It happened out of nowhere one day during a workout session. In retrospect, I suppose there had been signs before. It must have started about the time I hit puberty. It was around then that I developed a knack for finishing other people's sentences. Not everyone, and not all the time, but every now and then I would get a weird sense of deja vu when someone close to me spoke and I would ask, confused, "Didn't you just say that?"
But this was different. It was as if my mind were a radio left on during a really long drive through the desert. Most of the time there was just static, with a sudden burst of sound from some stray radio wave every once in a while. On this day it was like coming in range of the relay tower. The DJ came through loud and clear and the message they had changed my life forever.
I had finished school a couple of months ago and deferred my college application. My parents wanted me to follow in my dad's footsteps and become an engineer. They had pestered me and hired tutors and did everything possible to make sure I got the marks I needed to get into a good college. I had done all they asked, got the marks, barely, and was all set. Then I balked at the last minute.
I wasn't sure I wanted to be an engineer. So my dad had given me one year to decide. I was supposed to be doing internships and working menial jobs that would prove he was right and then meekly go into my engineering degree. But, what I really wanted was a year just to have fun and be free of people ordering me about and telling me how to live my life. I just wanted to have control of my own life.
I was in the garage, benching 185 pounds as my warm-up. My academic life may have been in the doldrums, but I was determined to take my already athletic body up to beast mode. The door was open to let in what little cool air there was and I was building up a pretty healthy sweat. I was about halfway into my set when I heard a moan. I paused, thinking I had just imagined it. It sounded like it was right inside my head.
Then I heard a voice say, "Good God, look at his arms."
The strange thing was I recognized the voice. I ought to, I had been hearing it since before I was born. It belonged to my mother.
I shook my head and raised the bar again for another set.
"I remember when Jeff had arms like that. God, I loved having them wrapped around me..."
I stopped. This time I was sure I heard her voice, there was simply no mistaking it. It cut off abruptly as I slotted the weight back into the bar catchers and sat up.
Sure enough, there was my mom, standing by the entrance to the garage, holding a large glass of iced lemonade. Her expression was oddly guilty, a hint of color tingeing her tanned complexion.
"Oh. Hey, mom," I cleared my throat and then, giving her an enquiring look, "Did you say something?"
She smiled her 100-watt smile. It was an incredible smile. It was a well-known smile, her face beamed down from dozens of billboards all around town, promising to sell your house for a lower percentage than the competition.
Having shaken off whatever was on her mind, she replied, "No dear, I just got here. I wanted to know if you would like some lemonade? I was making some for the PTA meeting at Laurie's school. I have a quick session there before I have to pick her up from cheer practice at 4. But it's such a hot day I thought you might like some too, so I made extra."
"Yeah, that's great, Ma," I said, slowly, turning my head from side to side as if I might be able to see around her to whatever weird trick she was playing on me. I had definitely heard her voice, but what had she been saying?
I studied her closely. She met my gaze for only a moment and then looked down. I saw her pull in her lips and shift her weight. It was so unlike my mom to show any crack in her self-confidence. I was completely perplexed.
My mom was an incredible woman. I got my workout genes from her. Only just in her forties, she had the whip-taut body most twenty-year-olds would kill for with a fullness in her bust and backside that only maturity could bring. She must have been heading out for a midday gym session because she was looking incredible in a pink tank top and black yoga pants. These clung to her shapely body and emphasized her remarkable physique.
Unfortunately, I had not inherited her work ethic. While I spent my life trying to do as little work as possible she was a full-time mom who ran her own real estate business. She was successful enough that she could choose hours that suited her best, giving her time off during the day to work out, run errands, as well as drop and fetch my sister from school.
I often wondered how she did it every day and still looked as immaculately turned out as she did. I shook my head, my dad was a lucky guy.
"Shit!" She said.
I snapped my head up from where I had been admiring her generous hips, lost in my reverie. She had said that so loud it sounded like she was shouting in my ear. It was so unlike my usually composed, utterly unflappable mom to swear.
"Shit! He saw you, Toni. Your son fucking saw you checking out his body and now he thinks you're a total fucking psycho."
Although her face remained largely expressionless, I could see her eyes darting nervously beneath her dark lashes. Her lips had not moved the whole time she had spoken.
"Mom?" I asked, confused.
"Yes, dear?" She replied in a completely different tone to the one I heard before. It was much smoother, far calmer. More like the mom I knew.
Then I heard the other voice again, "Oh God, he is looking at you. He knows. He knows, you dirty whore. He is going to see how you look at him and he is going to be horrified. Your cunt is dripping wet just from watching him work out. What if he looks down and sees your lust leaking through your tights? You're not wearing any underwear, you dirty whore."
I rose up off the bench, my mind spinning, trying to figure out what was happening. I did not look down, though the effort to resist was almost painful. If I did she would surely know I was staring at her pussy.
Moving with more confidence than I felt I picked up a towel I had laid close to hand and dabbed the sweat off my shirtless torso. I needed to buy a moment to think while, at the same time, watching my mom out the corner of my eye, trying to figure out her game.
"Are you okay?" I finally queried, when I sensed the silence becoming uncomfortable. She still stood proffering the glass, now dripping with condensation.
"Fine dear, why do you ask?" Her face was smooth again, her expression bland.
Was what I heard before really coming from her? It sounded like it was being played on a speaker, but inside my head. It was her voice, but at the same time, it wasn't. Sometimes it sounded like more than one voice. Was this a prank? It seemed completely unlike my mom to pull a stunt like that, and the words being said were just insane.
"Stay cool, Toni," I heard her voice again, while her face remained locked in its smile, "Just look him in the eyes and smile. Don't look down to his chest. Don't look down. Don't see his abs. Oh, God! His abs."
I was only a couple of strides from her and I stopped. When I heard that last part I watched her eyes drop down to my abdomen and then back up. Did she just lick her lips?
Realization was dawning on me. Was I really hearing my mom's thoughts, or was this some kind of hallucination? Maybe I was about to have a stroke. I sniffed the air to test if I smelled burned feathers. I wasn't sure that was actually true for strokes or, for that matter, what burned feathers smelled like.
I decided to test out my emerging theory.
"Hey mom, random question. Think of a number between one and ten."
"Seven?" I heard a questioning reply. Again, there was no sign that she was speaking.
"Marlon, what are you playing at?" She was flustered, I could see that now. My mom was always pristine, from her perfect quaff of thick dark hair to her unblemished skin and precisely manicured fingernails. She was the MILF archetype, and I had never seen her face a challenge she did not master with a smile on her face.
Until today.
But then, I would not have known anything from her expression. It was that voice, and it was getting louder and more insistent. Now that I was so close to her I could hear it muttering constantly. It was mostly random and indistinct, but I caught the occasional word or phrase. Things like:
"He's too close."
"Even his sweat smells good."
"You're his mother!"
"Slut!"
"Slut! Whore!"
Shaking off the tumult of voices I asked, "Was it seven?"
"Honestly, Marlon, what has gotten into you?"
I damned her composure. I had to know if what I was hearing were really her thoughts.
"I wish you would get into me. Shut up. Slut!" The confused other voice snarled.
"Was it seven?" I repeated.
"Good guess. Stay calm. Get out of here. You need an intense workout and a cold shower. Wipe out these thoughts of Marlon taking charge of you, ordering you to... Stop it!"
Her actual words were dismissive, "This is silly, Marlon. Do you want the lemonade or not?"
I felt sure it had been seven from her evasiveness. I had to press further, "How about between one and a hundred. No. One and a thousand."
"734, what you got on your Math SAT. Just enough to qualify. You nearly killed me, making me drag your lazy ass all the way to the finishing line."
Aiming for coolness, she replied, "No, Marlon. I don't want to play games now. Just take the damn lemonade" I could see she was getting worked up though, far too worked up for just being bothered by this silly game.
"He's so close. I could just touch him. I'm his mother. I can touch his arm. Maybe his chest. No! Stop it! This is wrong!"
I ignored the chattering voice and probed, "Was it 734?"
"What?"
"The number you guessed?"
"Marlon," she sighed tiredly.