These stories are copyrighted to V. E. Lehkonen.
To view a story, click on the link. Stories marked with an asterisk (*) are unfinished.
Links in Finnish lead to stories in Finnish. / Suomenkieliset linkit johtavat suomenkielisiin tarinoihin.
The Mutant Telepath is the same story told from three different perspectives. To emphasize it, I'm writing them using first person, which I otherwise avoid to death. Badly unfinished.
| Part one | Chapter one | The introduction to the plot and the main character's life. |
| Chapter two * | The mystery deepens. | |
| Part two | Chapter one * | Introduction to the past. |
I was reading the competing newspaper. They had an article and even a blurry picture of that strange figure who has been seen walking around research institutions. The writer said she had seen the figure jumping from a tree on the street and on a nearby building. It was unnatural; a human could not jump that high, at least without any helping machinery. But that figure did not have any, or at least the writer claimed so. Some cyborgs or androids could have done it, but the figure was really just flesh and bone just like the rest of us. The writer did not have any proof for that either, so I was rather suspicious.
Even my wife Anne did not have any more information. As a police officer, she gets informed of these kind of abnormalities, but none remarkable ones had occurred this far.
I had my own theories, even though I had not seen the figure myself. It could be either a cyborg or an android, or a human mutant. I think it could be most possible that it was a mutant, but mutants are really rare around here. However, considering what kind of mutations it would take to naturally (and unnaturally) make a mutant, I think having mutants or those superhero people is practically impossible. They would need tons of dramatic changes to their genes and then they would have to work also! That is something I just cannot comprehend. On the other hand, no one else can either, so I am not alone with this issue. The local superhero team does have one mutant, yes, but the rest are either genetically modified, cyborgs or radiation victims. Usually the mutants are the ones who those superheroes fight against. And even the supervillains are not usually mutants, since there are so few mutants around.
Life is full of mysteries.
That brought my son Alerin back to my mind. He has been acting rather strangely the past few weeks, and the most worrying part is that I do not have a clue why. He is so silent, so mysterious, that I am starting to worry over him day and night. He does not speak the way he used to, he is very passive and does not even argue with me and Anne anymore. I have tried talking to him, and he listens, but nothing still changes.
I took a glance out of the window. It was snowing. It was the eighth of December. We would have a nice layer of snow by Christmas. Me, Anne and Alerin are going to go to the town of Tronfil (which is about 150 kilometers from Gengate City where my home is) to visit my parents. We would leave on the twentieth and come back the twenty-eighth for New Year.
Tomorrow at work I was assigned the case of that strange figure. I was supposed to get a story and pictures of that almost fictional character. The hard cases were always given to me. The boss was still a rather nice person. At least toward me. My coworkers did complain about him, but he was rather human nonetheless, unlike my first boss.
"Lawert, you're our best journalist", said my boss. "I need you to do this! Nobody else could take pictures of that mysterious thing as well as you or create a more dramatic story of it! We can't let 'The Gengate Daily' beat us with this case." "The Gengate Daily" was the competing newspaper. "It's already bad enough that we lost that superhero case last month." I was on a holiday at that time.
"Well, I need my holidays too."
"Can you take this case?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Get working on it then! I need some material in a maximum of three days."
"Uh-huh... What if that whatever it is makes no moves in three days?"
"Then I'll fry you. Just kidding. But get something together anyway. Now get."
"Yes sir."
"By the way, what do you think that character is?"
"Uhh..."
"You read the article in 'The Gengate Daily', right?"
"Yeah. I don't know... It could be a mutant or a cyborg or an android. If the Daily writer was honest, I think it's a mutant or a cyborg. But since it was small, it could be a kid, an' it'd be a mutant."
"That's it Lawert, I love your power of deduction. Even if that character makes no moves, you'll still put a decent story together!"
I went to my computer. I checked both the websites of "The Gengate Daily" and the police. There really was not much information about that strange figure. On the other hand, something strange had been seen three times around the Westgate Research Center, and once around the Biotechnological Institution. The strange character had been seen the day before yesterday around Biotech. I thought there was a connection. I contacted Anne with my headphone, asking more information of the research center cases. She would reply as soon as she got something together.
There were five more research centers of that kind in Gengate City. At this point I started to wonder, why on Earth would any mutant be interested in biotechnical and mediphysical research institutes? I changed my view on the character. It was most possibly an illegal cyborg, probably looking for some spare parts to repair something, maybe its body. But why was it small then? Oh well, maybe it was just made that way in the beginning. Who knows.
Besides those seven research institutes for mainly biotechnology and medical physics, there were six other institutes with a little similar research targets. I had no clue what the character would do next. My best guess was that it was going to go back to Biotech, but which night? The other observations were four to one days apart.
Anne contacted me and replied to my question. She told that the research center cases were actually very similar, a small dark figure that was seen to be just walking around and running away when trying to make contact. Biotech would have more security from this day to an undefined date. The character would not have much chances in there anymore. But does the character know that?
I thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that I would go to Biotech tonight and to the next nearest research center on the following two nights.
I arrived at Biotech at nine p.m. Anne was there in charge of the extra security. She and I settled down on the roof of one of the nearby buildings and were going to handle everything with Anne's police radio and my high-resolution zooming cameras.
We sat there for four hours. Nothing happened.
Anne woke me up. The time was four in the morning. Anne fell asleep. Nothing happened.
In the morning, I asked Anne and the security guards a few formal questions. We went home, made sure Alerin got ready for school and went to sleep.
I woke up when Alerin came back. He threw his bag into the living-room and ran out again. I got up and started writing the story about that character.
Anne went to work at four. She contacted me, telling that they would set small patrols around each nearby research center for biotechnology and medical physics. She would be around the World Research Institute of Biophysics. I went there at nine and settled again on a nearby roof with Anne. One of Anne's coworkers was a bit further away, sitting in a police-car.
For five hours, nothing happened.
Then I heard something land on the roof wall next to us. I heard a young voice say calmly and not loud:
"Hey." I looked up. It was a dark, small, thin figure, with black hair flashing in the moonlight, a cut trench coat, strips of cloth around the head and upper arms, black gloves and running shoes.
I woke up. It was morning, eight o'clock. Anne was also sleeping.
"Anne!" I said.
"... Uh? Eh? ... It's morning?" We were silent for a moment. "How could we just fall asleep like that?"
"I wish I knew."
"Why didn't Jerry wake us up?" Anne grabbed her radio. "Jerry? What's happened? Do you read?"
"Huh?" Jerry replied. "What? It's morning? What's happened?"
We sat there, wondering. How come we all had fallen asleep just like that? We could not find an answer.
Anne had to go to the police station and report. I went home and watched the things I had recorded with my camera. The tape had been wiped out. How is that possible? There were some things on the tape that I knew worked, but now the tape was completely empty.
Then Anne contacted me via her headphone. She said she had pictures of that strange thing on her aircycle camera. She sent the data to my home computer.
The recording showed how the character jumped on the roof and said hey. After that it stood there for a while, then moved at us. We were probably sleeping by then. The record showed some light blue sparkles, almost like small lightning strikes, from where the character and we were. The image also had some disturbance. Then it stopped and I saw the character again. It walked on the roof edge and stood there for a while, looking down. It looked first at the camera in the aircycle and then at us sleeping. Then I saw the strangest thing I had ever seen. A light blue, sparkling field of little lightning strikes reached from the character's head into our direction. The record had some disturbance again. The field moved and changed for a while and then withdrew itself back into the character's head. The disturbance stopped. Again the character stood there for a while, and then jumped up, out of sight. I did not see it again.
Those lightning strikes must have destroyed my tape. Why the character did not destroy the tape in the aircycle? Maybe it did not know it was there.
At least now I had some base for my story. I got back to writing it.
Alerin came back home at four. He was supposed to get out from school at two.
To all my surprise, he had brought a girl with him. I could not believe my eyes. I stood there and questions flew through my mind. The girl had black hair, she looked Japanese and she was smaller than Alerin, but looked older.
"Hey dad", he said and went to the kitchen. The girl followed him. Alerin took some muffins and they started eating. I was about to ask who she was, but she spoke before I could.
"I'm Kadeh." I stood there for a while, dumbfounded.
"Alerin, don't you really have anything to say?"
"Well... I do... but you won't understand."
"I will." I sat down on a chair. Alerin and Kadeh were sitting on the other side of the table, next to each other.
"I don't think so..." Alerin was quiet. I looked at Kadeh. She looked at me. Her dark blue-green eyes set a mind-piercing glare on mine, and for some reason I felt pretty unpleasant while she looked at me. It was very strange. I had never felt like that when a person just looked at me. We did not speak.
"I'm a telepath."
I was shocked. I sat there and thought about the sentence she just said.
Was she really a telepath? I could not believe it. How could she be a telepath? Was she reading my mind?
"I am a telepath. A mutant."
She was a mutant telepath. I was still shocked and did not quite believe her. Was she Alerin's girlfriend or something? They were too young. I wanted to hear more.
"I'm an orphan. My parents were killed in the Russian mutant revolution." That made sense... The Russian mutant revolution had ended four years ago. The Russians had declared all of their mutant population under arrest and tried to eliminate them all. They had noticed how difficult it was to actually even define a mutant and ran into all kinds of difficulties. I had been there for a few months myself. It was terrible, and I wondered how any human could survive there, not to even mention the mutants. At least that taught the rest of the world how not to handle the mutant situation. I could not figure out how on Earth she had survived. "Before they died... They taught me to use my telepathy so that I could control people's minds. So I got away in a refugee ship. I kept traveling an' ended up in Australia. I didn't like Australia. It was too hot and I couldn't live anonymous there. Then I moved here. It was better here." It made sense to me. I thought about her words. That must mean that she is illegally in this country and unregistered.
Kadeh sighed and looked at her hands. "I'm alone. It's hard..." She looked at Alerin.
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Can she live in our house?"
"... What?!" Kadeh startled. How could I let an illegal, unregistered mutant stay at my house? There was no way! She would have to be registered... And I thought I still would not let a mutant stay in my home. I would not let my son go out with a mutant! She could read our minds! I would report her!
Kadeh clearly knew what I was thinking, she was almost panicing. She got up, backed away and ran past me. She ran out.
"Dad!" Alerin got up. He looked angry.
"You stay there, young man! You can't just go around with an illegal mutant like that!" Alerin tried to get past me, but I grabbed his arm. "Stay put!" I left him and went to the front door. Kadeh was standing there, peeking at the house, waiting, and started running after she noticed that I was going to catch her. I heard the kitchen door bang. Alerin had ran out. Kadeh ran onto the street and took Alerin's hand. She started running and partly dragged Alerin along. She was running very fast and Alerin could not have kept up with her.
I took my air cycle and went after them. I was much faster. Alerin looked at me. Kadeh let Alerin go and ran away like a gust of wind. She sure was a mutant; I had never seen anyone run so fast. I could not have caught her probably even if I had speeded up to the maximum speed. I picked Alerin up and put him in front of me.
"You got yourself grounded, young man! I'll take you to school every day and I'll come pick you up every day! You can't go out with that mutant!" Alerin put his head down.
I took Alerin to his room.
I would have to write up that story about the strange character. Could it be that Kadeh was that character?
Kadeh was smaller than the character. I think. Then I started thinking what the character could be. It could be Kadeh. A mutant. A mutant telepath. An experienced telepath. It could make us sleep like that. I did not figure out how it could produce those small light blue lightning strikes though and destroy my tape. Maybe it had a some kind of electrical weapon to do that. But how come it came for its head? And what would a mutant need in research centers?
Perhaps I could ask Alerin what he knew about telepaths. I could just as well ask if that mutant Kadeh was the reason he had become so strange. ... Kadeh had manipulated my son's mind and made him like that! I was angry. I did not know. I went upstairs. The door of Alerin's room was open. Alerin was not in there and not in the bathroom either. I looked for him in the house but could not find him. He had escaped.
Worrying, I was about to call Anne and report this strange case. Then I thought about it for a while. I surely did not want all that trouble. I and Anne might even lose our jobs. It was all too risky. I did not know what I would do. I hated being helpless.
Thinking of all the possibilities, I decided that if Alerin was not back by tomorrow, we would report him missing, telling that we had seen him with an illegal mutant. If he came back, I would lock him in his room and make sure he does not interact with that mutant again. If he brought that mutant with him, I would shoot her unconscious and take her to the police station.
When Anne came home at six, I told her what had happened and she supported my plans. We were terribly worried about Alerin. What had that mutant done to him?
I finished the story, took some stills from the tape and put them on the story. I sent it to my boss. He said he liked it and it was going to be published in tomorrow's paper.
I was worried.
Alerin came home at nine. I was prepared to drag him into the kitchen and question him. He did not move his finger to stop me – he actually walked to the table by himself. Me and Anne sat at the other side of the table.
"So?" I asked. Alerin just looked at us. His eyes were empty. What had that mutant done to him?
"Ya think there is something I'd wanna or could tell ya?"
"What has that mutant done to you?"
"Expanded my view on the world, if ya really wanna know. An' she hugged me too."
"Don't you understand that those mutants are dangerous? And she can read your mind! She could be controlling your mind right now!" Anne said.
"Why don't you then kill me if that's what you feel?!" We did not say anything. "What does it matter if I am controlled by a mutant?! I don't feel any different! I feel better than before! If that's what it's like to be controlled by a mutant, YES PLEASE! Does it make any difference to YOU, huh?!"
I was shocked. I almost felt like crying. Anne was crying. She got up, walked away and I followed her. We went to our bedroom and we both wept.
"What on Earth has that that mutant done to him?!" Anne leaned on my shoulder.
"He was so nice before..." I stroked her hair.
We kept talking about him and that mutant, but could not reach a solution that would have some sympathy on the mutant. We would not allow Alerin to see her again.
We went back to the kitchen, but Alerin was not in there. He had gone to bed.
"Alerin?" I knocked on his door.
"Uhh... Dad! Can't I sleep?"
"We need to talk to you now."
"Couldn't it wait till morning? I wanna sleep."
"No." I opened the door and switched the lights on. Alerin lay on his bed and squinted at the bright light.
"It's about Kadeh, isn't it? I knew I shouldn't have brought her here... Why was I so stupid?"
"Alerin, you can't be with her anymore", Anne said. "It's way too dangerous, and illegal. She would need to be registered."
"Okay then! Whatever you say!" We were rather surprised. Was he really cooperating with us? He looked sad and turned his face away from us. Anne put her hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it away. "If I don't get to be with her, then I'll see that you get enough of me! This is unfair!"
"We'll take you to school every day and pick you up every day, okay?"
"Whatever!" He sounded so sad, he was probably crying. We left.
In the morning Alerin was in a bad mood. He kept just grunting at us and did not really say anything. I took him to school and as he walked into the school area, it was as if he had a black cloud over him, following.
I got to work and worked out some facts about the research institutes. I started writing a more detailed story, telling about the institutes and the possible connections the figure had with them. I got some information from two of the institutes near which the figure had been seen. This story wasn't going to be published yet, maybe just before Christmas or even after it.
I worked out all the possible logical twists of the pattern in which the figure was visiting the research institutes. Today the figure would probably either be taking a break, be again at Biotech or at The North American Physics Institute. Of course I could not be absolutely sure, but these were my best guesses at least. I called Anne. She said that almost all of the institutes were going to have increased security tonight and from here after until the figure goes away. She was going to be around Biotech. I then decided to go NAPI.
It was almost three p.m. I was late! I was supposed to pick Alerin up at two! Gods... How could I be so careless?
I took my car and speeded to Alerin's school. I was not exactly driving by the speed limit but fortunately no one caught me. I stopped in front of the school and just when I was about to get out from the car, Alerin came from inside and into the car.
"I'm so sorry, Alerin... I got carried away with my work an' didn't notice the time."
"Duh. ... But ya can't make it up to me by letting me to be with Kadeh, huh?" He didn't seem as rude as in the morning, but he was not surely happy either.
"Of course not! I'll get you a hamburger or french-fries or ice cream..."
"Don't bother then. Hmph!" Alerin crossed his arms and looked out of the window. I started the car and started driving. We were quiet for a while.
"How was your school?" Alerin did not respond right away.
"Whatever."
"Alerin."
"Who cares!"
"I do."
"You don't."
"I DO."
"Hmph!"
Alerin managed to make me grumpy too. I was quite annoyed.
We arrived at home.
"Gosh you suck, dad."
"Excuse me, young man?!" Alerin walked inside and I went after him. "What did you just say?"
"Who cares!" Alerin ran upstairs and slammed his door. How could he do that?! Say that his own dad sucks?! We have had so good times together! How can one goddamn mutant come and change it all just like that?!
Sitting rather violently on the couch in our living-room, I threw the pillows around a bit. It did make me feel a bit better, but I was still very angry and bitter about Alerin. I could not do much. I started again working on the story, but could not really write anything sensible. I was too angry, and that surely showed in my text. It was terrible. But it was only a draft.
Anne came home and I told her what had happened. She went to Alerin's room and gave him a long speech. I did not go with her, I was still too unstable.
Anne came back rather upset, but she told she had made Alerin understand the situation. Maybe everything would turn out fine after all.
At night we went to our positions, and, to put it frankly, nothing happened. What a waste of valuable time. At least I got to chat with the NAPI security.
I took Alerin to school again, and he was still grumpy and annoyed.
The boss assigned me a small but interesting story about a superhero fight at the city docks. I wrote something about that along with the story about the strange figure.
The time was two and I practically jumped to the ceiling. I should have been at Alerin's school picking him up! I had missed it again, just barely! No... Today Alerin would get out at three. Thank god.
I pondered where I would spend this night. I thought dreamily about my bed at home. This case was important, and I could not do it sleeping at home. I would again go to NAPI.
As I went to pick up Alerin, in my opinion, he looked and felt now much better than in the morning or the day before. I did not dare to ask him anything yet though. He answered my question about the school Christmas party with "I think it's gonna be nice" and left it at that. I did not want to push him further and asked no more questions.
I met her four months ago. It was still summer vacation and I was walking home. I'd been skateboarding with some of my friends. I went past my school. I saw her swinging in the swings. She was small, shorter and smaller than me and she looked Japanese, I think. She had black shiny hair and dark eyes. She looked just the way like it was a pause and she was just swinging before she had to go back to class. But it was evening and summer and the school was over. I yelled to her:
"Hey! What're ya doing there? It's summer! There's no school!" She didn't answer me. "Hey! I'm talking to you! You!" She looked at me.
And I'd never forget that feeling.
It was like she literally came into my mind and flipped through my mind like a book or something. She took a glance at everything, even those things I'd probably ever tell anyone. I think they're not even important to me. But she just came, read my mind and smiled at me.
I ran away. I wept. I wasn't scared. I came back and she was still swinging there. She looked at me again but didn't read my mind. I asked her:
"Who are you?" She didn't answer me. I went closer. "What's your name?" It was like her name appeared from nothing. She smiled and her name was there. Kadeh.
I looked at her. I liked looking at her. I went to the swing next to her. We swung there.
"Do ya wanna try my skateboard?" I asked her. I wanted to see her falling down with it. She came off the swing and took my skateboard. I stopped the swing and looked at her. She stepped on the skateboard. She hadn't done it before, I could see how she was unstable. She put her other foot down and moved the board. She went slowly, but didn't fall. She took some more speed. She went straight and didn't fall. I liked the sound the wheels made. She stopped and turned the board around with her hands. She didn't know how to turn. She took some more speed. She tried turning. She turned a little. She did it again. She went around the swings.
She kept on going around the swings and I liked looking at her. I kept thinking what she was doing wrong and what looked nice. She always corrected her movement the next time she was doing something that she had done wrong. She really learned quickly. It'd taken me half a year before I could do what she's doing when I got my skateboard. I didn't know how she did it. And she didn't fall.
She hadn't jumped this far. I thought how she could press down the end of the board and make it jump. She did it. The board jumped a little but she couldn't get back on it. The board went upside down and she stumbled a little. I thought how I would do it. I could do it. She got back on the board and tried jumping again. She didn't make it this time either, but she almost got back on the board. I knew she didn't know how to time her landing. She tried again. I watched closely how she was doing it. This time she made it and she stumbled a little after she'd got back onto the board, but she still didn't fall. She kept jumping and got better.
"Can you give it back to me now?" I asked. She gave the board back to me and sat on the swing. I started jumping with my board and she watched me. I felt how she was watching me. I liked it.
I stopped after a while and went to the swing next to hers. She was sitting sideways on the swing. I sat on mine the same way so we were facing each other. We looked at each other. Her eyes were dark red. I liked the way she looked at me. I felt her inside my mind. I liked that.
"Can you speak?"
"Yeah." She really answered me and the answer didn't just appear to my mind.
"Why didn't you speak before?"
"I didn't want to."
"Why?"
"I like speaking the other way better."
"Why? Don't people freak out when you do that?"
"I don't usually talk at all."
"Oh. Where are you from?"
"Russia."
"Do you speak Russian?"
"Yeah."
"How do you know English?"
"It's easy to learn." We were quiet. She smiled at me.
"I like you." She smiled even more.
"Thanks."
"Can you read my mind?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"How's it possible?"
"I'm just a mutant, that's all."
"I haven't seen a real mutant before. I've seen some in TV. ... Shouldn't you be in some mutant school?"
"Ehh... I'm illegal... I can't."
"Uh... Aren't you... registered?"
"No."
"Shouldn't you be registered?"
"Yeah."
"Why don't you go and tell them to register you?"
"I know they'd take me to prison or something... I'm not even supposed to be in this country."
"Oh. Uh... what do you do then?"
"I try to survive."
"I think you're doing pretty well." She smiled at me again. "How old are you?"
"Twelve."
"Me too." I still felt her inside my head. It was starting to feel really nice. "Where do you live?"
"Here."
"Where here?"
"Just somewhere."
"Don't you have your own house?"
"No."
"Where do you live then?"
"Here. Outside, on the streets?"
"Oh? How can you do that?"
"Well... I shouldn't... an' it's hard... but that's the only choice."
"Oh... I think I could ask my parents if they'd wanna take care of you?"
"Ehh... I don't know... They'd probably report me and send me to the police."
"No they wouldn't. ... Or... uh..."
"I don't think I want to... I can manage here."
"In the winter too?"
"Yeah, though it gets quite cold... I don't know..."
"I could ask my parents."
"Ah... I don't know..."
"Uh..." She was quiet. And I couldn't figure out what to say either. "So uh... did ya like my skateboard?"
"Yeah." She smiled. "I wanna get one too."
"Cool. ...But how can you buy one if you don't have parents?"
"I'll just steal it."
"Sweet." I looked at the clock on the school wall. The wall was yucky yellow. The time was almost nine p.m. "Crap... I'm supposed to be at home at nine... I gotta go. Uh... Will you be here tomorrow too?"
"I don't know... If you wanna see me, I guess I can."
"Okay, great. So you will be here?"
"Sure."
"Cool. I think you're a cool kid." She smiled at me. I liked it. "Bye bye!"
"Bye..." I left and I thought she just stayed there and kept swinging.
Mom and dad weren't that angry at me. I didn't tell them about Kadeh yet because I thought they were going to get a lot angrier. I went to sleep.
Tomorrow morning mom and dad were having again one of their debates. It was boring. I just had breakfast, left and went to play with some of my friends. We went to a park and did some sword fighting with sticks and then went skateboarding. We went to eat at my best friend's house and I called home and told where I was. At about four I was going home and I decided to go then to the school and wait for Kadeh.
Kadeh was there already, and she had her own skateboard now. She was doing some pretty neat stuff with the board.
"Hey Kadeh!"
"Hey Alerin."
"Ya got a skateboard too now, that's cool."
"Yeah."
"An' you can do some pretty cool stuff with it too."
"I could do some cooler too, but I don't want to upset people... because it isn't really normal I think."
"Huh? There's only me here... I don't mind if it looks weird."
"Yeah... It's because I'm a mutant an' can do some stuff normal people couldn't... but those two are watching me too." I was a bit surprised. Kadeh pointed at the bushes, and there were two kids watching at us. I think they were laughing. They hid when I looked at them. They left too.
"Oh... I saw them. Why didn't you then tell them to go away or something?"
"I didn't mind them watching me... an' they helped me, just like you. They were just thinking about all the stuff I was doing wrong and then I corrected everything. It's nice."
"Were you reading their minds? Wow. Did you read mine too?"
"Yeah... Some people think it's really bad... I hope you don't mind... because I can't help it..."
"Not really... I don't really even have that much secrets or anything so..." Kadeh smiled again. I think she smiled a lot but I liked it. "Well, those kids went away. Can you do the weird thing now?"
"I think so..." Kadeh got on the board and went to the far end of the playground. Then her started running, really fast. I couldn't believe anyone could run that fast. It really looked weird but it was really cool. She got on the board and she was going really fast. She was going to hit the climbing rack!
"Look out!" And then it got really weird. She just jumped, and got on the roof of the climbing rack! She went over the roof and landed on a roofless rack with metal bars. She slid down on it and then went at the slide. She went a little bit up the slide, then turned, came down and did a salto in the air! She got back on her board and came to me. She was awesome! "That was frigging awesome! How could you do it?"
"Well uh..." I think she blushed, and she really smiled at me. "It's not that hard really. An' I can run fast because I'm a mutant."
"Oh geeze that was awesome... I wish I could do that..." At least now she blushed. "How fast can you run?"
"I don't know... But faster than any people at least. An' dogs. An' some cars I think."
"You wanna run with me?" She laughed a little.
"Heh... y'know... you wouldn't stand a chance against me..." She looked down and smiled.
"Well I wanna try anyway!"
"Okay then..."
"Wanna start there?"
"Sure." We went to the nearest side of the playground.
"Let's run to the other side."
"Okay."
"Okay... on my mark, three... One... two... three!" She went like a lightning! I had just got a few feet from the starting place and she was already at the other side! I stopped and stood there my mouth open. I felt like laughing. Kadeh ran back to me. "Y'know with that speed you'll sure go faster than cars! You just went all 'zoom'!"
"He he he!" Kadeh smiled and blushed again. I think she liked when I told her she was awesome. "Yeah! I like it! No one's ever told me that I'm awesome! An' you really mean it too!" She hugged me! It felt really cute, and I hugged her back.
"You know, I didn't say so, but I was thinking it... same thing I guess." I smiled at her the way she smiled at me.
"You did say that! He he!"
"No I didn't!"
"Yeah you did!"
"No, I said what ya did was awesome, not that you were awesome... but that's true too, I just didn't say it exactly like that, but that's what I think anyway! I think you are awesome, really!" She giggled and nudged her head against my chest. It felt funny but nice.