Soulmates
6
Speech
Jaime
FOR JAIME, high school proved to be more complicated than all his schooling before. It was good that he got to choose a portion of his own classes and tested into more advanced levels in others. He especially liked math. He was moved directly into an advanced algebra class, having already completed algebra and geometry in middle school.
The core curriculum in high school was dictated by the state. This included English language, biology, human geography, Spanish, and physical education. Jaime chose computer science for his special four-year emphasis and, because he was already proficient with computer basics, moved straight to the second level honors course.
Some teachers objected to having a student who could not participate verbally. David helped Jaime navigate the high school enrollment process by interviewing teachers for each of his classes. Math, science, and computer science classes were the easiest to enroll in. Taking a formal Spanish language course was the most difficult. The teacher was uncertain how she could assess his language skill without hearing him speak the words.
Jaime showed he was able to type his answers to questions in Spanish and the teacher agreed to assess him on written skills instead of verbal skills. Ultimately, the teacher was inspired to study Spanish sign language and began including it in her lessons. Jaime was pleased with this course because four of his friends from kindergarten were in it with him. They were all fluent in ASL and the four had taught Jaime many Spanish phrases over the years.
Focusing on his own thoughts was an effective means of blocking the thoughts of others. When he was particularly focused on a geometry problem, for example, or researching the circulatory system for biology, other mental voices faded away and all he could hear distinctly were his own thoughts.
If, however, he found himself daydreaming, he could become caught up in the thoughts of another person. He didn’t want to become a head voyeur, but some people were difficult to turn away from. He heard a student speaking enthusiastically about playing a basketball game, for example, and at the next game, rode in the mind of that student as he played. He found a new appreciation for the sport as the player focused on the game and devoted all his energy single-mindedly to playing his best and winning.
Jaime realized he had depended on his telepathy or mind reading all his life, but had never spent time studying it or improving it. Riding in the mind of the basketball player had shown him that it was just as possible to shut out everyone else by focusing on this one person as it was when he focused on his own thoughts. He thought of it as fine-tuning a radio when there were other stations nearby that interfered with the signal. It required a great deal of thought to develop the talent further.
On the other hand, he had encountered the thoughts of a person that was so strongly directed toward him that Jaime believed at first he was actually in a mental conversation with the boy. It didn’t take too long, however, to realize that even though the thoughts were about him, the speaker didn’t hear him respond.
God, I’d like to tap that! I wonder if I could make Zipper Lips scream if I fucked his ass. Shit. I’m getting hard. I need to get out of the shower. Fuck!
«Hey! Cool it man! I’m not interested!» Jaime thought to him.
I don’t dare say anything. I’m not out and the other guys would crucify me if they knew. I wonder if he’s a little bit gay. Or bi?
«I’m not either. I don’t care if you are. Really. I’m just not interested.»
Jaime was getting angry when he realized he was figuratively talking to thin air. The boy with the lustful thoughts couldn’t hear him. Jaime really had no right to police other people’s thoughts, even when they were about him. He untangled his mind from the other’s thoughts and dressed.
‘Zipper Lips.’ By the end of his freshman year, many students he had classes with had figured out his name sign and referred to him as Zipper Lips. It didn’t really amount to an insult. He’d chosen the name sign himself. Even his friends called him ‘Zip’ when they spoke aloud to him. A fond nickname, he supposed, just as he sometimes called Juan ‘Mex.’ Of course, Jaime only did that in his mind and in the sign, but he quickly equated the two.
The two boys and two girls he’d maintained friendship with from kindergarten on, often met to study together. Their only shared class was Spanish, but they studied other subjects at one or another’s home as well. During their time studying together, Jaime became aware that Mex and Cheery were acting strangely. It took a few minutes to realize the two had begun hanging out together and were thinking loving thoughts about each other. Jaime quickly separated himself from their thoughts. He was determined not to become a voyeur on his friends.
Cheery’s real name was Letitia Rodrigues. They were not allowed to study at her house while her mother was at work, but Mex always walked her home after their study sessions. Letitia meant ‘Joy’ in Spanish. It was an appropriate name for the bubbly girl. Her name sign was the sign for ‘cheerful.’ Jaime was kind of fond of her, too, but he would never interfere in his friends’ relationship. He didn’t find any of the same kinds of thoughts toward him in Cheery’s head as she had of Mex. His other two study partners held no such thoughts about anyone.
Jaime had to constantly practice shielding his own thoughts from others. If he could hear people’s thought without them knowing it, it seemed likely that someone else could possibly do the same thing. He began to define his own set of words to explain what he experienced.
Out-loud voice was what other people used to talk to each other with their mouths. Inside voice was what people used in their heads. Most people had an inside voice, but he didn’t think anyone was aware that it could be heard by a head talker, like him. They were head deaf and didn’t hear anyone else’s thoughts, so why would they even consider that someone else could hear their thoughts.
He’d long ago begun to identify the thoughts of individuals from each other, just as his ears could tell the difference between people’s out-loud voices. Sometimes, however, it took him a bit to figure out who a new or different head taste belonged to.
And finally, when Jaime read another person’s thoughts, he considered himself a head voyeur. He wondered if everyone was born with the ability to talk in their heads, but learned to shut it out so effectively and so quickly they never realized they had it to start with.
That was the start of Jaime’s investigation of whether it was even possible to awaken a person’s head sense if the proper trigger could be found. Jaime imagined himself teaching his friends to communicate with their heads like they did with their hands. He started reading everything he could find about telepathic science and theory.
Jaime and Wendy
“How was your date with Donny?” Jaime overheard in the school hall. The girls were right behind him, so he couldn’t help but hear them talking.
“I swear, all boys ever think about is sports. And probably sex, but the only thing they talk about is sports. And if that’s all he can talk about, he can forget about sex,” Wendy Anderson, a girl in Jaime’s sophomore chemistry class said. She was one of his lab partners, so he could recognize her voice anytime. She never seemed to shut up. He wondered how she knew what Donny could talk about. Jaime was sure she never listened.
“Told you so,” Cheryl, the friend, chided her.
“I don’t know how a boy ever expects to get to first base if he can’t open his mouth without quoting a sports statistic. ‘Brock Moore ran for 218 yards in last Sunday’s game.’ ‘Mason Graham passed for three touchdowns.’ ‘They should trade worthless Grady O’Brien and get a good tight end.’ Can you imagine listening to that crap all through the movie? No thanks.”
“See you at lunch. Maybe we can spot a good one if we go hunting together,” Cheryl said as they parted ways at the chemistry lab.
They joined their other two lab partners as Mr. McConnell gave them the experiment they were to conduct and told them to be sure to wear their safety glasses. Jaime found it hard to focus on the teacher’s words because he became caught up in Wendy’s internal monologue.
Safety glasses! There goes everyone’s sex appeal. Damned Donny. If he’d listened to me, he’d have gotten more than a goodnight kiss.
Jaime could see in her replay of the Saturday night events that Wendy never had any intention of letting Donny have more. He was willing to pay for the movie and popcorn, so she was willing to grace him with her presence.
With the help of their lab partners, they managed to get the experiment set up and listened to the next set of instructions.
I need the strong silent type, Wendy thought. The image in her mind was of a movie star with a ripped body who didn’t say much.
Maybe I should try Zip. He’s certainly silent. Not particularly ripped. Not bad looking, though. Wonder what he packs in his pants.
The team paused in their experiment to each write down the steps in their composition books. Jaime noticed his lab partners all printed their notes in block letters of varying neatness. His precisely penned Spencerian script was a stark contrast.
Look at the way he writes. I wonder if he’s an alien. Maybe he’s hiding tentacles down there. Like that toy Cheryl showed me a picture of. I really need to figure out how to get one of those without my parents finding out.
Jaime saw a clear image of what looked like a severed octopus tentacle, then a not quite so clear picture of Wendy putting it between her legs and pushing. That caused him to catch his breath at the exact same moment Wendy did.
Oh, yeah. I’d definitely let him get to second base. Maybe further if he really never said anything.
She imagined a completely unrealistic picture of a much stronger and physically fit man than Jaime, but with Jaime’s head and the tentacle thing protruding from his groin.
The test tube they were heating began to bubble over the top and Mr. McConnell rushed to their table to cap it and direct the clean-up. He looked at their notes and tapped “step three” which clearly stated when to mix in the last ingredient. He gave the group a ‘C’ for the day. Jaime’s three lab partners frowned at him as though he had been the one who brought their grade down.
The class bell rang and they gathered up their books and left. Jaime hastily scrawled a note in his book and tore it out. He tapped Wendy on the shoulder as they were getting ready to leave. She spun, ready to defend herself from… something. He handed her the note.
“How am I supposed to read anything you write? It’s pretty, but can’t you print like everyone else, Zip?” she said. Jaime took the note and quickly printed on the other side of the paper.
“Would you like to go out Saturday night?” she read. “Seriously? Oh, God! No. Thank you, but no thank you.”
She handed the note back to him and rushed out the door to meet Cheryl coming up the hall.
Ew! Yuck! Why would that weirdo ever think I’d go out with him. Not in a hundred years. He was looking at me all through class. What was he thinking? Oh, yuck!
She disappeared down the hall toward the lunchroom and from Jaime’s head.
Jaime and the Voice
«Don’t be a dummy,» a girl’s voice said in his head at lunch.
Jaime was certain the thought had been directed at him as he sat alone and pondered what had happened in chemistry. Wendy had definitely been thinking about him and imagining a date with him. He’d felt a tingle in his chest, centered around his nipples. Her nipples, he thought. Just at the time she was imagining that tentacle thing between her legs.
He quickly looked around the cafeteria for the source of the mental voice. There were too many people to see where she was located. He was certain it was a she and that she had spoken directly to him.
«If everybody acted on their fantasies, there would be an orgy in the main hall. Don’t go confusing fantasy with reality. Geez!»
Then the voice was gone. He looked and listened, but there was only the usual cacophony of students’ thoughts. He’d know if she ever spoke to him again. This confirmed in his mind there were others like him in the world—even right here in his school.
Jaime and Andrew and Linda
Jaime kept a lookout for the girl, but didn’t recognize the head taste of any girl he encountered. It was frustrating. But it was also a valuable lesson. Someone had eavesdropped on his internal conversation in the cafeteria with ease, and he didn’t even know she was there. He needed to work on blocking his thoughts from being broadcast.
In an effort to learn to block his thoughts, he began practicing meditation. He had no idea if he was really doing things right, but he watched a lot of videos on YouTube until he thought he knew the principles. Thinking of nothing was difficult. It was much easier to focus on just one or two non-important things than on nothing. This improved his focus in class. He concentrated on what his teachers were saying, and on what he read in his textbooks. Of course, his train of thought was continually being derailed by random thoughts of his classmates—especially late in the day when he was getting tired.
2:15. Like clockwork. It happens every day at 2:15, a boy’s thoughts echoed in Jaime’s mind. Thank God it’s just twenty minutes from the final bell. Damn, it’s hard today!
Jaime realized the boy two seats over from him in US History was thinking about his erection. That wasn’t enough, though.
Linda could just slip down under my desk and suck me, he continued, thinking about the pretty girl who sat between them.
Suddenly, Jaime could see the image of the girl naked on her knees in front of him, pulling his cock out of his pants to suck. He sneaked a quick look at his classmates to convince himself she wasn’t actually on her knees between the desks. Nonetheless, the fantasy was very real and Jaime felt himself hardening, too.
Sucking is good but fucking is better, the boy thought. Bring those sweet titties up to my face and settle down on this pole. Oh God, yes! Just like Friday night. You are so hot, baby.
The scene shifted in the boy’s mind. He and Linda were no longer in the classroom, but were in the backseat of his parents’ car. They were both very naked. Jaime realized this was no longer a fantasy, but a memory. They’d had sex on their date Friday night.
Jaime shifted his awareness to see if Linda was having any part of the same memory. It was in her mind as she struggled to focus on the War of 1812.
He’ll want to do it again this weekend. Mom said that once you give in to a boy, that’s all he thinks about. It just felt so good when we started. It hurt a little when he shoved it in. I wanted to stop, but he was already inside me and said he couldn’t stop until he came. I guess. He’s a good boyfriend. I don’t want to lose him. Maybe we can go someplace more comfortable where I’m not hitting my head on the roof of the car. I did like being naked with him, but I wish I didn’t have to keep looking around to spot anyone who could see us.
“Andrew Martin. The class attention is up here,” Mr. Tollefson said, tapping the map behind him. “Who was the president during the War of 1812?”
“Um… Uh… I think… Um…”
Andrew’s erection suddenly went limp. Linda was tittering a little in her head.
“I’ll simplify the question a little. What year was the War of 1812 fought?”
“Uh… uh… 1812, sir?”
“Is that your final answer?”
“Um… um… Yes, sir. I think so.”
“Good. Now try to stay awake for the last fifteen minutes of class. Linda, can you tell your boyfriend who was president during the War of 1812?”
“Oh. Yes, sir. It was… um… James Madison, I think.”
“Yes. James Madison. He was only the fourth president of the United States and for a while, it looked like he would be the last. The British burned Washington, DC. Now…”
The class went on for another fifteen minutes until the final bell and Jaime returned to filtering out the thoughts of his classmates.
Later that night, though, the image of Linda naked and riding her boyfriend returned and he soon found himself soaked in his own emissions.
Jaime and Emerson
Jaime’s work in computer science during his junior year yielded a voice generator that he could use in classes. He and his lab partner, Emerson Flaherty, created a simple text to speech engine using existing public domain AI software. Then they’d worked together to sample the voices of several of their classmates to get different tonality, accent, and gender when it was fed through the AI voice generator.
Emerson was great to work with. She’d latched onto the project enthusiastically when Jaime suggested it and the two spent a lot of time in the computer lab together working on it.
In their American Literature class, they demonstrated the device and for the first time, Jaime was able to participate in class discussions. The voice generator could interpret his tone almost as fast as Jaime could type. Emerson introduced him and Jaime interacted with his classmates.
The entire class applauded and wanted to hear the device change voices. They guessed who in the school each voice belonged to. Jaime said his goal was to create a voice that was unlike any of his classmates so it would be uniquely his own.
He regretted losing his partner in the second semester as she had the opportunity to study overseas for a term. It was less fun working on the project alone, but his participation in classes made it worthwhile.
Of course, the possibility of actually sampling his own voice was always in the back of his mind, but if he did that, he would have to explain whose voice the generator was using. Over the summer, he worked on blending multiple voices into a single intonation by sampling segments from several students and manipulating the sound waves to make them into a single unique voice. The hardest part was convincing the AI that the voice was a single voice and not a chorus. He didn’t want a robotic voice that sounded like a dozen voices speaking together, though he guessed that would also be pretty cool.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
