The Gifted Read Free Page B

notice him,
said, “I wonder what happened to her?”
    “I don’t know,” I said.
    I turned to Han. “So strangers don’t smile
when they pass you?”
    “No,” he said.
    I thought of the general and now I knew what
seemed odd about the way he looked. He never smiled.
    “And they don't offer to help carry your
books or help you in other ways either I suppose?”
    “No,” said Han. “Never.” We came to the door
marked with a “D” like we were told. I pressed a button on the
right and it slid open to a large, circular room with several doors
around the perimeter. The middle of the room went down three steps
and at the bottom was a large table with chairs.
    “But why?” I continued. “Why do people do it
for me?”
    Somebody pushed me from behind into the room.
I stumbled down the steps. “Because,” said Guido, “it’s your gift!
Aren’t you listening! Everyone notices you, wants to help
you, smiles and everything! Everyone ignores me. Seems I got
the bad end of the deal, if you ask me. I just wish I knew about it
before I got here.”
    I wasn’t sure where he was except for the
second he pushed me. Then, there he was! Afterward, I could only
hear his voice which was harsh and bitter, but didn’t notice him
anymore. Everyone was mad today, but now I wasn’t. Now, I was too
tired for anger. “There must be something good about going
unnoticed though,” I said. “You won't get bullied at school.
Teachers won't call on you when you don't know the answer.”
    “How about this, Guido,” said Tracy as she
entered from one of the rooms. Her eyes were still red, but no
tears. “You can pull pranks on anyone you want and no one will even
know you were there. Now that would be cool!” She smiled.
    “I'm not much of a prankster,” said Guido. “I
just want to be noticed.”
    “So you like pranks?” I asked Tracy. “I think
I'm going to keep my door locked with you two around. Guido can go
anywhere unnoticed, and Tracy actually wants to.”
    At this Tracy looked excited. “Hey Guido,
imagine what we could do if we were together!”
    “Yeah,” I laughed, “like I said, I’m locking
my door tonight.”
    I took a look at the doors on the outside of
the room. Tracy saw me. “These are imprint doors. At least that’s
what they told me to call them when I first got here a couple of
weeks ago. The first time you touch the door it will memorize your
touch and then only you can open it. This is mine here,” and she
pointed to the far door to the right.
    We each walked up to a different door and
touched it. After my door made a series of whirring noises, it
opened. “I’m going to bed,” I said and stepped into a fairly large
room with a double bed against the far wall, a bathroom door, and a
desk in the middle with a computer. The door closed behind me.
There were books already on the shelves with titles such as, The
Art of War , How to Disable a Man Easily Without Weapons ,
and Military Aircraft You Should Know . Then on a smaller
shelf by the bed were other books. These were all religious. There
was the Koran, the Book of Mormon, Teachings of the Dalai Lama, and
a couple of Bibles. Just my luck, no books on sports anywhere.
    I remembered the verse above the new hole in
our school wall. I thought I’d look it up. It was Psalm 116:6. My
parents sent me to that school, and they would talk about the Bible
a lot, but I never really read it on my own. When I found the
verse, I read it: “The LORD protects those of childlike faith; I
was facing death, and he saved me.” Whoa! I had never seen the last
part of that verse before. Facing death? I hoped I was not going to
face death. I had always been taken care of and never really had
much to fear before, but this was all new to me. That night after
reading that verse I prayed to God. I got on my knees like I had
seen in a picture somewhere and prayed that God would keep me safe.
I didn’t know about this training thing, but for some reason it
scared