The Gifted Read Free

his mocha skin, and he was
probably a good nine inches shorter than me. “Are you kidding doc?”
he said. “This kid’s got all the luck. Me, I get ignored every
time.”
    “Yes,” said Dr. Denay. “Well, I suppose you
are a bit of an exception there. Still, Tracy? What about you?”
    “I might get ignored, unless he was a cute
boy and I smiled first,” she said while twirling strands of hair
around her finger. “I guess it really just depends if I smiled
first. But mostly, if I don’t know them or anything, they just
ignore me.”
    “What’s all this about?” I said.
    The doctor took off his glasses and set them
on the table, “For most people, a pedestrian who passed them on the
street would not even make eye contact, walking by without a word
or a smile. When someone passes you on the street, however, I would
bet they virtually always smile. That is because of your
extraordinary gift.”
    “Gift,” I was confused at this and a bit mad
at this treatment. “What do you mean by gift?”
    “You see,” he said in calm smooth tones, “you
are one of the few, the very few it turns out, who have such a
gift. I would expect that you receive an unusual amount of help
from others. Even, perhaps, from strangers?”
    In my mind I saw the bent over old man. Not
knowing why, I felt myself becoming angry even more. “Well, people
help people,” I said. “People are nice!”
    “Not that nice,” he said. “Or that often.
Those people were not just being good Samaritans; they could hardly
help themselves, because of your gift.”
    I sat quietly, trying not to explode in front
of this stranger.
    “I can see this has upset you, and I'm sure
you are quite nice Andy, but not that nice. Anyone who comes within
your field would be affected and would feel compelled to offer
help, to give kindness, to do whatever they could to make you
pleased with them. It is the way you emit to those around you. It
is your gift. People like you, even sometimes when they
don’t want to.” He smiled.
    “I'm going to give Andy a while to chew on
that,” he said. “We all know it took awhile for each of you to come
to grips with your particular gifts.” The other three nodded and
some made sounds of agreement. The doctor took off his glasses and
chewed on the earpiece, “To make Andy feel more comfortable, why
don’t the rest of you share what you have learned about your
gifts.”
    Tracy jumped to her feet, “Can I go
first?”
    “Yes, Tracy,” he said. “That would be
fine.”
    “Well,” the exuberant girl went on, “I’m a
heat gatherer, or concentrator or something like that. I've known
about my gift for a little while now. Last year, when I got really
mad at my big sister, I set her mattress on fire. Mom thought it
was some mistake of us playing with matches or something. But I
knew what I'd done. For a while after that I was afraid to use it,
but then I started to experiment again and, well, I got into some
more trouble before I learned that I could control it. Before that,
whenever I’d lose my temper, well, watch out is all I can say! It
was a lot of fun for me, but one day a neighbor dog bit me and I
let him have it. I kind of felt sorry for it whenever I saw the
bandages on him though. Do tails grow back?”
    The doctor cleared his throat. “I don’t think
so. Thank you Tracy.” She nodded, smiled, and sat down.
    “Can I go next?” I heard someone say. I say I
heard it, but I didn't see anyone at first. He touched my back and
then there he was, right next to me. How was that possible?
    “Sorry, I had to do that, ‘cause you wouldn't
have noticed me otherwise,” he said.
    “All right, Guido, go ahead,” said the
doctor.
    “Yeah, so I am not a quiet person really,” he
said. “I should be hard to miss, but I always noticed in school I
had a hard time making friends.”
    “A hard time?” said Dr. Denay.
    “Okay, I didn't have any,” he said. “It was
like I wasn't there. No one ever paid any attention