Prerogative

Originally written Saturday, January 14, 2006

I followed his point of view, and I agreed with it in principle. It would be critical to work with people you trusted. What I wasn’t so sure about was whether he could be one of those for me, more for his odd change of attitude that evening than for that phase he referred to as the lapse of judgment. I wouldn’t rule it out, but I had to return to the point before being too far removed from it. “What would you want to use it for? And Kay? I mean, I want to know everything about how you found her, or she found you, and—for like the fifth time tonight—who the hell is she. But I think the rest is moot if we’re not on the same page with this.”

To my surprise, he looked at me blankly, albeit for only a moment. “What would I…? Uh, to…” and he regained himself almost as quickly, “to reorganize negative and blocking energies and facilitate the flow of knowledge.” He finished with a slight, slight grin out of the corner of his mouth.

“Are you just saying that because you know that’s what I’d want to do with it?”

“Not just.”

“Well, since, if you’re telling me the truth about all of this, it would do you no good to agree to one use for it if you’re not gonna work with it, then you might as well tell me now what you have in mind.”

“I didn’t say I had a problem with your priorities.”

“I didn’t say you had. But what are yours? Cause I probably know you as well as you know me. At least as well. And I can tell there’s more. I know there is, and I don’t want to think it’s an ulterior motive.” I waited for him to realize how uncomfortable he looked before going on. “You know I can’t do anything that might risk losing my Gift.”

He chuckled then. “Yeah, you’re kind of predictable like that. But you know, you can act in the service of the Grey Orchid and help out the rest of us. Especially if negotiating, compromise, are what let you do it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was figuring was going on here. So what would you want to do with it? I have to know what I’m compromising before I agree to it.”

“You know me so well, you tell me.”

“Oh, you’re just being snotty now. And I’m not exactly being a mind-reader. Don’t you remember we talked about exactly this at one point in the early nineteenth?”

“Early nineteenth?” And speaking of tables turning, the physical one between us could have literally levitated on its own and begun rotating, and it would not have been so dramatic as what actually happened. While his momentary stumble from before had been mainly due to being caught briefly off-guard, he now appeared entirely befuddled.

“Century?” To his confused stare, I replied, “We talked about what we’d do if we could control other people’s energies? Perfectly hypothetically at the time, of course. When we were philosophizing on the meaning of the thing. I was talking about what I could and couldn’t do, and you thought it would be cool—well, your word was ‘divine’—to do, well, more.”

“Oh, uh, no. I don’t remember that one. What’d I say at the time?”

“Rick, it wasn’t a one-time conversation. It was ongoing. You know: ‘I sure would like to do blah blah blah right now.’ And yours were always about three things. Sex, money, and politics.”

This brought him temporarily back into his comfort zone. He laughed. “Yeah, well, some things never change.” To myself, I thought, I used to think so. But then he slipped. Big time. “Me and the ladies, heh heh. Two centuries and still the lothario.”

I tried to laugh along with him but could only manage a smile that I hoped didn’t betray my misgivings. I nodded. I said, “Charlotte.”

The events of this day to be continued...