Gifted

Ch. 3 He's Everything

   Marisa walked out of the Newcastle Elementary school building and over to her 2020 Grand Caravan, it was ten years old, but it did the trick. It had been harder than she thought it would be to send him off, she thought to herself as she swept her midnight black hair out of her face.

                 Now she had to refocus. Now she had to go to the council meeting. Now she would meet up with Cole. She drove her beat-up minivan down the streets of Newcastle, looking out at the expanse of water beside her as she traveled down the unforgiving beaten up road. The Atlantic Ocean to her left as she traveled south through town. Finally, she parked in the lot of a decrepit brick building labeled "City Hall."

                 Locking her van and not looking back she walked through the wooden doors and into the lobby. Then into the main conference room straight ahead. The carpets were so old and so faded, Marisa thought the building would be better off with exposed concrete floors. It would certainly be an upgrade from these musty old floors. Paint was peeling off the walls, and candles lit the space due to the lack of natural light, and no electricity offered to the building, since it was officially "out of commission."

                 "Nice of you to join us Mrs. LeFlour," said an old man at the head of the table with a cane hanging over the back of his chair. Even with the mix matched chairs around the oak table, the group still looked very distinguished with men and women in blazers and button downs. Marisa took a seat next to Cole, who had a very concerned look on her face.

                 "Who is this guy?" Marisa blurted.

                 "Honey," Cole admonished her, a frown on his face.

                 "What? A council meets this consistently for how many years now and suddenly mister wise and mysterious gets to show up and take the head of the table? Where have you been all these years?"

                 The old man readjusted himself in his chair. "I have been sitting on a council much bigger than this for much longer than you've been alive. That is how I earned this spot, and that is why you'll remain at this table, listening to my instruction. You think you have nothing to learn from me? I'm one of the first Gifted people of this Earth," he declared. A look of shock appeared on her face.

                 Alfre- Marisa thought

                 "That's right! Alfred Franklin! Now, do you get it, sit your ass down and listen already. And I didn't need to read your mind for that one young miss," he added.

                 As he spoke the candles around him grew taller and larger. Franklin was a pyro. One of the very few.

                 Marisa backed down, sitting in her chair, ready to listen to the well-respected guest. Cole reached under the table and let his arm extend under the table to the other side of the room, discreetly grabbing a piece of paper and pen, making sure is elastic-like arm did not hit the leg of any of the council members. He then withdrew his arm and put the paper on Marisa's lap writing, If you had waited I could have just told you that... when he finished Marisa glanced down at the paper and shot Cole a cold glare.

                 "The Chairman has dictated our lives far too long," Alfred Franklin stated.

                 "Here here," the council ceremoniously chanted in agreement.

                 "But until recently, we have not had the means to bring about any serious change. Before, we might've had the ability to push back the boundaries of Maine, or take over a small military camp, but we would have never had the means to take the Republic, or to win over its citizens. A new generation has been born, and with it, our first telepath."

                 Marisa looked over at Franklin quickly, not liking the sudden turn the conversation was taking. Alfred Franklin looked like the General of a war, willing to go to any means to save the group. She didn't like it, to put it mildly.

                 "Imagine, a telepath in the ranks of Chairman Kisinger. He could learn about their inner working, without being detected, he would act as a deep cover agent, bringing about the end to our exile from normal society. We were not meant to be isolated. We were not meant for this life. Do you want to continue on like this?"

                 "There is just one problem," a tall, red-headed councilman spoke up.

                 "Well, do tell," Franklin spat.

                 "These," the councilman motioned to his eye pulling the lower eyelid down to fully display the eye.

                 "Ah yes, and that is why I have these," Franklin pulled a box out of his right suit pocket. Opening the box he revealed a contact lens case. The case was clear plastic and inside, brown discs were visible. "These," he displayed, "will disguise the wearer's eyes, making them appear to be a particularly uninteresting shade of brown. Completely normal as I understand it."

                 "Well I have another problem," Marisa LeFlour spoke up again, "Aiden is only five, and even when he grows up, it is his life!"

                 "His life is not his own!" Alfred Franklin stated in rebuttal.

                 "He's just a boy, he's nothing. He's just a child, he is meaningless to you. There are other ways to do this," Marisa desperately insisted, swiping her long black locks out of her face.

                 "The boy is central, without him we have nothing. HE'S EVERYTHING!"