A Life in Snow: A World Shifters Story

A Life in Snow

  by Heinreich T. Sioson

  Copyright 2013 Heinreich T. Sioson

  Don't get too close. Don't ever get too close. You'll always fall too far.

  That was another from Bol Piles. A long time ago. Too long, sometimes. Looking around I saw I had entered a dirty alley and pulled out a cigarette from the pack I brought along with me. Smoking was banned here. So was alcohol consumption, for that matter. The former I could live with, but the latter, oh no. Thankfully I wasn't staying long.

  I put the cigarette in my mouth but then remembered I didn't have a lighter. I didn't smoke but it was the last one in the pack so I might as well put it to use. Nicotine or whatever other addictive substance was used in it has no effect on me. I shrugged. No problem. I snapped the forefinger and the thumb of my right hand and a little fire came to life at the tip of the cigarette and I inhaled. It took only a few puffs before I started getting sick of the taste. Disgusting. I yanked it out of my mouth, smothered it on the brick wall behind me and threw it with the empty pack into the sewer drain. Let the crocodiles have it.

  I left the alley and headed into the cold afternoon. A gust of freezing wind hit me square in the face and I shivered a bit as I folded up the collar on my very useless summer jacket. I looked at the watch on my left wrist: it was still a day in July 2012 and almost the same time as when I left. But it was eighty degrees Fahrenheit over there; now it was hovering somewhere above freezing here. I'll have to pick up a winter jacket. In the middle of July. In Florida. I sighed, it was going to be one of those assignments I just knew it. I took out my PDA, given to me when my apprenticeship ended some years ago and scanned through to the assignment's profile. The gadget is very high tech, built by the geeks at Central but you won't be able to find this at the local electronics store. Pulling up the profile I saw his high school was only a couple blocks over on Conroy Avenue. It was one thirty in the afternoon; I could grab a jacket and check him out before school ended for the day.

  ********

  Walking out of the store I was glad prices for clothes were about what I expected them to be. That said however, I did manage to snag a heavy wool-lined pea coat for almost half of what I was used to seeing in other places which was nice. In addition, the Scouters were actually helpful this time: no explanations about counterfeit bills with unknown faces or weird denominations on them. From there I reached the school at just past two o’ clock. Looking around I saw some parents waiting in their cars or out in the open for their kids. Just so I didn't look suspicious I decided to lean against the stalk of a modest pine tree and warmed my hands in my pockets. I didn't really need to do that but keeping up appearances is important, as is taking the edge off having to use my powers without needing to. Maybe ten to fifteen minutes passed when I heard someone say something in my direction.

  "Waiting for your kid too, huh?"

  I turned to see a woman just over five feet tall with a somewhat smallish frame and black wavy hair. I couldn't see most of her face for the fur-lined hood she was wearing. I smiled at her as she walked up to me.

  "Oh no, a friend of mine told me to meet up with her here. She's running a bit late," I said.

  "Ah. She a friend or a friend friend?"

  I chuckled. "Just a friend." I could tell she was smiling. "What about you Mrs...?" I asked, offering my hand.

  She took my hand in a firm grip that took me by surprise. "Please, just call me Salli. And it's Ms., my husband passed away some time ago."

  "I'm sorry."

  She tipped her head in a gesture of appreciation. "Thank you."

  She walked up next to me and we both faced the entrance of the building. It was a nice public school, four stories high with two wings jutting from the sides. There was another building on the eastern side connected by walkways on the ground level and second floor. It reminded me of the one back home.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," said Salli.

  "Ah yes, I'm..." I paused. I don't know why.

  Don't get too close.

  "I'm Richard. Pleasure to meet you, Salli."

  She smiled and nodded, not noticing I had stopped short. "Likewise, Richard." I smiled back, even though I wanted to kick myself for almost letting my real name slip.

  "Hey mom!" said a male voice from the school entrance. Teenagers had already begun funneling out of the entrance. Salli took off her hood and walked up to the boy, who had already grown taller than his mother. He was wearing a black winter jacket built for inclement weather and the outdoors. On his legs were blue jeans which ended in brown snow boots. He wasn't wearing any covering on his head but wore the latest style of earmuffs. Salli was busy batting away some stray snow from his jacket, all the while he was trying to shoo away her motherly affection. She led him to where I was standing and when I saw his face I winced when I realized I recognized it.

  ********

  !CLASSIFIED!

  From Central:

  To Darrius Alexander:

  Assignment Profile:

  Name: William M. Carnham, (a.k.a. Billy)

  D.O.B.: January 12, 1996

  Age: 16

  Father: Tyler Carnham (deceased)

  Mother: Salli Carnham (née Miller)

  Type: Guidance

  Class: 2

  Earth ID: TN-36

  - Pre-Scouted

  - Chilly, inclement weather

  Mission: Use all necessary methods to ensure direction to correct path toward the greater good.

  Notes: Level 1 influencing and mental pushing permitted. Level 2 permitted at the discretion of the assigned Shifter. Level 3 & above not permitted under any circumstances unless authorization for use is granted by Central. Interaction with Assignment to be strictly limited. However, contact with associated parties IS NOT permitted. All relevant information will be sent via psy-stream to your PDA. Assignment's picture will also be forwarded to your PDA.

  Scroll down for additional information…

  ********

  As Salli was leading her son to where I was standing I debated whether or not to remove my presence from their memory. It was a careless mistake. I had read the file but didn't piece the mother's name together with it. Stupid.

  "Billy, I want you meet a friend of mine. His name is Richard," said Salli, making introductions.

  I was much taller than Billy but his expression made the height difference seem meaningless. Without touching his thoughts I knew at once he perceived me as a threat to his mother. A bad start already but nonetheless I extended my hand out for him to shake.

  "Pleasure to meet you, Billy," I said.

  He hesitated, but out of courtesy he shook my hand in a very tight clasp. I raised my eyebrow. I don't know if either of them noticed that.

  "Nice to meet you too," said Billy. He was polite, but in-reading his words I knew he didn’t really mean it. "I've never seen you around here before."

  "My first time in town. I'm supposed to meet a friend here." By this time we had already released hands.

  "Uh huh."

  There was about to be a strange moment of silence pass between us until Salli chimed in. "Well, we're off to run some errands and then head back home. It was nice talking to you, Richard."

  "You too, Salli."

  She put her arm around his shoulders and as she and her son began walking across the street she looked back and shouted, "I hope you see your friend soon!" I smiled and waved. I waited until they were gone plus another twenty minutes and then headed for the direction of the hotel.

  ********

  It was near the end of my last semester at college when
I met Bol Piles. He was sipping coffee in the student center lounge. I was taking a break from studying by having lunch with some friends of mine when he noticed me. As the lunch ended more and more of my friends left until I was alone. It was then that he approached me. He sat down across from me at an adjoining table and said nothing for a while. I was busy looking over some readings in Japanese when I noticed he was openly staring at me. I ignored him for a couple minutes until I felt uncomfortable enough to ask him what he was doing. He didn't say anything but he quirked his mouth as if in childish thought. I asked him again but more firmly. Still, he didn’t respond.

  I packed my stuff and got up to leave when he said, "You've been dreaming."

  "Whatever you say," I said with growing annoyance.

  "Oh, yes you have. It's been happening for some time."

  I scoffed. "People dream buddy." I turned and walked away.

  From the table a few feet behind me I heard him say, "Of a world where the ocean is pink? Or a world where there are no oceans at all? Just fields of endless green."

  I stopped dead in my tracks. I shook my head. It was impossible. I've never told anyone that. Not even... I looked around at the other people but they took no notice of me. They didn't even look at the man who had said such strange things in a voice that would've carried in a large classroom. I turned to face him.

  "How do you know all that?" I said.

  Bol smiled then. A charming, genuine smile with perfect white teeth. It was a smile I'd see often in the years to come.

  ********

  Some of us choose to stay in luxury hotels or lavish homes but I prefer not to. It was a decent enough room in a decent enough hotel. Opening room 305 the bed was a modest twin-size with two nightstands adjoining it. There was a digital clock on the right one that read three thirty p.m. The bed faced a large TV, the old-fashioned bulky kind. I walked toward the closet in the back and opened it up to see clothes of various cut which covered any occasion; before I got here the Scouters had made preparations for me. That said, I wish they had mentioned how bad the weather was before I shifted into this world. I was booked for at least a month but I had no intention of staying that long. Walking past the closet I opened up the sliding glass door in the back which led to the balcony. It had a nice view. The sun was already halfway under the horizon and the dying light on pure white snow was a welcoming sight. The hotel sat on a hill overlooking Billy's school. One of my requests for living arrangements was a location where I could monitor the kid as much as possible. It's not as strange as it sounds, trust me. I settled my snow-covered jacket on a nearby clothes hanger, shook off my boots and settled in to report back to Central.

  Sitting at the head of the bed I laid my PDA on the covers, lengthwise with the screen facing up. With my hands on my lap I accessed the menus with my mind and cued report telemetry. The screen lit a ghostly blue and a screen of a similar color floated above the PDA, face height. A few seconds later a clear picture of a woman with a scowl appeared. Oh here we go.

  "You're late. Again," said the scowling woman in an English accent.

  Emily Jane Charleston would be popular back at Central if that signature scowl of hers wasn't such a permanent feature of her face. So to even things out and to take the wind out of her sails I mostly call her EJ. She hates that.

  "Sorry, EJ. I had to fight through the snow. I wasn't told there was going to be a lot of it here," I said. I made sure to emphasize that last point. Her scowl faltered for a moment but she was able to regain her composure quickly.

  She cleared her throat. "Well, the Scouters failed to mention that in their report for that particular world."

  I half believed her. I was a Scouter once - we all start out that way - and although it's possible they were careless in their report, hell that's most likely the reason, the first thought that came to my mind was that EJ had left that out of mission brief just to annoy me. I sighed but decided to let it go.

  “The school was as mentioned in the brief. So was Billy Carnham. I haven't made first contact yet," I said. It was a lie, but choosing to keep her in the dark meant keeping her out of trouble. It wouldn't be the first time. If she knew I did that often or not she didn't let on.

  "Have you observed him yet?" asked EJ.

  "Only as far as the corner of his school. His mother pick him up, they chatted a little and then I presume they walked home."

  "You didn't follow them?"

  "No, I felt it was unnecessary at the time."

  "Okay." Emily Jane - her preferred name by the way - began inputting data into her terminal.

  I waited a moment and then asked, "So what's the deal with the kid? It's a Class 2 assignment. I haven't had that in some time. What do the Voyants see for him?"

  She shrugged but didn't pause her typing. "I don't know. But like you said, it's a Class 2 so I assume he's going to be someone important when he grows up."

  I said, "According to his profile his mother is an accountant and his father was a detective who died in the line of duty. So he's either going to be the greatest accountant in the world or Sherlock Holmes." EJ responded with a snort, which surprised me because it was something she didn’t do often. The first time I saw her do that she threatened to hang me if I ever told anyone about it.

  ********

  Emily Jane Charleston was in her late twenties, five feet seven inches with straight black hair that she liked to wear in a bun. Gorgeous by any standard her dark blue eyes could both melt a man's heart and chill it to absolute zero. Like me, she has telepathic and telekinetic powers but not as strong; she could in-read and push but not much more than that. She never felt inadequate that her powers weren't like mine, she just did her duty. In her own words: "I do the work I am capable of doing. I do not and will not ask for more." I always admired her for that.

  She's my Grounder. From world to world she sends me my assignments, feeds me information, makes sure I'm set up for the task, and most importantly, provides me with the biting personality I've known since our first assignment together.

  After my apprenticeship with Bol Piles ended many years ago she was tasked to be my handler. I remember the first time we met, when she greeted me she had her arms crossed and her signature scowl. I held out my hand for her to shake and she looked at it as if I was handing her a dead chicken. She eventually caved and shook it but it was all very formal and with no real warmth. Even now years later, I'd ask her on occasion why she was mad the first time we met. Her only response would be, "It's none of your business, Darrius." One day I'll get her to tell me.

  There’s another thing you should know about her. She came from a world in which King Arthur's Camelot never fell to ruin.

  ********

  Emily Jane and I didn't do much chatting after I reported in so she signed off on her end and I shut off the PDA. Afterwards I hopped into the shower to clean off the work from the day and refresh. After I was done I got dressed and all but fell into the warm embrace of the bed. Back-to-back assignments were never ones to look forward to. For Shifters, living on the road is the first thing we have to get used to.

  Shifters, if you haven't guessed already, are very powerful psychics with the ability to shift from one world to the next. And by world, I mean Earth. Most of the time. We have both telepathic and telekinetic powers and we use them to shift the course of events. This can range from simple suggestions to influencing - like what I intended to do with Billy - to outright coercion and even controlling a person's mind. It all depends on what Central's plans are.

  The Central Hub of World Shifters is a place set outside of normal space and time where all Shifters reside when not on assignment. It has all the comforts of home and where assignments are given. It is also where the Voyants are able to touch parts of the future and help plan how to go about changing the course of another Earth's destiny. The governing body of Central is called the Conclave, a group of a hundred
men & woman who were Shifters for a time before they were elevated to their positions. They review assignments and see how best to shift a world toward a positive path. No one is sure how long Central has been around but most would agree that it's at least a thousand years old.

  ********

  The next day I woke up at seven in the morning and got myself ready to observe Billy at school. I was thankful that all I had to do was go as far as the balcony of my hotel room. One of the special abilities of Shifters is the ability to hitchhike onto a person's mind and see and feel and experience everything through them. The only limitation is that the subject in question must be in my line of sight. The more powerful Shifters, however, need only be aware of the person's physical presence. Unfortunately, my gift is limited to the former. When not in my line of sight I only have a vague sense of what a person is thinking or feeling.

  An hour later Billy walked into homeroom and sat at his desk in the middle section of the class. I was able to see him through the big glass window facing my hotel. Concentrating and then magnifying my vision a little I focused on the back of his head and jumped in.

  As I expected it was a jumbled mess in there. It's not a knock against him alone, it's just most people's thoughts aren't organized in any way. For the most part people think about dozens, even hundreds of things in a very brief period of time. Thankfully, one of the things first taught to prospective Shifters is the ability to sift through all the crap in a person's mind and lock on to what's important.

  His thoughts drifted from what time his mother would be getting home to various club activities; he was involved with baseball and writing for the school newspaper. An image of my face came to the forefront of his mind and he asked himself, "Who was that guy?" Back in my own body I winced at the fact he had a clear picture of who I was. He must've picked that up from his dad. Homeroom would last for another thirty minutes.

  "Hey, dude." My vantage point changed as Billy turned to a boy to his left.