The Hidden Truth

I have found that when I do not dream of nightmares, I generally dream of silly, nonsense events that never make sense. In rare dreams, very rare that is, I have been known to dream a solution to a problem, or find a hint to something that had been bothering me. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the night before the Force class, I had dreamed of performing telekinesis. I was in shoe store that I use to work, back when I was living on my planet. I was looking at the lid of a shoe box that had been sticking up, wanting to use the Force to make the lid go down. I fixed my glaze on the shoe lid, gathering the Force around me and directing the energy on the lid, willing the lid to go down. To my astonishment, the lid obeyed my silent orders. I decided to push success and have the whole box flip over. Once again, the box complied with my desire.

It was in the early morning that I woke up, filled with a strong feeling of renewed hope and an answer. The dream had been vague with details of how simple will and the Force was suppose to push me pass my current strength in telekinesis, but that did not phase me. If I could do this feat in my dream, I could not be far from reality. I went about my usual morning routine. At breakfast, I hurried over to Lyn to tell her excitedly of my aspiring dream. Lyn seemed to share my hope, if not more than me.

“That’s really great. Let’s hope you dreamed of the future, even if didn’t take place at the academy. Have you told your master of this dream?”

I shook my head. So far, my master knew nothing of my troubles with this upcoming class. I didn’t want another lecture, or worse, him to worry over me. There are some things that are best told and solved with friends and not teachers.

“I think you should tell him. He’s your master and should have a right to know. Maybe he can tell you some advice.”

Silently, I thought for a moment and told Lyn of my new idea. I would tell Mirmo after the class. This way if I did alright he would be proud, but if things went badly, at least I could say I gave it a try on my own.

“Sounds good. Well, it’s fifteen minutes until classes start. We better get going. I’ll see you at dinner, hopefully with good news.”

Impatiently, I went through the morning exercises, which had taken a nasty turn to a lot of running and other activities that required sweating far too much for my tastes. I forced myself to swallow and hide my yearning for the Force class and silence my presence during Mirmo’s meditation class. He had little to say to me in his class, and had taken up to bringing up the less talented student to par with the class. I wanted to skip lunch so badly and go straight to the Force class, but hunger would only distract me. I at little and spent most of the time, staring at the clock, and not at Roan. Finally, when I was at the end of my nerves, the time for the class came.

I was not the only one filled with excited anticipation and speculate. Unlike me, many of the students had taken a path of fantasy of what they would be able to do by the end of the class. Dack had stoutly stated he would be so good that he would levitate himself a meter of the floor. I slightly shook my head, holding back a laugh at his foolishness. Others had decided they would be Force throwing objects at each other. Lyn’s prediction may come true yet, if these were the pranks being planned out already. Honestly, I had no idea how the class would do. On my home planet, with the Force sensitive teens that I spent hours teaching and helping, most struggled quite a bit just to spin paper. It would be interesting to see if these students were any different from the ones I knew.

The customary silence came over the class when the teacher entered. She had a dark cloth bag, containing something I couldn’t guess. She looked over us and began her talk.

“Today, as you know, we will be start on telekinesis, the ability to control matter with the Force. Telekinesis is a different and harder skill than any you have learned so far. It just not matter of looking and willing a object to move, but a finer, more subtle control of the Force and serve focus of the mind. You will find that no matter how much energy you gather around you or the object, your results will be null if you do concentrate. You will also find that pure force of the mind or emotions will get you no where. A calm, blank mind will do wonders. So, we will take five minutes and conduct a quick mediation.”

The class was no happy to find this information out, but Master Mirmo had taught them well. Soon, the feeling of tranquility and stillness was so strong, I could nearly taste it. I was one step ahead of the teacher. I reached into the back of my mind, where the ability to do telekinesis laid, and emptied it of all wants and needs. I looked up at the teacher, hoping she would reveal what was in the bag.

“Now that we are mentally prepared to do this, let me hand you out a small black ball that you will be practicing on.”

We each were handed a small ball, smaller than a tennis ball, that was made out of something like a light rubber and very smooth. I did not like her choice of color. I preferred the ball to have some type of marking, so that I could tell if I have moved the ball just a little.

“Take a seat and lay the ball still on the floor near you. Turn your mind on the ball, but do not do anything yet. Imagine, clearly as you can, the ball moving from side to side slightly, as if to move, but being held back. With that image in mind, gather the Force around you and extend your awareness to the ball. Do not try or force the ball to move. Concentrate in your mind, the thought of the ball rocking, while sensing the ball. May the Force be with you.”

Her instructions were much like mine, but I feared the class had lost her. I understood, through trail and error, why she wanted us to do this, but the class had never done this. I wanted to watch the class and observer what was going on. At the same time, the need to prove my dream right gnawed at me. I gave in to the excited growing in me and looked at the black ball.

While the teacher said nothing about using your hands, I knew from experience, that keeping my hand near the ball helped me. The hand did nothing in getting the ball to move, but mentally the hand made it easier for me to convince myself this could be done.
I gathered the Force and felt the ball as asked. I felt the solidness of the ball, how it rested on the stone floor, and how it wanted to move. It must sound weird to say the ball wanted to move, but that was the truth. For some unknown reason, the ball was being held still, perhaps waiting for me to give it permission to move. I strongly thought about the ball moving, a simple rocking motion. I was not sure if this would work; due to the fact I was use to spinning paper. Surely, the same process of spinning paper could be used on rocking a ball. In the past, I had been able to rock the paper, but that was rather hard and usually took days of practice before reaching that point in my control.

For a few minutes I stared at the ball, wishing it to rock, with nothing happening. I could feel my spirits fall and my mind want to give up and say this could not be done. I stole a glance around the room for a break and nearly gave a cry of surprise. Nield and Irini had both of their balls rocking, almost rolling. This was hardly fair. Max might have had his ball moving a bit, but it was hard to say. The other students were staring at the ball, determined to move it, even if they had to sit there all day. I blushed pink in embarrassment, hoping no one had looked my way.

I looked back at the ball, trying to drag up that feeling of optimism I usually had when it came to the Force. I retraced my mental steps and looked at the ball. I forced myself away from wanting the ball to move. I buried myself into the Force, and asked the energy, rather than the ball, to do ask I wanted. I didn’t stare directly at the ball, but half divided my eyesight on the ball and the floor. I felt something twitch, like a suggestion of movement coming from the ball. My eyes blinked. Did I just move the ball? The ball didn’t look any different in its position. I sighed and picked up the ball. I scratched the surface with my nail and set the ball back on the floor, somewhat on the scratch. Once again, I blanked out my mind and gave the task half my attention, while asking the Force to obey me. Again, the ball twitched visually and I unconsciously pushed with my mind, hoping to get more of a movement. Aside from the twitch that I was sure I saw, nothing happened. I scold myself for trying to move the ball. Yet, hope rose in me. I tried again, using the same method and the ball moved just a bit move, rocking to my right.

“Alright, we will stop here.”

No! Not just when I got the method done!

“Most of you had the ball moving. Very good. As for those who were less lucky, we will try this next time. Do no despair. You are dismissed.”

I handed back my ball and sulked. I wanted another ten minutes while I still had the feeling of it. I would have to start back from zero. Still, I had moved the ball and that was better than I thought I would do. I headed for the dining hall for the evening meal to tell Lyn of my outcome.