When dinner came that night Lauren decided to attempt to read the mind of the server.  She succeeded on the second attempt, but failed to make telepathic contact.  She also failed to disappear, that is, to drop below his level of notice, but then while he was in the room she was supposed to be his focus of attention, and it was a much more difficult trick to block someone’s memory than simply to make yourself unimportant in someone’s mind.

Once the delivery person left the room, she turned her attention to her remote senses, attempting in turn to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel anything beyond the walls of her room.  She had no success.  Nor could she lift the food from her tray telekinetically.  She sighed.  There was not much she could do.

Wait—there was a telekinetic skill she learned back in that first world, a sort of first lesson in telekinesis.  It wasn’t much, and she could not remember ever having used it after learning it, but it was just a nudge, a small push.  Maybe she could ping one of these French fries (always the French fries, finger food), or better, the asparagus (Lauren did not like asparagus and probably was not going to eat it anyway).  It took three tries, but she got it.  She couldn’t accurately move anything, but she could cause things to move.

She settled back on the bed.  It was time for a break.  There were more things to try, but for the moment she had two useful tools.

There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #277:  Versers Resettle.  Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter.  It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.

As to the old stories that have long been here:

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