Washed Up [Open]

[James Martin]

The man opened his eyes.

Groaning, he took in the scene around him. He was lying in the shallows of the lake, with his head resting on the shore. It seemed as if he had gone for a swim, for some unknown reason in all of his clothes. Strangely, he didn't seem to remember. In fact, he didn't seem to remember anything. All he knew for sure was that his head felt as if it was splitting open.

Pulling himself slowly up and onto dry land, he noticed a small, battered suitcase on the bank. He trudged over, and opened it. Inside was an A4 brown envelope, with no name on it.

Cautiously, he opened the contents of the envelope into the case. There was a grubby, handwritten note, a plain silver ring and $5000 in cash. He picked up the note.

Your name is Jack Bishop. You are 34 years old. You have a wife - Ellen - and two children - Josh and Livvy - in England, but you have had to come to the USA to work as a researcher at the University of Vermont. Unfortunately, you have lost your families telephone number, but they promised to call you soon, so don't worry about it.

If you are reading this note then it means that you have lost your memory. This is due to your power: Telepathy. Unfortunately, you find it difficult to control your power, and it only works at seemingly random intervals, and often for people miles away. Try not to worry too much about any 'visions' you may get, as they are likely from somebody else's life and unimportant. The University does not know about this special ability of yours, but you hope to use it in your research somehow.

If you are still having difficulty remembering, then put on the ring.

Jack hesitated, just for a moment, as a cloud passed across his thoughts. As quick as it had a came, it went, and he put on the ring.

Memory rushed into him, and he wondered how he had ever managed to forget. He had prepared the 'crash kit' just in case he had any more blackouts, his wedding ring was the best way he had found to make him remember his life. He'd only just arrived at the university yesterday, and had come for a walk to check out the local plant life before he went up to the school to start his research proper. A wave of shame washed over him as he remembered Ellen and the kids; how he had managed to forget them, well...

Strange thing though, he still couldn't remember the way to the university...if only there was someone around to tell how to get there...

[Deidra McKay]

If you needed someone to tell you just when it would be the right time to plant a hot air balloon and grow tigers, then Deidra was the right person to call. If you needed someone to give you directions? Well, she asn't so great a person to ask. The teen wasn't the best with directions, at least not giving them to others. She could make her own way around fine yea, but that didn't translate well into spoken language. Of course, her thoughts never translated well into spoken thought. The amount of color and music in her brain was like a kaleidoscope on crack. So sometimes keeping her focused on one thing, and understanding what she was talking about was rather....difficult.

That didn't mean she wouldn't try of course. When she saw the man standing by the pond [what was he doing anyway? The frogs slept during the day so it would be silly to be trying to roust them now], she decided he needed help. Besides, she was outside anyway so why not? Deidra skipped her way over to him. He had a sort of confused look on his face. What could cause that anyway? Maybe he's trying to solve the mysteries of the universe. The thin, dark skinned girl skipped right up to him. [The fact he was a stranger didn't cross her mind. Those things never seemed to stop her]

" Heyla! You look in need of some help!" She quipped cheerfully.

[James Martin]

Water dripped off of him, but Jack didn't shake himself off in case he drenched the girl. Instead, he pulled a sliver of pondweed from his hair, pulled himself up straight and tried to affect an air of dignified...saturation. Thankfully, here in the States his middle English accent seemed to do half the work for him.

"Ah yes, hello. I was just here taking a walk and checking the, er, aquatic plants when I overbalanced and fell in. Yes. I was wondering if you could tell me the way to the, um," he hesitated, trying to remember. Finally, his brain clicked into gear; "University, the University of Vermont. I'm just starting work there researching...things, but it seems I must have gotten myself lost, as I can't seem to remember the way back from here."

He took a better look at the girl. Perhaps she was a student at Hammel? When he was a boy, he had attended the Institute in attempt to learn to control his telepathic powers, but with little success. At first he had been able to use them fairly competently, but in recent times he only caught snatches of people's lives, often strangers in a crowd.

He would have loved to have gone back to research at Hammel, but he sensed that they wouldn't have been too impressed had they learnt that his ability to use and control his power was diminishing. So, University of Vermont it was. Maybe on subconscious level he missed Hammel and wished to go back and so had located himself nearby? He dismissed the thought. He had his own life now. Wife. Kids. Perfect.

[Deidra McKay]

Being a rather close to queen of all things strange made Deidra a good judge of strange things. Normal things, no, strange yes. And she was fairly certain that this man was a bit strange. Not as much as she, but enough to have made her interested. She smiled when he pulled the pond plants from his hair. It was kind of funny the way he tried to act all grown up-ish, in that certain way adults do. She always thought it was interesting anyway.

" I'm sure the aquatic plants are quite lovely. Be careful though, you never know when you might meet a loch ness monster out for a swim. Water is supposed to be a doorway through time and space you know. All sorts of fun things could be roaming around." He took a moment to say where he was actually trying to go, and in her mind the words seemed to take on a funny sort of yellow green all flecked with brown, which she took to be something in between confusion, slight frustration and just plain old not remembering. She mentally shook her head.

" The University? Well...you're a bit of a ways away for that. It's sort of outside town-ish by like, forty five minutes I think. Maybe. My brother goes to school there, but I've only been there once or twice really. I much prefer the school. Anyway, that way," she said, pointing " Is probably the way you want to go. Sooo, what are you really doing out here. I mean, grown ups don't check on plants. They leave that to the planty people Like Basil in town. Or....ya. Those kind of people." She asked him.

[James Martin]

Jack frowned in confusion. He was pretty sure that he had been out here to check up on plants, and had gone to reply as such, but caught himself. Was his research even on plants? He tried to remember just what he was researching, but there was just a blank patch where he felt the information should be. Strange, maybe he had hit his head when he fell...

Realising he had just been standing there, he cleared his through awkwardly.

"I like to check things out for myself, really. Get hands on and all that, you know?" He hoped she did, because he certainly didn't. "I guess I should leave it to others, what with the mess I seem to have gotten myself in. Sorry, what did you say your name was?"

He stopped. In his mind, something stirred...

"I think I need to start getting more hands on again, you know? I don't like using my power, but I really think that this guy could be important, and what with him having just died this is the only way I can find out about him without harassing his wife and kids.

The voice was vaguely familiar. In front of Jack's eyes were shadows, blurred shapes moved through them. A female voice cut in.

"As your therapist, all I can offer is advice. If this issue means a lot to you, then you should pursue it. However, up till now you have dismissed the notion of using your powers ever again, what has changed now?"

"I...I was with him the day before he died, talking to him. As he shook my hand when I left, something happened. I've had years of practice controlling my power, and I've never had a link so powerful or instantaneous. I was him, I wasn't just looking in from the outside as an observer and experiencing the same emotions, I was seeing it through his eyes. The things I saw...if I could get just a little bit more then who knows what I could achieve?

[/b]

There was a hunger in the mans voice, and something stirred deep inside Jack, was it trepidation? This person seemed to be almost consumed by desire, and if their reasons for not using whatever power they had were serious enough to never want to use it again, surely this wasn't worth whatever the risks were?

"Like I said, if it means that much to you, then it might be unhealthy [/i]not to do it."[/b][/blockquote]
The vision faded, leaving him blinking stars from his eyes.

He let out a small groan. He was grateful that his telepathy still worked, but where was the subject? Most likely a random stranger, hundreds of metres away. Not to worry.

With a start, he realised that the girl had gone. Strange, he swore the vision had only lasted a few minutes at any rate, and his telepathy usually passed instantaneously to the outside world. It was odd, but it kept the kids from asking odd questions.

His heart leapt at the thought of them. Happiness he had never dared to dream of. All shared with Ellen, so beautiful yet gentle and graceful, the girl next door who had somehow fallen for him that summer. The memory was crystal clear still, as if he'd only had to remember it a few days, but it had been years. Long, happy years.

Snapping out of it, Jack looked around. Which way had she said to go again?

Picking a direction, he set off.

Continues in 'Who is James Martin???' (diary entry).