Jack had recently moved to a small
town in Nevada from the state of Washington.
The reason for this, he was going to be married to a young woman named
Molly. They had met through a mutual
friend when Molly was in Washington visiting relatives. With any such long distance relationship,
there were many trips back and forth by both of them. Long distance phone calls were starting to
get out of hand. It was on one of these
trips Jack made to see Molly, that he popped the question. Of course, she accepted.
Jack was on the tall side, about
5’11”. A very serious young man, with
somewhat of a humorous side, that didn’t come rolling to the surface very
often. His hair was black, worn short,
blue eyes, and a muscular build, but on the lean side. His life long dream was to become a police
officer, and he had a lot of determination towards that end.
Molly was almost 5’8”. She had long, red hair inherited from her
mother, blue eyes, a nice figure, and was lovely to look at. Looks that turned the heads of both men and
women. She had a great confidence about
her and she wouldn’t take anything from anyone.
No one had to stand up for her, as she could do that herself and proved
it many times.
The third member of the household was
a black, three month old kitten, named Shadow.
Molly had acquired him when he was six weeks old, before Jack moved from
Washington to live with her. Shadow was
always dogging Molly’s every move. The
cat was quite a little character and had a personality that wouldn’t stop.
Jack brought a washer and dryer with
him from Washington. The dryer did not
have an electrical plug and he had to replace it.
Molly’s parents lived on the next
street over, and just behind her home.
Jack went over to see his future father-in-law, Lee. He knew Lee had a complete knowledge of
electricity in his own work. Approaching
him, and trying to be very correct and impress him, not realizing he was using
a slang term, Jack asked, “Lee, where can I get hold
of a pigtail for the dryer?” With a straight face, and without missing a beat,
Lee answered, “Oh, you can go down to the KC pig farm and find one.” Jack
didn’t know how to reply, and just stood there dumbfounded. After a short interval, Lee chuckled and told
Jack where to buy the plug, and off went Jack to make his purchase.
Jack bought the plug, and returned
home to resume fixing the dryer. Things
were going very well until he was ready to plug it in. The plug had three prongs that were very
long. One was the ground prong. It also had a small body where he thought he
was holding it and was getting ready to plug it into the outlet. As he did, Jack made one huge mistake. He grabbed the body, but at the same time he
touched the three prongs and proceeded to plug it in. Wham! The shock threw him across the room
with a terrific force. He immediately
lost consciousness after hitting the far wall.
Luckily, Molly was an EMT, and she
gave Jack CPR until the ambulance arrived.
The medics rushed him to the nearest hospital within a short time.
The doctors worked on Jack for a
couple of hours. One of the doctors came
out and spoke to Molly and the rest of the family. He told them, “Jack’s vitals are good and he
is in stable condition. He seems to have
some strange activity going on in his brain, though, and he is in a coma. He should come out of the coma after a short
time and bounce back with no problems.
He will need a lot of rest and quiet.”
Within the next couple of days, Jack
opened his eyes, looked around the room.
Not only Molly, but also her parents and his parents were present when
he regained consciousness. Jack’s
parents were naturally concerned about him had flown from Washington to be with
him and give Molly support.
The doctor explained to him what had
happened. Jack replied, “I knew that
without you having to provide the information.” Everyone looked at him
strangely. “What’s the matter with you
people? I know you are all concerned, and Molly, I love you too. I seem to be able to know what you all are
thinking and I can’t explain it.”
Later, Molly, and the four parents
waved the doctor down. They were upset
about Jack’s ability with this new type of telepathy. Molly asked, “Doctor, could you explain to us
how Jack seems to read our minds and knows what we are thinking?”
The doctor answered, “I’ve heard of
this before, as others have experienced it.
It seems to be that the electrical shock has stimulated the brain cells
in the cortex. The patient ends up with
a condition with every appearance of telepathy.
We are not exactly sure what to do about it. The telepathy goes away after some time, but
we don’t know the reason for that either.
I would suggest all of you be very careful what you are thinking. I’m sorry I can’t give you more
information.
Jack was released in another three
days. Molly took him home where she
would take care of him.
Every time Molly turned around, Jack
was asking her to do something simple for him.
“I know you think I’m a pain and some of these things I could get up and
do for myself. I am not spoiled Molly,
and you should be ashamed of yourself for what you are thinking!”
Molly started out of the room. She knew it had only been a few days since
Jack came home, but thought she didn’t know how much longer she could take him
reading her mind. Jack yelled, “I heard
that!” Molly threw up her hands. Shadow
had followed her from the bedroom, and it looked like he was shaking his head
in consternation.
Both sets of parents went to visit
Jack to see if there was anything they could do to help either him or
Molly. Before anyone could voice this
question, Jack answered it, “No there’s nothing I need. Molly is doing a bang up job taking care of
me.” In the same breath he yelled to Molly, “Hey you out there, these folks
would like to have some coffee!” He then piped up with, “I know you aren’t my
slave!”
The four parents stayed and tried to
visit with Jack an hour or more, but he was driving them
nuts. They couldn’t make a statement or
ask questions without him answering before they could speak. He seemed to be the only one who was doing
any talking. It became very tiring and,
finally, both sets of parents left. They
wished Molly luck, for they knew she had her work cut out for her.
Jack had made many friends since
moving to the little town. When he was
up and around, and would see people he knew, he would yell, “Hi! Come on over
and we’ll have a cold one.” At first Jack’s telepathy was a novelty, and he
entertained the friends with his new power.
Very quickly they got fed up with it always being a one sided
conversation. When his friends would see
Jack first, they would turn the other way and almost take off running. It upset Jack and he was baffled why they
would treat him in such a manner. This
went on for several months.
Jack finally realized two of his life
long dreams. The first: marrying
Molly.
The second: being accepted to the
police force. His telepathy helped him
get on the force. The officers
interviewing him figured he could read the minds of suspects and he would be
ahead of them solving the crimes they committed. Though he was still considered a rookie, they
knew he’d advance quickly even without the telepathy.
Jack had learned to curb his urges of
his telepathy and not drive his fellow officer’s nuts, especially when the
husbands and wives would have an evening on the town. That relieved a lot of Molly’s anxieties.
On Jack’s day off, Molly was doing a
load of washing when mysteriously; the plug to the dryer came out of the wall
socket. “Hey Jack, have you been working
on the dryer again? It isn’t plugged in.
Haven’t I told you several times, ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it?’” As always, Shadow,
a little older now, was sitting on the dryer, watching everything Molly was
doing.
Jack answered, “No I haven’t, but
don’t touch it! I don’t want you to get injured. I’ll take care of it.” He marched into the
laundry with an air of great confidence.
Jack proceeded to tell Molly, “I want to show you how to do this right,”
he said grabbing the plug. He explained
to Molly, with Shadow still on the dryer and intently looking on, “Now this is
the right way. You don’t touch the long
prongs while plugging it in!” While he was showing her, his fingers slipped
just enough to touch the prongs while inserting it into the wall socket. Wham! He was thrown back against the far
wall, unconscious.
Molly to the rescue as the whole
scene happened again.
At the hospital, the doctors worked
on Jack once more. When the same doctor
came out to talk to Molly and the two sets of parents, he asked, “Does this
young man have a death wish? I think it’d be wise to keep him away from
anything electrical! It seems Jack will weather this storm again, no worse for
wear; but we can’t be sure how this affected his telepathy until he comes out
of his coma again. Once he wakes up we
will have to keep him for a few days observation.”
The same five people were sitting in
Jack’s room waiting once again. They
were all thinking the same thing; hoping he wouldn’t be able to read their
thoughts when he woke up. This was
certainly no way to make friends and influence relatives.
When Jack came out of the second coma, he
opened his eyes and looked around. He
asked, “What’s wrong? Oh no! Don’t tell me I did it again? There is something very
wrong, as I don’t know what anyone is thinking.
Guess I lost whatever power I had after the first coma. I think I’ll miss it.”
Molly and the four parents looked at
each other and gave a very deep sigh of relief, and soon, Molly took Jack home
for the second time.
Shadow was sitting there waiting for his
humans. The cat looked up at Molly and
blurted out, “Well, I’m sure glad that is over and done with!”