Paralyzed

“You don’t have to do this, Fiona. We’re all here for you and you know that. I know that you know that. So why do you feel like running away is the only solution?”

I sat down on the couch and placed my head in my hands before releasing the breath that I had been holding. Jason had a point; I did know that they were all here to support me. But I felt like getting out of this town would be the best thing for me. That if I just got away from here for a little while, if I moved out of the area and tried to start over things would be better. Maybe the voices would finally stop and I’d have some peace.

Ever since my mother passed away last fall I’d been able to hear things that no person should ever hear. I’d been able to hear the thoughts of everybody who came within ten feet of me and if I was being honest, it was not all everybody expected it to be. It was like sitting in the school gym during a pep rally and being unable to hear yourself think. Except that all the noise was inside your head and it was usually a person’s intimate thoughts.

I struggled to deal with it at first but it got better. After months of walking around in a stupor, my grandmother explained it to me on her annual trip home. I was a psychic and it stemmed from the long line of irish wise women on my mothers side of the family. Nearly all of the women, dating back to my great-great-great-grandmother, had some kind of magical talent. Some of them even had as many as three or four talents. She spent most of that trip home explaining to me the various things that would be changing in my life and why my powers never showed up until now. That for our family, the powers never showed up until we were in our mid-twenties and that sometimes it took a dramatic life experience for them to spring forth.

“Fiona? Are you listening to me? You’re spacing again, Fi.”

“I’m sorry, Jason. I just think that getting out of here would do me some good. Grammy said that I could stay with her in Virginia. That she would help me get an even better handle on all of this stuff. It’s nothing against any of you and I thought that you knew that.”

“Fi….I didn’t mean it like that, honey. I speak for all of us when I say that we just want what’s best for you. And if that means moving a state away, we’ll support it. Well...most of us will. Your sister is the one who is arguing over it the most. She thinks you’re abandoning her.”

“I don’t have time to deal with her emotional problems. She ran out on mom and I the moment she turned eighteen and the only reason she came back is because she needed financial help. So if she wants to cry about me ‘abandoning’ her, maybe she should have thought of that before she took off,” I said as I finally looked up at Jason.

His blue eyes were wide and startled, probably at my outburst. I’ve never really been one to unleash my feelings in a flood like that. But Matilda was not on my list of favorite people and hadn’t been since she decided to make a sudden reappearance into my life four years ago. Jason sighed and took a seat beside me, placing one hand on my knee.
“I know that you two don’t really get along, Fi. But she is still your sister and next to your grammy, she’s the only family that you have. That has to count for something.”

“Maybe on another planet.”

“Alright, how about we go out for lunch, just the two of us? Enjoy a nice, quiet day before you leave town in the morning for who knows how long. It’ll be my treat.”

I nodded and stood up, pulling Jason with me. Out of everyone in this town, Jason was without a doubt the person that I would miss most. He was my best friend and my partner in crime. He was also the only person aside from my grammy who knew about the telepathy thing. Which led to a lot of long nights being held by him while I cried myself to sleep. He never made a pass at me, never tried to make things awkward between us. It was safe to say that I loved him, but on a strictly platonic level. And that made it so much more fitting for my last day in my hometown to be spent with him.