hey:

I am working on a novelette about a guy who can read minds that takes on the poker world. I'll be posting it here in lots of small bites depending on the response. enjoy.

Sometimes I could swear that the rain makes my head hurt. If it were true it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch since lots of things made my head hurt – crowds, loud noises, my father. But as I sat in the farthest corner of the lecture hall listening for my name to be called I could swear the rain outside was making it worse. <READMORE>

One hundred and twenty three students and since the professor was going in alphabetical order I was going to be one of the last to be called. I had lapsed into a boredom coma and with the headache also I wasn’t sure I heard right. “Winters, Wu, Yura, Zaslow,” said the professor. As Jenny Zaslow was leaving the room the professor continued, “Mr. Wong please come down here.”

Wearily I gathered up my backpack and walked down wondering if I was going to get the usual lecture about not coming to any classes before I got my A. I always got an A. In every class since I could remember in every subject I always got an A. At least in college I didn’t have to waste my time actually attending class since that was not a requirement, but I braced myself for the annoyed comments knowing it would make my head hurt even worse.

“Mr. Wong, you got every problem right on the exam, even the extra credit. The thing is, that should have been impossible seeing as the extra credit came from a paper I have not published or shared with anyone yet. The only possible way for you to do that was by cheating and that will be enough to get you expelled from this University. I want the truth Mr. Wong and I want it now.”

I could tell the man was serious. As surely as I knew my father was a self righteous prick I knew the man would bring his case to the dean. I contemplated using humor, telling Professor Harris that he couldn’t handle the truth, like in my favorite movie, but I knew that would only make Mr. Harris angrier. I thought about lying and saying I simply stole the test, but I’m not a very good liar. So I settled for a simple deflection. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth.”

“Try me,” said Mr. Harris softly, but I could feel his indignation.

I focused on the professor. He was a clean shaven, clean cut, clean suited poster boy for academia. Young, handsome and always well spoken and polite, Carl Harris was one of the most popular professors on campus. Even now I found it hard to dislike the man and as I concentrated on him I knew that only the truth would suffice. “I have the power to read minds,” I finally said. “I knew all the answers to the test because I got them from you.”

I could see that he didn’t believe me, but instead of berating me he was keeping an open mind. “Fine. If you can really read my mind then prove it. What am I thinking of right now?”

Since I was already focused fairly strongly on the man, I hardly even had to concentrate. I saw a tall, white horse and a dark skinned woman. “You are remembering your mother riding her favorite horse.”

All the anger seemed to melt from Professor Harris’ face and in its place a broad smile split his perfect chocolate skin with gleaming white. “That’s right. And do you know something amazing? I believe you now. So let me ask you a question. Do you want to be the best in the world at something? Do you want to get rich and famous strictly based on your abilities?”

The man’s smile was contagious and I found my head felt a lot lighter than it had only moments before. I really didn’t want to become a scientific curiosity, but I was interested in what Mr. Harris thought. And I would really love to rub my own success in my father’s face. “What do you have in mind?”

“Have you ever played cards? More specifically, poker?”</READMORE>