or maybe Tom McTigh, who I could tell was having emotional problems because he kept pushing the palm of his left hand up against his eyebrow in class. Details. I saw them all. I knew what they meant. I could tell.

I could tell who was happy, sad, mean, nice, kind, arrogant. Sometimes just with a single glance. It got deeper. I could tell what you really meant. What you really wanted to say. Then I got so I could tell if you would ever change…or not. I could tell if you were Evil. Real Evil.

Becky was the first.

Becky had just made Barry go back on the Road. He had only been home for four days. He had come to see me. I was only out of High School for about two year or so, when he came to see me. He told me Becky said that he “owed it to his fans” to stay on tour. She told him he had a gift and it wasn’t her fault that she saw it.

“You don’t get to pick your talents, Barry. You have them, or you don’t.”

I remembered that, because I often thought about my talent. I wouldn’t have picked it. Hell, I didn’t even know it was possible. I guess, Becky brought it out, making it surface after a few years of exposure to her Toxic management of my only friend…Barry.

Barry had a breakdown on that tour. He was in the Hospital for over three months. When he got out, he looked like a skeleton. He came over my house the day he flew home. I put him in my room. I slept on the couch. Tracy came over and fixed some meals. We did like we did in High School, just playing some card games, watching Netflix, and sometimes just floating in the Apartment Pool. Barry put on a few pounds. His quiet smile came back.

And then…so did Becky.

I had gone out to get some McDonald’s fries. None of us liked McDonalds…except for their fries. Tracy and Barry were just sitting on the couch watching an old movie that made them both laugh. I think it was called : “Some Like It Hot.” It was in black and white, and it was really funny as two musicians pretend they are girls so they can get close to Marlyn Monroe’s character.

Anyways, when I got back with the Fries, I opened the door to a bizarre scenario.

Tracy was standing directly in front of Becky. Her hands knotted into fists, fists that were pressed so hard into her hips that the knuckles were white with anger. She was just staring at Becky with a look of “don’t you dare.” Barry was rocking back and forth on the couch…crying. Becky was holding his guitar in one hand. Holding it out like a weapon, waving it at Barry.

“Play…play you stupid son of a bitch. Stop coddling yourself with your loser friends. You need to get back out there. You are in Show Business whether you like it or not. I don’t think I can save you…or your career…if you don’t play now!”

And that is the moment I got my full gift.

Becky didn’t give a shit about Barry. I saw right through to her heart. She was a Bully. She had power over Barry…and knew it. She would wear him down to a nub, erase any sense of self, and then throw him away when she was done.

I could tell.

I looked at Barry. He was going to kill himself as soon as she left.

I could tell.

I looked at Tracy. I never noticed it before. She loved Barry. She didn’t even know it. I looked back at Barry. He loved Tracy. And he knew it. The only reason he hadn’t killed himself months ago, even years ago…was Tracy.

I could tell.

I put the fries on the Coffee Table. Only then did Becky deign to acknowledge I was even there. She had dismissed me long ago as just some lonely nerd without a spine. She spoke to me like you might speak to a mosquito that was biting you.

I could tell.

I ignored her. That pissed her off. I looked at Tracy.

“Tracy. Look at me.”

She didn’t take her eyes off of Becky.

“Tracy. LOOK AT ME!”

Something in my voice connected with her. She turned to look at me. Her anger turning into curiosity. Where did the power in my voice come from, she was thinking that as she turned towards me. I could tell.

“Tracy. You take Barry for a walk. Right now. Now go.”

She nodded at me. She pulled Barry to his feet, gave one last hard stare at Becky and said:

“What about her?”

I smiled.

“Don’t you worry about her. I will take care of her. You just get Barry somewhere away from here. I will text you when you can come back.”

And that was that. They left. Leaving me alone with Becky.

Becky was miffed. Really miffed. Not the least intimidated by me, or what just happened. She started to speak:

“You think you can keep me away from Barry? You twerp. I will sue you so many ways that you won’t have a thing left to your name. I will get the world to hate you. You’ll have to leave the country with that pet bitch of yours…Tracy. I will make your lives so miserable,you will beg my forgiveness.”

She meant every word.

I could tell.

So I smiled.

That scared her. She paled. She backed up two steps.

“Your going to kill me…aren’t you?”

She brought the guitar up to swing at me. I could see the viciousness of her grip. She was going to kill me.

I could tell.

She swung.

I caught the guitar out of the air.

Becky…was….gone.

She didn’t fade away. She didn’t fall to the ground and melt like the Witch in the Wizard of Oz. She didn’t cry out, scream, or hurl insults.

She just…wasn’t there anymore.

Not a trace.

Like she never existed.

I knew she was gone.

I could tell.

I texted Tracy.

“She’s gone.”

“For real?”

“For ever.”

“Thanks.”

We helped Barry build a cabin up by the Lake. Turns out he is pretty doggone good with tools too. So is Tracy. I just sort of carried stuff to them when they needed it. They did let me drive into town for Fries. It took almost all summer, but the cabin was done. It was a good summer. Tracy and Barry finally found each other after being together since First Grade.

I was there the night they realized they were in love. We were all roasting marshmallows when Barry asked Tracy to taste his, she nibbled at it. Then she held up her marshmallow. He nibbled at it. They both laughed. In a way... it was their first kiss. In that flickering campfire I saw how wide and shiny their eyes were. They had finally figured it out.

They were in love.

I could tell.

I stayed a few more days to help with moving stuff in…and leveling out the gravel for the parking spaces. They hugged me goodbye.

“Don’t be a stranger. You come back whenever you want. Barry and I will be here.”

Barry nodded agreement as he shook my hand like a hard hug.

They both meant it.

I could tell.

I have ridded the World of dozens of “Becky’s” over the years.

If you are Evil. I will find you. You can’t pretend around me. You can’t hide from me.

I can tell.

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