The Psychic Ferret Research Projet Part1

                                       The unexpected unexplained and mysterious

                   The end of innocence

         Life is about survival and death.  It is about coping with living and with what the dead left behind.  This happen to me.  It can be stressful.  And it is so hard to deal with death emotionally.  Dying, for the death person, is the easiest part.  It is a natural part of living.  The suffering end with death.  It is not as happy for the living.  The living have to cope with the dead person.  There is the burial of the corpse, settling all the belonging of the dead and there is the emotional baggage that the living have to go throught.  It is not an easy time to live in our modern life.  All have to move quickly and done with as soon as possible.

         Personally, I am not in a hurry for the succession but it will be something that have already started, in a slow way.  The process can take some time to be completed.  All thing in good time.  It will be  the emotions and the non-spoken matters that may cause a little bit of a problem.  It is not always easy to deal with those untangible unseen. 

The burial is being underway right now.  This is right in the boring part: into the church.  I say boring part because I am bored to tears.  The roman catholic rituals never  attracted me.  I know that every movements, gesture and actions means something.  It enhance the drama of the ritual.  But it left me cold.  I am only a observer, not felling a participant.

My heart aches for something more warm, less ritualized.  I think belief is not about ritual.  Belief must be able to evolve and grow in the heart of a person.  It is definitely not by watching the ritualized dance of the priest near the altar that will capture me.  Maybe part of me is a bit too rational.  The other part of me would be more interested to believe in the older mythologies, especially the Greek one.  I know I am ambivalent.  It is what I am.  Mythologies have something that have been lost in this computer technology based society.

All that to say that I feel strange in this church.  Maybe the burial gives me extra time to think.  Being an observant in this ritual only worsen what I have to develop in my nature.  I always have felt lonely.  Looking at those children, at school, made me wonder if I was at the right place.  I didn’t felt at ease with those children.  And the adult never seems to have detected every tiny things that lurked unworded in my inconscious.

My mind wander again.  It is a real meander!  Let’s sink in the place I am right now.  It is a church.  Well, I know: each church is not totally alike.  The church I am in is pretty big and imposing.  It is a cold church.  I say a cold church because I find it cold.  At least, from a view outside, looking at the exterior shell of the church.  The exterior of the church is made of big cubes of grey stones.  It is not really very elegant.  It look like more an castle or a stronghold than an pleasing looking church that some other place have.  There is two short tower in the front of the church for the two bells.  It is not a very colourful building.

Even the window glasses don’t bring much joy to the building.  The window panes show some pictures taken from the bible.  But I am not very well versed in this book for telling what the windows’ picture meant.  It is not always easy to recognize charactors on those “vitraux”.  Those “vitraux” for windows are well spaced, on a regular and short space.  And on each side of the building, the windows are well aligned with each others at the other side.  The color used for the “vitraux”  are repeating themselves on each and every ones.  There isn’t much blue.  There is more yellow, brown and red than more varied color.    At least, those “vitraux” seems to have tested time (or they have been carefully well maintained through time).

The front door, witch is the main door, is facing the main street.  The door is made of wood, a little touch of the area.  But even the door is pretty much conventional.  There isn’t much carving on the panel of the door.  The door is very wide.  There is two panel forming it.  Each panel can be used as a door by itself.  At least two person can pass by there.  The door curve at the top.  The panel seems made of a solid plank.  If it is made of many planks, it doesn’t show it.  There is some traces of use on the doors.  The varatane is clearly peeling off in some part.  The architects of this church did not took much liberty with this church.  They have gone with a sturdy and boring exterior.


Enough of the outside.  I think I have resumed well the horror that the outside is.  Now, let’s go inside to take a good look.  There is no hint of the awful grey big block of rock of the outside wall.  There is an inside wall.  They seems to be panels of plaster.  It is withish cream and this colour seems to enhance the material used  to make this interior wall.  There is a central alley.  On each side, there is long wooded benches.  They have a protector finish painted on the wood.  But there is visible signs of their uses.  On the base of the back of the benches, there is a long and thin cushion running along the benches.  It is fixed to the back of the preceding benches.  There is a simple apparatus to makes those long and thin cushion out of the way when it is not used between mass.  There is a little acove for the autel.  It is more intimate than the benches’ part.  There is a few unstressing stairs leading to the autel.  There is a little cupola upside the autel.  The ceiling is shorter there probably to enhance the sacredness of the autel and put emphasis of this special area.  The ceiling of the rest of the church is higher.  When closer of the autel, I don’t feel like looking at the ceiling upside the benches. It seems so far!  And not worth of seeing because I don’t have a vivid impression from there. 

I am in the back of the church, at the last line of benches.  I am near the central alley, near the central door.  I am on the left sided benches.  In that way, I will be one of the first to get out of the church, once the mass is ended.  I want to slip out before the coffin exit the church by the main door.  I feel that I need some fresh air pretty soon.  But I will finish my description of the inside of the church first.  Right in front of me, beside the autel, there is a wall.  On that wall, there is a bit Christ on a cross that have been fixed to the wall.  That hanged statue and the wall surrounding it are a bit unfresh.  There is some visible peeling on the wall.  And the hanged statue is looking a bit sad.  Definitively, that statue haven’t been restored recently.  There is faded colors on the statue.  I also find that kind of statue a bit depression even if this one have it’s place in this church.

Beside the statue on the wall, there is a little recess, out of my view.  There are some lampion there.  There is a metallic structure holding the lampion.  For donations, a candle can be lighted up.  The flames of those lighted are dancing in their protective tubes.  The candles are in various state of use.  Most of them are slowing burning away.  I can’t see them right now, so I am guessing right now.  But if I have to choose a part that I like in this church, it would be that place.  There is also a way, from this recess, that lead outside.

Last but not least, up over my head, there is the balcony.  It is a kind of second floor were some people can go if the floor benches are full.  But it is a tiny place and I haven’t been there often.  I don’t even remember how to go there.  And I think that the organ is also in that area, up of me.  My look goes back to the priest and the autel.  The priest have a white robe with some golden embroidery.  The golden embroidery are two main stripes making a cross on his garment and a few fine zigzagging fine thread.  The autel is made of three stab of stone.  There is the baptismal font that are put  a bit off the autel.  I think it is only put to place when there is a baptism.

The mass does not seem to end.  The time always seems longer when I am bored and can’t do anything at all.  It is only a formality but a boring formality.  I look at the main door, behind me.  Three young men enter as quiet as they can.  They muffle the sound of the opening and closing door as best as they can.  They made their entry as quiet and fast as they could.  They come sit beside me, at my bench.  They are tall men.  Their look are a bit similar.

The one closest to me is calm looking.  He is clean shaven.  He also seems a tiny bit older than the other two.  He have brown-green eyes.  His hair are shorter than his two friend.  He have comb his hair to go behind his head.  It goes to the base of the shoulders.  They look black and shiny.  He have the angular face of a man but with some softness to it.  His eyes seems to be all seeing.  His nose is not bad to look at.  He doesn’t have a beak nose.  The nose line is straight and not too long.  The only bad with his nose: it is a bit too large in proportion of the rest of his face.  (Or do I imagine it?  Sometimes, I seems to have out of character thoughts).  His lips are unusual.  They are not in the shape of heart or silicon filled.  He wear a nice white shirt that look a bit medieval.  He have black jeans and the gladiator boots of the Pennangalan dreams website (I had found the website in a  boring way but it is nice to see those boots on somebody and for real).  He wear an leather jacket without any logo.

Beside him, there is a calmer guy.  He have round glasses.  His eyes are steel blue.  His hairs are free and goes to the shoulders.  His hairs are of a dark and dull brown right now.  Maybe they have more vitality under the sun.  He is also clean shaven.  He have an elegant suit.  It is the kind of suit that makes me think of the gentlemen of the beginning of the century, during the Victorian Era.  He even have a pocket watch because I see a chain (it may also only be a decoration…).  He have a bit of a beaky nose but it compliment his face feature.  He does not look like a predator.  He seems to hold a meeting with himself.  His lips is not worth mentioning.  They are a fine line.  He have shoes that goes to the ankles.  His pants are well adjusted and I can’t see his socks.

Finally, the last man is energetic looking.  He wear all black.  He have boots that goes up to just below the knees.  His eyes are green.  He have also the hair up to his shoulders.  His hair is black but not as black as the one closest to me.  His nose is not too big and without much feature.  He is clean shaven but he have left a bit on his side.  But it doesn’t show much with his long hair.  His lips are a bit like mine: not too big nor a fine line.  It is in between both extreme.

I look at them briefly.  I don’t recognize them at all.  I wonder what they are doing here.  It is a bit puzzling because they do not match the rest of the attendants.  Those present in the church are part of the dead person’s family,  some relative I am not totally familiar with and some friends.  The three persons next to me seems to be there without any reason.  Or the reason is unknown to me.

I start to be a bit hot.  I have not pull off my jeans jacket and my extra sweater over my white shirt.  I have unbutton my jacket but now, it’s no longer seems enough.  I pull off my jacket behind me.  The mass is in full swing.
“You feel hot too?  Even if this place is not heated, I am a bit amazed that people have heated it so quickly!”
I look at my side, to my left.  It was the closest man beside me.  He have spoken very softly.  His breathing was unnoticeable during his brief comment.  I barely move my head, to agree with him.  I add: “There is lot of people.  It does not help.”
He takes a pause after my short comment before adding: “There is more people than I thought.  I suppose there is a part of the family and the rest are the friends.  And there is a tiny part where it is old people that goes to every funeral or every mass. 
L.M. told me his  puzzled: ”You seems to know my relative.  But it is the first time I see you.  And you look very young, like in my age range.” 
The man, with an amused smile: “Yes, I have met him on several occasion.  It was at the psychic ferret.”
I interrupted him: “The psychic ferret?  What is that place?”  It was a very strange name for a place and I wonder what my grandpa was doing there.
The man, getting very serious and inward: “Sorry, I should not have mentioned this place by it’s name.  It is a gathering place for a very restricted crowd.”
My curiosity was mounting: “Is it a club or something like that?  I didn’t knew that my grandpa was going to a club!”
The man, with a darker air: “Well, we can say it is a club.  But I no longer goes there.  I stopped not long after your grandpa stop going.  He was getting too ill to come.  But me and my two friends, here present, are happy to not have missed the entire funeral.  We just a little bit late.  We came as quickly as we could!”
I get a bit closer to his upper body: “And you are?”
The man’s face get a bit out of his darker façade: “I am Felix.  Beside me, it is Damien.  And beside Damien, there is Frédérik.  We should have introduced ourselves to you a little bit sooner.  I wasn’t sure if you were a close relative.  Usually, family members are sitting in the first seats or in the firsts rows.”
I sight: “I know that.  But I do not like being in a church, not this one anyway.”
Damien pronounce his first words since coming in: “And why?  This place is a simple and plain church.”
I look at him: “I do not know.  I find the exterior cold.  For the interior, I do not find there is much atmosphere.  And I am not a fan of the Catholic Roman ritual.”
Frederik, looking a bit edgy: “You are not the only one!  I hate to have to stay that quiet!”
Damien: “A bit of patience.  It is toward the end, now.  Your suffering is almost done.”
Felix, turning to me: “Maybe you would like to come to a little party with more ambiance?”
Frédérik, with a controlled burst: “I hope you know what you are doing!”
Damien put his index on his lips while looking at Frédérik.  Félix look intensely at Frédérik.
Félix, with a decided air: “I know.  Let’s see what will happen out of this.”  Turning toward me: “I invite you to a party.  Would you come?”
I feel uneasy at that point.  I never been to a party, even less invited to one.  “I… I don’t know.  I barely know you, guys.”

A pause.  An heavy one, at least for me.  They seems nice but they may be wolves in disguises.
Félix: Okay.  Let think a bit about it.  May I know your name?  I want to send the invitation to the right person.”
I realize I forgot to tell my name.  They made their introduction already. It was a bit impolite after they had introduced themselves.    “I am Castalie”, I manage to say hurrily.  Before I could add something more, Félix say: “Castalie, an easy name to remember.  I will send you the invitation when the party will come around.”  And seeing me searching for pen and paper in my pocket, he add: “No need for you to give me your address nor your e-mail.”
I barely had the time to add: “You will search the internet?  It will go faster if I give you my email, you know!”
Damien, waking up: “We know you barely meet us.  But don’t worry..”

Damien and Frédérik made their ways to the doors.  Félix took some moments before following his two friends.
Félix, looking at me: “Be careful and stay safe.  There is something that tell me we will meet again.”
I didn’t like liked his tone, so I say: “Are you a psychic?  I don’t want my future foretold right now!”
Félix, pulling a set of keys from his pocket: “No need to be a psychic to see what you may live throught.  This recent death will affect you in many ways.  I know this from experience.  Your family won’t suspect how much this death will affect you.  I can guess it by what I have heard from my sources.”

Why does he says that?  He is putting his nose in my life.  I find this a bit displeasing and rude.  I keep silent as Félix turn his back to me and exit thru the big and heavy looking doors.  I now turn in front of me.  The priest doesn’t seems to bother about the exit of the three young men.  Their exit was quiet as it could be.  An handful of attendants that briefly turn their head to see what happen.  They only see the doors closed.  They weren’t quick enough to see the guys going out.  They only could guess of what happened.

I take a few seconds to think of what just happened.  It is a curious event.  It makes me wonder.  What will happen now?  I am under the impression that they want to be friendly with me.  They seems to know my grandpa.  But I can’t ask my dead relative his side of the story.  So I can’t prove their claims right now.  I am also curious on how they will contact me for their party.  I am not sure I want to go.  I feel  I am a bit too old for parties.  I am no longer a teenager.  I do not fit in a crowd and accept that I am not like the others.

I probably will never heard of them again.  I often meet briefly people that I never see again.  I should not worry too much by this event.  On that, I wake up and make quietly my exit.  I look around briefly on the church’s stair to see if the guys are still around.  Everything is calm.  No one is in sight.  This little town is very sleepy this morning.  In front of me (and of the church), there are some boutique but they seems to be closed today.  Maybe it is a illusion.  I don’t need to know for sure.  I don’t have to cross the street to shop.

I take a shortcut to the nearby cemetery, situated behind the church.  I go to the carved tomb for the proper burial part of the funeral.  No one waited near the tombstone.  The cemetery was still people free.  I keep a safe distance of the designed tomb, waiting for the cortège co come in.  I want to be as discreet as possible.  I always had been that way.  I felt a bit uneasy in a crowd, not feeling in the right place.


                   Second encounter

I return in the big city after the funeral.  It is a matter of being able to sustain myself.  There isn’t much jobs opportunities in my hometown.  None that are in my domain of expertise anyway.  I walk in the dull streets of the big city.  The name of that city don’t matter much.  A city is a city.  The traffic is heavy, people walk in crowds and it is pretty much everyone to themselves.  It is a ugly and soulless city, without much personality.  People feel  lonely and you can live your life without attachment, without forming bondage with other fellow human.  There isn’t any of my relative living in the city.  I am in my own.  I like it that way.  They don’t put pressure on me.  And I don’t feel their scrutiny.  I can be truly myself in here.  Not that I am not with my family.  It is only that I feel more free away from them.  Family obligation and affiliation can put some weight and stress on a individual.

So I walk in a street.  It is a more intimate street than those awful boulevard and bigger street.  In the context of the city, this street have some charm.  There is some trees bordering the sidewalk and they form an arch over the street.  Of course, the trees have been shaped in a ugly way to allow the telephone and electricity lines and poles to follow the street and to access the buildings.  I walk there without much of a goal.  I err here more because I am a bit bored.  The buildings are multi floors.  It is a bit more a back alley than a street.  I don’t comes here often.  I must be a bit careful.  This alley street is more narrow than usual street.  I must be careful and have eyes all around my head.  Cars don’t go in a high speed here.  But I prefer to be careful.  There is the backyards between the tiny street and the buildings.

Near my exit to this place, I see two person in conversation on my left.  I recognise one of them.  It is Félix.  He turn his head in my direction as I walk more closely.  I didn’t want to disturb him.  So I was thinking of saluting him and continue my walk.
I was wrong.  It didn’t happened as I had wished for.  As I was at their level, Félix and the person I didn’t know salute themselves before parting each in his ways.  Félix joined me and start to walk beside me.  I stop at the intersection of the little street and the wide boulevard.  He take a few extra step before stopping too.  He didn’t expected that I would stop (or I stopped too quickly for him).
Félix, turning toward me: “Why stop?  I like walking beside you.”
What to say?  “I did not expected to see you again.  It is as if you knew I was passing nearby”
Félix, smiling: “Expect the unexpected.  I was talking with a friend that lives nearby.  It is about the party.  I was telling him about inviting you there.”
I feel really afraid now.  He want me to be in that party badly.  It makes me want to flee far away from him.  I am not ready to go to this party.  I don’t like him to insist on this.  I don’t like to be forced to do something.

Félix, with a heartfelt sight: “You do not trust me yet.”  He had a point.
“It is true.  It is only the second time that we met.  I don’t know anything about you.”
Félix, taking a step closer to me: “Okay.  I admit I may be too much insistent on this party.  But this party mean a lot to me.  I have put my heart in it.”

It is leading us no where.  It is pointless to argue and talk on that.  “Let’s forget about this now” I say.  “Let’s talk of more neutral topics.  I may change my mind on going to this party later on.”
Félix, taking a deep breath: “You are right.  Are you heading somewhere?  Do you have some time?”
I feel a bit better, now.  I remind myself to stay on my guard, just in case the situation get worse.  “I do not have much to do right now.”  I pointed in the other direction than the direction of my apartment.  “Let’s go that way for a while.  I need to walk a little bit.”
Félix didn’t say anything upon the direction I had chosen. 

We only made a few silent steps when we hear some croak craws.  We turn our heads in the direction of the sound.
Félix, looking hard to find the black bird that uttered his caws: “They always seems to be hiding.  They really are invisible birds!”
I have to agree with that.  “They seems to toy with us right now.  It always the impression I have when this situation happen.”
Félix, abandoning his search for the birds: “ I like this idea.  I like those birds.  Raven or crows.  I have heard there was a difference between the two but I never remember which one is the crow and which one is the raven.”
“Me neither.  But those birds have an attitude that I like.  There is some books out there on them exclusively.  They had been studied and the result is fascinating.”
Félix, looking at me straight in the eyes.  His eyes are bright: “You should give me the references of those books!  Here, I have an handmade card that I have photocopied with my e-mail on it.  Oh, do you have access to internet?  I find it more convenient than the phone. “
I took the card.  His first name and his e-mail address was hand written in a pleasing calligraphy.  A few elaborate lines in the corner to enhance the look of the card.  “I do have access to internet.  I prefer it too.  It is less stressful.  I can think a bit about my answers.  The telephone is so stressful!”
Felix with a smile that suited him pretty well: “Ha Ah!  There is something common between us!  Now, we will be able to discuss in a more relax matter!”
A light beep replaced the cawing of the black birds, which ever it was, crow or raven.  Félix take a beeper in a place well hidden on his pants’ belt.  “I am sorry.  I have to go.  Somebody need my help or, at least to talk to me.”  He look around.  “Where is the closest phone booth, now?”
I look around too, to help him.  “I think there is one not too far from here, near the nearest subway station.”  Félix nodded: “Yeah, you are right, I remember now.”  And we parted ways.


                   My bedroom

I am in my bedroom and work area.  It is a room that can be counted as a double room.  It is two rooms linked at one corner by a short corridor.  In the bedroom part, there is my bed.  It look like an sofa but set higher.  The matelas is high above ground and there is only one matelas.  It is supported by a metallic treillis.  There is three square pillows: one black, one green and one pink.  The top cover is heavy and thick.  It is a solid medium grey with touches of black, green and pink.  There is a pillow with a pillow’s cover to go over the top cover of the bed.  There is a pillow inside the bed sheets.  The bed sheets are a deep green.  But we only see it when the bed is in use.  The bed is against a wall.

Against a nearby wall, there is my drawer.  It is matching my bed.  It is white.  My bed have three ornate white sides and three silver globe at each post’s top at the corner of the bed.  The drawer is also white.  There is three drawers.  There is a silver handle that run in the front panels of the drawers.  It does not protude the panels.  It is part of the front panels.

Beside, there is a desk that was originally for a computer’s printer.  It was a big and sturdy printer.  The desk could barely hold it on the very top shelf.  That desk have four shelves plus the top of this desk.  The old computer and it’s printer are no longer in my possession.  But I kept that desk.  Now, I use this desk to store my collection of tarot decks.  My collection start to be a little bit crowded there.  I am looking for a second desk that would hold a part of this collection.  By chance, I have almost stopped my collecting.  I pretty much have all the decks that really got me interested.

And the top of the desk have a few items to decorates.  There is two statues and three decoratives little jars that look like the ones the ancient Greeks used.  But I never used those who are in my possession.  They are in a crude material.  Some very dull colours are on those little jars.  They are not very functional.  There are two decoratives bowls.  One of them have an Halloween theme.  The other one have paw prints and fishes’ sqeletons on it.  I also have put my wooden heart there.  There is my name on it.

Beside the door, there is my porte-mantaux.  It is an heavy iron one.  My name is at the top of it.  There is some tige that end with a painted red tips.  It is a nice decoration to the room.  In the small area that connect the two rooms, nothing special.  There is nothing there.  I like to keep it free.  And there isn’t much place anyway.  I have not put any decoration there, on the wall.  I have not found anything nice to put there yet.  And I am not in a hurry to do something about it.

In what I call “the work room’,  I have two desks side by side.  One desk is white.  The other desk is made of wood.  There is also an integrated small book shelves on the wooden desk.  The bookshelves are only two shelves and an  half. The half is because the top of the desk is splitted in two.  One part is used to welcome books and a scanner.  The other part is for my computer screen.  The tower of the computer is beside the desk (the wooden one).

On the white desk, there is my radio and some papers.  I also have four bookshelves full of various books in this room, against the other wall.  I also have two small piles of unread books on the white desk, beside the radio.  I mainly write there.  I also have materials to make home made jewelry.  It is mainly wire wrapping.  I keep my material safe, on the top of a book shelves.  I only take the tray with my materiel when I am using it, when I make wire wrapping jewelry.

It is, at a glance, my bedroom and my work area.  It is the most important area of my apartment.  I pass a lot of time there.  I buzily look in a closet full of hanged clothes.  The closet is near my bed, on the other side of the drawer.  The closet is near the work room.  The drawer is open too.  I have overslept  It is late in the morning.  I find it difficult to decide what to wear for the remaining of the day.

Félix and I have exchanged a few e-mails.  The party have come and go.  It wasn’t brought up again.  The nature of the e-amails were not exceptional.  But it was enough to put a little bit of trust in him.  He have invited me to a little bit intimate soirée with some close friends.  He have agree to meet in a neutral place a bit before hand.  And he will guide me to his place.  In fact, it wasn’t only his place.  I have learned, by the content of his e-mails, that he share the place with Damien and Frédérik.  I am a bit nervous.  It is a bit unsettling.  I am not used to do this kind of things.  And I wonder why Félix show interest in me.  And how he was able to stumble on me in the big city.

My grandpa have not comes here for long periods.  His visit, especially in the end of his life, were always short and he didn’t see many people here.  He was only going to the hospital for some tests and it was pretty much all.  He did not comes to my place either.  I was always going to the hospital to have my eye on him and to visit him too.  So I wonder how Félix and his two friends have meet my grand pa and how they knew about my grandpa’s funerals.  I must admit I didn’t thought of it earlier.  I could send them to Félix right away.  For my dressing, I finally decided to use plain clothes.  I want to be accepted for who I am and I go there to observe Félix.  I don’t bother if I don’t fit with what people will be wearing.  My clothes are pretty plain, without logos and are more functional than anything else.

I am now ready to observe Félix in his life, in context.  Words are nice but after a while,  how we act speak as much as talking.  I direct myself toward the computer.  I will dress up after having send my e-mail.  I have no hurry until it is time to go and meet Félix.  It is at when I heard a knock at the apartment’s  door.

Who could comes at this moment?  I go to the door.  I look by the little hole in the door.  I don’t often do it.  But the knock is really unexpected.  On the other side of the door stand Félix.  What on hell is he doing here!?  And right as I was thinking of him?  I open the door enough to see him and not too much revealing myself.

I say, astonishly: “What are you doing here so soon?  And how did you find where I stay?  You searched the internet, aren’t you?  We agreed to meet at the rendez vous point later today!”
Félix, breathing heavily.  He had run, I guess.  He is trying to slow his breathing down.  He also seems to be in a hurry.  His reply took a second to come , as he try to have a more normal breathing: “ I am sorry!  I did not wanted to intrude here.  But something just happened.  I feel upset and angry by what happened.”
Should I let him in this state?  He look to be a bit upset and angry, not at me, by chance.  But I am curious on what happened to him.  Maybe if I let him in, he will tell me what he just lived.  If he attact me, I have the advantage of knowing well my apartment.  It is a calculated risk.  I open the door to let him in and close the door after his passage.  I lead him in the kitchen, not too far from the telephone.  He look briefly around.  He doesn’t seems well at ease and it is well with me.  It is not a place he is familiar with and I am glad to see that.  He stay up, not knowing what to do.  He is now a little bit shy now, even if there is some upsetness and anger still left in his body.  There is a visible tension in his loosely closed fist.  Now, he have a full view of me, in my night shirt.

“Oh, sorry!  I have woke you up!”
I reply, dryly: “ You  already have said that you were sorry.  I am up since two hours ago.  I was looking at what to wear for today.  You better sit.  Calm down as I go to dress more properly.”  I pointed to a chair, the farthest one from the telephone and it’s stand.  Félix sit at that chair without questions, without comments.  I return to my bed room.  I take what I wanted to wear and go dress up behind my paravent.  The paravent is set in a corner of my work area, behind the white desk.  The white desk is the one that is the deepest in the work room.  Behind my paravent, I have a good view of the only entrance
of the room.  I may not have any way to escape an attack but I have a few precious seconds to prepare myself to replicate to any attack.  I do as quickly as possible and I return to the kitchen.

I take the chair the closest of the telephone.  I was not very happy to see him here but at least he is safe for now.  I find a bit early to welcome Félix in my place but he is.  I feel a bit violated by his unexpected unannounced coming.  He have probably have done a quick search in the yellow pages, on the internet.  I am a bit surprised that he came here to find a bit of safety.  Maybe he was close to my place.  He better have a good explanation on being here.  I decided to break the ice.  “So, what bring you here so early?”

Félix, looking a bit calmer: “Well, it is an unpleasant situation.  I have been attacked.” 
I look at him with an air of disbelief.  His clothes are a bit in disarray when he entered.  But there is no tatters nor visible holes in his clothes.  “Attacked?  And you are not that shacky.  Have you called the police?”  Félix, with a sight: “It is not the first time I have been attacked.  I know how to defend myself.  And I am now used to this kind of situation.  For the police, they are powerless.  I do not trust them anyway.  For the few time I had dealt with them on those attacks, they weren’t able to find any clues.” 

So the police haven’t been noticed.  I take a moment to think as fast as I can: “And one day, you will be found dead!  The police will take notice and look at your situation only at that moment.”  Félix, getting closer to me:  “You understand pretty quickly, I see.  By chance  I have time to calm myself.  The reason why they attack me always makes me upset and angry.”

It is strange that he meet think kind of situation regurlarly.  “And why are you under those attack?”  Félix, his face closing up: “it is not a very interesting story.  And there is a part set in secrecy.  I don’t think the world is ready for the truth.”
“And it doesn’t turn you into madness?  It sound a bit like what happen in many of H. P. Lovecraft’s stories.”  Félix, smiling:  “Ah, H. P. Lovecraft!  You are putting some brightness in my day!  And he have a fitting name for what he was doing!  His stories have merits but they don’t reflect my reality.  The secrecy I am in is not as awful and unnameable as what we find in his stories.”

I nod.  I won’t learn anything on his secrecy.  But, at least, he truly know about H. P. Lovecraft.  The only mention of the word “unnameable” tell a lot to me.  It is an important word in H. P. Lovecraft’s body of work.  It was a short pause before I replied: “very well.  You can have some secrets that stay secret.  I won’t force you to speak about it.  But I would suggest that you resolve this situation once and for all.  You will not be always be able to defend yourself against those attack.”

Félix, expiring air deeply: Thank you.  And yes, I am thinking and planning to take step to resolve this.”  He looked at his watch briefly before adding: “Are you hungry?  Let go eat some thing some where before heading to my home.  I want to prepare my place before the others comes in later.  It probably will take a part of the afternnon, anyway.”
“But I don’t have money to eat out!”  It was so unplanned!
Félix, looking at me and waking up as he spoke: “Do not worry.  I am inviting you out.  I am hungry and I don’t want to burden you by inviting myself to eat here.  So get up and come with me!  And don’t think to give me the money back later!”

I felt some shock.  How did he guess what I was thinking?  It is as if he had read in my mind.  Félix was heading toward the exit.  He turn toward me as he reach my front door.  :Are you coming with me?”
I wake up and go very straight.  “ Yeah, I guess so.”  I feel a bit ill at ease.  “You know, I take your invitation as a kind of charity.”
Félix, opening the door to let us out: “You are repaying me by helping me.  After eating, I have to buy a few item before going back to my place.  After that, you can help me put up some simple decorations.  Mostly, I want you to keep me some company.  I need to be around somebody to calm myself down.”
Sarcastically, I say: “Yeah, it is an easy way out when some one is broke.” 
Félix, waiting as I lock my door: “You have a bit the same attitude as your grandpa.”
I wasn’t too much happy to be forced into something but I wanted to keep my word by attending his informal party: “Don’t remind me of him right now!  I need to deal with his loss.  Now, let finisth this business.  We better change our mind!”
Félix, leading me: “Do you like art expositions?”

Ah!  Something light and that makes me feel good!  “Of course!  And by the way, when you came knock at my door, I was thinking about you.  I have two questions that makes me puzzle and wonder.  Maybe you can answer those…”

                   In the evening.

I find the place cosy.  It is not a big house.  I haven’t seen the second floor.  I suppose it is where the three roomies bedrooms are.  For the main floor, we gather mainly in the living room.  It is on the left side of the main entrance.  On the right side of the main door, there is the bathroom.  Farther and behind the bathroom, there is the kitchen.  In front of the kitchen and behind the living room, there is the dining room.  Both kitchen and dining room are connected together.  No obstacles in the way and I like that because it is easier to handle hot plates that way between the two places.

The kitchen counter runs along the wall, in the kitchen.  There is some armoires up the counter.  The refrigerator is along the wall separation the kitchen and the bathroom.  There is a dishwasher under the counter, in front of the refrigerator.  The sink is set in the counter and it face the wall giving out of the house.  On one side of the sink, there is the oven. On the other side of the sink, there is a micro-wave.  So, it is well placed.  We only have to take a few steps to reach what we need.

The dining room have only the table and chairs.  It is all made of chocolate brown wooded pieces.  The table is not extremely large.  There is a piece of panel that can be added to the table to give it more surface area but it is not used right now.  There is only four chairs there, set around the table.  There is a light over the table fixed on the ceiling.  There is a nice and delicate white cloth covering the table.  Over that piece of cloth, there is a little silvery tray with an unused, moss scented green pillar candle.  The walls of the kitchen and dining room have been painted in soft pastel tones.  I didn’t guessed that people like Félix, Frédérik and Damien could choose that kind of colour for those two room.

The bathroom is decorated with painted underwater themes.  There is shells, sea stars, seaweeds and little tropical fishes finely painted on the wall.  It is set on a blue background and there even some bubbles represented.  There is the usual implement we can find in a bath room: A bath tub with a shower in it.  A sink with a form of a shell.  A toilet.  There is the washer and dryer there too.  There is a transparent shower curtain with blue flower on it.

In the living room, there is a stereo set in one corner.  Beside it, there is a tv set.  The television set is not up neither is the stereo set.  Beside the tv set, there is a small book case with some cd, dvd and some book of reference and some magazines in it.  There is a big sofa in front of the tv set.  There is a window on the empty wall that link the wall where the tv, stereo and small book shelves are and the wall where the sofa is.  There is two lamps on stand on each side of the sofa.  The walls are not in the soft colours of the kitchen, the dining room and the bathroom.  It is in a dark beige colour.  With the setting sun coming out of the window, it look like a bit more orangy.  There is some posters on the wall.  There is some of Star Treks and one on the old fashioned public market that is held once a year by a local history museum.  The sofa is a soft green that remind me of the colour of the apple that is in the same tint.  There is a blanket that cover the sofa, to protect it.  The big blanket is yellow and black.  The design on the blanket makes me think of some mythological theme and way of representing peoples and things.  A few chairs with velvety cushions on the seat area had been added to the room.  It is to welcome more seated people in the room.  There is also an old plushy brown lazy boy  beside the soft green sofa.  But nobody use it.  It seems to be more of a decoration than anything else.  Maybe it is onwed by Felix, Frédérik or Damien but that he doesn’t want to get rid of it (and maybe by sentimental reason).  I tried to know more of this soft brown chair while talking with Félix but he didn’t wants to speak more of it.  He escape the subjet by giving me some origami to hold as he was climbing on a chair to hang them on the sky looking ceiling.  The hanged origami are so by fine fishing lines but the length of those fisthing lines have been well cut.  The origami are not in the way.  We can look at each other in the eyes without being blocked by one.  We just have to slightly look up to see them.

The guests had started to come in.  there is a small glassy short table between the sofa and the tv set with some munchies, biscuits, soft drinks, juices and fruits.  When each person comes in, I am introduced to that person.  Each guest is part of the gothic scene or have the gothic look.  Is is particularly striking on women.  They don’t look alike but they share some similarity in the way they are dressed up and whole attitude.  They are the femmes fatales in the like of Morticia Addams, Vampira and Elvira.  I would not mention Lily Monsters because even if she have the femme fatale look, she is more realistic and down to earth than Morticia Addams.  And because Lily Monsters is less on the dramatic side than Morticia Addams.  The men are a tiny bit more diverse.  There are those who are like Damien.  I call them the gentlemen with their old fashion clothes.  There are the genderless pale typical gothic men.  Their look seems more important than the rest and most of them may miss the deeper point.  And there those like Félix and Frédérik.  It is those looking part rebellious and part bad boys.  And they are black outfit but doesn’t put white make up on their skin to look paler.

For this intimate gathering, there is Félix, Damien and Frédérik present.  Damien was the one who was the last of those three to come in.  He was working and could not free himself sooner.  Beside those three men and I, there was four other persons present.  There was a young woman with the name of Elisa.  She have a frange on her forehead.  The rest of her hair goes just below her shoulders.  She have a dress, black evidently.  She does not have sleeves.  The dress is in one piece.  Just above one breast, there is a tattoo in the shape of a dagger piercing a heart.  She is very well carefully groomed and have red lips.  Another young woman named Eva.  She have a similar look to Elisa.  But the long dress is not of the same design.  And the tattoo is on her right arm, below the shoulder.  It is a depiction of a crow.  The third one is named Thalie.  She wear black jeans, one black t-shirt from a unknown musical band to me.  The last guest is a man named Maxime.  He have a studied look.  But he does permit himself to tell some immature jokes.

We are sitting down on the sofa and the chairs.  I am on one of the chairs.  I am trying not to look bored.  But I feel bored.  I don’t feel called by the topics of the others, tonight.  They speak about literature.  I have not heard of many of those books.  I have only heard of a few titles like Dracula, Frankenstein or Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hide.  But even with those titles, I have the typical view of those stories in mind.  Like the sophisticated aristocrat Count with the foreign accent.  Or the mad scientist with his deformed lab assistant and the famous scene where the creature is awakened and the famous “It’s alive!”  So it is hard to stay focused when the conversation is not understandable or when a participant have not as much knowledge compared to the others.

Thalie, addressing to myself: “You seems to be daydreaming!  And not very talkative.  Now, can you tell us what you think of The Castle of Otranto?”
This is bad, getting even worse.  I didn’t expected to give an opinion on something that I did not knew anything about.  I know I have to stay civil.  But I do not want to hurt her.  She seems to be the most approachable of the feminine part of this group.  Ill at ease, I reply shyly: “ I can not say anything about it.”
Maxime, wanting to makes me fell bad and worst (he want to play the predator on me, the prey. I can sense that): “What!?  Nothing!?  Have you read it?  We were supposed to and it such a classic!”
Eva, following Maxime a bit in intent: “Yeah, Maxime is right.  It is a classic and the first novel in the gothic genre.  It is considered, at least, so.”
Why did I have accepted to come here?  Of course, I did not knew they would talk about books that I did not knew they existed and even less read them.  I tried to put a bit of confidence in my reply but I knew I was not very convincing, even to my own ears: “No, I have not read it.  Is that a problem?  I never heard of this book before.”
Elisa, red as she can be in her paleness and sounding a bit angry: “Félix!  You are accountable on this!  You should have noticed her about the books!”
Félix, determined: “Should I really have done so?  Every one of us had been throught the state she is in.  Every one have been a neophyte somewhere in one time or another.”
Damien, sighting: “Well, another evening spoiled for something that is not vital.”
Elisa, waking up: “I came here to talk about literature.  I take this at heart and very seriously.  She may be a neophyte but I don’t want to waste time in explaining every tiny things.  I will come back next time.”
Frédérik, looking at his hands: “Are you sure of what you are doing?”
Elisa, walking toward the door: “Yes.  I am.  Anyway, I have promised the D. J. to go at his place later tonight.”
Maxime, jumping on the occasion: “You planned to go there without telling me?!  I definitely have to go with you!  He is so cool!”
Eva, looking interested too and saying shyly: “Are he not at the old Coburg club tonight?
Elisa, stopping and looking at Eva and Maxime: “Yes he is.  We are supposed to meet there and go together at his place to do some work done.  I suppose he won’t mind if you two comes with me.”
Eva, waking up and joining Elisa: “Well, I am always ready to shake my body in a club house!”
Frédérik, with a polite smile: “You will not reproach us to have forgot to put some background music?”
Eva, with a wink in her eyes: “Of course not!  In any case, this space is not big enough to safely dance with this big crowd!”
Maxime, to Thalie: “Are you coming with us?”
Thalie, taking a very brief moment to think: “I think I better not go to the club house.  I have got into an heavy argument with the D. J. on the last time we meet.”
Eva, looking her happy face: “ Oh, come on!  He probably have forgot it all by now!  He is a real party animal and never stay too much on a bad feeling!”
Thalie, sighting: “Well, it is him.  I am not the same as he is.  I want to wait a little bit more before seeing him again.”
Félix, escorting every ones out: “Well, it end this nice encounter.  Thalie, you are free to stay here a bit longer, if you want to!”
Thalie, waling up and walking behind must of us: “No thanks.  I think I will make some final tuning on my literature thesis.  You know, correcting some previous unseen errors.  That kind of things always takes time to finish.”

It was short and I feel a bit sad to be the indirect part in ending this evening.  My ignorance was a good excuse for the others to go else where.  I follow them to the exit of the house.  I am thinking to leave with the others and not impose my presence to Damien, Félix and Frédérik more than necessary.  But they screened me out at the exit.
Frédérik, as the others were already out: “You go already?”
I blink my eyes: “Well, yes, why?  Did I done something wrong?
Frédérik, taking briefly my hand in his own: “Nothing to worry.  You acted pretty calmly.  Some people don’t like how Elisa act when she is in this bad mood.  Not like I would have done anyway.”
Félix: “Yeah, you have handled this thing well.  I am sorry but I didn’t knew you have not read The Castle of Otranto.  You have mentioned H. P. Lovecraft earlier today, so I have assumed you knew about gothic novels.”
Damien, looking at me pretty intensively: “Can I as you a question?”

It is dizzying a bit.  It is as each one of them wanted my attention all in the same time.  It is the way I felt at that very moment.  I look at them when I reply: “It is okay.  I could not have foreseen this either.  In fact, I did not knew what would happen tonight.  And I think I can answer a question before I go, fit is not a personnal one.”
Damien, making a small smile to comfort me: “Rest reassured.  It is not a personal question.  I just wondered on what you think of psychic powers?”
Félix, turning toward Damien with ressentment: “Why do you ask her that question?!”
Damien, still very calm looking: “I am asking out of curiosity.  And I have to ask her what she think of it.  Let her, at least, answer my question.”
What a strange question anyway: “Like telekinesy, telepathy, psychometry, and the like?  I must admit I never given much thoughts about it.  It makes me think of some fantasy novels I have read recently.”
Damien, taking my hands briefly: “Thank you.  Now, stay safe!”
Frédérik, hugging me: “Yeah, stay very very safe and be very very careful!”

I feel a bit of a puzzle here.  And it makes me wonder.  Are they trying to hide something?  Or to communicate something to me without telling me directly?  Will I be able to know a little bit more later when the trust will be more mutual?  “I am always careful.  I am not that dumb, you know!”
Félix, shaking a bit: “With us around, you better be a little extra careful.”
What a puzzle!  Will I learn about their secret one day? I wish they stop talking like that without really telling me what is happening.  “Well, In that case, I  just have not to be around you!”
Damien, sighting: “I wish it was that simple!”
Frédérik, very seriously: “There is a group that is looming around.  We haven’t got rid of them yet.”
Félix, with a killer look toward Frédérik: “Shut up!  You already have said too much!”
Frédérik, sticking his ground, ready to physically fight, if needed: “You better rest a little!You put a lot on your shoulders!  For once, I am not the one who is edgy!”

I took my chances.  I do really hate when people are argueing in the same room that I am.  I can sense the bad vibration between both men.  “I better go now. I want to work on my writing.”
Damien, waving to me: “Goodbye!  See you next time!”
Félix, looking badly and briefly toward Frédérik: “I will bring you back to your home, just to make me feel a bit better.”

Once we got a bit farther from the house, I took my chance to know more.  “Those who attacked you earlier today are organized?  You haven’t told me about that earlier.”
Felix, still walking, without stopping or slowing down while answering me: “ Yes.  They are.  But you don’t have to worry too much about them right now.”
“But I can see that you do not like to talk about them or about what they do.”
Félix, a bit exasperated: “Of course I do not like doing so!  I have a lot of reasons to be edgy about that!”
“I just hope it will not turn ugly.”
Félix, stopping: “If it turn ugly, you will be the last one to know.”
And at that point, I knew I could not push in my investigation further.  We resumed our fast pace toward my home.


                   In the park

I am sitting on a bench.  I am in the park.  Behind, me, there is a row of trees that gives me shade.  Behind those trees, there is the fence that delimit the baseball field turned into a  dog park.  Behind the dog park, there is the Fleury street.  In front of me, there is a gentle slope that lead to Prieur street.  The slope end a little bit before that street.  On each side of me, there is  the park and a residential street.  I have not noticed the names of those two streets.  I am letting my mind wander and I am listening to the sound of the wind in the trees.  Not just the trees behind me, also those dispersed in the park.  The grass is well trimmed.  It does not make much sound or movement under the wind.  It had not been freshly trimmed so the smell is no longer noticeable.    The trees have not been  trimmed here.  They are untouched.  And it is how I like them.  I was here to unstress and empty my mind.  and it is a good place to be.  It is not as being always between four walls.  The inside of the four walls can be as nice as it can be but being out once in a while can be refreshing.  And this place is quiet and pretty much unattended during the work hours.  There is the occasional passer by.

What surprise me today are the two men in apple green suit, white shirt, black ties and black shoes.  They have each a matching apple green attaché caisse.  They comes right in front of me.  Their manners makes me think of a military marche.  Both have a regular human face with normal features.  And they are not a clone of the other.  One even have a mohak that is down right now.  The other have a fluo green dye in his hair.  The one with the fluo green hair is the one to speak the first: “You are miss Castalie, I supposed?”
“You know you have a bad sense of humor?  It is such an old joke that it is no longer funny!  Of course, my name is Castalie!”
The one with the unmade mohak start to speak with a monotonous voice: “We know who you are.  We only want to makes it certain.  It is standard procedure, you know!”
It is a nice paradox to see them, especially for their hair style,  following strict rules. 
“You seems to know me but do I know you?”
The fluo green haired, sitting beside me: “We are called The Men in Green.  We have observed you from a distance for a long time.  And we have meet your grandpa a few times.”
“Are you not supposed to wear black suit instead of green ones?”
The mohak headed one sit on my other side.  “We are not the Men in Black.  They are related with the extra-terrestrial.  We are investigating and recruiting people with psychic powers.”
This is interesting.  But why me and why now?  “I had never hear of you.  You must be really secret.”
The mohak headed guy, opening his green briefcase: “We know how to be discreet.  And it is a very top secret research.”
The fluo green haired one: “Yep.  More secret than that is almost impossible.”
It is strange and it must be hard to be so secretive.  I definitively do not like it.  “I remember one of those paranormal documentary were some guys were talking about a military secret project on remote viewing.”
The fluo green haired man smile: “Not really related.  It is a bit our ancestor.  We are a bit young as an organization.  This is another reason why we are still not well knon, not as the Men in Black, anyway.  We have been way more discreet than they had been.”
I raise my eye brows thinking it was almost not believeable: “If you are so discreet, why are you here, in plain daylight?  I don’t find it very discreet, especially with fluo hairs!”
The fluo green haired man, with a snob air: “It was all planned up.  We took a well calculated risk.  And why do you think we had chosen apple green as our color?  So we can comes here, in the park, without being too much noticed!  We are pretty close to the color of the grass and the trees’ leaves.”
The mohak headed one: “And why not apple green?  It is a nice color even if I haven’t got over the top with that particuliar color like my friend here present.”

Oh! Ho!  There is some little tiny tension between the two.  Or they do not like working together.  I can not know for sure right now.  “So, now that you have introduced yourself as the “Men in Green”, can I know how I get into the picture?  I don’t feel related to you at all!  And I never had any incident with psychic powers.”
The fluo haired man, did not looking pleased at all but keeping all his professional look on his face: “Well, it is only a matter of time.  We suspect you have a latent gift.”
The mohak headed man, with bright eyes and a little bad smile: “Our big boss think that with the dead of your relative, it will unblock your power in some way.  As a trigger in your mind.  He want to study this carefully.  We have done some surveillance on you since then, incognito.  We had to do it but it was not easy with those three damned renegades psychics who put some interferences in our attempted psychic connection with you.”
Three renegades psychics?  Could it be Frédérik, Félix and Damien?  I should have guessed that there was two sides of the story.  “So you want to enrol me in a super hyper secret  research?  And what is the goal of this research?”
The mohak headed man, while putting on my knees an piece of paper on a solid clip board: “Enrollment is mandatory.  Our goal are to improve humanity and make each individual reach it full psychic potential.  And there is some nice advantages too!  Like your apartment all paid for and travelling expenses.”
I was sceptical.  “It sound too good to be true.  I suppose I have to do something in return of all those advantages?”
The fluo green man, pointing a place to sign:  “It is not a very hard work in exchange of those advantage.  You have to pass a few hours in a controlled environement and submit to a few tests:  physical, mental and psychic.  All the test are done in a very flexible manner, in a way that match your schedule.  All you have to do is to come at the psychic lab in your free time.”
I look at the page in front of me.  It was a consent form.  It was already filled up with my personal informations.  Including my social insurance number.  They must have access to a lot of privileged rights to access those information.  I do not like it a bit.  The obligation to enrol in this seems to be a good way to get what they want.  “I do not want to turn myself into a ginea pig!  Even with all the better intention in the world, I fear this noble project will turn into a bloody mess.  I am not ready to turn my free time in to do tests.  I want to do my hobbies in my free times.”

Both men are schocked and very not pleased.  But they may had expected it. The man with the fluo green hairs: “You can not pass this chance to improve on your quality of life!”
The mohak headed man, getting close to me: “And you can still do your hbbies as you do some of the tests!  I had done so in the past.  You do not have to make sacrifices to go in the Psychic Ferret Project!”
I did not feel convinced.  “I will not change my mind.  No, I am not interested in participating in this project.  Even if it is mandatory.  I suppose it have a link with the government and they may might want to use this project to have the upper hand in various matters.  And it can be used for military purpose.  I do not like this at all!”
The mohak headed man, coming into charge again: “You know, we still in the stage of the research.  The results are not totally conclusive even if they show promises.  It will be some years before the psychic people will become more reliable with their powers.”
The man with the fluo green hairs:  “And we also researching on how to detect those with psychic powers.  We want to have a way to detect it at a early age, let say around the time for children to go to school, at 6 years old.  So they will be able to work for a longer period with their psychic powers and they will be very proeficient at an adult ages.”
I do hate when people comes with ready answers.  It sound like they have been indoctrined.  “It sound good for those who want to develop their psychic habilities.  But not every ones with psychic powers want to do that.”
The mohak headed man: “Take it as going to school.  Children do not like to go to school except to see their friends, doing some crafts and play.  Usually it is that way.  They do not necessarily like to go to school and have to learn by heart and the tests at the end of each years.  Not to forget that they have to sit still to listen to the teacher.  We think, we hope and we are pretty sure that there will have some classes dedicated to those with psychic powers.  They will have to go for those classes.  But unlike the conventional classes, the psychic classes will be more interactive and less boring.  Children will learn not be afraid of their powers and how to use them in a responsible manners.  And they will have the chance to go in jobs that are not quite existing right now.  They will be able to use their powers to lives very well.  The non psychic will not be capable to fill those jobs that are in the psychic field.  So, even if the psychic users of the futures do not end all in psychic jobs, they will have learned how to behave and control their powers, even if they do not use it in their every days lives.”
A good speech.  He look very convinced.
The fluo green haired man, adding: “But to built this vision of the future, we need people in the present time who will help with the Psychic Ferret Research Project and we like to call it P. F. R. P. for short.  Before being enrolled by the P. F. R., me and my college here present where on the street, without any goal and a few friends that where in the same state as we were.  Our boss came on the street, looking for people, psychic and non psychic to help him in his research.  We both had been saved from spiralling even further down the spiral of proverty, insecurity and rejection.”
It sound like the Alcoholic Anonymous.  Testimonial are not really my cup of tea!  It is good they were able to get their lives straightening up and they turned around for the better.  But is what I want? What I need?  What I desire?  My dreams?  It it is not matching what they are telling me of their hope and dreams!  I just have other aspirations.  We are in a free society.  I can choose what I want to do.  “Well, it was nice talking with you.  But I am afraid we are not in the same longueur d’ondes.  I am happy you had find something for you to hold on.  But it is not the same as I feel, I think.”

On that, there was a gust of wind that blow the clip board with the sheet of paper on it.  The men can have the fun to run after it.  “It was nice in meeting you.  I have to go now.”
I wake up.  I turn on my right and head toward home by using the Prieur street.  I did not look  back, not even once.  So I did not see the clip board and paper igniting in a burst of flames.  It was totally carbonized.  The ashes scattering in the wind and are falling prettily in the grass of the park, under a tree.
The mohak headed man: She have awakened.  She have the elemental psychic power in her.”
The green haired man: “We have not tested her fully.  I think it is only a sample of her powers.  We both know that women  do have some inner passive powers that can not be seen from outside.  They often are very strong for those inner passive powers.”
The mohak headed man: “Of course, some more investigation in the lab are necessary!  We just have to bring her there!”
The green haired man: “It is a bit sad that she is not conscious about her powers.”
The mohak headed man: “How can she use two elemental powers without being conscious of it?  We both had sensed that she handled the wind and manipulated the fire but she did not see it and she was not aware of it.”
The green haired man: “Yes, it is easy to sense that.  But I have not sense as much as those who have more sensible passive powers, like the testers at the lab.  So I can not explain it.  It is more to the domain of Etienne Deslongchamps to explain this.  He is the head of the head research of the Psychic Ferret Research Project Centre.  He know how to explain things like that in a comprehensive manner.” 

And both men head toward the P. F.R. C and the chief researcher to make a report of what just happened.  Both walk a short distance before entering a blue green colored car of the Beetle style.  The car ignited and took off like an plane.  It was useful for the Men in Apple Green to use.  They could go more directly between places.  They wanted to go strait and quick to the headquarters to received new directives.  They let the computer drive to the headquarters as they were sending the report to Etienne Deslongchamps, head of the P F R P.  It did not take long to receive the reception message.  They did not even have to set a foot at the Psychic Ferret Research Project lab nor the headquarters.  They received the orders to take a small detour before heading to the Psychic Ferret Research Project lab for their daily psychic exercices.  Of course, I was not aware of that.


                   The surprise attack

I am heading home.  I am taking a short cut.  I want to be home as quick as I can.  I need to feel safe, in a environment that I feel safe to be in.  I am not sure if I should believe the two apple green men.  Or they are just a bit mad and crazy.  Maybe they believe in very hard in it.  It is not like the conspiracy theorist but maybe it is a very recent trend and phenomena.  In any case, I do not have to take what they say at face value.  I take a few deep breath.  I have to learn how to not be affected by those strange incidents.  It put me ill at ease.  I always find emotions hard to handle safely.  It is always hard to put them out of my mind, body, no longer to be felt.  Having emotions is always a turmoil.  I am in a small street.  It is a residential street and it is not used a lot, except by the local resident.  I have a good pace.  I do not look around, just strait ahead.  I do not see any one on the street on my side of the sidewalk.  Nor on the other side of the street, on the other side walk.  I do not have a big distance before entering my apartment.

And it happened as I was turning the corner.  The two men in apple green suit coming at me with speed.  They take me by my arms.  One for each arm.  I did not have time to react, not even to defend myself.  It was so quick that I stay on my surprise as they dragged me toward the street and in their blue green car.  They were putting me on the back seat.  The door was already opened, Frédérik, was there.  He come from out of nowhere.  Frédérik pushed on the mohak headed man first.  The man in green pass his hand on where Frédérik had put his hands.  The mohak headed man, not happy at all: “Oh, no!  You will not start a psychic fight here!”  I took my chance.  I had a hand and arm free.  The man with the mohak was no longer holding me.  So I put that hand on the right knee of the fluo green haired man.  I put it on the front of his knee, where there is the knee cap.  With chance, I was able to put my fingers on each side of the knee cap.  There is a sensibility there.  I know,  I had experienced it in high school.  I put some pressure there.  The fluo green haired man bend that knee and he release my arm, surprised by my action.  I was now free, I got totally out of the car and cross the street.  I only turn back as I hit the side walk.  I look in the direction of the car, Frédérik and the two men in apple green suit.  I was fearing for the worst and for blood.  But it did not came out that way.  Both men in apple green suit broke off with me and Frédérik.  They enter quickly in the car.  The mohak headed man saying: “I will get my revenge on you, Frédérik!  This incident will not be forgotten and you will pay for this!”  The fluo green haired man, definitely not in a good mood: “Come on, let get out of here!  And you, Frédérik, you definitively interfered in operation!  You know you can no longer count on our friendship now!”  And they enter the car and drove away in high speed.  Such an engine in a so small of a car!  It is really surprising!

Frédérik cross the street and join me.  I am a bit shaky.  I defy the urge to sit down on the edge of the side walk.  I am a bit upset too.  Frédérik, taking me in his arm: “You are lucky I was around here!  I hope you are okay!”
But I react totally erratically.  I pull myself out of his comfy arms.  Emotions are at my throat.  I can not say a word.  My vocal cords are parazlyzed.  I can not even murmur a thank you.  I start to run, without a word.  I go straight at my place.  Frédérik is at a lost, not knowing what to do nor how to react.  He barely had the time to say: “Close your door as soon as you are inside!”  And I was out of hearing range for his voice.  I do not remember running as fast as this.  I seems to have flied to my apartment on an automatic pilot.  Once there,  it took me some time to calm down.  I was sitting, breathing heavely and with a pounding heart for some time before I could resume my activities.  Carefulness, precaution and being aware of my enviromement took a new meaning from that point on…


                   Meeting Damien

I was at a bookstore in the heart of downtown.  It was during the calmer part of the business day.  But even if it was busy, the staff was taking advantage of the downtime to keep busy around the books.  They were doing some shelving, a bit of dusting with a duster and looking out the shelves to replenish.

It was in the tarot section that I bumped into Damien.
Damien, taking a few seconds to recognize me: “Oh! It is you!  How nice to see you again!  It had been a while since last time we meet!”
I took a few seconds too to reply.  I had to do the same for him.  My mind was a bit slow at that moment.  “Yes, it had been a while.  I did not expected to meet you again.  It seems it is the right place for you, I mean in a book store.”
Damien, smiling: “Yes, I like to come here once in a while.  I mainly browse around and I may take a few books that are taking up my attention.  But today did not found no interesting books.”
He seems to be less edgy than Félix.  For Frédérik, I have to make him some excuse before asking anything else. Damien is the first one of the three that I meet after my encounter with the men in green incident.  He is the best one right now that I can make my little investigation.  “I remember, last time we meet that you have ask me a question on psychic powers.”
Damien, putting what he was looking back on the shelf, and getting all of his attention on me.  “Yes, I remember that clearly.  Did I awaken some interest since then and without knowing?”
I took some assurance.  It is a good introduction into the matter at hand and in my mind.  “Well, I had a little encounter with two men in apple green suit.”
Damien, getting a step closer.  He even bend his head a little closer, as if wanting to keep it between him and me.  “Ah, you have meet them!  Where they agreeable?”
Now, it is still going good.  I am a bit incomfortable but once done, I will definitely feel a lot better and maybe closer to know more about this mystery.  “Yes, I have meet them.  You seems to know about them too.  It started well.  They were polite and explained a few things to me.  You know, things like what they were doing and why they have approach me.  I have declined their offers because they were a little too much prepared.  They even have some very personal informations on me, you know, like my social security insurance number.  Later on, they surprised me. And I did not like it at all.”
Damien, taking my left handed hand: “Well, I have heard vaguely of this incident by Frédérik.  He was there, didn’t he?”
I fight the urge to ask Damien to relay a message for Frédérik.  But it is the kind of message that is better delivered to the person himself, in this case Frédérik.  I find it more sincere to excuse myself on the way I acted the last time I saw Frédérik.  “Yes, he was there when the two men in green tried to take me with them by force.  Do you know more of those Men in Green?  Is it true that they are in the psychic field of investigation and research?”
Damen, almost in my ear: “Yes, they are.  And you were right not to jump right away with them.  They are trying to recruit as much psychic people as they can.  They say that the Psychic Ferret Research Project is very important and that it is mandatory for every psychic to go to the Psychic Ferret Research Lab.  And to pass all their tests.  It does not matter if you have good or bad grades in their tests.  They mainly want to know more about psychic abilities.  They also have dreams and goals.  It is more akin to daydreaming.  But they are already in some of the wrong turn.  They have not realized they have become indoctrinated and rigid.  It had become a way to protect themselves against the non psychic world.”

It is good.  It gives me some idea of what this organisation is.  But it is not the complete picture.  Not yet.  It is what Damien think of it.  “Thank you for your information.  I will have to think about it.  It is so hard to find information about this Psychic Ferret Research Project!”
Damien, smiling: “It is more secret than you think.  I have heard that this Psychic Ferret Research Project is financed by some companies, the military and the governement.  But those do not have total control over the chief researcher of  P F R P.”
I am a bit surprise.  “How can he do that, especially with the military?  It must be hard!”
Damien, looking a bit lost in his thought: “Etienne Deslongschamps is the name of the leader, chief, top and main researcher  of the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  It is said that this Etienne have psychic abilities himself.  But no one at the Psychic Ferret Research Project or outside this program can access the dossier of this man.  So no ones know for sure.  It is part speculation on what I saw.  I even may have been a subject of his powers but I can not be sure.  When it comes to psychic powers, nothing can be one hundred per cent sure.  It is a very subjective field of studies with a lot of uncertainty.”
I am a bit impressed.  “You seems to know a lot on this topic!”
Damien, seeming to come back to reality: “Oh, sorry!  I do not want to bore you with this.  I do have an interest in this subject.  I have read a lot about this and I have done some experimentation on myself and others.  I have done a lot of observation.  But this is a bit behind me now.  I do not do as much research as I had done in the past.”
I am feeling a bit curious about Damien, the human being: “And why have you stop your inquiry on psychic powers?”
Damien, bending his head a bit: “I do not have abandoned this study.  It is just that I think and came to the conclusion that not everybody is ready to use psychic powers.  It is as many things.  With the best intention and a good system, there is some people that can go throught the knots and use what they have learned to makes great ravages.  And I do not want that happening.  Not now anyway.  The world is not totally ready for that.  Of course, there is some people who are ready for that.  And they are doing a very good job at it.  But it is not the vast majority of people.  The psychic people are like the society at large.  There is a lot of personality in the psychic world, as in society and not every ones are mature enough to assume responsibilities for their gifts and powers.
Scratching my head: “So it is more for ethical reason that you have dropped this research for now.”
Damien, moving a bit his head: “Yes.  It is what I think.  But I want that you know something.  For any reason, as anything can happen, you have to form your own mind about it.  And you have to know what you want.  The Men in Green are definitely interested in you.  They want you to be on their side.    But you have the right to go on our own path and do your own stuff.  And you can believe in psychic power or not.  On my side, with Frédérik and Félix, we have some difference to deal with the Men in Green.”
This sound a bit frightfully scary.  “And you do not want me involved?  Why?  Why take responsibility on your shoulders?”
Damien, with no smile: “I have been talking too much.  And a lot had happened between me, Félix, Frédérik and the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  I find that the P F R P have gone wrong.  I am ready to fight for what I believe in.  We do not want you to be involved in this.  We do not want to cause further suffering.  Now, if you can excuse me, I am not feeling very well.  I have sad and painful memories coming back into my mind.  It is a bit upsetting and not very enjoyable to feel them.  I see it as a torture.”
Turning red of shame, I look at the ground: “Sorry.  I did not wanted to cause this to you.  I know how emotions and memories can mess up the day of somebody.”
We parted and I had to deal with the end of this conversation.  It is a sad way to see that some people are sharing part of my sensibility to emotions and painful memories.


                   Interlude

As I leave the bookstore, it was already night fall.  It was late in the afternoon.  It was late in the autumn period.  It was almost winter but there is no snow on the ground yet.  I take the lateral street that goes along the bookstore.  It is a small street.  I didn’t took the route by the big and wide street.  For that big and wide street, I have to take another farther subway station.  While taking the smaller street, I can take a nearer subway station.  Behind the bookstore, there is a little ruelle.  It is a little bit lugubre looking.  It is really a bit ugly.  There is some fire exit stairs.  It is all black.  They linked various doors to the ground level.  I take a brief look there.  There is not much to look beside the stairs, the walls, the pieces of junk on the ground and the big containers that hold the various stores’ garbage.  There is rarely some vehicule there.  No one want to go there anyway.  The place seems always deserted with no one in sight.  There is a bit more darkness there, as the day light is dimning down.  The buildings do that with their shades.

Today, as I look in that direction, I see Félix and Frédérik.  They are with some Men in Green.  Each hold it ground.  Félix and Frédérik have their back to the back wall of the bookstore.  The two men in apple green suit have their back  on the side wall of a little café.  As I take a brief closer look at the two men in green, I recognize the two men in green I had meet a few days ago.  This time, the mohak headed man have his mohak up and spiky.  There is even one green ribbon attached to the spike that goes along the neck and upper spine.  And it is only then that I realize that this particuliar spike have longer hairs than the other spikes.  Maybe the first time, I did not have a good view of his hairs at his back.  And it must be less noticeable when his hairs are donw, unspiked.  All four men are in a defensive position, studying the other side, waiting for the first physical move.

I quickly cross the street before they see and recognize me.  I do not want to interfere between them nor do I want to worsen the situation.  Probably that the men in green decided to have their revenge right here and right now.  The fluo green haired man is the first one to move.  He send a shock wave toward Félix and Frédérik.  Félix stop the shock wave by directing it toward the ground, with his mind and the visual help of his extended arms and hands.  The shock ware is not that visible.  It is more like when the air is hot, during a torrid summer day.  The air seems to move and ondulate in those moments.  It was the same with the shock wave.  The alsphalt that receive the shock wave crack because of the effect of the shock wave.  At the same moment, the air around Frédérik take a red tint, clearly visible, even at my distance.  It must be the effect of the falling darkness that put some contrast with the redness around him.  It must be Frédérik own aura.  There were part that expand toward the mohak headed man and the fluo green haired man.  It was like tiny arms.  When the red tint touched the two men in green, there was little orangy sparkles.  It was painful.  It is what I could see from the faces of the fluo haired man and the mohak headed man.  It was brief.  I could also see it was very demanding on Frédérik.  His aura seems a bit too much stretched and it must be not very pleasant for the skin.  I wonder how I feel all those strange thoughts and feeling but it was like a little rush in my mind.  I did not have the time to put words as it happened.  It just happened.  It was also surprising that all the people that was coming and going did not see what just happened.  But I felt I had stay there for too long.  I start to move again.  As I was getting away, I could see Frédérik pitching little balls of bright fire.  His aura had returned to normal, close to his body but it still had the red tint on it.  But as it was happening, I felt a little mind tugging not to look back at the scene.  I also felt a little bubble forming around the four men.  And I know it was the mind of Félix doing this.  He knew I was there and that I was the only one who was able to see the scene.  In my mind, the words “You are way stronger than the others!  The non psychic can not see what you just saw.  Do not ask questions right now!”  And it was in the voice of Félix.  It was a bit as if he was talking in the telephone.  I hurried up because it was so unsettling.  I was a bit shaky too.  This mean that psychic powers are real.  Psychic powers are more common that I previously thought.  W can fight against each others with those powers, on a psychic level. I have to assimilate all this.  It is way more than finding missing person or corpses.  Or divining the future with tarot card.  Could channelling get into all this?  My mind feel a bit disconnected.  Weird thoughts comes to my mind.  It must be his way to deal with the realisation I just come upon.


                   Meeting Frédérik, a tête à tête and a wild escapade

It was night.  I was walking toward my home.  I just coming back from the movie theatre.  I just saw a movie that I really wanted to see.  I was still downtown.  I did not have any hurry.  So I took the outside way to go to the closest subway station.  I wanted to take some fresh air.  I did not look the people that are around me.  I simply walk without stumbling on neighboring feet.  As I put a foot on a corner sidewalk, I entered into Frédérik.  He was standing on the corner, waiting to cross on the other side of the street, not the street I just crossed.  I have not seen him until I was hitting him.  And of course, it was too late to make a detour around him.  “Oh, I am so sorry!  I have not seen you sooner, Frédérik!”
Frédérik, turning toward me: “Oh!  It is you!  How nice to see you again!  And you have not forgotten my name, I see.  I am glad about it.  It been a while we last seen each other.”
I felt a bit shy now.  “I wanted to see you again.  But I have not seen you since the attempted kidnapping by the Men in Green.  I think it had been a month now.  I wanted to say that I was sorry to have acted the way I had acted.  I do not know why I have acted that way.”
Frédérik, pulling me closer to the corner of the closest building: “Bof!  I start to get use to that, you know.  I often help some people get out of trouble and they react to my help in erratic ways.  Where are you going right now?”
I reply shyly: “I am going home.”
Frédérik, taking my hand and making me following him: “If so, you better have to come with me.  There is some time to have some fun!”
I start to panic a little bit.  “What do you have in mind?  I have to work tomorrow morning!”
Frédérik, walking with big step, not minding if I was following his beat: “It will not take long if we hurry a little bit.  I have my motocycle near.  We are almost there!  I want to show you something worth seeing before the snow comes!”
He stopped at the corner of a street.  Close of the corner, there is a red motocycle.  It is an edgy one, built for speed.  It is not my type of motocycle but I will not tell him my like and dislike.  He takes his keys in his hand.  He takes a helmet and put it on his head.  The helmet was attached on one side of the motocycle.  He had another helmet on the other side of the motocycle.  He takes it and put it on my head.  He even attach it well with the little strap under the chin.  He sit on the motocycle.  “Sit behind me!  Do not stay there like an idiot!” he said.  I obey his order.  I quickly put the helmet on my head.  I put my arms around his chest.  I closed my eyes.  I didn’t wanted to see if we get an accident while on this powerful machine.  I did not moved and kept my eyes closed the whole time I heard the roaring engine.  There was many stop, especially at the beginning.  After that, at the end, there was barely a few.

At the final stop, Frédérik close the engine.  I open my eyes and pull out my arms from his chest.  All was dark, very dark.  I do not see anything around me, no lights.  Frédérik, getting out of the motocycle and helping me getting out too: “You were a good passenger.  You didn’t moved a centimetre the whole time we where in.  Now, with our destination.  We are there!”
I look around, still seeing pretty much only the blackness surrounding us: “And where are we?  I do not see anything!”
Frédérik, keeping my hand and pulling me toward a fence that I only saw at the last minute: “We are at La Ronde!  We are still in the parking area.  Follow me!  We will enter the park!”
I was astonished: “But they are closed for the winter season!”
Frédérik, laughing: “I know that!  I just wanted to come here one last time and with you, it will be even more fun.  I do this every year.”
I feel a little bit puzzled: “We will not be able to use the various attractions.  They must be closing this place and prepare it for the winter!”
Frédérik, as we cross the entrance gate: “I do not intend to use the various attraction.  I just want to walk on the site!  And there is no surveillance, as you can see right now.  All is quiet.  We will not be here for too long!  At least not too much.  We will be out of here before the sun goes up.”
We start to walk around and go all around the site.  It was a bit long to do it only by foot.  The monorail was not in fonction, so we did not have much choice to do everything by foot.  We ended at the foot of  Le Monstre, the big wooden roller coaster.
Frédérik, looking around him and on his clock: “Rest here.  I will go up and look around.  I still have time to do it.”
And he goes climb Le Monstre.  It seems to be easy to him. I decided to follow him.  I did not want to say lonely in the dark.  It was not too hard to climb up.  There was also some stairs at some point too.  At the top, Frédérik notice me.  “You have follow me!  You did not listen to what I said!”
I reply: “It was not too hard to follow you!  I did not wanted to stay there, in the dark and to look you climb.  Can I ask you why you come here and why you have bring me along?’
Frédérik, looking around, even if not seeing much: “I come here because I like to do it.  Usually I do it all by myself.  But when I saw you earlier, I decided to try in doing it with somebody else.  Some times, I feel lonely.  I do have some friends but they are not all psychic.  And they do not really understand me.”
Taking a deep breath: “Yes, you are well surrounded with Félix and Damien.  They must be good friends to you.”
Frédérik, looking at me, straight in the eye: “They are not just friends.  Félix is my older brother and Damien is our cousin.”
I turn embarrassed in one mini second: “Sorry, I did not knew you were members of the same family.  Now I understand  why you three share a house!”
Frédérik, a bit amused: “What do you think we were?  Three homosexual man living together?”
Blushing, I reply: “Well, I have not really thought of all the possibilities of why you were all together.  I was wondering more about the Men in Green and the mysterious events since my grandpa’s death.”
Férdérik, sighting: “I can not talk too much about what you experienced until now.  For the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project, it is another matter.  You are just a late comer in all this big mess.”
I remember my talk with the men with the apple green suit and the battle.  “Some consider you, Félix and Damien as renegades.  But you seems to stand up with what you believe.”
Frédérik, looking down before regaining some self assurance: “Yes, it is all a question of perspective.  Now, follow me!  We better go down.  We have to be out of here before dawn.”
Once out of the site of La Ronde, Frédérik bring me back to my home by motorcycle.  I could open my eyes for part of the way to my place.  I felt brave enough in those brief moment.  It was mainly in some more quiet street, less used by the night traffic but still with people on the street, going around without being  too much bothered by the heavy, fast and particuliar  sound of the motocycle.  I thanked him once I was out of the fast machine he was riding.


                   Thalie, more than it meet the eyes

Early one morning.  I am in the subway.  It was a week after my adventure at La Ronde with Frédérik.  I enter the train.  In the wagon, there is Thalie.  She is holding a pole, not too far from the doors.  She recognize me before I even see and recognize her.  “Hé!  I have seen you before!  You were at Félix, Frédérik and Damien’s place!  And that snobby Elisa who got away at your expense.”
I frowned.  It is starting a conversation in a abrupt way.  I replace where I saw her as she spoke.  “It is harsh words about a friend.  But you were one of the nice person present there.”
The doors opens.  It is already the next station.  She look briefly the doors opening before answering: “Elisa is a friend.  But I find her a bit snobby sometimes.  And she is deeply immersed in her interests.  Did you meet one of the guys recently.”
She does not want to talk about Elisa, I can see that.  I take the pole with one hand, for my personal stability as the train start to move again.  There is a lot of people right now.  I hate crowd.  “I have meet Frédérik last week.  Why?”
She takes a step closer to me: “Well, I had no more news from them since last time we meet.  They had been busy with one of their personal project, I suppose.  And I could not know what is their personal project is.  They refuse to talk about it to me.  I feel a bit frustrated and left behind, you know.  I have the feeling and I guess it is linked with the Men in Green.  The relationship between the Men in Green with Frédérik, Damien and Félix never had been too good.”
My eyes become slighty bigger.  She is saying a few useful things.  And she knows about the Men in Green.  “You know about the Men in Green?”
Thalie react as if the Men in Green are of common knowledge.  “Yes, I know about them.  I had worked at the lab centre of the Psychic Ferret Research Project fame.  And I also passed some of their tests for their research.  I did it for science and to help me pay for my studies in literature at university.” 
I look at her.  Almost as if she was an alien.  I only heard about the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project fairly recently.  And I could use this occasion to know a bit more about the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  “Are you still working for them?  Can you tell me more about them?  I must admit that I do not know much about them.  I only learn about it fairly recently.”
She takes a bit to think before answering: “I had reduced the time I worked for them.  I have almost finish with my studies.  Today, I am at the last procedures to obtain my diploma, at last.  I want to work more in my field of studies.  But I am still thinking about keeping some contact with them.  At least giving some help for the research part.  Félix, Frédérik and Damien are not agreeing with the methods, procedures, hopes and dreams of the Men in Green nor the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  I agree with them on a few of their objections.  But, on the other hand, I can not abandon my hopes and dreams.  We need to develop our psychic abilities.  It is way too much underestimated.  The Men in Green and the P F R P with it’s lab are our best chance to learn more about psychic powers, even if it is not a perfect organization.”
It is not very helpful.  But again, we are in a public space.  She may not want to say too much with so much ears that can listening to our conversation.  The train have stopped to a few stations while we had our conversation.  I kept a moment of silence.  I did not know what to add to Thalie’s speech about the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  There was nothing to add and nothing more to learn.  While there was the silence between Thalie and me, the train stop at the Berri UQAM station as we were keeping the silence.  But as the train stop, Thalie broke the silence and says: “This is my stop.  I do not know if we will meet again.  And before I forget, give this to Félix.  It is a message for him.  You will probably meet him before I will.”
She gives me a piece of paper folded in a small white envelope.  Félix’s name is written on it with a calligraphic writing and a fountain pen.  The ink is in green.  “I will give it to Félix as you have asked and as soon as I meet him.”
“Thank you!”  And Thalie was out of the train.  There was a lot of people getting out and in.  It was a short encounter.  I do not know if I will see her again in the same manner.  I wonder if she is psychic and what hare her powers. I have not think about that before.  I even know what powers have each one of Félix, Frédérik and Damien.  I only saw Félix and Frédérik using their powers and with the fluo green haired man in green.  I wonder what those powers can be.  What variety of powers are available?  How many powers a person can have?

I have come to terms with the idea that some people can have psychic powers and that they can walk among normal non psychic people.  But I can not explain who become psychic and who do not.  I do have other questions.  This is my uncertainties and puzzlement. 

My encounter with Thalie have not brought any answers.  It is a bit frustrating.  But I now can suspect that she is a psychic too, in one way or the other.  She does not totally hate the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  She had some ties with both side.  She is seeing some good things from both side.  She is a very nuanced person.  I think I should remember what she had just told me.  But it nag me to be in the dark.  And I feel uncomfortable to think to be part of an organisation.  I am not ready to jump into something that big and where I know so little about.  I never trusted organized groups anyway.  By chance, no Man in Green came back to convince me to be part of the Psychic Ferret Research Project yet.

I look around me.  I have just missed my station.  I will have to get out as soon as possible and side track back to the right station.  Thalie is a nice person.  But I think that there is more than meet the eyes with her.  Psychically at least. 


                   The dream of Félix

I am in a quiet place on the second floor of the Grande Bibliothèque.  I am in a comfy chair.  In front of me, there is a low table.  Behind that table is another chair.  On my right side, there is a panel of wood.  There is a room behind that panel for groups to meet without disturbing the rest of the library.  On my left, there is a window.  I can see the back side of the library.  There is a small ruelle.  I also see the ugly backyards that are there.  Behind those backyards, there is the houses and apartment buildings that justify and is part of the backyards.  I am browsing throught a book.  I do not do something very important.  It is not even research for my writing.  My mind wanders without much goal.  Félix appear in the area I am in, turning the corner where the wooden panel is..  He does not look sure of himself.  He see me and comes to sit in front of me.

Félix, with a hesitant smile: “It is nice to meet you again.  Last time we barely saw each others and I was a bit busy.  I did not have time to speak to you.”
He is clearly speaking of the battle with the Men in Green.  It was the only moment where he could not speak to me in a normal way.  I also remember my encounter with Thalie.  It was only yesterday.  I still have the envelope on me.  I take it and put it on the low table between us.  “I am happy to see you again.  I saw Thalie a couple of hours ago.  She gave me this for you.  So, it is for you.  You can take it.”

Félix look briefly and pensively at the envelope.  Finally, he takes the envelope and put it directly in a interior pocket of his jacket.  He is clearly fight against emotions even if he tries to stay calm and in control of himself.  “Thank you.  It must be an important message from Thalie.  We are both busy in the last few weeks.  And she do not want to speak to me any more.”
“You seems to be a bit shacky.  Is there something wrong with Thalie’s message?  She told me that she had not meet you since we were at your home and that Elisa broke the evening.”
Maybe he can read the message without having to open the envelope.  I also had to get some explanation on why she says something and he say the opposite.  He seems to be haunted by something.
Félix, a bit hesitant: “It is not Thalie’s message.  I do not know what the message says.  And I do not now why she says what she says to you.  I do not have any explanation but I think she may be trying to hide something from me as I tries to hide some informations from her, especially those concerning my battle with the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  But right now, what disturb me the most is that I had a strange dream before waking up this morning.  I do not know what to think of that dream nor how to interpret it.”
He decidedly got me interested with that dream.  “Can you tell me of that dream?  Maybe I can help you decode it, or at least, give you some hint to help you make sense of that dream.  I can see that this dream have an impact on you.  It must be one that is important, or that he distract you greatly.”

He get closer to me with the chair.  The low table is still between us, under our knees.  He look quickly around us.  All is quiet, no people around to hear about our conversation.  He takes a deep breath before saying softly: “I think that Thalie have send me a message in a dream in addition of a written message.  But I do not know for sure and I have no clue on what it mean yet.”
I express some of my surprise: “Someone can send a dream?  I didn’t knew that!”
Félix, with a bit of unrest: “Yes.  It could be done.  Thalie have what the Psychic Ferret Research Project call passive powers.  She can not use her powers to do some attack or be on the defensive.  I know that she have psychometry.  It is the power to feel things and thoughts that are impregnated in personal objects.  She also can detect auras and to who the auras are owned.  And she is very diplomatic.  But I did not knew she could send dreams!  And it is what that put me in a uneasy mood.”
I made a step.  Félix have talked about psychic powers and of the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  I urge him on.  “Tell me about the dreams.  Maybe there is something that you perceive in the situation that you are in and the appearance of Thalie came in your dream.  Maybe she represent something to you that only you can tell.”
Félix, taking a pause, moist his lips and says: “Well, I see her all dressed up in white.  She also look very pale with bright red lips.  I do not see the fangs and she does not seems to have any.  But I am a bit afraid that she turned to be an vampire.  At least, she have part of the look, even if she does not have all the attributes.  I see her first in a coffin, sleeping peacefully.  I feel she need the rest.  I comes close to the coffin.  I look at her as she sleep.  I am a bit too afraid to kiss her.  And there is the story of Snow White that comes to my mind.  I feel paralysed.  I can not move.  Even if I can not move, I can see around.  There is a big grand father clock near the head of Thalie and of the coffin.  I look at the hours.  The hands start to moves.  They go on the number twelve.  And there is the sound of a gong.  This is where Thalie open her eyes, sit slowly in the coffin, and look straight ahead.  She stay like that for what seems an eternity.  She moves again after that.  She straighten up in the coffin and get down from the foot of the coffin.  It is only then that I see the stairs at the end side of the coffin.  Her feet hit the ground.  But she seems very light and seems to almost float.  It is as if she is not walking.  She makes an abrupt turn to face me.  It is only then that she look straight at me.  She gesture to me to get closer.  I take a step closer.  It is all I had time to do and I did not want to get any closer.  She put her index finger on her lips.  But what secret do I have to keep?  I stay silent.  Anyway, talking is so superfluous with Thalie.  I always felt that I did not have to say a word with her around or when I was and am with her.  She move again.  She makes a quarter of a circle.  So she stop at my right.  The coffin is at my left.  The coffin disintegrate but the ashes scatter in the gust of wind.  I look around and as I thought we were inside a building or inside a room illuminated by tall white candles.  But as the wind blow, I see we are now outside in darkness and in a forest.  There is no noise coming from this forest.  No animal can be seen.  There is only trees and the scent of pines.  I turn to face Thalie.  She seems to float above ground and her white clothes seems to float in the softer wind that blow now.  She kisses me from a distance by sending me her kiss.  She turn around  I see her back now.  I want to take a step closer to take her in my arms.  But I do not have time to do it.  She pull her arms toward the sky and flew up, in the wind, toward the sky, the stars and the moon.  I look the sky.  I did not recognize any constellations nor stars.  I only recognize the moon.  And the dream end when I no longer see Thalie flying toward the sky.  And there is a black dog that run toward me from the woods.  He put himself between me and the direction Thalie have taken.  The dog tales a defensive stand and I can not follow Thalie.  It is al that time that I woke up.  I do not know if the dog wanted to attack me or not.  He was just growling a bit.”

This dream have a few interesting possibilities.  There is a good few symbols in it.  “Maybe you are afraid to loose her or that you fear she will leave you suddenly, without the possibility for you to see her again.  The black dog is a symbol of the underworld.”
Félix, pensively: “Thank you.  I have some things to think about now.  What you say make sense.  I may be fretting for nothing, after all.”
“I would not say that.  Your inconscious is speaking to you.  It show what is your fears and what block you.  The black dog is blocking the path, not enabling you to follow Thalie.  Maybe you can use that knowledge of yourself and the hint your inconsciousness to set the situation straight.  You have a mean to reach her any way.  But I may err in this.  It is not an exact science and it is my humble personal interpretation.”
Félix, at the edge of his seat: “You are helping me more than you think.”

Now that I am in his good grace, I can look and probe him more on the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  Others had shed some lights and hints on the two.  It is only ignited my curiosity  Everything about the Psychic Ferret Research Project is surrounded by mystery.  The Men in Green also had shown some interest in me for the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  So, willing or not, I am being thrown in all this.  The Men in Green seems to be deadly serious, even if I have not heard them for a while.  “It is nice to know that.  It was the first impressions I had when you told me your dream.  It ssems to be easier to find some possible explanation for others dreams.  I must admit that I always feel stuck when it comes to my own dreams.  I am only able to see thematic out of my dreams, over time.  Lately, it was with the Men in Green.  They must have made an impact when they came to talk to me.”
Félix, getting even closer to my face: “They have contacted you already?!”
I feel frustrated: “Yes, they had!  Do you put your head in the sand?  Frédérik have not told you what happened after my encounter with them?”
Félix, dépassé par les événements: “No, he did not.  What happened and when?”
I have got his interest.  All the better for me.  For once, I am not the one who is in the dark.  “It had happened a while ago.  A week or a bit more I think.  Maybe a bit more.  I lost track of time sometimes.  But it was not long after the little evening at your house.  It happened while I was in a park that I like to go and it is on a little distance from my home.  I like to walk there.  The two Men in Green came and we talked, the three of us.  They tried to makes me sign something but I did not sign that paper.  I departed and left them there.  As I was almost home, they where there, waiting for me.  Frédérik was there and you can ask him the rest.”
Félix, getting back deeper in his seat: “I will talk to him.  For certain!  You do not have to tell me more to know what they where doing there.  And it was fortunate that Frédérik was around and saw those two Men in Green.  Frédérik will have to answer on why he did not speak about it to me.  It is important matters!  Now, can you describe me those two Men in Green, please.”
Clearly, he does not like the situation.  At least, this situation is putting him out of his shell and out of his comfort zone.  He seems to be ready to act, to be thinking of an adjusted plan with the new information I just gave him.  It gives me hope to be introduced in the secret of this Psychic Ferret Research Project and of the necessity of the Men in Green.  “Well, I remember the time, not long ago, where I saw you and Frédérik, behind that big bookstore downtown.  It is near the Peel subway station?  I just ended an interesting conversation with Damien inside the bookstore.  You and Frédérik were facing two men in green.  Well, it was those two Men in Green.”
Félix, bursting up: “I now understand why they show up there!  And why they teased Frédérik to be a knight in a shining armor.  They also said they wanted to settle the score with us, once in for all!”  He look around and see that he had not disturbed any persons that where near us.  He get closer to me: “It is time to end all this!  I can no longer hesitate!  I will not let you into this big mess!  Now, stay safe and away from the men in green.  I will take care of them and of the Psychic Ferret Research Project with the help of Frédérik and Damien.”
I take one of his hand in mine.  “You do as you wish.  I just want to understand what is happening and why the Men in Green want me for the P F R P!  It is enough to speak to me in riddles and let me in the dark!  I deserve at least that before you decide to do something foolish!  I do not condemn what you will do, on the contrary.  But I deserve an explanation.”
Félix, pulling his hand from mine: “You grandpa did not told you before dying?  Did he left some documents about it to explain you every thing about the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project?”
I feel frustrated.  “It is evident that he have not told me about it before dying!  And the legal things with the succession is not finalized.  So I am completely in the dark!  I managed to have a few hints about the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Projet but it is not much and it is not sheding much light for me.  You are the second person to tell me it is a big mess.  The two Men in Green I seen had told me that Damien, Frédérik and you are renegades.  So I am caught between both side.  How can I make myself an complete idea of the situation if no ones tell me about the bottom of this!”
Félix, a bit embarrassed: “Well, I prefer than you look to see if there something for you in the succession of your grandpa.  It will be better that way.  I am not good in explaining things.  For the rest, I will take care of it.  Your grandpa had giving me the green light in my resentment against the Men in Green and the Psychic Ferret Research Project.  If you find something, all the better for you.  Now, I have to leave you.  I have some matter to attends.  I have to get ready for what I am planning for as fast as I can.  See you later!’
Again, I am left in some darkness.  Nothing new since all this mystery started. I have to look in my grand pa succession to get answer.  I don’t want to go into the legal nightmare!  Well, I do not have much choice nor alternative right now…


                   Getting into action and the first encounter with  the big boss of the Psychic Ferret Research Project.

People tend to have a flaw some where or some time.  I just had my moment of unpardonable weakness.  I feel terribly dumb and ashamed.  I was crossing a parking lot that was in front of a shopping mall.  I was turning the corner of the shopping mall, to go on the street that was parallel of the shopping mall.  I sense a bubble of air forming around me.  It was not totally round, that I could sense it.  It was a bit like the one I saw when the two men in green were in battle against Félix and Frédérik.  It was a bubble of air that was giving invisibility to those inside of it.  I sense that.  But did I do that bubble?  Was I able to do it?  The bubble was a bit like the shape of an egg and was moving as I moved.  It was intriguing to me.  As I was like so, very distracted, I felt some guiding and tugging on the egg shaped bubble.  Two pairs of arms goes through the bubble egg shaped right to my arms.  The egg shaped bubble evaporate then as I was in front of the car and the two Men in Green that own it.  There is another and bigger bubble forming around us and the car, as soon as the egg shaped bubble was bursting out.  The new bubble was bigger and rounder.  They put me in the car, without being troubled by being seen.  I was too surprise to scream.  Even if I had screamed, I wonder if I would have been heard anyway.  I could not heard what was outside the bubble.  The only sound I heard was from what was going on inside the bubble.  They quickly go in the car after that I was on the back seat.  And they droved me to my present destination.  The second bubble was still operating as we were in the city.  As soon as we were out of the city and entering a wooded area, the bubble disappeared.  There was some fences at some point and a gate for the entrance to a private land.  The man with the mohak was driving.  The man with fluo green hair was on the passenger side.  The fluo green haired man and the mohak headed man showed a magnetic card with their photo at the gate, to the two guards standing there.  Of course, the two guards were wearing apple green suit too.  But those suits look a bit more like military gears and clothes.  So I suppose that the guards are part of the security of this place.

Now, I enter a sterilised lab of the Psychic Ferret Research Project main lab.  I just gone through a small anteroom full of test tubes, microscopes and other lab implements and instruments.  The main room, the one I am entering right now is spacious.  There are six tables that faces each others two by two and there are panels that isolate the people that sit at those tables.  Right now, there is no one doing psychic tests.  The psychic cards decks with the various symbols and colours on them are neatly disposed on a table near the entrance.  There is also some small labyrinth with silvery small balls enclosed in glass casing.  I do not know their uses but I am a bit curious on what they are for.  It makes me think of some childhood games that where similar.  Maybe those slightly bigger things are used in a similar way.  The place is in deep silence.  We only ear the air conditioner.  The anteroom and this room are sparkly clean,  look at the cutting edge of technology and  of recent construction.  The tables takes only one side of the room.  On the other half of the room, there is nothing..  Along the wall of that room, there is an bench that is integrated into the wall.  It run along the wall.  There is also some colourful cushions piled up in a glassy and very designed cabinet that stand in one corner.  The two men in green (the same that talked to me) escort me to the bench.  They gesture me to sit there as they keep vigilant and with an emotionless face.

I sit down, feeling a bit bored.  It seems that I will have to wait for what will happen next.  I have no idea of what could happen now.  I clearly see the entrance of the room.  The door is even still open.  The wall that face the door have big paneled glass windows.  The light flow in by those windows.  There are stores that are attached, to gives shades.  But they are not deploy right now.  It is getting darker outside.  I can clearly see the sun quickly falling down the horizon.

Some noise from the door.  I realized that I got distracted and having my head in the cloud.  The sound of shoes hitting the sparkly clean linoleum floor brought me back to reality and to my shameful situation.  I feel out of control and not having a way out.  I could try to go through the paneled glass windows but after that?  The lab is surrounded by woods.  We are not too far from the big city.  We barely had quit the city to come here.  But by foot, I will not be able to go too far.  I do not have skill to hide myself in those autumnal days we are in.  The falling and rusty leaves are pretty noiseful, crackling easily under the foot.  The trees are getting naked of their leaves.  The forest look barren and empty.  So, this is definitely not an option right now.

I look at the entrance of the door.  Six Men in Green enter with Damien, Frédérik and Félix.  It is the first time I see those six men.  It is comforting to see that there is more than two men in green.  With those six Men in Green, it proves to me that they are a bit more of a organization and that they operate on a bigger scale that I previous thought until now.  They are not large with the eight Men in Green present but they are any way enough to get things moving and working on the recruiting side.  I feel reassured by the sight of Frédérik, Damien and Félix.

Damien, Félix and Frédérik sit down beside me.  Only the mohak headed man and the fluo green haired man, both with their mostly green clothes, stayed in the room with us.  The other six men goes out to take their places in the surveillance of the building.  Two takes places at the entrance of the room we are in.  Two others are taking place at the entrance of the small laboratory room.  The last two are heading to the security room where there are the monitors that show what the surveillance camera are seeing.  It is the central point in the security of the Psychic Ferret Research Project lab, home of the Men in Green society.

Frédérik, clearly exasperated: “How nice to come back here!  I feel like being in a prison!  And it is so acepticised!”
Damien, looking at the fluo green haired man: “Can you tell us how long will we be here?”
The man with the fluo green hair, without emotions answer politely: “As long as necessary.  Etienne Deslongchamps want to finish some unfinished test with you three.  It will not be long for you, guys,  Etienne wants to makes a proposition to you three.  We all hopes that you will graciously accept it.  It is a very interesting piece of break through we had since you left.  It will definitively take longer to complete the tests for her.  She will have to take the tests from the beginning.  It will takes a few days and she will have to stay here for the time being.  For you three, it is more a matter of a few hours in addition of a light training if you show interest in the new discovery.”  As he was taking about me, he pointed me with his index finger.

I do not rejoice myself in the idea to stay here a few days against my will.  And they do not take into consideration my other obligations, my wishes and will.  He seems to have read my concerns in my mind because the fluo green haired man turn toward me and address himself to me: “Do not worry. Every thing had been taken care of.  You will be able to return to work after this and you will retain full benefit from it.  All your bill have been paid.  And it will be paid for by the Psychic Ferret Research Project from now on.  As we have said it would be in the park.”

I just not like the idea and how it is being dealt with.
“So, do I start right now to be your gynea pig?”
The mohak headed man, with a laugh: “You are really in a hurry!  We only want to show you your new working place and where the tests will be.  It is a way to reassure you and to gain your trust.  But I want to let you know that it is better for you to have a good night of rest and sleep.  Also to have all your concentration intact.  So, we will show you to your room soon enough.  Take this as an advice from some one that have some expertise and experience in this field!”
The man with the fluo green hair add: “It is true.  Especially for a first timer.  It is a bit different for those with more experience.  Those with more experience and training have a bit more endurance.  In addition, we can work with some stress and fatigue more easily than a beginner psychic.”

I sight.  I do not like it at all.  It sound constraining and I do not feel that I have free will in this.
“You do not broadcast loudly for some one who do not have any training.  It is hard to pierce your mental shell.  Now, you feel you do not have any free will.  You are not aware of all your possibilities and potential.  When the tests will be done and through an training adapted to you and your powers done, you will thank me!”
I look toward the source of the voice.  It is a man with greying hairs.  He have a green lab coat and normal clothes beneath.  He have small round glasses with a greenish tint in it.  It can not see the real color of his eyes.  It is not an essential thing to know but I like to observe small details.  It must be something I had developed as I was developing my writing talent.  His nose is straight.  His greying hairs are also a bit in disorder.  His lab coat and clothes are clean but full of wrinkles.  It was particularly apparent on the lab coat.

I keep silent.  As every one else.  We all look the newcomer.  “I do not have to introduce myself to you, Félix, Damien and Frédérik.  Young Lady, I am pleased to welcome you here, in the ultra modern lab of the Psychic Ferret Research Project!  My name is Etienne Deslongchamps by the way.  I am proud of this place.  I am the head researcher and director of the psychic ferret research project, the Men in Green and all that fall under those two projects.  Now, do you have any questions or interrogations?  I am ready to answer any thing you ask me.”

The first person ready to answer my questions readily, without adding to the mystery I am now surrounded lately.  But now I must admit that I  doubt.  I am a kind of disgusted.  I wonder if I truly want to know the truth and if I really need to.  It may be a little too late to know.  Too little too late, very sad, in fact.  Etienne probably is picking all my thoughts right now.  So be it.  He will know how I feel and it will be a good thing.  He probably already know what I will say right now anyway.
“You must be a busy man.  So why bother about me and making me enrol in your research.  I feel I am be forced into it.  I have not signed any consent form yet.”

Etienne, with a small smile and a wild glint in his eyes: “Ah! It is revealing about your ignorance!  I knew your grandpa would let you in total dark.  So here are my dreams, my hopes and desire for you to hear!  I want that you awaken to your psychic powers, to train you to be able to use those powers of yours and to enrol you to be in my Men in Green small army.  I have big plans for humanity.  I am working for a better world where those with psychic powers and abilities will have a place and an utility.  I think that people like you, who have psychic powers and are marginal, are at risk of not developing fully and especially on the psychic front.  It is a shameful waste!  I, personally, think it goes to an unconstructive waste.  Psychic are often considered marginal.  So I want to show the world that marginality can be an advantage and that psychic powers can be relied on in many fields of life.  So by taking some psychic marginal, I make a brillant move!  I prove my case in a spectacular and constructive way.  In science, extraordinary claims need extraordinary proofs.  This is true for psychic powers.  By taking young marginal people who have psychic powers and by training them, I can make shut up the most sceptical of the sceptics.  Those who have followed the training are very reliable.  They can fulfil the rigors of the scientific process.  They can repeat the use of their powers at will, easily and in a mesurable way.  I do some demonstration geared toward the scientists mainly, the government officials and the private sector. to gain them in our side and to help the money coming in for further research.  We have been very successful.  We have giving a few services in exchange of the money.  But now, I have spoken enough on this topic.  I am very passionate when it comes on my research and the goals of this project of mine.  All have been said now.  I just want to demonstrate one of my latest scientific project on psychic development.  It is the latest discoveries in my research.  Even you, Frédérik, Félix and Damien, will be interested in this.  It is very exciting and stimulating.  You will all be impressed!  And I am proud to have made this breakthrough after all this time.  Now, let welcome Thalie in.  She will be the one demonstrating the new discovery.”

Thalie enter right on cue.  She bow before us.  Damien, Frédérik, Félix and I are a bit surprised to see her here.  I did not expected to see her here after our little talk in the subway train.  But it seems that none of us have foreseen her involvement in what was happening here.  Félix pull rapidly the letter he had on.  He have not time to open it until now, it seems.  He tear the envelope open and quickly read the piece of paper.  Some tears goes on his cheaks.  I sense he feel betrayed.  And he murmurs to her: “You have sold your mind!  How can I trust you now!”  Thalie is getting very pale.  Already that I have found her paler than the last time I saw her.  I have the curious feeling  there is something going on between the two.  There is something deeper.  I sight.  Better watch what she have to demonstrate.  I better watch, learn and see what I can while I can.

Thalie, white as a sheet,  with a soft and barely audible voice: “As you probably already know, there had been some research and development that were of a tremendous help to make blossom our psychic power.  It had made them extremely reliable in their uses.  Now, we have gone and accelerated to the next step.  We want to develop new psychic powers, as on those who already have some psychic abilities but also for those who do not have them and are non psychic.  We have searched long and hard.  Finally, we turned ourselves to explore the realm of the shaman in various culture.  We studied some aboriginal shaman and their techniques.  We also analysed the plant they where using to get into an altenated state of mind.  After that, we experimented with those substances under tight control.  We found out, by expertly mixing various plants and herbs, how to access the very source of the psychic power.  For now, we are only able to tap that power by using the concoction.  We discovered that we could bend and direct the source in using our psychic powers.  There are a connection between the two as it goes into the individual.  But we hope to gain enough experience and knowledge to access that source without the drug we have gained from the herbs and plants.  We have named the aromatic concoction under a few variant like “the psychic enhancer,”  “the psychic weed,” “the psychic catnip,”  “the psychic hallucination”, “the psychic psychedelic”  etc, etc.  I think you already got the idea of all the variation it can produce.  We  also found out that it was better to adjust the “psychic enhancer” to each person.  It is complicating the process a little bit but it is as any prescribed drugs: there can be a period where the dosage have to be adjusted and to go with what work best.  Once this difficult period of adjustment, we can start to properly train the person in developing new powers.  We are well under this phase of the research.  We have found a trend already.  Those who have natural active psychic powers without the “psychic enhancer” would develop passive psychic powers.  It is the same for those who have natural abilities with passive psychic powers that will develop more active psychic powers with the “psychic enhancer.”  It is still very experimental.  It show tremendous promises for our cause to form a better world.  We will be able to blur the line between those who will be psychic from the ones who will be non psychic.  We will eliminate the problem of a possible fracture between the psychic and non psychic by turning every ones into a psychic.  Of course, the way to become one will be a little bit different for the psychic and non psychic.  But the result will be the same.  The beginner non psychic will have to go through the psychic enhancer first and after that, will be able to bypass it and access the source of the psychic power without any crutch.  So there will be no frustration over the psychic and non psychic.”

It is something worthwhile as an idea on paper.  “What about those who will think it is hubristic or really not interested in getting psychic powers?  There is even some people that think that psychic powers are evil.”
Damien, dangerously calm: “She have a point, Thalie.  The mind and the mentalities change more slowly than science.  Not every ones will want to become psychic, especially with a psychic enhancer that is based on some hallucinogenic drugs,  what the government will say about it?  Especially the United State government?  You know the position of the U. S. government on drugs.  They stand firm on this.”
Etienne: “They will have to weight this carefully.  I will not encourage the use of the psychic enhancer more than necessarily and it is only temporarily.  For a short period in the process to become a psychic.  Until now, we didn’t saw any addiction to the psychic enhancer.  The taste is awful and it can be a bit scary in the period of adjustment.  But I think that the U. S. Government will see all the advantage of having a population who are psychic.”
Damien, cold calm: “But an population entirely made of psychic can become unruly and hard to keep ordered.  Many people will see all they can do with their powers.  Some young buck will want to see who is the strongest, who is having the strongest psychic powers.  What will you do if some one use his power in his sleep or not having consciousness of using them?  Following every person to see if she is really in control over time will not be easy!”
Etienne, with a revealing hand gesture: “It is a matter to see when it will time to see it.  I am not the one who will decide of everything!  Remember, it is not only my dream!  It is the dream of many people here!    There is many people involved in this project.  I am the one who is on the forefront and the one that dirty his hands in the hard work!  There are also the will of the people that finance my project too!  The interest of the whole population that finance in some part into this project.  When the time will come, I will suggest that some people gather in one place, one person from each area involved in this project.  This group will studies different options and way to work something that will be in the best interest of the whole population.  They will decide what to do with those who think that psychic people and drugs are evil.  There will also some adaptation in the school system too.  Do not forget that!  I do this for the betterment of humanity!  It is the next logical step and I want to speed up the process as fast as possible.  If it takes too much time, it will end with useless struggles and pain.  It is said that people learn from their mistakes but I say that humanity’s mistakes should not be permitted.  Only on a personal level that small  mistakes should be made.  Is my point of view enough clear?”
Félix, looking strangely at Thalia, as he was listening to the speech of Etienne: “You have made yourself enough clear.  But I suppose that Thalia had already took some of the psychic enhancer?  Did someone make an all physical evaluation of Thalie?  You know, various tests to see if she is in top shape?  I can sense something wrong in Thalie’s aura and  I put you, Etienne,  fully responsible for this!”

Etienne, a bit surprised: “Félix, you can see auras?  Why it is not on your file?  I should have known this way before.  We made all the necessary test on Thalie, I swear!  I did not received all the result yet.  On the other hand, Thalie say that she is feeling fine!  Félix, you will take some tests about aura sighting and I also think that some tests with psychic x rays vision should be done.  It would be a rare occasion to study some one who have x ray vision!  They are rare those who have this psychic power!”
As Etienne takes notes of this on a notepad he had in the pocket of his lab coat, Thalie push herself into the air and quickly float toward the windows at a high speed.  The glass shatter a few second before she hit the glass.  The glass shatter and is falling below her when she cross the window.  After crossing the window, she start a gracious fall toward the ground.  Félix quickly follow her through the window.  No ones have the time to stop him, not even the fluo green haired man nor the mohak headed man.  They only have time to get closer to Frédérik, Damien and me.
Etienne, very surprised : «Why does she does that?  In any case, Félix will soon see that he is not strong enough to go against Thalie.  She just have taken the psychic enhancer before coming in this room.  I and she wanted to show the result of the psychic enhancer on her.  Now, I am under the obligation of changing my plans a bit.  We are not able to wait to tomorrow for the tests.  We will have to start right now.  We will start with the psychic enhancer, I think.  I want to see if you three will react well to the psychic enhancer.  I will not ask anything of you, Miss Castalie.  You have not done any test yet.  I just want for you to enjoy the trip under the psychic enhancer.  I have consulted your medical files from your doctor.  He was nice enough to let me have a look to it.  So I have made a guess on the composition of your psychic enhancer.  I only want to see if I have guess right.  For you, Frédérik and Damien, I want you to takes careful notes on what you feel.  I will ask both of you to do some light psychic exercices during your high period under the psychic enhancer.”
Damien, waking up, with a aqua blue aura: “ Do not under estimate us!  We are not letting ourselves be constraint to do something we do not want to do!”
Etienne: “You better hire hitmen!  On the psychic side, we are petty equal!”
Frédérik, as I see his aura turning red for the second time, under my eyes : “It is where I enter the game!  That is what hitmen are for, anyway.”
Now, I better find out something to do psychically pretty fast.  I have no clue how to proceed and I have no idea of what I can do to get out of here, even if it is a good time to get out of here and out of trouble.
The mind race pretty hard when under that dire hard pressure!  I need to do something before it is too late.  The two men in green are keeping me sitting as Etienne comes to me, unharmed and unaffected by both the attacks of Damien and of Frédérik.  I better get some inspiration pretty soon!


                   Félix and Thalie

Not taking care of what happening inside the lab, Félix jump though the window.  He end his jump in the rusted leaves. One of his ankles turn on the side.  It hurt.  Félix hopes he does not have a sprayed ankle.  He look around but does not see much now that the sun have set down for the night.  The light coming from the building behind him is not of much help as the forest put his shadows against Félix and the Psychic Ferret Research Project Lab.  His psychic x-rays vision is not of a big help here.  It is similar to conventional x rays but he never used his psychic x-rays vision in these conditions.  He does not have an night vision.  Using his psychic x rays vision here, now and for too long makes him fell very ill right now.  It is really a bad idea to do it now.  So he stop trying too hard.  “Stop hiding!  We no longer play pirates and ninjas!  It is not funny anymore!”

There is some sobbing behind him.  Thalie is behind and she put her arm around Félix’s chest.  She is holding him tight.  “I do not want to end this in this way!  I wanted to have more active psychic  powers!  I wanted to be able to moves objects as I sit in a chair!  Life is so injust!  Even if it was always nice that the pirates always kicked the butts of the ninjas at the end of our playing.”
Félix, softening: “Yes, indeed!  Life is truly injust!  But is it the only motivation that lead you to take that damned psychic enhancer?  I am seeing the effect it causes you and I wonder if it really worthful.”
Thalie, keeping her hold on Félix: “You have courage, your cousin, your brother and you.  But I am still have hope left.  I was not ready to quit the psychic ferret research project.  I