Glitches
Chapter 5
She wasn’t a Glitcher. A Shifter. An anything. Well, anything besides the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life that is. She couldn’t be. After the council had lifted the bounty on my head I had asked Sumner to ask around about her and everything came back negative. No one had heard of her, or they weren’t talking, which was probably more likely now that I look back on it.
After I had asked Sumner he had responded with “Yolanda much?”
“Yeah, about that.” I responded, and we both laughed together. It was all said in that five word exchange.
“So, who is this woman? What do we know about her?” asked Sumner, clearly interested in helping if at all possible.
“What I know about her I could fit in a thimble.” I took a swig of my Guinness which Sumner had introduced me to earlier this evening. Tonight was Sumner’s night to open my eyes to beers beyond Bud Light, Corona and Miller. He had laughed at me when I’d first ordered and then decided to turn my beer culinary experience upside down. So far I’d had a local IPA that literally my doors in, a German October fest pale of some sort that I’ve forgotten the name of now and a Guiness. I understood quickly why Sumner was such a beer snob. There was a lot more out there than just watered down American beers apparently.
“Let me try and start at the beginning.” I said as I studied the label, searching for the alcohol content. I was starting to feel an out of body experience not unlike glitching and I wasn’t use to quite to it. “I can probably draw you a picture of her face from memory. See left an impression let’s just say.” Sumner chuckled at that as he took a swig from his Tetley’s. “Large looping curls, very red hair… not the brunette red you normally see. Think Celtic and you’ve got it.” I searched my mind for distinguishing features as a picture of her eyes following me across the coffee shop hit me. “And she has startling green eyes.”
“Got it. Red hair color, green contacts… do go on.” Sumner laughed at that. But he was right. If she wasn’t natural or was wanting to hide even if it was, these features easy to change.
“Right. What else? She was able to track me as I glitched my way through the coffee shop. So I really thought someone would have easily recognized her.” I shook my head at this, confused at the incongruity of it.
“Well, just because the society doesn’t know her doesn’t mean anything. By the way, there are other powers and completely other societies she could be apart of.” He let that sit a minute and then finished off his beer, and placed his still frosted beer glass on the bar and hollered down for something called a Black and Tan. All the while I flipped my head back and stared at the ceiling. More powers? Seriously? When was the rabbit hole going to stop?
“Like what, pray tell.” As I asked I tried to stay as calm as possible.
“First, can you do this?” Sumner pulled out a quarter from his pocket and placed it on his hand. He took a glance this way and that to make sure the coast was clear. And then the quarter began to float up off his palm. And then it began to spin. Sumner cocked an eyebrow at me and then let it drop. “Well?”
“What in all that is good and holy was that?!” I asked. “Some sort of magic trick?”
“Well, yes. If any normal human just saw that I have an elaborate response about it being a magic trick I can give to explain it away. But no… that was a legitimate TK event. I floated the quarter using only my mind. Its very similar to…”
“Stop. TK?”
“Telekinesis. Its similar to glitching. Just a different part of your brain and requires a different set of reserve power. I can’t go any bigger than a quarter. I’ve tried. So its really not much more than a party trick for me. But I’ve watched from the shadows as a legit TK picked up a car and threw it.” Sumner shook his head at the memory of it.
“Are there more powers than telekinesis and stopping time? I think you should just lay it all out there for me.”
“Well, yeah… there are. But I think we should limit your learning for the night. You seem to be a bit frazzled. Never mind the beer buzz I see so clearly in your eyes!” At this Sumner laughed out loud. I was hacked at being put off on such a clearly fundamental question. But he was right, I definitely was feeling the beers – and another time would probably be better to discuss this in more detail. “So the girl. We were talking about the girl.” He was obviously changing the subject. “How many times have you seen her?”
“Just twice. The second time she put a not in my pocket while I was standing next to her mid-glitch.”
“Woah! Very cool! I thought you said she wasn’t a glitcher chief. How can you possibly think that if she thin-sliced your glitch to hand you a note? That isn’t simple stuff. I still have trouble controlling my slices accurately enough to make something like that work.”
“Well, no one in the society knows her. I just assumed.”
“Ha! You know what happens when you assume amigo!” He continued laughing at that. “You make an ass out of…”
“You and me both.” I finished. Right. “So where do I look to find this woman? How do I track her down? If only I could sustain a glitch indefinitely I could go through the city room by room… Wha?”
“That is ambitious. Speaks to just how good you are for that thought to even cross your mind. It normally hurts way too much to sustain one for too long. I don’t even enjoy the thought of a couple minutes worth. Do you really not feel it?”
“I don’t think so, no. Not like you describe it anyway. It feels more like the tunnel is collapsing and I’m losing control than it hurting.”
Sumner shook his head at that. “First the rewind and now the knowledge that your glitching is pain free. You are annoying me more and more by the second.”
“Sure, I responded, but I can’t do the quarter thing.” I laughed.
“Oh great. The quarter thing!” Sumner pushed away from the bar and began to yell in his loudest barker voice, “EVERYONE IN THE BAR, BEWARE THE QUARTER THING!” and then he fell over laughing.
“Alright, alright… we are going. I think we’ve had enough for one night.” I went to throw some money on the bar and Sumner stayed my hand. “I got this. This was my educational treat.”
