Lance and the Big Telekinesis Show
One day, during lunch period, Annie Brickhouse demanded that Lance move to another table.
She claimed that she didn’t want to sit near him, because he was boring.
Lance was stunned by this. All day long, he couldn’t get the word out of his head.
Boring? Am I really boring?
Thinking it over, Lance realized that he probably was! This revelation made Lance
very angry, and so he decided that there was only one thing to do -- develop
telekinetic powers!
Telekinesis had always been Lance’s favorite paranormal phenomenon, but he’d never
considered dabbling in it, until now. He imagined how nice it would be to be able
to move things with his mind. People would line up to see him perform. They’d throw
money at him! Birch beer! Gummi candy! He’d have everything he’d ever dreamed of.
Then, he could use his power in horrible ways, to get even with Annie Brickhouse.
Later on, after dinner, Lance went right to his room. He found a marble, put it on
his dresser. Then he sat on his bed and stared at it. Concentrating as hard as he
could, he thought, Move marble. . . Move! Slowly at first, the marble began to roll
toward him. Then it picked up speed until, finally, it fell off the dresser and bounced
on the floor. Lance was thrilled. He had telekinetic powers!
He decided that there was no time to lose. Tomorrow after school, he would give a
performance in the garage. The whole town would come and be mesmerized by Lance’s
special talent. No one would ever call him boring again! Instead of sleeping that
night, Lance drew up fliers: BIG TELEKINESIS SHOW!!! they said.
COME SEE THE AMAZING LANCE MOVE OBJECTS WITH HIS MIND!
The following day, he posted them all over the grammar school. He bragged to his
classmates about his incredible powers. With awe, he spoke of the human mind --
how little we really know about it. Everyone, even Annie Brickhouse, seemed intrigued.
Lance was very excited! When school was over, he rushed home to get ready. But as
he was setting up in the garage, his sister, Mallory, walked in and started pestering
him, laughing. She didn’t believe in telekinesis. She wanted to know how Lance was
going to cheat -- was he going to use invisible threads and wires?
"No!" Lance insisted. His powers were for real. But, hearing this, Mallory just
rolled her eyes. Finally, to get rid of her, Lance put his marble on the table.
He told her to step back because it could be dangerous. Then he concentrated hard
and thought, Move marble. . . Move!
Nothing happened. Refusing to give up, Lance concentrated harder and harder until his
head hurt. Still, the marble wouldn’t budge. Suddenly, Lance had a thought -- a horrible
thought: What if he had telekinetic powers, but he couldn’t use them in front of other
people?! Lance had never heard of such a case, but the human mind was so remarkable,
it was surely possible, wasn’t it?
Lance realized that he didn’t have time to ponder this. Panicking, he found some
wire and string, and clumsily taped them to his props, while Mallory helped him,
snickering.
As people began to arrive, Lance nervously eyed the wire and string. They weren’t
really invisible. In fact, no one could miss them! And the Scotch tape was pretty
obvious, too!
With dread, Lance watched the garage fill up. He began the show by halfheartedly
mumbling, "Move marble. . . Move." Then he gave the string a tug, and the marble
began to roll. Before it got far, Annie Brickhouse stood up and yelled, "Look,
there’s a string! It’s so obvious!" Someone else cried out, "Lance is a fake!"
Then everyone started laughing and booing. Even Mallory joined in.
Lance wanted to defend himself, but instead, he ran to his room, crying, and
locked the door behind him. Now, he wasn’t just boring, he was a fraud! A liar!
"But I’m not a liar!" he insisted. "I’m not boring! I do have telekinetic powers!"
Defiantly, he turned to his dresser and thought, Move lamp. . . Move! And suddenly,
his lamp began shaking. Then Lance used his powers on his toys, his clothes, books.
Soon everything was floating above him, swaying and gliding exactly as he wished.
Lying in bed, he watched sniffling. It looked so beautiful! What a shame that no one
but Lance would ever be able to see it!
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