Chapter 1 Part 2

The next smell that hit you was the smell of bread. Next to the coffee, that was my favorite smell in the whole world. I loved the way it smelled warm no matter how long ago the bread had been baked. I loved the way that no matter what other smells were polluting the air, the bread smell still managed to make the air smell fresh and home like.
I inhaled a deep breath full of coffee, cookies and bread, “So Blake, what do you think of this glorious piece of heaven?”
Blake took his own lung full of the savory air, “I think it smells amazing,” Blake’s eyes widened when he saw the plate full of cookies, “And they give out free food if you buy anything on the menu!”
I laughed as I watched Blake take it all in, “I’m sure they had some type of coffee shop by where you lived. This can’t all be new to you can it?”
“Sure they had coffee shops around me, but none of them were quite like this.”
“Well, why don’t we go up and order our lunch and you can tell me whether or not this place has better coffee and food then your coffee shops back home.”
Blake followed me up to the counter, eyes glued on the menu board, “Lena, I don’t know what to get! Everything on here sounds so good!”
The worker behind the counter laughed, “First time customer?”
I nodded, “I am ashamed to say that he has never tasted the ambrosia you so kindly give away to us mere mortals, I bow down to you oh great coffee Gods.”
“Is that Lena?!” I heard a voice ask from the kitchen off the left of the small store.
“It is Lena; she has brought in a friend. Quick get the brainwashing stuff out while we can, we don’t want to let this one get away!”
Blake was still looking at the board, trying to figure out what he wanted to get, “Lena, you have to help me out somehow. There are so many choices that I have no idea what to pick.”
I laughed, “Well there’s a book of all the drinks over there on the counter, but I don’t know what to tell you, I still have problems deciding and I have been coming here for a year now. But food wise, it is all really good, so whatever you choose, you will like it.”
A few minutes later, Blake and I were sitting at a table in the corner of the upstairs section. Our coffees were sitting in front of us, being pushed aside for something with more substance. No disrespect to coffee, but there are a few rare occasions where my stomach needs something more substantial than just a cup of coffee. I wish that were not true, but there is this stupid ‘theory’ going around that the human body needs to eat certain things to develop, mature and function properly, and unfortunately coffee does not contain all of these ‘important’ groups. I know it is really crazy and completely unacceptable, but I try to take good care of my body in some ways.
“You were right, this place is amazing. I am so glad you were kind enough to share it with me. If I were you I would keep it to myself!” Blake exclaimed through a mouth of food.
“Well I would keep it to myself, but if I did that, it would end up having to close down because there is no way that I could supply a small business with my caffeine addiction… Yet.”
Blake laughed and finished shoving the rest of his lunch down his throat, “So I asked you to come to lunch with me by ourselves because I had to tell you something, but before I told you, I want you to prove to me that you really can read minds.”
I swallowed the bite of food that I was chewing, I had more manners then some people, “How else can I prove it? I already did in the best way I could. What other ways are there?”
Blake smiled, “Well I want you to read the minds of everyone in this coffee shop.”
“Hell no, if I did that, it would sound too much like a scene from a certain overrated movie about sparkly vampires, whose title I refuse to mention. And there is no way I am stooping to that level.” I was appalled that he would dare make me do something that would relate to that movie. Sure I didn’t mind the book, but the movie was hideous.
“Well how else are you supposed to prove to me that you can read minds?” Blake asked, looking at me as if the world depended on my mind reading abilities.
“Like I said earlier, I already read your mind, and that is the best way I can think of proving to you that I can in fact read minds,” I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip from it, avoiding Blake’s gray-green eyes, “Anyways, if I did read the minds of everyone that is currently in here, how would you know that I was telling the truth. I could just be pulling random things out of my ass.”
Blake thought for a moment, staring into space biting the lid of his coffee cup absentmindedly, “You have a point, but I need to know if this morning was just luck, or not. I want you to read my mind again.”
I scanned his thoughts for a half second, not wanting to encroach on his privacy, “You are a little nervous about letting me drive your car later tonight, but you have confidence that I will not do any major harm to it that you cannot fix.”
Blake grinned sheepishly, “Sorry, I am a little nervous, but anyone would be,” Blake took a drink of his coffee and looked at me seriously, “Now it is my turn to tell you my secret.”
“It is about damn time, I have been waiting for this all day. You can’t tell me something like that at the start of the day and expect me not to pester you all day!”
“I know, but this is really important that only you hear, and you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone else about it. There are some people that if they find out, they will try to hurt me and possibly you.”
“Blake you are freaking me out. What do you have to tell me that is so important it could get us harmed?”
Blake looked around suspiciously, “Okay, well you know how you said earlier that you could read minds?”
I nodded; it was kind of hard to forget about something like that, especially considering the fact that it took place less than five hours ago, “What about it? Just hurry up and tell me whatever you need to tell me already. I want to know and your secrecy is getting a little old.”
“Well if you would just be patient, I would tell you,” Blake took a deep breath and looked around the table we were sitting at one more time, “I have been able to do something kind of similar to that for quite a while. I can’t remember when I first noticed what I could do, but I know it was a long time ago.”
I was about to yell at Blake to spit out whatever he was going to say when I saw the person who had helped us out at the counter walking over to our table, “The boss man says I have to kick you out. Something about him not wanting you guys here when he knows you should be in school. Sorry guys.”
I wanted to slap him. Blake was just about to spit it out when he had to walk up and interrupt him. Now I have to wait for him to build up the courage and say it again. I knew there was a reason I disliked most people as much as I did.
Blake smiled and picked up what was left of his drink, “That’s fine, we’ll just finish our conversation on our way back.”
I grabbed my drink and yelled a quick good bye to the people I knew there, not wanting to miss my chance of hearing what Blake had to say, “So what is it that you can do?”
“I can make people do stuff they normally would not do on their own just by using my mind,” Blake unlocked his car doors and opened my door up for me. I sat in the passenger seat waiting for Blake to get in the car to hear the end of his story, “When I first noticed what I can do, I just passed it off as good luck. I did that for a few years until I noticed that I was getting everything I wanted almost as soon as I said I wanted it.
“I loved it at first, but then I started thinking about how it could be considered cheating and immoral if anyone found out what I could do,” Blake accelerated as he got onto the main road to get to our neighborhood, “So for quite a while I wouldn’t ever say what I wanted and I did my best not to make people do something I wanted them to do.”
I was quite for a minute wondering whether or not I should believe this. It was hard to believe, but so was my telling him that I could read minds. I studied his face to see if there were any traces of him lying, “Okay, if you can make people to do stuff, I want you to make me do something.”
Blake sat in silence for a few seconds, just looking out of the front windshield, “Okay, but I am just going to do something simple, nothing serious.”
“Well I would hope you wouldn’t make me do something serious, I don’t want to involuntarily kill myself of tell you one of my darkest secrets. That would just be awkward.” While I was talking, I had absentmindedly reached over to the stereo and was now changing it to a different station. “Did you make me do that? I don’t remember ever deciding to turn on any music.”
Blake grinned, “Yeah, I made you do that. It’s freaky huh?”
I nodded in agreement, “You haven’t made me do anything else have you?”
“The only other thing I have made you do was tell me what was on your mind this morning because I knew something was up and I wanted to know why,” Blake glanced over at me quickly, an accusing look on his face, “Speaking of which, you didn’t tell me what your job was. You said that I wouldn’t understand it until I knew what you could do, so now that I know, you need to tell me.”
“I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that I never told you.”
“Now you are just avoiding the subject. Tell me what it is, please.”
“Me, avoid the subject, never!”
“ Lena,” I do not think I had ever hear my name sound so menacing, except for some of the times my mom said it, “You are starting to make me mad. You should tell me or you may regret it later.”
“What are you going to do to me that will make me regret it?” I looked over at him just in time to see the glare he gave me. I knew that I should probably stop avoiding the subject and tell him now, “I am not sure how much I can tell you about it, but I can tell you the gist of it. I work as a sort of lie detector for the local F.B.I. office. The only difference is I can always tell when the person is lying. There are no mistakes when they use me.”
“And you are modest too,” Blake smiled and moved his arm out of the way when I tried to hit it, “But how do you make it seem real. It’s not like they can just have you sitting in there when they interview a subject, interjecting after every statement whether it is true or not.”
“No, when they go to have to interviews, they hook them up to one of the ‘real’ lie detectors that everyone has seen at least once in their life and they have me act as the technician recording the information.”
“What happens if you say that the person is lying but the read out from the machine says that they are telling the truth. I can’t imagine that would go well with the higher ups.”
“Everyone who should know about what I can do does, and they always inform new people who have never dealt with me what the situation is.”
“That sounds really confusing… But it makes sense. Now I can understand why you were so tired this morning.”
“Yeah, it is a nice job with good pay, but there are some nights when I just wish it would already end.”
Blake pulled into our neighborhood and slowed, “So we have about 25 minutes until we would normally get home, so what do you want to do until then at the very latest?”
“Well I guess we could go see a movie or something…” I knew what Blake wanted to do, and I was nervous about doing it.
“There’s nothing playing now,” Blake pulled into a church parking lot, “Why don’t we practice your driving since we have the time!”
I groaned, “Do we have to?”
“Not if you do not want to. I will not make you do anything that you don’t want to do. I just think it would be good for you to know how to.” Blake turned off the car and looked over at me, judging my reaction to his words.
“I guess I will do it, I know I want to learn, I am just nervous about doing something to ruin your car.” I took off my seat belt and opened the passenger door to get out. The air was crisp, and leaves were rustling on the ground. I walked around the back of the car, hoping to calm down just a little more before I got behind the wheel.
Blake was standing by the driver side door, holding it open, “Don’t worry Lena, you will do just fine. And there isn’t anything you can do to my car that can’t be fixed.” Blake gave me a quick, encouraging hug before he closed the door and jogged to the passenger side of the car.
I put my seatbelt on and was just about the start the car when Blake stopped me, “Before you start the car, I want you to tell me the order of your pedals from left to right.”
“Clutch, brake and gas,” I looked over at Blake, “What was the point in that?”
“I wanted to make sure that you knew where all the pedals are. Now, do you know what the clutch does?”
“Well I know you use it when you are going to shift gears, but that is about all I know. Again, why am I getting quizzed on this stuff?”
“Again, I want you to know the basics of what you are doing, and what everything does before you start driving. You may not think it now, but knowing how the thing you are using works does make you feel more confident when you get around to using it.”
“Well then you should tell me everything now, because chances are, I don’t know what it does or how it works,” I knew I sounded meaner then I meant, “Sorry, I did not mean to sound that rude, I am just nervous.”
Blake smiled encouragingly, “It is ok, I know I was just as nervous when my dad taught me how to drive a clutch, but I have faith that you can do it. It is not nearly as hard as it seems.”
I smiled, Blake always knew what to say to make you feel better, “Okay, why don’t we get down to business?”
“Okay, so the clutch pedal, when you push it down, makes it so that the spinning engine is disconnected from the wheels long enough for you to switch gears without letting the teeth in the gears grind on each other and wear down. When you release the clutch, it connects them again, but with the new gear in place.”
“Okay, so basically for about half a second your wheels are not attached to anything at all…”
“Well they’re still attached to the rest of your car, but they aren’t attached to the engine.”
“That doesn’t sound any less scary… Are you sure that this is safe?”
“Perfectly,” Blake handed me the keys, “First make sure that you can reach all the pedals, and make any adjustments to your seat, mirrors and wheel if you need to.”
I checked all the mirrors and slid my seat forward, unlike Blake, I was not six foot two, “I feel like I am in drivers ed. again. Although I think it will be a little easier with you as a teacher, I won’t have worry about grades.”
Blake laughed and rolled his eyes, “I’ll try and be nicer than the teachers at school, and luckily it will not be very hard.
“Okay, now before you start the car, always make sure it is in park. Once you are sure it’s in park, I want you to push the clutch down as far as it will go, then put it in neutral, start the car and then take your foot off the clutch.”
I stuck the keys in the ignition and looked at the gear shift to make sure it was in park; fortunately I had driven with Blake enough to know where all the positions were in his car. I pushed the clutch down, put it in neutral and then I turned the keys in the ignition and listened to the engine purr to life, as soon as the car was started up I looked over at Blake while I took my foot off the clutch, “Okay, now what?”
“Okay, I want you to put your foot back on the clutch and shift to first gear while you ease onto the accelerator then as soon as you are done shifting gears, you need to take your foot off the clutch.”
I did what Blake told me and we started moving, “This isn’t as hard as everyone says it is, sure it takes a little concentration, but it is actually pretty easy!”
We spent about a half hour driving around, then Blake looked at the clock and smiled at me, “Now I want you to drive us to your house.”
I looked at him for a moment, making sure he was being serious, “Okay… I guess it is better practice than just driving around a church parking lot.”
I successfully drove us to my house without causing damage to the car, us, any pedestrians, parked cars or any yard fixtures. I pulled into my driveway, put the car in park, turned off the engine and look over at Blake, “Look at that! I am a professional driver! I got that down in no time!”
“You did do very well, and it took you less time getting the hang of it than even I did.” Blake sounded a little bitter about that, but I could tell he was happy for me, and proud that he could teach someone like me, who is very hard to teach, how to do something like that.
I opened the door and popped the trunk so I could grab my backpack out of the trunk, “Thanks for teaching me how to drive. Now if I ever have to take a dead body somewhere and don’t want the blood stains and rancid smell in my car, I can just borrow your car!”
Blake walked around to the back of the car and grabbed his stuff, “You know Lena, there are times when I worry about you and wonder why I ever thought to be your friend. Right now is one of those times…”
“Gee, thanks so much. I’m glad I could be of service to you. There has to be something that gets your mind working.” I closed the trunk, tossed Blake his keys and walked up the sidewalk to the front door.
“Isn’t it sad that the thing that gets me thinking the most is you?” Blake asked as he pocketed his keys and walked up to the door.
“Not sad, but a little strange,” I grabbed my keys out of my backpack and opened the front door, “I was going to invite you over, but since you kind of already invited yourself I guess there is not much I can do.”
“You could offer me a drink, some food and offer to do my homework for me.” Blake replied as he put his backpack on the floor next to our front door and slipped out of his shoes.
“If I do those things for you will you do them for me when I go over to your house?” I put my keys into the key bowl on the table in the entry way and put my backpack down before I took off my shoes.
“Well I would offer you a drink and food, but I would not do your homework for you.” Blake walked into my kitchen and opened up the fridge and proceeded to raid the interior of my fridge for something to eat, “You need to buy more food. There is nothing to eat in here, do you and your mom just starve to death?”
I rolled my eyes walked into the kitchen, “Are you thirsty?”
“Yeah, I’ll just have a glass of ice water, thanks!” Blake’s voice was muffled due to the fact that he had found his way into the pantry and was standing in the middle of the small, closet sized space.
I grabbed down two glasses and walked to the freezer to put ice in them, “How are you possibly hungry when we just at lunch thirty five minutes ago?” I walked back over the sink and filled up the glasses and set Blake’s down on the counter next to the sink. Some mumbled nonsense drifted out of the pantry, but I was not entirely sure if it was actually English. Between the mouth full of food and the accent, it was pretty much impossible to decipher whatever it was that Blake had just tried to say to me, “Do you want to try and say that again without the food in your mouth? Believe it or not, it is really, really had to understand you when your mouth is jam-packed with food. Plus, it is not at all attractive.”
Blake walked out of the pantry with a full bag of potato chips in his arms, “I said, ‘There is always a way that I can be hungry, no matter how long ago I ate.’ I am a growing boy after all!”
I laughed, “I wish we could say that you are finished growing, but you are probably right.”
“Of course I’m right, I am always right!” Blake walked over to me, not pausing to stuff a handful of chips in his mouth, and grabbed his water glass, “So, I was wondering if you would like to come with my family to Ireland for the Thanksgiving break. My parents are the one who suggested it, and I think it would be nice to have someone there to talk to beside the little kids.”
I was stunned, “Your parents want me to go to Ireland with you guys?!? I have only known you for six months and they want to take me to your family’s Thanksgiving celebration?”
Blake started laughing and almost spilled his drink, “Are you being serious? You think I’m taking you over for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Um, yeah… Considering you just invited me over for Thanksgiving break, I figured it would be for Thanksgiving dinner.” I was confused, why did Blake find this so funny?
“Lena Thanksgiving is an American holiday; my family and I are not American.”
My cheeks began to get hot, “Oh god, I feel so stupid now,” I buried my face in my hands, “Can we pretend this never happened, please?”