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 Tom's choice By Terris Copyright 2001

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Permission to archive is also granted.

   Disclaimer: Please note that the material you are about to read is
erotica and has sexual content (in later chapters).  If this type of
material is illegal in your area or if you are underage, please do not
scroll down any further.  By reading on further, you acknowledge that you
are of age and it is not illegal to read this type of material in your
area.

   Book1 Chapter 1: The Discovery

   Tom Williams had been wandering in the woods for a couple of hours deep
in his thoughts.  He was not looking where he was going and suddenly he
fell into a hole in ground.  He did not hurt himself, but the problem was
that there was no way he could get out of the hole.  He had been walking
near a hill on an area that was full of huge boulders.  He had fallen into
a gap between these boulders.  One side of his prison consisted of a rock
wall on top of which there were some small pines growing.  The other two
sides were huge boulders leaning each other.  He could not get a hold of
anything and he could not jump high enough to get out.

   "This is just perfect", he thought.  "Life sucks and now I am stuck here
without any way out and nobody knows where I am."

   "Why should I even try to get out of here?  I could just lay down and
wait for death." Tom Williams had had these thoughts for some while and he
could not find any real meaning in his life.  To him it seemed that most
people did not have any meaningful goals in their lives.  They were just
living day by day seeking whatever pleasure they could find during their
meaningless journey through their lives.

   Some struggled to get as much money as they could.  He knew how their
life would go.  They would think that life was unfair and they would newer
have enough.  Their first target could be one million dollars, but if they
would get so much, they would notice that it was not enough.  They would
want ten million, then a hundred million and so on.  Nothing was enough. 
And more they would get, the more scared they would be about losing their
money.

   Then there were those that tried to gain as much pleasure as possible
during their miserable lives.  Some tried to get it from sex, some from
alcohol and some from drugs.  He had seen the bad results.  Sex without
real feelings leaves person emotionally damaged.  Alcohol destroys your
brain cells and this was terrifying for Tom because he thought his brains
were his greatest asset and hi avoided everything that could damage them.
Drugs were no better.  Many of them had severe physical side effects and in
any case Tom did not believe that it would be good to make your worries or
bad feelings go away by taking some pills.  He was afraid about their
physical, emotional and psychological effects so he was strongly against
them.

   Some people tried to improve human knowledge about universe and it's
laws, but Tom thought that everything would be figured out eventually.  His
help in research could only quicken the process and from his point of view
that was worthless.  There were people who tried to be good and some even
tried to help others.  Tom respected these people, but that could not be
the full meaning for his life.  There had to be something better!

   Tom tried his everything to get out, but it was impossible.  There was
nothing the could get hold of, the surface of the cliff was too smooth to
get a grip and the boulders were leaning so that the hole was bigger from
the bottom and there were no sharp edges to get a hold on.  There was just
one big root, which at first gave him hope, but when hi tried to reach it
he noticed that it was almost twenty centimeters higher than what he could
reach by jumping.

   Tom kept thinking about his meaningless and worthless life for an hour,
but decided then that even though life had no meaning, he could not bring
the sorrow of his death to his family.  He loved his dad, mom and younger
sister Sandy too much to let them down by letting up like that.  He made up
his mind and promised to himself to get out.  Once he had made his mind he
never gave up trying.

   He stood up again and kept staring at the root, which defied all his
efforts to reach it.  He really wanted to be higher.  Everything would be
OK if he just could get a little higher.  He just kept staring the root and
wanting to get higher.  Usually when he was angry, he would just stare down
anyone who irritated him.

   Gradually his anger built up.  How could everything be so wrong?  There
was this root which offered him perfect way to get out, but the hole was
just a little too deep.  He stared at the root and wanted to be closer to
it.  He stared it so intently that it seemed to slowly get closer.  He
gathered all his might and jumped.  He was really surprised when his hand
reached the root that he almost let go, but he got his composure back
quickly and took good hold of the root with both hands.  Then he swung his
right leg on top of the cliff and was able to roll himself out of the hole.


   He was astounded that he was able to jump so high.  The root had seemed
to be so high up that he would never have expected to jump high enough.  He
knew that he could jump about 70 centimeters up with couple step speed
(that is, he could touch something that was 70 cm higher that what he could
reach without standing tiptoed).  When he was looking down to the hole, he
began to doubt what he had done.  The ground seemed to be too far away.

   He decided to measure how high he had jumped because he believed this
would be his new record.  He found long, almost straight branch lying on
the ground nearby.  He had to lay down on the ground to reach the bottom of
the hole with the branch.  He made a small mark on the branch where he was
holding it and then checked where the root was compared to his arm.

   When he got home, he immediately went to garage to measure the branch
and his arm up to where the root had been.  Then he subtracted his length
with extended arm from that.  The result was that he had jumped 92
centimeters!  He knew that this was impossible.  He had not had any speed
and he knew that it was impossible to improve his best by 20 cm just like
that.

   He left the branch to garage and went inside to eat something.  Nobody
else seemed to be home.  His mother was away for the weekend on a business
trip (she was away often on business trips) and his dad was probably in his
laboratory on the basement.  Tom's dad was a scientist and interested in
theoretical physics.  He had been studying gravity (nobody knows what it
is, they just know what it does) and light.  He usually spent his days
locked up in his lab and ate some sandwiches when he felt hungry.  Sandy
(Tom's sister) had probably gone to Pam who was her best friend.

   Tom made a couple of salami sandwiches and ate them while thinking where
he could have made a mistake when he was measuring the depth of the hole.
He could not find any possibilities.  His dad had taught him to think
methodically and use scientific methods in problem solving.  He figured
that only way to make sure was to go back there and measure the depth
again.

   He took some strong rope and a 3-meter scale with him and went back to
the hole to measure it, but the root was 92 cm higher from the bottom of
the hole than where he could reach.

   He tied the rope securely to the tree and climbed back down.  No matter
how hard he tried there was no way he could reach the root anymore.  He was
always about 20 cm short.  There really was no way he could jump high
enough to reach the root.  But he had reached the root and that was a big
problem for him.  There were only three possibilities: he had jumped 20 cm
higher without speed than his earlier record, but he did not believe this
was possible.  The second option was that the root had been lower than it
was after he had climbed out, but he did not believe this either.  It
looked exactly same than before and he could not think anything that could
have moved it.  Third option was that he had been higher than the bottom of
the hole.  This did not seem to be possible, but he knew that some believed
in levitation and psionics.  He did not believe in that, but it seemed to
be only possibility that would explain how he got out of the hole.





   Chapter 2: Experimenting

   Tom was feeling excited and dubious same time.  Yesterday evening he had
figured that the only possibility was that he had levitated about 20 cm of
the ground.  That seemed to be the only possibility, which would explain
how he got out of a hole where he had fallen.

   He had went to bed early, but had lain awake very long thinking any
other possible explanations, but he could not find any.  Then he had
decided that the only way was to test if he could repeat it.  He had
figured that he did not need to go back to the hole.  He had planned what
he would try.  He would need a video camera to make sure that he was not
imagining things.

   After breakfast his dad said: "How about if we would do something today
together?"

   "I'm going to mall with Pam today.  Couldn't you do something together?"
replied Sandy.

   "Sorry dad, I also have some plans for today." said Tom.

   "You two are always so busy.  Couldn't you arrange some time so that we
could be together?" Tom's dad complained.

   "Of course, dad.  We would love to spend some time with you and mom, but
we just have plans for today.  We should plan it a little beforehand", said
Sandy.

   "Yes, I see" replied Tom's dad letting the subject drop.

   After the discussion Tom went to garage to test if he really could
levitate.  He set up a video camera to record the experiment and using a
ladder he tied a chocolate bar hanging from the roof.  He figured that
yesterday he was forced to levitate by stick and he was hoping that carrot
would work as well.

   He set the ladder aside, started the camera recording and went to stand
below the chocolate bar.  He started focusing on the chocolate bar,
thinking how good it would taste.  That mouth watering chocolate bar.  He
really wanted to taste it.  He kept trying for half an hour, but nothing
happened.

   Tom was disappointed, but he did not give up.  There had to be something
he did wrong.  He tried to remember what he did the day before.  He had
wanted to get closer to the root!  Now he had been thinking how good
chocolate bar would taste and had just wanted to get the bar.  He had not
thought of getting closer to the bar.

   Tom rewound videocassette in the camera and started it recording again.
He tried really hard to get himself closer to the chocolate bar, but it was
no use.  Nothing was happening.  He had to think for a while again.

   He thought that maybe if he can not get to the chocolate bar, maybe he
could get the bar to come to him.  He restarted the camera recording after
his pause and went back to try to get the chocolate bar moving.

   Tom stared the end of chocolate bar and tried to pull it to him.  He
just stared it and thought how it would bend down to him.  He was startled
when the chocolate bar suddenly tilted a little.  He had to shake his head
and rub his eyes, but when he looked again, the chocolate bar was still
shaking a little.  He went back to the video camera and rewound the film a
little.  Then he played the film watching it from small display on the
camera.  He saw himself standing there for a long time, but then there was
something on the top of the display.  He could not be sure, but he thought
that he saw the chocolate bar moving.

   He had to go inside and what that part again from a bigger TV.  There he
saw that something had tilted the chocolate bar a little and then it had
been released, because it had kept moving for a while.

   Tom buried the video film wrapped into several plastic bags into their
garden to make sure no one else found out what he was capable of.  He knew
that everyone would think he was a freak and get scared.  Tom spent the
rest of the day in the garage trying to pull the chocolate bar and
experimenting with other objects.  He noticed that he could move lift
objects like a small piece of wood and he got the chocolate bar to move a
lot, but could not pull it down.

   Chapter 3: Growing stronger

   For the following week Tom spent a lot of time in garage testing his new
ability.  He noticed that he was becoming better slowly.  He was able to
break that thin line he had fist used to tie the chocolate bar and after
that he had changed to trying to lift himself up so that he could reach the
bar.  He could feel himself getting lighter every time, but he could not
yet lift himself in the air.

   He also learned that it became easy to lift very light objects, but
moving them around in the air was difficult.  So he started practicing his
coordination by moving a Ping-Pong ball in circles on air.

   Tom felt that he had grown much stronger during the week and had also
learnt some control.  He was able to use his power much easier and it did
not need as much concentration than in the beginning.  This weekend was one
of those rare occasions when their mother was home for whole weekend.  They
all had agreed on going for a picnic on Saturday morning.

   They had very good time chatting about school and what they would like
to do during summer break which was coming in less than two months.  Tom
also talked with his dad Eddie about his research.  Tom knew that he could
not help with the mathematics, but talking helped his dad to organize his
thoughts and sometimes Tom was able to help his dad to think something new
by going through all possibilities with his dad.

   Then Tom and Sandy were sent away for a while so that Eddie and Charlene
(the mother) could have some time of their own.  They were used to this, so
they decided to go for a long walk in the woods.  While they were walking,
Sandy tried to start conversation, but Tom kept thinking how he could
improve his ability.  He knew that he could lift and move objects but he
did not know what limits he had.  He decided that he should look for
information about levitation, psionics and so on from the Internet.  After
he had made this decision he noticed that Sandy had not said anything for a
while.  When he tried to locate Sandy, she was nowhere to be seen.

   Tom panicked for a while and started calling: "Sandy!  Where are you?"

   "Up here!  On your left." Came the reply.

   Sandy was standing on the edge of a cliff looking proudly at her
brother. "Come up here", she said.

   "No Sandy.  That cliff is slippery.  Be careful that you do not fall",
warned Tom.

   "Ok, ok.  I'm coming down.  Eeeeeek!", screamed Sandy when she slipped
and fell over the edge of the cliff.

   Tom saw this and everything seemed to slow down.  He saw his sister lose
her balance and saw how she started to fall towards rocks that were lying
on the ground.  Tom felt first cold shiver run through him, then he felt
very hot and adrenaline started coursing though his body.  He was too far
to catch Sandy before she hit the ground and Tom was not sure if he was
strong enough.

   Instinctively he did what he had been doing for the past week.  He tried
to lift Sandy up and slow down her falling.  He saw how Sandy kept falling
and falling lower and lower.  His vision blurred from the exertion. 
Everything else faded into black except Sandy.  His heart was pounding very
fast and his head was about to explode.  Just before Tom fainted, he saw
how Sandy touched the ground, but he did not know how hard she hit it.

   ***

   Sandy had been talking to Tom about her plan to spend spring break on a
cottage their family owned.  She had tried to find out how Tom would feel
if she would invite Pam (her best friend) there, but Tom's thoughts were
obviously somewhere else.  For a while Sandy tried to get his attention
wondering in the same time about this strange absent-mindedness of Tom.  He
had been acting especially strangely for about past week or so.  She was a
little worried for his big brother, but she could not do anything about it,
"At least not now", she thought.

   She walked for some time quietly with Tom, but then she saw a cliff,
which seemed to be made for wall climbing.  She had tried for months to get
her parents' approval to start wall climbing as a hobby, but had not had
any success.  They always said it was too dangerous and her explanations
about all safety gear did not help.  It had been a mistake to ask them to
see a documentary where they showed more adventurous side of wall climbing
where they did not use any other equipment except good shoes and magnesium
carbonate to get a better grip.

   Now she decided to climb up just to get a feeling what it would feel. 
The climb was not so difficult and she reached the top easily.

   Just as she had reached the top and straightened out to stand there she
heard Tom calling for her.  She saw him standing down there alarmed looking
for her and called for him.  When she saw that Tom had seen her, she dared
Tom to climb the cliff also.  She knew that it would be no problem for Tom
because although he was not very muscular, Tom was agile and very fast.

   Tom did not want to climb up but instead told her to come down and
warned her that the cliff was slippery.  She had also noticed this, but she
had light hiking shoes, which were designed to give extra grip.  She
started to climb down, but suddenly her left foot slipped just as she was
reaching down and she fell backwards away from the cliff.  She let out a
long scream when she fell and waited for eternity for that painful moment
when she would hit the earth.

   She really feared paralyzing and she hoped that she would get only
smaller injuries or would die straight away.

   When she finally reached the ground, it was more like touching down than
bone breaking crash it should have been.  She was not seriously hurt even
though she had fallen at least 4 meters.  She just scraped her left elbow
to a sharp rock and hit her head lightly to solid ground, but it was just a
little sore.

   She thought how lucky she had been when she had gotten out of such fall
with so little damage while standing up.  Somehow it did not seem possible
to fall from so high, but she really was ok.

   "I'm ok Tom, I didn't hurt myself at all!  Can you believe that", she
yelled.

   She could not see Tom anywhere and he did not respond in any way.  Sandy
got a little worried and wondered where he had went.  When she saw Tom
lying on the ground, she immediately went over to him and asked: "Are you
ok Tom?  What happened?"

   When Tom did not answer she tried to shake him, then slap him lightly
and then tickle him, but nothing seemed to help.  She made sure that Tom
was breathing and noticed how pale he was.  He was also breathing quickly
and his pulse was very fast.

   She did not know what had happened, but she moved Tom to lay on his side
like she had been taught to put unconscious people on first aid course she
had attended while she was a Girl Scout.

   She thought about getting help, but she did not dare to leave Tom alone
for so long time (they were over a half-hour walk from their picnic place).
Slowly she saw how Tom's breathing slowed down to more normal speed and
color started to return to his face.

   She sat there thinking what had happened and even though it was
impossible, she started to suspect that Tom had something to do with her
not hurting herself on the fall.  She knew that she should have been badly
injured, but instead she was fine and Tom had fainted.  There had to be
some kind of connection.

   Then Tom moved a little and mumbled something and her trail of thought
was disrupted.

   Chapter 4: Excuses

   Tom was deep in a black well and as he slowly came closer to the
surface, his head started hurting more and more.  It was throbbing pain. 
As he finally came to his senses, he noticed he was lying on his side, but
when he tried to roll over, his head seemed to explode in throbbing pain
and he was just barely able to hold back a scream of pain.

   Slowly the throbbing pain ebbed away and he started to remember what had
happened.  Sandy had fallen off a cliff and he had tried to slow down her
falling using his new ability to move objects by concentrating on them hard
enough.  He had seen Sandy touch the ground but he did not know how badly
she was injured.

   When Tom opened his eyes he saw Sandy looking down at him.

   "Finally you woke up!  What happened to you?  What did you do to me?  I
did not hurt myself at all on that fall.  You must have done something
because you fainted!" Sandy kept asking in rapid fire.

   "Ummmm", was Tom's only reply.

   "Now come on.  Tell me what did you do so that I did not get hurt!"
Sandy demanded.

   "Not me.  Why you think I did something?" Tom was able to mumble.

   "You fainted and I did not get hurt on that fall"

   "I think I fainted when I thought about telling dad about my little
sister's death." Tom had been able to think a little and he tried to avert
Sandy's thoughts by calling her little.

   "Don't try that.  You know I'm almost 15, but what did you do?  Tell me
now!" Sandy demanded.

   "I swear I don't know why I fainted, and I didn't do anything.  You tell
me how come you did not hurt yourself?" Tom countered the question.

   "I don't know why I did not hurt myself.  It must have been something
you did because you fainted.  Are you telling me you just fainted from
nothing?"

   "I don't know why I fainted.  I just thought how I had to go back to mom
and dad and tell them you were dead because I did not watch you." Tom lied.
He was pretty sure he had fainted because he had tried so hard to lift
Sandy when she was falling.

   "Oh, mom and dad.  What we are going to tell them.  They will kill me if
they hear that I fell from a cliff.  Please Tom, don't tell them I fell,
please" Sandy pleaded.  Now she was afraid of their parents' reaction.

   "What will you give me if I do not tell them?" Tom asked.

   "I don't talk about your fainting if you don't talk about my fall."
Sandy replied smiling.

   Tom knew that if he would accept this, Sandy would get confirmation to
her suspicions that he had done something.

   "No way!  You have to do the dishes for a week." He demanded.

   "All right.  If I do dishes for a week, we both keep our mouth about
what happened here.  Deal?" Sandy agreed.

   "Ok.  Now let's get up and clean your clothes before we go back or they
will know something has happened."

   Sandy cleaned her clothes as well as she could, but there was some dirt
that did not come off.  "Oh well.  I was going to wash these anyway", she
thought.  They walked back in silence, both thinking their own thoughts.

   Luckily their parents did not notice anything wrong when they got back
and they packed their things and headed back home, as it seemed there was
some rain coming their direction.

   When they got home, Pam, Sandy's best friend was waiting there.  Usually
she called before she came over, but now she seemed to be upset because of
some reason.  Girls quickly excused themselves and scampered to Sandy's
room.

   Tom also went to his room because he wanted to hear what Pam had to
tell. He did not like spying, but he wanted to know what was troubling Pam
because he really liked Pam.  Tom thought that Pam was beautiful, but that
was not the main reason why he was interested in her.  Pam was intelligent,
considerate and active.  The intelligent part really attracted Tom, because
Pam was one of the few people outside his family who were interested in
same things as he was.  Tom had already found out that he could never stand
a stupid girlfriend who would just babble about TV-shows and school.  He
wanted to be able to discuss about thinks he had read and what he thought
about them.  Almost everyone in school thought he was weird because most
boys his age were interested in girls, cars and hi-fi-equipment while he
was interested science, space rockets and computers.  Of course he was also
interested in girls, actually very interested, but he did not talk about
them like others.

   Tom's room was next to Sandy's and he knew that if the girls did not put
any music on, he would be able to hear what was said in Sandy's room if he
would climb into his closet.  He closed the door to his room, moved some
clothes out of way and climbed into his closet.  Now he would be able to
hear what was said in the next room.

   "...  and they try to get my dad to let this one man free who has been
selling drugs.  Dad told me he is afraid they will kill him if he does not
do as they say." He heard Pam say.

   "What do you think he will do?" Sandy asked.

   "I don't know.  I don't think he will let the man go, because he is
obviously a drug dealer, but I'm afraid they will do something to him." Pam
cried.

   "Now come on.  Don't cry.  Your dad is a judge and the police will
protect him.  They can't do anything to him." Sandy comforted her.

   "Yes, you are probably right" Sandy said calming down a little.

   "I'm sure everything works out just fine, but did you hear what Sheila
did yesterday?" Sandy said changing the topic.

   "No.  Was it something with that Tony DiMarco or what?" asked Pam.

   Tom did not listen them anymore.  Instead he went to sit on his bed and
pondered what he had just heard.  He knew that Pam's dad was local judge,
but he had never thought that could be dangerous.  Now he knew that Pam's
dad was in danger and if those criminals were anything like what he had
heard about Mafia, also Pam would be in danger.  They might kidnap her and
threaten to kill her if her dad would not free that man who was charged of
selling drugs.  It seemed that Pam's dad did not think Pam might be in any
kind of danger.

   Tom decided to guard for Pam, just to make sure nothing bad would
happen. In any case he liked to look at Pam.  She wasn't disgusting in any
way, Tom thought snickering to himself.