[ WP ] Your extremely specific superpower finally gets to be used .

When I was six my grandfather died. I do n't really recall him being alive any more, although I am told that he looked after me many times in my first few years. My only memory of him is from his funeral, the day I discovered my power. 
 
 He died by falling from the roof, trying to fix the TV antenna in high winds. Grandma apparently had told him he as a damn fool and as it turned out, she was right. He was too stubborn though, too determined that they'd watch The Price is Right and he climbed up on their roof and fiddled with the antenna until a gust lifted him off and left him thirty feet away on the driveway. 
 
 My Mom was pretty destroyed by his death. My dad was away in the army and his parents were her support. With him gone, a hole in her life opened up and his funeral was hard on her. For me it was just a strange day, with everyone wearing black and cookies on all the tables. 
 
 At the funeral home they laid him out in his best suit and I did n't really understand what was going on. My mom carried me over to him to take a look at the open casket and I just stared a the body, not really sure what she wanted me to see. 
 
 Later, when the adults were talking, I snuck back and pulled up a little stool, so that I could see over the edge of the coffin. His hear had been brushed back and it looked strange, he always wore it over his forehead and I wanted to help him look correct for my grandma. I thought I'd help. 
 
 I reached out and brushed his hair forward and the next thing I knew, I was being carried upstairs by my mom. She said that I'd fallen and must have hit my head, but I did n't *feel* hurt, I felt... different. 
 
 She took me to my room and I lay down and she sat with me in silence for a while and I turned to her, my mind filled with strange thoughts and I reached out and held her hand. `` It's going to be okay Kate.'' I told her and she looked at me with eyes wide in fear. `` I got to see you grow up, I got to see you become the woman you are today and I'm proud of you. I love you Katie-bird.'' 
 
 My mother dropped my hand and fled the room, running downstairs and returning a moment later with grandma and several of the mourners and for what seemed like an age they spoke to me and asked me questions. I did n't remember saying anything, I did n't know why I had said those things and eventually people decided that it had been my Mom's imagination, or possibly a strange thing I had heard my Grandfather say once. 
 
 Mom never forgot though, she knew that her father had not called her Katie-bird since she was a child. She knew that the voice that had come from me was that of her father and she knew that what I had said had come from him. 
 
 Time passed and eventually my mother stopped asking me about it and for a time things returned to normal. If things had gone differently in my life then perhaps I would have never known, this would have been a strange and forgotten story, buried in the'odd stuff kids say' file. That changed the day I turned eleven. 
 
 For my birthday I had asked to have a party and like all kids parties, my parents had hired someone to entertain, so that the parents of the kids could talk and drink, in the kitchen. In 1985 the best entertainment that you could hire for a kids party was a clown and my parents had found one who was able to do all sorts of tricks to entertain the kids. 
 
 I recall him making balloon animals and doing magic but then, about halfway through his show, he collapsed, holding his chest and falling down, unmoving. The kids around me screamed and ran, but I felt no fear. 
 
 My mother tells me that she came out of the kitchen to find me with my hand on his forehead and when she called me I turned to her and shrugged, saying “ Sorry lady, I guess no charge for the party, considering the circumstances. ” 
 
 This time though she was not alone and a dozen or so of the other children ’ s parents saw and heard me. The words, perhaps, could have been explained, but the voice, that was the voice of a man who had smoked all his life and there was no way for a child to make that voice. 
 
 My mother came to me, unafraid and sat with me. Looking back I think she knew what to expect and while the other parents hung back, she sat me down and for a few moments we spoke. She told me later it lasted about a minute and in that time I told her about my life and passed on several messages for the loved ones of the clown. 
 
 From that point onwards my life changed. 
 
 ***** 
 
 “ I can hold onto people for about six minutes. ” The woman looked close to tears, but I had found it was better to be business-like and not comfort people. “ After that he ’ ll be gone, for good. ” 
 
 She nodded and opened her bag and drew out a cheque book, but I held up my hand. “ Sorry, cash only. ” 
 
 She looked puzzled for a moment and then let the cheque book drop back into her bag. “ How long after can you… uh… how long until he is no longer… ” 
 
 “ About a week before he ’ s too far gone. After that I can ’ t reach them anymore. ” Another lie, along with the six minute one, but I had set some rules to protect myself and it was easier this way. 
 
 She nodded sadly. “ He…passed three days ago, but I only just heard about your… I only just knew… ” She was having trouble holding herself together and it took her a second to compose herself again. “ Thank you. Could we do this on Thursday? ” 
 
 “ The body will be at your house? ” The local undertakers were not fans of my work. 
 
 She nodded and handed me a small card with her address. “ I ’ ll have the cash waiting. ” She stood, slightly uncertainly and pushed out through the beaded curtains and back into the mini-mall. 
 
 The front of my shop was set up to be as cliché as possible. I ’ d long since learned that advertising my abilities made me a target. A mini-mall was perfect, it offered security, low expectations and cheap rent, while offering a location that people were not afraid to visit. Often they would be surprised that I was a man, but most had reached me by word of mouth and few doubted my ability to do what I said I could. 
 
 After a series of unfortunate events I had been driven from Colorado and now, with a slight life in New Hampshire, I was eager to keep myself protected. Being seen as a fraud was fine, it didn ’ t hurt business anyway. The fees I charged were enough to keep my extremely comfortable. Todays would buy me a new car and she was far from the only job I had on. 
 
 I closed up early, picked up a coffee from the small shop next door and wandered from the mini-mall. It was sunny outside and I had plenty of time to get across town for my evening job and so I took my time and glanced in the windows as I passed. 
 
 I had become accustomed to the occasional person who was out to call me a fraud. They assumed I was preying on the desperate and would hunt me down and confront me. They seemed to feel I would agree to be tested, to be challenged, but I demurred, letting the think what they wanted and offering no evidence to them. 
 
 A few had tried to trick me, booking my services, but none had been smart enough to use their own loved one and so I was able to tell at once and then feign difficulty getting a reading, or making things up. They seemed to happy when they caught me, often publishing little diatribes against me online, but it didn ’ t stop my business and most got bored eventually after ‘ outing ’ me. 
 
 By the reflection in the windows, there were three today, unusual as they normally worked alone. They were better than the normal lot, they switched off, passing me several times and plausibly pausing or going into shops. Perhaps they ’ d have fooled anyone else, but I knew how to spot and how to lose a tail and so I let them follow me for a while. 
 
 Here in the mall I would be safe, but outside they might try to do something stupid. Outside, *I* might have to d something stupid and so it was better to simply give them the slip. The hallway led to a bathroom and then some emergency stairs, but they led down to the other side of the building. I walked confidently along and slipped into the bathroom, knowing they would need to check both the toilets and also the stairs to see which way I had gone. 
 
 The windows were easy to pop from the frames and then push back in on the other side and a large pipe was quick and easy to shinny down. The locked bathroom door would confuse them for a while, but it was better to be gone before they figured it out. 
 
 I parked in the middle of the parking lot, normally a tactic to keep safe, but today, with people following me a possible liability. Still, getting back to my baby was always a pleasure. She was my only real luxury, a ‘ 71 Ford Torino GT, restored myself and in perfect order. Forest green with yellow trim, she was conspicuous, but worth it. 
 
 She started without a problem and her deep rumble was impatient and ready, but something was nagging at me. Three of them was a lot, too many to realistically be a PI, more than you ’ d send to try to keep an eye on me. I flicked the engine off again and stepped out, keeping low and scanning the lot. Nothing. 
 
 I dropped to the ground and quickly scanned underneath my girl, still nothing, but something drove me on and I rolled under to look more closely. There, tucked up so it would be almost impossible to see, a small box; a tracker. I pulled it loose very gently and then extremely slowly rolled out again and stuck it under the mini-van next to me. Whoever they were, this was professional, beyond what had happened before and it had me worried. Someone wanted to keep a very close eye on me. 
 
 ***** 

