Felicity

By Santiago Dunbar

Felicity is a tall girl. She wears special clothes especially for tall girls. All of the tags read, “For tall girls”. On the back of her favorite tunic there is an embroidered redwood tree and the phrase, “Big as a tree.” She is nearly 7 ft. tall and she’s only 9. Although her tunic makes a good point, it’s obviously an exaggeration. Nobody at school understands the tree comparison. Nobody at school even realizes how tall Felicity is because they’re all blind. Felicity attends a school for the blind because the other schools were all full. It’s hard finding room for such a tall girl. Fortunately, Felicity comes in handy; helping the blind kids find stuff and being the “leader”.

Last Thursday, Brian asked if he could be the leader of the lunch line. Felicity thought about it for a moment. She wondered if Brian would make a good leader. He’s pretty tall so she figured what the heck? Felicity announced to the class, “Attention, everyone: Brian will now act as temporary line leader. I’m going to go do some stretches. See you later. Everyone follow Brian!”

Brian marched down the hallway missing the cafeteria entirely. He continued outside and down the street. Needless to say Brian and his band of blind followers never made it to lunch that day. Cathy began to get frightened. “Brian, I don’t think you know where you’re going. We’re lost!”

Brian barked back, “Cathy, we are not lost and I do know where I’m going. We’re almost there.”

Cathy wasn’t satisfied, plus she was pretty sure she heard cars and could smell things that were most definitely like the outdoors. She plopped down and decided to protest adventuring any further to the cafeteria. “If you guys want to continue on with Brian, fine! I’m not going anywhere until I am sure about where we are.” Cathy pounded the cement. “This is cement! Where in the school hallways is cement? And that sounds like traffic. Brian, we are seriously outside and probably far from the school! I brought my lunch. I’m gonna sit and eat right here—and wait.” Kim and John both keeled down and felt the pavement.

“You’re right, Cathy!” John exclaimed. “We are outside!” Kim agreed. Brian became furious and stormed off in an incoherent direction. He was never heard from again.

After stretches, Felicity decided to join up with the rest of the gang. She sprinted over to the cafeteria but it was totally empty. Besides being morbidly tall Felicity had also been abducted as a 3 year old by the government, and imprisoned for 6 years by the classified military defense program, MK Ultra Mind Control. For the first time in her life, Felicity was special for reasons other than her height. She was special for her inclination toward psychic ability. Although she was held captive, kidnapped essentially from ever having a normal childhood, she grew fond of her captors. She even had pet names for all the scientists! Eventually they forced her to go home because she was getting too tall. The military had no clue she would grow to be so tall. The problem with tall people is their skulls grow thicker than average so psychic powers become more and more encumbered, ultimately of no use to the government. She was released only a year ago so her psychic prowess was still fairly sharp.

She put her fingers to her forehead and focused her beam of psychic energy on Brian. All she could see was a vortex of confusion and anger. “They are outside,” she remarked internally. Brian’s chaotic energy was too troublesome to grapple so Felicity retuned her mental powers. She finally made a connection with Cathy.

Cathy and the others were still huddled on the busy sidewalk eating their lunches. Cathy suddenly sat up, holding the back of her head. “Hey guys, there is this tingling in the back of my head. It’s like a—a—Felicity? Is that you?”

“Yes! Yes, Cathy It’s me,” Felicity answered psychically.

“How are you talking to me in my head?”

“Remember how I told you how I’m really tall?”

“I remember.”

“Beside being tall, I’m also psychic and the government taught me how to convey my thoughts to other people. Right now I am focusing all my mental energy on you and voila!”

Cathy was amazed, and she tried explaining what was happening to the others but understandably they had a difficult time comprehending. Kimberly suggested, “Well if you can communicate with Felicity psychically, you can tell her where we are and she can come find us and take us back to school.”

Cathy and the others agreed this was a good idea. She tried picking up Felicities signal again, “Felicity? Are you still there?”

“Yes, Cathy.”

“If I describe the way it smells, can you save us?”

“That’s a great idea!” Felicity anxiously assured.

Cathy stuck her nose in the air getting a good location-determining whiff. “It smells like Mexican food.”

“OK Cathy, that means you’re outside the Mexican Restaurant. That means you’re not very far. I’ll sprint over and fetch you guys and walk you back. No problemo señorita!”

Cathy told the others that Felicity was on her way to save them. They all cheered and sang joyous songs.

Sprinting over to the Mexican Restaurant, another government agent kidnapped Felicity. This time it had nothing to do with her psychic abilities. Felicity was coveted by the military for her lightening fast sprint. Felicity’s mind was erased and she was given a new identity and code name. Of course she forgot all about her initial mission to save her blind friends.

Cathy and all the blind kids sang until their voices gave out. Eventually they earned enough money singing on the street corner enabling them to send just one of them home in a taxi—Cathy of course. The rest were never heard from again.