New Haven

Chapter 9. Get Out of My Head

Chapter 9. Get Out of My Head

Autumn barely suppressed a groan. Was this man to plague her every moment? Justice walked away as Autumn realized her children were no longer near her.

"Jus, where'd they take the kids?" Autumn asked her friend, but she was out of earshot.

"They are in the hall playing. We will work with them later. Not all of them have developed a gift yet, and we don’t want any of them to feel slighted," Schield said close to her ear as he came nearer.

Autumn flinched away from his nearness and backed a step away from him. "Oh. I guess I need to start paying better attention. I know better than to daydream."

Schield sent her a quizzical look then said, "Not used to it, eh? Free time, time to daydream?"

"If you only knew," Autumn began. "No, forget that, I don't want you to know."

"Fine. We all have our secrets, Autumn. Autumn is correct, yes?" Schield said, making sure he had her name correct.

"Right, I'm Autumn. So, what are we supposed to do in our small groups? Share feelings or what?" she asked tersely. Autumn didn't quite know how he had put her in such a foul humor.

"Something like that," he replied quietly before turning to the others in the group. "Let's all get introduced to one another. You all know me, and this is Autumn. Please tell us where you are from Autumn."

"I'm from Wayside. Since I don't know where we are, I can only tell you we are several hours from there," Autumn said belligerently.

As Schield indicated the person to her right, the giggling woman said, "I'm Rose. I'm from Albany. I think we are even farther from here than Wayside."

Autumn detected a challenge from the woman beside her, but refused to rise to the bait.

In turn, the elderly gentleman that had been included in their group introduced himself as Charlie. He was slightly hard of hearing so answered each question preceded by a loud 'What?' He reported he and his wife were from a farm not too far away.

The third member of their group was a young woman with dark brown hair and darker brown eyes. She was much smaller than Autumn, not much taller than Rae.

"I'm Anise," she said softly. "I'm from Albany, too."

Autumn didn't miss the haughty look on Rose's face, as if Anise wasn't good enough to come from the same settlement.

"Our task to complete before dinner is to determine how strong the energy in each of you is, then we must learn how to shield that energy from others. It is essentially like grammar school when you learn how to play nicely with others," Schield said, eying each of them meaningfully. He had already had enough of Rose. "How many of you felt an overwhelming sense of calm and love last night, about the midnight?"

Autumn instantly blushed. Had everyone felt her kind thoughts toward Justice?

"Oh, honey, I did. I didn't know what it was, but I felt real cozy when it came over me. Happier than I've been in a long time," Rose answered eagerly, and just as eagerly asked Schield, "Did you do that?"

"No, he didn't do it," Charlie piped in, not missing a word. The wizened old man pointed a gnarled finger at Autumn and grinned, "She did. Anybody that has any extra sense about them could tell it was her. It still feels like her now. Our energy has a fingerprint, so to speak. You got it and you got it, too."

Autumn blushed and nodded. She hated to be the center of attention. Rose bestowed a fake smile on her, narrowing her eyes in thought.

"Very good, Charlie, I'd expect no less from you, with your wisdom and age," Schield said.