8 A Cold Fresh Brain

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Stephen Whiteside
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8 A Cold Fresh Brain

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Sun Dec 25, 2011 7:20 am

8 A Cold Fresh Brain

© Stephen Whiteside 25.12.2011

Pocus dropped on his haunches, and fought an almost overpowering urge to throw up. Their lives were now in danger. Somehow, they were going to have to survive a night out in the open without any extra clothing, sleeping bags or tents. Pocus reckoned that moving at a brisk walk he could probably get back to Copperbung himself in about eighteen hours - and with the heat generated from his body movement he might even survive the cold. But he wasn’t in a position to do that. He had the whole tour group to think of. True, this mob, having signed up for kayak touring, were not your usual bunch of overweight slobs, but they weren’t that fit, either. No, there was no way around it. They were sleeping out tonight. Sleeping, that is, or shivering together in a huddle - or just plain dying.

This was starting to feel personal. Memories came back. Bad memories. Many years ago Hocus and Pocus had been targeted by unknown forces. An attempted kidnap. They were living near each other in the city then. They assumed their attackers were after the secrets of their mind meld. Back then, they’d been much more naive. They’d talked freely about their extraordinary abilities, hoping to find others with a similar talent. It was unnerving being the only two people being able to communicate in that way. Made them feel almost like freaks. It was a lonely feeling, too - if two people can feel lonely together. And it drove them much closer together, of course.

They even went to the trouble of tracking down sets of other identical twins, and grilling them. Yes, they were generally very close. Closer than non-identical twins, and much closer than simple siblings. Many of them claimed to know what the other was thinking, but when they really grilled them, really pinned them down on what was going on in their heads, it was different. Very different. No, Hocus and Pocus were the only two with the ability to ‘mind meld’, that was clear. At least in their city.

But word had obviously got out. Curiosity had been piqued. Some perverse figures had clearly perceived the ‘mind meld’ as some type of super weapon. In a sense, they were right, too, of course. The ability to instantly communicate across vast distances was pretty handy. Of course, back then Hocus and Pocus knew much less about it themselves. They’d never been far enough away from each other to test it properly. Now here they were, separated by 0.07 of a light year, and their abilities were undiminished. Would they find it more difficult as Hocus reached the end of his journey? Perhaps, but so far they had observed no change whatsoever, and he had already been gone a long time. In their hearts, they believed their ability was entirely unaffected by distance.

So they had left the city. It was too dangerous. Pocus had joined this adventure travel company operating on the edge of a national park, and Hocus had joined his ship. But all this was a long time ago. Long enough for them to both start to relax again. Now it was all coming flooding back.

Last time, their attackers had been determined to take them alive. This time, they didn’t seem so fussy. Perhaps they believed a dead brain would be just as good - especially if it was fresh and cold.

Well, Pocus had other plans. He planned to keep his brain inside his own skull for a long time yet.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au

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