Mental Games - 5. Getting Proof

After traveling for another couple of hours, George decided he had driven long enough for one day and pulled off the highway at the next exit. Immediately, he began looking for a place where they could spend the night and before long located a decent looking motel. He pulled in and rented two rooms. He would share one with his wife, while the other was for the two boys to share. He made sure the boys had a room with two beds, since he wanted to be certain they didn't do anything that might accidentally injure Adam while they were sleeping.

When Mike and Adam were alone in their room, they decided to talk about what had happened earlier.

“I nearly shit my pants when your mother asked what we thought about having Chinese for dinner,” Mike began, with an incredulous look on his face. “I think that pretty much rules out the possibility that all of those instances were just mere coincidence.”

“Yes, I would have to agree,” Adam confirmed, with a slight grin. “Do you think this all started because of the beating?”

“I would think it must have had something to do with it,” Mike agreed, looking thoughtful. “I mean you weren’t able to do things like this before the guy bashed your head in, so maybe the blows triggered something in your brain. The healing process may have created a neurological connection that you didn't have before or possibly the time you spent in a coma might have somehow activated an ability you never knew was there.”

“I guess, but I still want to test this out some more,” Adam stated, as he tilted his head and scrunched up his nose while drifting into deep thought. “Although it was the third time something has happened the same way I’d just thought about it, I still want to be certain that I was the one who caused it. Even though three coincidences in a row are highly unlikely, it doesn't mean it's impossible either, so I want to be positive I can do this before I start thinking about how I'm going to use it.”

“If you can influence people by just thinking about stuff, then you can get them to do just about anything you want,” Mike pointed out. “You can basically turn everyone into your slave, to do as you command – at least command them mentally.”

“Including you,” Adam countered, while flashing Mike a devilish grin. “It’s kind of exciting in a way, but it’s also scary at the same time. And we don't know for sure if I can only get people to do stuff with my thoughts. Maybe I can tell them to do things and they'll do it too.”

“Yeah, maybe, but why do you think being able to do this is scary?” Mike wanted to know, since it didn't seem to make any sense to him.

“It's because I don’t want to hang around with a bunch of robots or zombies that only do whatever I think or say,” Adam explained. “It would be like living with machines that can’t think for themselves and that would be awful. It would be worse than talking to a little kid who just keeps repeating everything you say.”

“Would it really be so bad?” Mike pressed, since he didn't understand what Adam was getting at.

“Yes, it would,” Adam shot back, in a raised voice. “For example, I want you to love me because you really do and it’s what you want. I don’t want your love just because I mentally told you to love me.”

“Oh, ok,” Mike mumbled, feeling slightly stupid for not figuring that out. “I see what you mean now.”

“If this actually works like we think it does, then how can I ever be sure whether people are doing what they want or just what they think I want?” Adam wondered aloud, as he studied Mike's face. “I don’t want them doing stuff just because they’re reacting to one of my random thoughts.”

“That’s a tough one and I see what you mean,” Mike commiserated. “How could you know if you got a job because you were the best candidate or if you had mentally convinced the person doing the interview to offer you the position, even though others were more qualified?”

“Yeah, and that would kinda suck,” Adam groaned. “Sometimes it’s nice when people do something to please you, but I’m not sure how I’d feel if everyone did that and everything always went the way I wanted?”

“It could have its advantages though,” Mike challenged, as his face lit up. “Let's say your working at the hospital when a small child or a teenager is brought in but can't be saved. You could use your gift to convince the kid's parents to donate their organs, even if they were opposed to it to begin with."

"Yeah, I guess I could," Adam reluctantly agreed. "But I'm not sure about convincing them to do something they might have a moral objection to, especially after they'd just lost a loved one in a tragic accident."

"Yes, that is a very emotional and traumatic time, but think of it this way," Mike offered, as he reached out and took Adam's hand. "Due to the overwhelming grief they're feeling and the emotions they're dealing with, they might not be able to think clearly and sort it out for themselves. Since the hospital would be operating under some very rigid time constraints for harvesting usable organs, you might actually be doing the parents a favor by getting them to act before time runs out."

"I guess if you think of it like that, it might be ok," Adam replied, still not totally convinced.

"Look, the reason you wanted to become a doctor was to save lives and help people, right?" Mike pressed, trying to get his point across. "If that's the case, what would be more advantageous than being able to convince people to donate organs that would probably function for many more years and save the lives of people who truly need them. Why should you let the organs just rot away with the person who died when you could use them to save others that would otherwise die instead?"

"Yeah, that does make sense and it would be more in line with what I really want to do," Adam agreed. "I'm just not going to use my gift for personal gain though."

"I would never expect you to do something like that anyway," Mike confirmed, as he leaned forward and kissed Adam.

As the pair discussed Adam’s new ability in more depth, they realized it offered a wide range of possibilities. Adam saw some of the potential uses as being good, while some of the others would be bad or highly questionable, at least in his mind. The possibilities were both unsettling and exhilarating at the same time.

“I wonder if there is a way I can turn it off and on, so things only happen when I definitely want them to,” Adam mused, as he cocked his head to one side. “If not, does it mean I’ll have to be constantly on guard about what I’m thinking, so I don’t accidentally create an unintended situation?”

“That’s a good question,” Mike concurred as he studied Adam's face closely. “Let’s sleep on it and then we’ll talk about it some more tomorrow.”

Adam agreed, so they got cleaned up and went to bed, but that didn’t end it for Adam. He mentally kept toying with the various possibilities they had discussed earlier, until eventually he fell asleep from total exhaustion. When that happened, he still hadn’t decided whether he was pleased that he might have this ability or if he wished that he had never been presented with this potential.

It was quite early the next morning when the phone rang in Adam and Mike's room, waking them up. Still groggy from having his sleep disturbed, Adam picked up the receiver.

"Hello," he mumbled, as he tried to shake the cobwebs from his brain.

"Good morning," Adam's father greeted him rather cheerfully. "Your mother and I are hungry and anxious to go get some breakfast. Are you boys ready to join us?"

"Uh, just give us a few minutes and then we'll go with you," Adam answered, becoming slightly more alert.

"Ok, we'll meet you at the van in fifteen minutes," his father replied before hanging up.

After waking Mike and urging him to hurry, the boys raced through their morning preparations. Then, they bolted out the door of their room, at least as fast as Adam was able to move on the crutches, and made their way over to the van. They ended up stopping at a Denny’s that was already bursting with truckers and a handful of locals. The four of them were seated after a brief delay and eagerly began looking over the menus.

Adam took the seat next to the wall where others weren't likely to bump into him. Since he was facing the dining area and could see the other diners, Adam was the first to notice what was happening. One particular customer at a nearby table was giving one of the waitresses a rough time and obviously hitting on her and possibly trying to pick her up.

The waitress, on the other hand, was clearly letting him know that she wasn’t interested and wanted him to leave her alone, but the man persisted. He was being totally obnoxious and wouldn’t leave her alone. His comments were not only crude, rude and vulgar, but he kept trying to grope the waitress too. She did her best to stay away from him, but she had other customers in the same area, which made staying completely away impossible. Each time she went by his table to get to her other customers, he would do or say something as she passed by. It was getting worse by the minute and it deeply upset Adam when he noticed the woman’s extreme discomfort.

‘I wish someone would step in and stop the guy that’s bothering the waitress,’ he thought. ‘He’s being a total ass and needs to be taught a lesson.’

Almost as soon as Adam finished his thought, two truckers jumped up, walked over to the guy’s table and roughly lifted him out of his chair. Then, while one of them restrained the jerk, the other one grabbed the guy’s wallet out of his back pocket, took out a $20 bill and tossed it on the table. After he did that, he put the wallet back in the guy's pocket and then he and the other trucker dragged the jerk toward the front door. The asshole was kicking and screaming the entire way as he attempted to break free, but he was unsuccessful. When they got to the exit, they literally threw the guy outside and told him to leave, but the idiot jumped up and tried to reenter the restaurant.

After blocking his path, the two men pushed the other guy back out the door, but this time they stepped outside with him. Once they were all out in the open, the instigator tried to barge his way past them, but the other pair stopped him once again. When the man tried to get by them yet again, the two men began to pummel the jerk and delivered some very vicious blows. They did this until the guy finally got up, scrambled away and limped over to his truck. After a few more minutes, he finally started his truck and drove off, much to everyone’s relief. Once he was gone, the two truckers returned to their tables and finished their meals.

Once things settled down again, another waitress came over to take their order. George encouraged the boys to order first, and Mike noticed that Adam seemed to be a bit down in the dumps while telling the waitress what he wanted. He also had a troubled expression on his face, but Mike had no idea why he was acting this way. After their meal was delivered, Mike continued to watch Adam and noticed that he wasn't eating very much and was barely picking at his food.

“What’s wrong with you, honey?” Adam’s mother asked when she noticed this too.

“I guess I don’t have much of an appetite this morning,” he replied, while trying to downplay what was bothering him. This caused his mother to give him a funny look. She'd expected him to be ravenous, especially since this wasn't hospital food.

“Just try to finish it, because you'll need the nourishment and we won't be eating again for quite a while,” she urged, but Adam only ate about half of what was on his plate.

Seeing this, Mike wanted to find out what was going on with him. He quickly suggested they should go use the men’s room before leaving, so they wouldn’t have to stop for that reason right away. Once they were alone, Mike confronted his boyfriend.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked, as a concerned look spread over his face. “You look miserable and didn’t eat very much either. That's not like you at all!”

“It’s because of the guy that was mistreating the waitress,” Adam confessed, while avoiding eye contact with Mike.

“What about him? Did you have something to do with what happened to the guy?” Mike wondered, while considering if Adam might have used his ability to resolve that situation.

“I’m pretty sure I caused what happened to him and I’m sick about it,” Adam confirmed, as he stared at the ground. “I’m going to have to be very careful about what I’m thinking from now on, because that went way wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Mike demanded, slightly confused.

“It’s just that I handled the situation poorly and it went totally wrong,” Adam confessed. “I should have just used my thoughts to tell the guy to leave the waitress alone or just leave the restaurant, but I didn’t do that. Instead, I kinda thought that someone should jump in and teach him a lesson. I didn’t mean for him to get thrown out and beat up. Those other guys could have just told him to stop what he was doing and then made sure he did, but they didn’t have to pound the crap out of him.”

“Ok, that might be basically what went down," Mike stated, as he leaned in and give Adam a hug, "but the guy deserved it.”

“I don’t think anyone deserves to get beat up,” Adam countered, as a look of horror crossed his face. Mike was immediately able to tell that Adam was thinking back to what had happened to him.

“No one deserves to get beat up just because of who they are or who they love,” Mike reasoned, desperately trying to clarify the difference for Adam. “There are times, though, when it’s the only way to stop a person from continuing his inappropriate behavior. Those guys just threw him out at first and the idiot should have walked away. He didn’t though and kept trying to get back inside the restaurant. For that reason, he got what he deserved.”

“But I think I could have just used my power to get him to quit what he was doing or to leave on his own,” Adam insisted, still looking guilty. “I totally blew it with the way I thought about what should happen.”

“It’s not your fault,” Mike offered, while trying to console his lover. “You were just trying to help the waitress out of a very uncomfortable situation. You were afraid for her and it wasn't like you were trying to get him beat up. You were only trying to help her."

After saying this, Mike leaned in and gave Adam a kiss and another hug. When he noticed Adam was beginning to relax, he quickly spoke again.

"Come on. We’d better get back before your dad comes looking for us," Mike urged, as he took Adam's hand and started to lead him to the door. "Just don’t feel bad about what happened to the guy, because I’m sure he made the waitress feel even worse. You can use what happened today as a learning experience, so you'll be able to handle situations better in the future, but you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’ll try and I hope I can do better from now on,” Adam groaned as they made their way back to the table.

Adam remained deep in thought during the next leg of the trip. When Mike realized that Adam was still beating himself up over what had happened that morning, he wanted to say something to make him feel better. He didn’t, though, because he was afraid Adam’s parents might overhear their conversation. George and Rita weren’t aware of Adam’s new ability yet and Mike didn’t think Adam wanted them to find out about it either. Therefore, it was a very quiet ride until they pulled into the driveway at the Washburn's house.

As soon as the van stopped, Adam’s mother got out and unlocked the front door of the house. Then, she came back to help Adam inside, while George and Mike began to carry in the boxes and took them up to the appropriate bedroom. They stacked the boxes along the wall, out of the way, so the boys could unpack them later. Adam wanted to help them do this, but there wasn’t much he could do while using the crutches, so he merely watched instead. As soon as they were done, Mike helped Adam up the stairs, and then they began to unpack their things. Adam insisted he could do it by himself, so Mike reluctantly gave in and they each began to arrange the things in their rooms the way they wanted.

As soon as he had a chance, Mike went over to Adam's room so he could talk to him, but he also wanted to make sure Adam was doing all right.

“Are you still blaming yourself about this morning?” he asked, trying to show his concern.

“Yeah. Kinda,” Adam confessed.

“There’s nothing you can do about it now, so put it behind you and use it as a learning experience,” Mike suggested. “All superheroes have to take time to learn how to use their powers in order to be effective, so they sometimes make mistakes too. I'm sure they didn’t always do things the best way when they first got started either.”

“Look, I’m not a superhero,” Adam protested. He was not only loud when he said this, but Mike could also see the defiance in his eyes.

“In a way you are,” Mike countered, in a soothing voice, as he attempted to smooth Adam's ruffled feathers. “You have a power that no one else has, so that kind of makes you a superhero.”

“Maybe I have an unusual ability, but I’m certainly not a superhero,” Adam insisted, unwilling to relent.

“I disagree. You saved the waitress from an abusive situation this morning and I’m sure she was very grateful that you did it too,” Mike protested, standing his ground. "I'm sure if she knew what you'd done for her, she would have thought you were a superhero."

“But I didn’t save her. Those other guys did,” Adam pointed out, since he didn't want to accept credit for it.

“Maybe they strong-armed the guy and forced him out of there, but they probably wouldn’t have acted without you motivating them and giving them the idea,” Mike pointed out, thinking it would make Adam feel better.

“Look, I don’t exactly feel good about the way it went down, so I don’t feel like I saved anyone,” Adam argued, since Mike's comment had the opposite effect. “All I did was create an even worse situation.”

“I don’t think the waitress felt that way,” Mike insisted, trying to put a positive spin on it again. “You have a power, or ability if you’d prefer, to help people in need. You just have to learn how to control it.”

“Yeah, I know that now,” Adam agreed, giving in. “I’ll have to think things through carefully first from now on, if I want to help anyone else.”

Mike decided to shut up and give Adam some time to think about this by himself. He had been very honest about how he felt and what he had told Adam. He truly believed that Adam could use his power to become a new kind of superhero, although Adam wouldn’t be the type of superhero that would overpower the villains or rough anyone up. He would just use his special ability to correct situations that were spiraling out of control and help people who found themselves in a jam, without them even knowing Adam was assisting them.

After Mike went back to the guest room, he continued to unpack. When everything was the way he wanted, he decided to lie down on the bed and think things over for a while. During the past few months he had been so consumed about Adam’s condition and his recovery that he hadn’t spent much time thinking about his own situation. He had graduated too and delayed going to law school because of what had happened to his boyfriend, so what was he going to do now? Should he leave Adam with his parents and go off to start law school in the spring. Maybe he should wait until the following fall and go when Adam might be ready to start med school as well. He was still considering his options when Adam hobbled into the room.

“I was thinking about what you said earlier and want to know if you really meant it?” Adam began, as he studied Mike's face while Mike was lying on the bed. Before Mike could answer, Adam moved closer and sat down on the bed beside him.

“Absolutely!” Mike confirmed, without hesitation. “You have the ability to do great things, but it’s totally up to you.”

“But how can I do stuff like that?” Adam wondered, as a confused expression came over his face. “I don’t have a ‘bat signal’ people can use to summon me. I also don’t have x-ray vision, supersonic hearing or any other way of finding out when someone needs help. I doubt I’ll just happen upon a whole bunch of situations where I’m needed, so how can I possibly be effective?”

“I don’t have the answers for you right now, but give me some time to think about it,” Mike replied, hoping that would help. “First, I need you to tell me how YOU want to use your power.”

“I’m not going to use it just to help myself,” Adam stated, as he emphasized again that he didn't wish to use his ability for personal gain. “I don’t want to use it to get rich, get a great job or anything like that. I think I'd like to use it to help other people though. If I can, I'd like to help those that feel powerless or find themselves in situations that are getting out of control."

“Ok, that’s a great start,” Mike agreed, trying to sound upbeat.

“But how do I find them?” Adam pressed, looking just as confused as before.

“Like I said, give me some time to think about it and I’ll try to come up with something,” Mike offered, trying to be helpful. “There’s probably plenty of ways we can do this, but we'll just have to figure out what would work the best.”

“Ok, because I’ll need your help if I’m going to do this,” Adam told him. “You’re the one who sees me as some kind of a superhero, because I don’t see myself like that at all. That’s why I’ll need your help if I’m going to be successful.”

“No problem. I’ll do whatever you want or need,” Mike assured him, as he placed an arm around Adam's shoulder and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be Alfred to your Batman," Mike teased.

“I'm definitely not Batman, and I hope you're doing this because you really want to and not because I’m thinking that you should,” Adam countered with a scowl that quickly turned into a grin.

"Nah, I was even thinking about it before you came over here," Mike responded, hoping that would convince Adam about his sincerity.

“Ok, now I need you to come over to my room, because there’s something I want to show you," Adam stated next. "I just happened to find it in the back of my closet before I came over here. Mom must have stuck it in there, because I haven’t seen it since I went away to college.”

Mike followed Adam as he made his way across the hall on his crutches and watched as Adam went over near the closet and picked something off of the floor. Mike was surprised to see Adam was holding a nice trophy, since he knew Adam had no interest in sports. Curious about what his boyfriend might have done to earn it, his mind began thinking about other types of competitions Adam might have entered instead.

“It’s the trophy I got in 8^th grade for placing first in the science fair,” Adam proudly announced. “It’s actually what made me begin to realize that I wanted to go into medicine and become a doctor. Winning this trophy basically changed my life and gave me focus.”

Adam smiled as he thought back to that day when the trophy slipped out of his right hand. It crashed on the floor and the figure on top snapped off, landing at Mike's feet. The smile on Adam's face instantly turned into a look of pure horror.

“Fuck, I just broke it,” he swore, as an expression of complete despair crossed his face. “I can’t believe my clumsiness has just destroyed something I'm extremely proud of. It has meant a great deal to me for many years.”

Mike bent over, picked up the two pieces and looked them over.

“It can be repaired, so don’t get upset,” he offered, trying to make Adam feel better. “All I’ll need is a pin and a little super glue, and then I can make it as good as new.”

“But I’m supposed to be the one fixing things, not dropping them and making a mess,” Adam moaned. “I have a feeling there’s more wrong with me than just some weak muscles in my hand. It’s got to be more than just that my arm was in a cast for a long time.”

“Ask your doctor about it when you go for your next check up,” Mike suggested. “Dr. Corrigan said he’d transfer all of your records to your family doctor, so I’m sure he’ll be able to tell you if there’s anything wrong. I still think it’s just because you hadn’t used it for such a long time.”

Adam nodded and let go of his doubts temporarily, but he still had a nagging suspicion that there was more to this than what everyone else was telling him.

When the boys went downstairs a little later, Adam told his parents about dropping and breaking his trophy. Mike immediately added that he was sure he could fix it, if he had a pin and some super glue.

“What kind of pin?” Adam's mother asked.

“Just a common pin, but I’ll need something I can use to cut the head off of it too,” Mike answered.

After hearing this, Rita jumped up and rushed into the other room. She came back a couple of minutes later holding a tube, a pin and a pair of needle-nose pliers that could snip wire too. She handed these items to Mike and the boys went back upstairs to repair the shattered symbol that meant so much to Adam.

Mike was right. He was able to fix the trophy for Adam. After snipping the head off the pin, Mike used the pliers to force one end of the pin into the torchbearer’s leg, applied the super glue and then pushed the other end of the pin into the spot where it broke off from the foot. The pin would strengthen the repaired area and the glue would seal it all together. When he was done, it looked almost as good as before. The only noticeable defect was a thin line around the torchbearer’s ankle that indicated where it had been broken. Now that it was repaired, Mike handed it back to Adam.

“Thanks, man. This really means a lot to me,” he stated, while looking admiringly at the trophy.

“I know it does,” Mike confirmed, “but I think I’ve solved your other problem too.”

“What other problem are you talking about?” Adam wanted to know, since he didn't immediately understand.

“The one about how you are going to find people that need your help,” Mike explained. “We’re going to do a few things that will allow people to let you know when something is wrong. We’ll just have to find a way to limit the area the requests come from for now, but I don’t think that will be much of a problem.”

“What do you have in mind?” Adam pressed, looking skeptical.

“First, we’ll set up a Facebook account,” Mike explained. “You can call it NeedHelp@ and then use something to signify the area. It may be the name of a location, an area code or maybe even the first three or four digits of a zip code? That way people who live in that location can contact you. You could even set up a twitter and email account for it too, but I’d also suggest that you create a blog. You can use the blog to explain what you hope to accomplish and who you might be willing to help.”

“Damn. That might actually work,” Adam agreed, as his face started to morph into a smile.

“We’ll have to iron out more of the details before we actually do it, but I think this will be enough to get you started,” Mike announced, while looking pleased that he had come up with something.

"It sounds great and I really appreciate you helping me like this," Adam stated, as he leaned in to give Mike a kiss.

“Yep, you’ll be on your way to becoming a true superhero," Mike added, as an evil grin began to form on his lips, but then he bit his lip lightly, as he looked at Adam and studied him closely. "Hmmm. What are we going to call you? The Gay Avenger? The Fairy Godfather? Or The Flaming Marauder?”

“Very funny,” Adam replied, as he lightly punched Mike in the arm. “I don’t need a name and I certainly don’t want anyone else to know who I am or how I actually help them. They might be able to guess what I’m doing, but I don’t want them to find out for sure. I also don’t want anyone else to know who I am. If I do this, it’s all got to be anonymous.”

“Whatever you decide,” Mike agreed. “It’s your power, not mine.”

“Do you think we should wait until after I finished med school and you finish law school before we get started?” Adam asked.

“Nah, you can help people before then. Even when you’re at college, but you just can't let it take up too much of your time,” Mike offered. “There’s no reason you can’t do both if you manage your time wisely and it wouldn’t really serve any purpose to waste your ability or put it on hold for so long.”

“Ok. I guess you're right,” Adam conceded. “I’ll give it a try then.”