Chapter 6

Dallas didn’t know how to respond to what Dr. Davies had just told him. Ara wasn’t exactly a common name. Was it the same person? It must be. Why else would Ara want him looking at the pictures to begin with? Dallas couldn’t even come up with a way to find out that wouldn’t land him in a mental asylum.

“You seem distracted, Dallas,” Dr. Davies said, “Is everything ok?”

“I feel like I’ve heard that name before,” Dallas said, “Ara… What’s he been up to lately?”

Dr. Davies shrugged. “Oh, not much really,” He said, “Been busy with work mostly, but right now he’s doing some stuff down in Rome.”

How about you tell him about the voices inside your head, Ara said in an almost mocking tone.

No, Dallas said, He’ll think I’m crazy!

He’s a psychologist, Ara said, He probably already thinks you’re crazy.

That’s reassuring, Dallas replied bitterly.

Hey, Ara said, isn’t hearing voices something that you’re supposed to talk about with a psychologist?

“Dallas?” Dr. Davies said, “Are you ok?”

“No,” Dallas said, “I don’t think so. Lately I’ve been... hearing voices.”

“That can be very serious, Dallas,” Dr. Davies said, as he wrote something down in his notebook, “What kind of things are these voice saying to you?”

“Sometimes it’s like I’m hearing other people’s thoughts,” Dallas said, “But there’s one person who I can hold a conversation with in my mind.”

“Does this person ever ask you to do things?” Dr. Davies asked.

“Sometimes.”
“What kinds of things?”

“Nothing bad, really,” Dallas said, “He asked me to look at your pictures. I didn’t really want to, but he was pretty insistent.”

Dr. Davies wrote something down in his notebook. He was probably making a list of what to tell the insane asylum, Dallas thought. He wasn’t normally the type of person to jump to the worst conclusion, but he felt like he had ruined every chance he had to make Dr. Davies think he was just a normal kid.

You have the ability to hear what he’s thinking, Ara said, Why not find out?

Are you always reading my thoughts, or what? Dallas asked.

Lately I’ve been keeping close tabs on you, Ara admitted.

Dallas ignored Ara again. It was probably the best thing to do at this point, but he knew Ara was right.

He looked up at Dr. Davies, who had stopped writing so that he could turn the picture on his desk around. Dr. Davies tapped his pen on his desk, and stared intently at the picture as if he were trying to study every last detail. Dallas was only able to catch the last bit of the psychologist’s thought.

....Definitely thinking that Ara has a hand to play in this.

“This may or may not be relevant,” Dallas said, “But the guy who talks to me in my mind says his name is Ara as well.”

 Dallas heard Dr. Davies’ thought loud and clear this time: I knew it.

“Have any other things happened that I should maybe know about?” Dr. Davies asked.

“I thought I made my phone levitate,” Dallas said, “But I might have imagined that.”

Dr. Davies put his pen down and folded his arms. “You know,” He said, “It’s funny that you brought up Ara. He definitely had a sort of… ability for making things happen. Ara always seemed to know what people were thinking.”

“Like mind reading?” Dallas asked.

“Yes,” Dr. Davies said, “He told me that he can communicate mentally with certain other people  as well.”

“Are you saying that you don’t think I’m crazy?” Dallas asked, “I thought for sure that you’d put me in an asylum or something.” He gave a sigh of relief. Part of him still couldn’t believe what Dr. Davies had just told him, even though it lined up perfectly with everything that Ara had told him. Additionally, it also proved that Ara was a real person.

“No,” Dr. Davies said, “In fact, I’m glad you’re telling me all of this. Ara has been absolutely hellbent on trying to find others who can do the things you two can do.”

“Ara told me that there’s more people like us,” Dallas said, “Was he telling the truth? Do you know?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” Dr. Davies said, “In university, Ara told me that he could do things. Mind reading, moving objects with his mind. The sort of thing you would hear about in a comic book. For a long time, he thought he was the only one who could do it. He looked everywhere for answers hoping that he could find someone else. It wasn’t until we had both graduated university and found jobs that he finally found someone else. It was a complete chance encounter, too.”

“Really?” Dallas was sitting on the edge of his seat, clinging on to every word that Dr. Davies was saying.

“He’s a nice guy too,” Dr. Davies said, “Well most of the time, anyways. I had to talk to him a while back back because he was…. causing distress among some of my clients. But I feel like the two of you would get along.”

“Wait,” Dallas said, “This guy works for you?”

“Not really,” Dr. Davies said, “He comes into the office to help out with stuff sometimes, but I only offered him the position because he needed money, and I needed some help keeping things organized. It’s not work that he wants to be doing, and he made that very clear to me, but maybe I’ll save that story for another time. Anyways,” He continued, “The two of them started looking relentlessly for answers, Ara especially. He created a sort of tracking system. I’m not too sure how it works, but just recently, he thought he had finally perfected it. He’s located you and one, maybe two others. According to the tracking system, there’s someone in Rome, and maybe someone in New York.”

Dallas looked around nervously. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being tracked down by Ara like that. Or anyone, really.

“What do you think would happen if someone found Ara’s tracking system?” Dallas asked, “Do you think anyone would ever be able to work it out?”

“I don’t know,” Dr. Davies said, “But Ara is very careful with his things. I think it would take a lot for anyone to even get their hands on it.”

Don’t worry Dallas, Ara said, The system is in good hands. I promise.

“Dallas,” Dr. Davies said, “We’re almost out of time here, and I just want to make sure that we’re very clear on one thing.”

“Ok,” Dallas said.

“Don’t tell anyone about any of this,” Dr. Davies said, “Don’t tell anyone else about what we talked about today, do you understand?”

Dallas nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “I understand.”

“Good,” Dr. Davies said, “Now, I don’t know if you want to book another appointment, but Ara is coming home next week. If you want to meet up with him, he’ll be at my office on Saturday around six.”

Dallas hesitated. He was supposed to visit with his father on weekends. He knew that his father liked spending time with him, especially since it was so limited.

“Ok,” He said finally, “I think I’ll be able to be there.”

Author's Note

I feel like I put a bit too much dialogue here, but ah well. Anyways, I'd love to hear what you guys think so far.