Seer

Timothy’s

Timothy has been waiting all afternoon for the sounds of Natalie and her family returning from her father’s house. He is lying on his bed, attempting repeatedly to open his mind to my words. I have continued the attempt to achieve true communication with him, but the effort has been spotty at best.

The only incident in which he clearly understood my message was days ago when Natalie was crying, and I urged him to comfort her. It seems that the intense emotional atmosphere of the moment contributed to the effort, and my communication came through to Timothy more clearly than at any other time.

We have attempted repeatedly to experiment with this endeavor. Each time, I use the level of energy that was successful when he heard me suggest that he hold Natalie. Last night as requested, Angel transmitted to me a word that Natalie had written in her notebook. I attempted diligently to transmit the word, and Timothy’s perception was very close, but not exact. As has happened many times before, what he seems to receive from me is a general impression, rather than a specific message. The contact occurs, but is not perfect.

I know that he is disappointed that the effort has not been successful as yet. To him, it appears to be taking too long. He has no understanding of the fact that his progress is phenomenal, unprecedented, astonishing. I am unaware of any human who has ever achieved this much in the past, without actually being a Seer. Humans have felt the presence of their Guardians occasionally, have sensed the emotional comfort being relayed in times of stress. But never actual words, never true dialogue. We are not there yet, but I know Timothy will continue trying.

Of course I will assist him in every way I can, eternally patient with his efforts, always loving, infinitely impressed with his incredible intellect and determination. I no longer doubt that he will succeed.

Timothy

When I hear Natalie get home, I figure I’ll wait a few minutes and then go over there. But instead, I hear her knocking on our front door right away. Good.

I leave my room and have reached the stairs when Mom opens the door. Natalie smiles at my Mom and then meets me on the stairs.

“Hi Timothy,” she says, seeming even happier than normal, “how was your day?”

I wait until we are back in my room with the door closed. “It was fine,” I say, sighing a little. “No real progress yet.”

“Did you get my word?” she asks.

I get my notebook, and show her where I wrote “dog” last night.

Her eyes get wide, and she opens up her notebook and shows me that she had written “puppy”.

I nod. “Well, that’s closer.”

She says, “But Timothy! It’s almost exactly right! I think you’re really getting there!”

“Maybe,” I say. I still don’t feel like I am truly hearing Guardian. I just get these feelings, like the way it feels when you are dreaming, and when I hear him it’s like when you first wake up and you remember the dream you were having. It slips away unless you try to hold on to it. That’s what it’s like with Guardian.

We sit down on the floor like usual, with our notebooks, so that we can compare notes about our experiments. I know she has stuff to tell me about her experiment, The Jonathan Project, although I can’t pretend to be very excited about that.

But instead of showing me her notebook, she is listening to Angel. After a minute she says, “Guardian and Angel heard what you thought about how it is like dreaming when you are hearing Guardian. They think you are right, because the way that a guardian normally talks to their human is by using the same part of the human’s mind that they use for dreaming.” She listens again. “Angel says it is called the sub-con-scious,” she says, saying it slowly since that isn’t a word she is used to.

That’s interesting. I’ve heard of that before. I read a lot of science books, not just the ones for second-graders. The teacher lets me read anything, and my Mom takes me to the library to check stuff out, too. I haven’t read very much about the subconscious though. I think about this for a minute, then say, “So, Angel and Guardian, I guess that you talk to the part of the mind for dreaming, but I think with a different part, the conscious part.”

Natalie listens, then says, “Yes.”

“Well,” I say slowly, “could that be part of the problem? Like the message is going to a different part of my brain than what I am using to listen?”

I wait while Natalie looks at Angel. “He says that is an interesting theory. However, it seems like when you open your mind, when you’re trying to hear Guardian, the part that is opening is linked to the sub-con-scious part.” It’s going to take her a couple of tries to be able to say that word.

I look at Natalie, and know that she’s looking at Angel, and hearing him talk just as easily as she can hear me. “So, what part is Natalie using?”

Natalie looks surprised. “Huh,” she says. “I have no idea.” She looks at Angel and I wait.

“Angel says he doesn’t really understand how it works with me. He says that I am a ‘Seer’, and that means that I can see him, and hear him. He thinks it means that my brain is different from regular people.” She shrugs, then giggles. “I guess we always knew that!”

I laugh a little bit with her. Yes, her brain is obviously different. Like mine is different, but not in the same way.

“I’ll have to think about this some more,” I say. “I’ll bet there’s ways to experiment with whether I am listening with the right part of my mind. Maybe if I figure that out, I can hear Guardian better.”

After a moment, Natalie says “They say that you are correct as always, and they are confident that you will be able to think of a good experiment to test this.” She smiles at me. “You know how much we all love how smart you are, right Timothy?”

I duck my head and smile. “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks.”

Then I sigh. I will need some time to think about the parts of the mind theory. For now though, I guess we should talk about Natalie’s experiment.

“So, how is your experiment going, Natalie? The Jonathan Project,” I say, and I can’t keep my voice even when I say his name. I really really don’t like Jonathan and I really wish she wasn’t trying to spend more time with him. But I still want to help her with her experiment if I can.

She looks like she gets more happy and excited when I ask her about it. Sigh.

“It’s going great so far!” she says. “And something else happened. Jonathan got a dog! That’s what I was thinking about last night when I wrote puppy for you. I was thinking of him getting a puppy!”

“Oh,” I say. “I hope Jonathan isn’t mean to the dog.”

Her face falls when I say that, then she listens to Angel, and sighs. “I don’t think he will be. I’m going to try to make him nicer, and I hope that means he won’t try to hurt the puppy or anyone else. But Angel says that he ‘shares your concern’”, she says, rolling her eyes.

Natalie’s

Natalie’s assessment of the progress of her current project is correct. It is indeed going well, far better than I could have predicted. Jonathan has responded to her interest swiftly. Her natural empathy and kindness, coupled with her use of me as a tool to understand his nature, have already had an effect. He has spent years viewing her as an annoyance, or as a target for his misbehavior, but not as a friend. Her brother is his friend, and she has been viewed as nothing more than the little sister that is sometimes present. But he has never before been the beneficiary of her purposeful warmth.

Now, with just two days of unknowingly being the subject of her experiment, his attitude has already been redirected. He has found her to be more interesting, and more amiable, than he ever imagined. He enjoyed her company, separately from enjoying the companionship of her brother.

Furthermore, the addition of his new little pet has contributed to his adjustment in attitude. As his Guardian had noticed, Jonathan’s normal inclination to view a small creature as a target for harm has not been triggered. His positive feelings towards the young animal seem genuine.

Are the two events related? Is his delight in receiving a pet amplified by Natalie’s attentions? It seems oddly coincidental that two such moments would occur simultaneously.

But it does appear clear that Natalie’s efforts are being met with success. In two days of companionship, Jonathan has made no moves towards cruelty, and in fact has had no thoughts to that end. I have monitored his thoughts carefully in order to report them to Natalie, and detected none of his usual spitefulness. It has been puzzlingly unusual. I had not anticipated her experiment bearing fruit so rapidly.

Even more puzzling, and somewhat more troubling, is the reaction of Jonathan’s Guardian. Of course the Guardian is aware of Natalie’s project, and has met the concept with a strange disdain. All other Guardians who have encountered Natalie are wholly invested in her success. As a Seer she is a compelling presence for our kind. This Guardian, though, believes that it is somehow … unfair… for the Seer to be directing her abilities in this manner. I have never before encountered a Guardian who feels what can only be described as resentment. But Jonathan’s Guardian appears to begrudge Natalie’s success in improving Jonathan’s demeanor.

This is perplexing. Guardians always welcome any chance for improvement in their humans. When a human commits illicit acts, their Guardian may not approve, but will accept the action as a means of augmenting their shared soul. But Jonathan’s Guardian appears to have progressed further along that spectrum, and seems to actually approve of Jonathan’s cruelty, even crave it.

What can this mean?

Timothy’s Guardian follows my line of thoughts, and is also concerned. This is a new development, a change in normal Guardian perspective. We do not know whether this will hinder Jonathan from being able to continue to improve in the way that Natalie wishes. However, as a Guardian’s exhortations for calm or peace are only very rarely sensed by the human, it is unlikely that Jonathan would be able to sense his Guardian’s preference for more unpleasant actions.

Would he?