The Hidden Truth

Girl Friends

A few days later I was found in Lyn’s room, a small room like mine containing a bed, a desk with a computer, a lamp or two, a few attempts of her art lessons, and a dresser full of clothes provide by the Jedi. I was sitting on her bed and her on the floor, trying to copy one of my drawings of a horse. There had been a peaceful silence between us for a good ten minutes, except for the angry comments coming from her, as she struggled to get the curve of the horse’s back just right. I was ignoring her, lost in deep thought and worry.

“Arg, that’s it. I give up. Your animal is impossible to draw.”

She threw the pencil to the ground, shoving her drawing away, and looked at me for a distraction. She was filled with unJedi like and very uncharacteristic anger at the drawing, which was strong enough to pull me out of my thoughts and pay attention to her. I told her the picture was not impossible to draw, seeing how I drew it in the first place. She glared at me, still annoyed and disbelieving. I took her attitude as a challenge, shrugged a bit, and grabbed the drawing with the pencil in hand. I erased many of her dark, jagged lines, and studied my own work. I took a deep breathe and sketched a perfect flowing curve of the horse’s top part of the back and handed the drawing back to her. I couldn’t possibly resist telling her that it wasn’t impossible, she was just being angry.

“You’re impossible!”

We both laughed at me, a cheerful, friendly laugh that came from the months of being together, sharing tales of classes, discussing rumors, and making fun of Mirmo behind his back. For me, the laughter died abruptly as I remembered my pervious conclusion. A pang of anguish and hesitation snaked through me. I must have been showing my feelings, for Lyn stopped laughing seconds after me.

“What’s wrong?”

I told her it was nothing but silly worry, nothing for her to get concerned about.

“Oh no you don’t. I’m not letting you side track this time. Come on, tell me. What are friends for if we don’t share our ‘silly worries’?”

I managed a half glare at her. She was right. I explained to her of the up coming Force class and that we were going to start telekinesis.

“That’s a really fun subject. It’s not easy getting started, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be floating all sorts of stuff around. In fact, it will get kind of annoying with people shooting stuff around the hall and at the dining hall. It gives the teachers an excuse to assign wish washing duty to people they can’t stand.”

I shook my head, fearing she may take this worse when she understood my worry.

“Come on, you’ll do fine. Everyone talks about how you are advance in most of the classes and especially when it comes to the Force. I bet you already know how to do this, and are just trying to down play how well you’ll do.”

She hit the mark closer to the problem than I would have liked. The problem was I could do telekinesis and I was considered the best in the class in the Force studies. I had training back on my home planet. I trained myself, with the help of various how tos I found online, but I never practiced much and never insinuated any talent at the skill. At my best, I could cause a bit of paper, balanced on needle to spin, stop, and wiggle at will, but I lacked fine control and speed. On my planet I was not considered the best amoug the Force users, but scarcely above a beginner when it came to telekinesis. My shame at the failure at the skill was the reason why I rarely practiced and never for long. I was not looking forward to this topic at the Jedi academy. I had become a legend amid the students and I did not want to ruin their fantasies about me. I knew this was unhealthy, a sign my ego had gotten too big, but I would not bring myself to envision the disappointment on their faces, as they watched me struggle to move a bit of paper. I related these thoughts to my friend and watched her expression and reaction carefully. She would be the first of many.

“Oh Karen, don’t worry. Really, I mean it. You aren’t the first to struggle with the skill, nor the last. I mean look at Master Corran Horn. He’s great at mind control, yet you are already ahead of him. Here, I’ll help you practice. Maybe if you just got into a regular habit of practicing the skill once a day, you would improve a lot faster.”

I looked at her with bleak hope. I didn’t tell her that each time when I peaked over the last highest skill level, I would ultimately grow weaker, usually a matter of days, and come to a complete halt, unable to move anything, no matter what I tried. Well, she would find out and maybe have an answer to that problem.

“Come on, if you can teach me how to draw this blasted horse and get me through your private art class, the least I can do to teach you how to move things with your mind and get your through your class.”

With that comment, she turned her glaze on the pencil, laying still on the drawing, which was on my lap, and slightly raised her hand. The pencil jittered a little, and slowly with a bit of wobbling, rose about half an inch off the paper. The pencil hovered in its spot for a few seconds, as if to make a point, and floated over to her now out stretched hand. I stared in amazement, seeing how this was my first show of telekinesis here. I burned with desire to be able to do that, now realizing, moving a rock truly was possible. If she could break through my block, whether mentally or skilled based, I would be ever grateful towards her and teach her all I knew of art.

“So how do you get the back leg looking like that?”

I smiled, got off the bed, and worked with her.