NOVEL NEXT 232: My Name’s Switch
RORY
I know he wrote one more eclipse to go at the end of the last chapter, but to be honest, Slydar already wrote the best part of our trip on The Chaser, and I told ya about swimming with an octopus. We loved the rest of the holiday, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but the highlights have already been recorded, so I'm gonna skip forward to when we got home. When a totally different kind of eclipse happend: one of two hearts.
It was a couple of years after our trip about The Chaser that something happened with our son Switch.
Yeah, years. We're skipping forward in the story today, okay? That's how we roll here at the Known Cosmos Press. Life was busy, but fulfilling, and most of it's stuff you don't really wanna read about: grocery shopping, cleaning, folding laundry, and trips to the cabin. Kids growing up and moving on.
When Switch was twenty, something interesting happened, and I don't know if he'll ever tell ya the whole story, so I'm gonna give you the highlights.
Slydar already told ya about the nurse Sam who helped me when I was in labor with Switch. You remember, big, black guy that got Slydar all jealous. Sam and his husband Gray had a baby girl a year after meeting us in the hospital and put what they'd learned about telepathy to good use. So, that's the backstory. Here's the rest of it.
Guys! Mom! Dad! It was our son using his freaked out mental voice, so Slydar and I instinctively both sent out calming waves as though he was six weeks old waking in the night, crying, with a dirty nappy.
Then we saw in his mind what had him rattled. A pretty girl'd just entered the pet shop where he worked part time in between stream classes and his other part-time job at the skate park. Yeah, he'd gotten interested in reptiles and amphibians after his sister'd bonded Ori the salamander when they were kids, and he liked helping people at the pet store since he was so familiar with everything.
Standing behind the counter, unpacking crates of pet treats and dental chews, Switch asked the girl if she needed help.
Dancing from foot to foot, she bit her lip. "Um, I like, well, sorta know this girl with ah, em, kinda strange. But well, she needs, like, I think. Erm. Frozen mice?" she squeaked.
He nodded. "Sure, we've got plenty. For a snake, right? What size? The larger ones need the bigger frozen critters, but smaller ones, well, depending on the size, we've got some ready based on the meals needed."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The girl's shoulders relaxed, and her face softened. "Oh, you sound like you know what you're doing. I, uh, well, don't know."
"Is this a gift or a surprise? For a date?"
Her eyes shot up, "No, no, not a date. It's my cousin's best friend's birthday, and I told her I'd pick up the present. Kinda weird present, I guess, but she said this would make her day, so I wanna help."
Switch nodded, a little excited that it wasn't for a date but for a friend. "For sure. If she's got a pet snake, then givin' her frozen meals makes her life easy and keeps her companion happily fed, so all we need to know is which ones to pack up for you, and I can gift wrap them too."
"Really? That would be amazing! I, uh, well, don't want to even look at it, actually."
Switch chuckled, and I could feel him sending out calming waves to her, but her eyebrows sharpened.
"Quit that! You've got no business soothing me that way!" she snapped at my son who quickly back pedaled and stuttered.
"I'm— I'm so sorry! I apologize. It's just instinctual. My whole family are telepaths, but most of my friends aren't, so I forget. Sands, I feel so stupid, I don't even know your name, and Cosmos! Sorry!"
"No, no, I'm Priya, by the way. I just get touchy about it. I only know one other telepath— WAIT, did you say your WHOLE FAMILY is telepathic?"
"Yeah, like, a lot of us, grandpa, cousins, aunties, sister."
Priya's jaw hung open, eyes wide, and wave after wave of shock rolled off her. Watching her through Switch's eyes, I felt sorry for the girl 'cuz she was a telepath, but not well-trained, so my son could feel everything she was sendin' out. Oh boy.
Switch put up mental shields around himself to try to block the torrent she unleashed so he wouldn't be picking up feelings she didn't intend, and also so she wouldn't see that he was floored by how pretty she was. But he didn't cut me and Slydar off yet.
"My name's Switch, and I can introduce you to everyone, if you wanna meet more telepaths. They can tell you all about it, but first, let's find out the best food for that snake, eh? Should you call your cousin, or I can talk to her, make sure the size of snake?"
Priya nodded and pulled out a pad, then explained to her cousin about Switch who asked the girl what he needed to wrap up for the reptile. Once he was a sure he had the right-sized meals, he put the gift together then smoothly told Priya, "We're havin' a family picnic on Saturday at my grampa Slick's house. Wanna come and meet a bunch a rowdy telepaths? I got a lotta cousins our age. My sister'll be there too. It'll be fun."
She handed him her pad, "Gimme your ID, and I'll let you know."
Switch smiled at her back as she left the store, then we got no more of him the rest of the afternoon. But we got the family busy organizing a cookout for Saturday because, no, there hadn't been anything planned, and we weren't gonna let Switch down. It was his first date, after all, and that's the way the Joon family did things. We stuck together.
Oh yeah, Priya said "Yes," but that's all I'm gonna say about that today. If Switch wants to tell ya more, well that'll be up to him and the next generation of the Known Cosmos Earth Press.
You want more stories, make some noise. No one knows if they should keep writin' unless the audience tells them to keep goin.' So, you tell Switch and Bitsy if you wanna hear more from them. The Press always wants to hear from you!
