E-mailing Miss Florence.

[Stern]

Hi Anita,

Been thinking about you over the past couple of days since our late night hashbrowns run.

Was curious to know if you've had any extra chances to test out those amazing gifts you have yet. It might take time and effort, but I know it'll be worth it. You're certainly worth it.

Sorry I haven't been able to find you on campus. Finals struck suddenly in an all-consuming manner not unlike a swarm of locusts. Between papers and tests, I haven't seen the light of day apart from walking to classes.

At least graduation is soon. My roommates are all walking this year, so I'm sticking around campus over the next several days to spend some quality time with them and see them get their degrees before I wish them all a good life.

Maybe once Commencement is over with and I finally get my stuff back home I'll hop a bus to Cullen's or something to see you and we can go get a better quality meal than hashbrowns.

Let me know how you are.

Sincerely,

Michael Stern.

[Anita Stern]

Michael,

The end of semester is upon us at Cullen's. Summer comes, exams are looming over the heads of students who take them, and we're all working hard as ever. I've been spending time hunting down books that are overdue, and preparing my students for their literature exams. When I have the time, I've been working at my powers - mostly by myself though. Help is hard to find this time of year. So, considering I can't really practice on my own head since I already know what I'm thinking...it's not going very well. My best subjects at this point, then, are things others have touched, so I've probably been looking a good bit ridiculous walking around touching everything.

It's alright that you haven't accosted me during my visits to the campus library - I've pretty well been in and out and not wasting a second. I think the big rush and all the stressors of the end of a school year are supposed to make us savour every moment of the summer. I may head off and visit my mother in Québec at the cottage on the lake for a few days this summer. It's one of the many things remaining with us from my late father's success in the business world.

Oh, would you come visit? That would be nice. I honestly wouldn't mind a distraction - soon enough there will be plenty of time for distractions, when I'm not thinking of the classes I'll be teaching in the fall, which could be anything. The seeming advantage of an 'all-knowing' brain, I suppose. In any case, it would be good to see you. We'll definitely have to do something.

Write back,

Anita

[Stern]

Anita,

Commencement is tomorrow. After the ceremony it's a long trip home and then I have to get my things resorted. That includes my computer, so it might be a day or two before I get to e-mail you again.

Just remember you can call me on my cell phone if you would like to.

Visiting Quebec would be a great deal of fun. We should definitely plan on doing that. I'm not sure if I'll be getting my old summer job back this year, so until I do, things might be a bit shaky for scheduling.

Any practice (however small or light), is good practice. In fact, it might be better to start smaller than usual. Filtering out and learning to sift through a little bit would be much better preparation than trying to sift through a lot at once.

I surely hope finals don't eat you. From a certain perspective it's worse on the teachers than the students.

Michael Stern

[Anita Stern]

Michael,

I highly doubt that finals will actually eat me, unless the test papers gain mutant powers of their own. I'm kidding, I know what you mean. My mother always seemed particularly stressed during finals with the university, and I'm feeling slightly high-strung myself. I do what I can to relax, but it's difficult when everyone around you is on the same level of unsettledness. It has some odd hive mind quality to it.

I suppose you're right about starting small. The complexities of the human mind make control a little more difficult to attain than it would be over an inanimate object. Oh, there I go again, sounding far too intelligent for my own good... It's no wonder the younger students look perplexed when I talk to them sometimes. Le sigh.

Outside of any traveling I might do, I will likely be spending the majority of summer break in and around Cullen's, since I didn't really have anything planned in the first place. Maybe I can make myself of use with the students that don't have a family to go back to during break. We'll see.

Enjoy the remaining time you have left with your friends before they all fly the coop. I'll try calling you tomorrow evening.

Ciao,

Anita Florence

[Anita Stern]

Michael,

I tried calling you (ok, I know it's morning, earlier than I said, but can you blame me? I enjoy your company...), but there was no answer so I left a message. Exams are coming up fast...you know schools don't get out until after the universities and colleges. Oh, I'll be impossibly busy for a bit. One of the other professors has caught the most wonderful flu, and I'm helping pick up her workload. The rumour of a couple less exams barely had the chance to start. Everyone will be moving forward after this, if I can help it! Well, I've got to get some food into myself, and get back to work. I hope this finds you well.

Get back to me when you can.

Anita

[Anita Stern]

Michael? What's going on? I heard the news...it isn't good at all. I'm worried, honest-to-goodness, I'm terribly worried. I really hope you're alright. I tried calling you as soon as I heard, but no answer, like this morning. I left a message. Please get back to me and ease my worried mind.

Anita

[Anita Stern]

Eleven days later...


***

Michael,

I've seen the site. Horrible. I've called you countless times, but heard nothing back. No email from you, either. Exams are nearly done here, students are waiting on results. Where are you? I'm beyond worried, and it's making my colleagues worry about me (as if everyone isn't still in shock about the whole thing in the first place...). It's fortunate the students are too distracted by their exams and making summer plans to notice. I've had trouble sleeping, it's that bad. I can't eat very well or very much, I just feel upset all over. It's not just you, it's my mother, too. I haven't heard from her lately, either. Oh... dear... so worried. It's giving me a headache. It's distracting.

I checked with every hospital. They have no record of you. I've been able to ask the authorities, but they have nothing. Just your name. No body, no nothing. Please don't leave me thinking you've just disappeared. Not like Daniel. I've already had that happen to me once, and you know what that did to me. I've only just started coming out of it because of you. Please, Michael. Don't do this to me.

I don't think I could take it.

Anita

[Stern]

Anita!

So sorry! I didn't mean to put you through such a hard time.

I'm doing well enough I guess.

No doubt you heard through the news that a mutant terrorist set a bomb in the basketball stadium where the ceremony was to take place. I tried to stop him, but at the time I was just a lightbulb. He beat me pretty hard and managed to detonate his bomb.

My mutation has advanced. I can't explain how it happened, but I can travel at the speed of light. I become light. I don't know what went on, but I wound up in a small village around Pakistan I think. I've been trying to control my light-speed travel so I can direct myself home.

I have no money. My accounts are totally gone. No ID either, so I can't prove myself an American citizen. Plus I borrowed clothes from the people who cared for me, so I look like a Middle Eastern person, which (whether people admit it or not), labels me a terrorist.

I've been light jumping my way across the continent and am now in Italy somewhere in the Alps. Some people at a hostel found some clothes for me to wear to adjust to the climate. Unfortunately I had to steal some shoes.

Oi vey. I've failed a lot in the past few days. I'm sorry you had to be a victim of my failure.

I'm coming, Anita. When I can scrounge change or find a free public computer I'll e-mail you to let you know I'm ok.

Just don't give up on me yet. I promise I'll get back to you. I've been thinking about you a lot and the promise I made. I need more time to master this light-speed travel. I don't want to overshoot you. I'd never get home otherwise.

Wish me well. I wish you were here. Then at least it'd feel more like a vacation and less like an exile.

Michael

[Anita Stern]

Michael,

Oh my goodness, if this is what it feels like when someone comes back from the dead...I honestly don't know what to say. I just feel so relieved, so happy, you know, in a tears-of-joy kind of way. Don't you do that again, or I may have to hunt you down and hit you over the head with something rather solid. If only I were capable of such things. I felt so alone - it was like a desert with not even an illusion of an oasis. It hurt pretty bad. I'm overjoyed that you're still around, but it still hurts. Worries don't wipe off that easily. It'll take some time, but so long as you get back here, I think I'll be fine.

Mutant involvement? Somehow, I'm not surprised. I'll see if there's anything I can find out or figure out on my end, but without any more detail other than that it was a mutant that detonated the bomb, it doesn't really give me much to go on. Reaching into your mind to see it for myself would be so much easier. Not an option right now, I'm afraid.

Please be safe, please come back as soon as you can.

Anita

[Stern]

Anita,

It's good to know that my e-mail had done some good in helping to ease your anxieties. Again, I'm sorry I hurt you. Even if it was out of my hands.

Thanks for helping me find this guy. I don't have his name, which makes it pretty hard to curse him. All I know is that he's Middle Eastern and can resist nuclear radiation.

I'd love to hold your hand right about now. I'm somewhere in East Berlin I think. Snuck into a school to check up on you. Being alone in a dreary place like this is wearing on me. By my estimation with my current practice I can light jump fifty miles at my longest jump.

The ability isn't rooted to my ability to see where I'm going. I just need to have a clear path. The map of Europe I have is helping me. So far I've been picking places I've seen pictures of to help me get a mental image of where I want to go. Then as long as I can point myself in that direction, I can get there really fast.

Don't worry your pretty head. I'll be dropping out of the sky any day now. You wait and see. :)

I miss you.

Michael

[Anita Stern]

Michael,

I'm fine with you dropping out of the sky...just try not to go splat when you hit the ground. I don't imagine I'd like that much. Neither would any potential bystanders, for that matter. And that kind of splat makes for much unhappiness on my part.

Thanks for the information; I'll see what I can find out on my end, if anyone around here can manage to spare a moment. That seems to be darn near impossible, even for me. This here, typing up this email, is one of those rare spare moments. You should feel special, mister.

Good luck. Do your best. Come back.

Anita

[Stern]

Anita,

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I've been thinking about you recently. I dreamt about you one night not long ago. Can't remember when. All the days and nights get jumbled together. Add in the sudden change of time zone when I light jump and sometimes I'm amazed I still know which way is up.

I dreamt you were standing on a balcony of a building singing for me to come for you. I fought and fought through all these shadowy people. The more I knocked down, the more came to take their place. Finally I managed to light-jump to you. I picked you up to take you away, but we wound up surrounded. I couldn't light-jump out with you. You were so frightened and begged me to rescue you. I felt so conflicted because the situation looked so helpless.

I guess it's my subconscious kicking me around for leaving you hanging. You were beautiful in that white dress though.

Just to let you know, I'm in the Oxford Library right now surrounded by tons and tons of books. Maybe one day I'll take you to see this amazing place.

I'll be home soon.

Michael.