Curiosity

Thousands upon thousands of hours of role playing games, comic books, fantasy novels, and movies prepare a person--to a certain extent--to confront the unexplainable with at least some level of aplomb. The possibilities were mind blowing. So I sat there for at least a minute just letting my mind be blown. If you've ever been in an already uncomfortable social situation that is suddenly interrupted by a full minute of stunned silence, you can imagine how awkward that was.

Finally, I mustered my first question, "What can you do?"

El breathed a small sigh of relief and sat down on one of the folding chairs in my "dining area," which was really just a space in the open floor plan that held a much-scarred table and several mismatched chairs. She smoothed her skirt and answered, "Mostly, my powers allow me to move things without touching them and to change physical objects."

I answered, nervously, "But you read my mind."

"Yep. That's pretty much a gift all witches have. It's a defensive ability that helps us stay one step ahead of those who don't like us or want to take advantage of us."

I thought back to my appraisal of my guest's backside, and she gave me a wry smile, continuing before I had to ask, "Hey! Don't worry about it. When you grow up reading people's thoughts and feelings, you have to learn pretty quickly not to hold things like sexual attraction against them. It's perfectly natural for a straight guy to check out a woman's ass."

Okay, I was a little reassured, but still blushed to the roots of my hair. El made a little gesture to regain my attention.

"If we agree on my moving in here, I'll give you a charm that will keep me from casually reading your thoughts," she said.

I nodded and moved on. "You said 'my powers' on the one hand and 'all witches' in regard to mind reading. Are there different powers for different individuals?"

El nodded eagerly, warming to her topic, "Absolutely. I can do physical stuff, but I can't change someone's thoughts or feelings. I can't do large-scale weather magic, or talk to animals, or a whole range of other powers. Some abilities are fairly common. Mine are pretty run of the mill. I've heard of other witches that have really rare powers, like teleportation. It varies in the same way that blue eyes, or nearsightedness, or athletic abilities vary in humans."

While El was explaining, I was trying to figure out what to ask next, but her use of the word "humans" blanked them all out. "Wait, you said 'humans.' Are witches not human?"

She gave me a half shrug and explained, "That's just the term we use to distinguish between people with powers and people without them. We look human, and we have the same strengths and weaknesses, for the most part. We can breed with humans, but sometimes the children won't have any magic. Now that the science of genetics has taken off, we're actually hoping to get more answers on that count. To be honest, we don't know whether witches are humans with extra abilities, or just close relatives."

I appreciated her honesty, and jumped to my next question, "Are your powers genetic, then? No pacts with demons at the Dark of the Moon?"

El laughed, and that was a beautiful thing. Her chin lifted, and her eyes sparkled, and the sound of it was unsettlingly pleasant to hear. After several seconds, she said, "No, silly. No demonic pacts necessary. There are a few things that witches know about that go bump in the night, and that most folks don't believe in any more, but they're not the source of our powers--and as a rule, they don't interact with non-witchy humans at all. Heck, most of them won't even talk to us. We only know about them because we look at the world a little differently."

Honestly, El's laugh did more to settle my nerves than all her explanations. I found myself unable to imagine telling this beautiful creature that I'd kind of been expecting my new roommate to be a guy.

Atypically for me, I decided to be bold. "I won't pretend that I'm not going to have a million questions later, El, but I'd really like you to be my new roommate."

She exclaimed, "Excellent!" and bounced a little on her chair. She immediately gave me a sharp look, though, and added, "Dean, there is one thing we have to be very, very clear about."

She paused, and I gave her my most serious, you-have-my-full-attention face. She continued, "You cannot tell anyone I'm a witch. I mean anyone. Ever. I can't explain fully, but we witches guard our secrets very, very jealously."

I started to toss off a blithe reassurance that of course I wouldn't tell anyone. After a moment, though, I made myself really think that through. And remembered that El could hear my thoughts and would know if I were being insincere. I settled it firmly in my mind, looked her in the eye, and said, "Your secret's safe with me."

"Excellent! When can I move in?"