New Rock, New Role by Richard Sparks

Author:Richard Sparks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CAEZIK
Published: 2023-11-08T20:15:35+00:00

19

The Thought Process

Dawn was breaking as I opened my eyes to see Oller already awake and busy. He had another fire going and was frying eggs over it. He saw me and grinned. “Morning, matey! Breakfast?”

“Sounds good to me.” I unrolled myself from my cloak.

I went outside to relieve myself, standing in the clean morning air, inhaling it, watching the sun slide above the eastern horizon. Around me, there was nothing but emptiness, long green hillsides, and a gentle, cool breeze. How nice. How peaceful. And then, how long will this last? We had a job to do. From what little I knew about what lay ahead, it would be far from peaceful and far from easy.

After we’d eaten, I told Oller I’d hidden some things of ours about the place, and that I wanted him to find them. And that he wasn’t to move.

He said, “What? Why not?”

I didn’t let on; that would have distracted him. I didn’t need him dividing his thoughts between what he was doing and what I was doing.

“Tell you later,” I said. “You can move your head around, turn this way and that. Just don’t go anywhere until I tell you that you can.”

“All right,” Oller said, already thinking. “Not many hiding places in here, shouldn’t take long …”

I didn’t answer. I watched him as I went through the items in my head, Thinking them to him.

Necklet. Ring. Knife. Pouch. Button. Cheese. Book …

Necklet. Ring. Knife. Pouch. Button. Cheese. Book …

Oller looked around, thoughtful. He looked up. He turned this way and that. He checked the doorway that had no door. He scanned the walls and the floor.

I Listened, the way Marnie had taught me. “There’s a part of your mind that you must always keep empty,” she’d said. “If everything’s full, where will the Thoughts squeeze in?” I Listened into the empty space which I’d worked on the night before and guarded all morning, keeping my inner ear always open.

And I heard … ng.

Oller was looking at a corner of the thatched ceiling, where I’d hidden the ring.

I Thought ring at him.

No reaction.

Then I heard, Ch … starting like the crunch of a dry leaf underfoot, a long way outside and on the edge of hearing, distinct but trailing off quickly. He was looking at the woodpile. Into which I’d tucked the cheese.

Unn … . But he was looking at something behind me. The button was under his pack, away to his right.

All his Thoughts had been so faint that I’d never have noticed them if I wasn’t standing still, Listening Into my empty space.

… klet came louder. Even if I hadn’t been Listening inside, I might have thought, huh? What was that? Once again, Oller was looking at the spot where the necklet was concealed: my blanket. I was so pleased I almost missed the … nn, as he located the knife. Or rather, mis-located it. He was looking at a hiding spot—but not the knife’s. And then, faintly but clearly, as I Thought the word into him, I Heard his answering thought: book.

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