The Man Who Could Make Things Vanish by Jack Cady

Author:Jack Cady [Cady, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63023-049-4
Publisher: Resurrection House
Published: 2016-11-14T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Notes of Max Klein: April 21, 1991:

The attack on Land’s End will occur on the eighth of May unless orders are countermanded or events dictate some other decision. It seemed to me that because of my peculiar position here, I should seek this information out. The range of my own power is far wider than any power of which Barrows may have dreamed, but unlike Barrows, I have not trained myself to use power. Instead, I shun it. However, in this case, it was easy enough to read the information from the urgent thoughts in Barrows’s mind. He knows of the planned attack, of course, and tries to forestall it by remaining passive. He hopes for a change in the situation.

I will not divulge the information. My task is that of the observer. If Barrows has scruples against interfering in human affairs, he holds those scruples largely (I suspect) because every time he interferes he ends up feeling guilty. I do not interfere through other, and I hope as respectful, motives.

It will be of absolute interest to see how all of us react, assuming that any of us continue to live.

Meanwhile, if I am to be of any use to these people, and to Barrows, it seems well to look at their society. They have built an interesting but vulnerable social structure among themselves. It is a structure that promises a good deal of strength, even if it is vulnerable.

There is no evidence of group hysteria or hypnotic presence. No mental disorder is evident in Barrows or Jake. Julie is slightly erratic under the stress of fear. Except for Dolores, who is watchful, the rest of the group seems to have placed the fear of attack from their minds.

There is no cult of personality, although Barrows is a powerful figure.

Group unity is based on affection. Also on the commonly held belief that Barrows’s intentions are excellent. Members of the group do not necessarily trust each other’s judgments.

No one questions Barrows’s claim that he is a hundred and fifty years old. I do not question it, myself, but perhaps I have a bit more information and a bit more knowledge about these matters.

Objects do vanish at Barrows’s will—this confirmed visually. Such power is certainly not unknown, but it is shocking to find such power contained in a frail vessel like Barrows.

Locale is approximately as Jake has described it in letters.

The group appears as a substitute for the extended family, with two variations. Jake, not Barrows, is the patriarch. Julie, Penny and Dolores alternate a mother role, with the mantle most often falling on Penny. Julie would like to be the matriarch, but she has no chance because of the irreverence of Penny and the realism of Dolores. Julie walks so many secret paths of the mind that she cannot even articulate to herself in which direction they lead.

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