Theo watched quietly as Rhonda sat at the table, holding as still as she could. She closed her eyes and held her hands in front of her, just above the table, as though she were holding a large ball.
A foot in front of her hands sat two ceramic mugs of hot chocolate. The one on the right had a large marshmallow bobbing gently in it.
Rhonda imagined holding the mug in which the marshmallow floated – just the mug. She tried to sense its texture, its every tiny imperfection, its radiant heat, and she thought about this until her hands could feel the mug.
She sat with the imaginary mug in her hands for a moment, then she moved inward to feel only the hot chocolate. Gradually, the solidity of the mug gave way in her hands to a hot wetness. She was sensing only the drink itself. Her nerves attested to the Brownian motion of the liquid even as her skin remained dry; she felt the heat although she was not burned.
Rhonda let go of the hot chocolate sensations and moved on to the big, fat marshmallow. She could sense its squishyness, how soggy the submerged portion was and how firm the portion above remained.
She intuited everything she possibly could about the marshmallow, making it as real to her empty hands as it was in the mug. She drew a calming breath and reached out with her mind to send the marshmallow flying out of its mug toward the other mug of hot chocolate.
Rhonda opened her eyes as the marshmallow hit the rim of the second mug and stuck there momentarily before dropping to the table.
“Well, that was bloody awful, Rhonda,” Theo said. “What a waste of a perfectly good marshmallow. If that’s the best you can do, how will you ever convince anyone that you have telekinetic abilities?”
Rhonda scowled at him. She mentally pushed Theo’s chair back eight feet in the space of two seconds. Then she tipped it over backward, spilling him ungently on the floor. “Ow!” he yelled. But then he laughed, knowing he’d earned the retaliation.
His sister had merely been working on her fine control, after all.
Interesting story! It would be fun to have telekinetic powers, but of course if everyone had them, there would be more chaos in the world than there already is.
I look forward to reading your stories every week.