As the week unfolded, Temmy grew more adept at navigating the cacophony of thoughts that now filled her mind. She learned to filter out the noise, focusing only on the thoughts that mattered. She even began to tune into the chatter of animals, finding the squirrels particularly talkative at first, but they soon settled into a predictable rhythm.
However, she encountered a peculiar issue with these internal voices; they all seemed to be discussing her. When alone at home, the chatter of several squirrels would sometimes drown out everything else. They even engaged in heated debates amongst themselves, often leading to squabbles over who had the best ideas. It reached a point where she needed earplugs to enjoy some peace and quiet while watching television in the evenings.
Despite the challenges, Temmy chose not to confide in her parents about the internal voices, fearing their reaction. She knew all too well the labels people would attach to her: “You’re nuts,” or “A crazy person.” While these weren’t entirely inaccurate, she had no intention of silencing the voices anytime soon. She found them intriguing and entertaining. As long as she could block out the bothersome ones, having a chorus of squirrels chattering inside her head seemed like an amusing pastime.
One Friday afternoon, Temmy returned home from school early. Her parents were working late again, and she had the house to herself. As was her routine, she placed her backpack on a chair in the living room, settled down on the couch next to the computer, and began scrolling through her Reddit feed. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of a package.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed to herself. She opened the box to find a week’s worth of groceries. The contents included fresh vegetables (which delighted her), fruit juice, bottled water, rice, beans, flour, sugar, oil, salt, beer, and several other items.
Temmy unpacked the groceries, placing each item in its designated spot in the refrigerator so her dad could easily find them. One of her favourites was the instant spaghetti, which her father had stocked up on during his last business trip. Her mother often complained about the lack of real dinner conversations due to the “strange white powder”. However, tonight was unlikely to be any different, as her father would likely regale them with bizarre tales of being chased by killer ants in Brazil while sipping on his favourite brand of glass-bottled ice beer, Shigurinka. The high cost of Shigurinka on Earth, where it was primarily imported, probably added some spice to his stories.
During supper that night, her mother, aunt, grandparents, cousins, friends, neighbours, brothers, and sisters joined hands for prayers at the dinner table, a tradition observed every time someone broke the rules. At this hour, it wasn’t much different from any other meal, although it was usually not so fraught with family politics. Fortunately, the spaghetti cravings seemed to have finally subsided, as none were served at the table.
Once they finished eating, everyone retreated to their respective rooms for baths, video games, internet surfing, reading, watching television, or sleeping, depending on their interests. After a long night, Temmy fell asleep on her bed with the internal voices still chattering away in her mind.
The next morning, Temmy woke up early, feeling refreshed. She decided to take a walk before breakfast. The neighbourhood was quiet, save for a cat prowling along the fence. It seemed to know exactly who lived in each house and didn’t venture too far into anyone else’s yard. Soon enough, it lost interest in the houses and moved onto some random bird watching.
As she walked down the street, Temmy noticed a white van parked up ahead. It looked like a typical delivery truck, except it was much taller and had a very large antenna sticking out the back. She paused to observe its movements and tried to make out something written on the side, but couldn’t discern anything. Perhaps it’s a new company trying to drum up business, she thought. She continued walking until she reached the end of the street and turned left.
There were a lot more people around now. Most of them were standing outside their homes, smoking cigarettes or drinking coffee, and chatting amongst themselves. She even saw some students from other schools, leading her to an interesting realization: it seemed that students from other schools had also gained the mind-reading abilities.
After spending a couple of hours exploring the area and contemplating what she had seen, Temmy returned home to have lunch with her mother, aunt, grandparents, and cousins. Afterwards, she went upstairs to check on her laptop computer. As usual, she turned it on and checked through the Reddit feed. Then she found a global student group discussing the strange phenomenon of students across different countries gaining mind-reading abilities for no apparent reason or through an online advertisement. It was starting to become a conspiracy theory.
It was strange to see people all over the world talking about the same thing without knowing about each other. She figured someone must know about it and post about it on Reddit. That’s why she started to keep an eye on Reddit. As she kept reading, the conversation became more heated, and a lot of people were speculating on the possible cause. Some of the theories were great fun to read.
One of those theories was that aliens or some kind of higher intelligence was sending some sort of signal through the internet which could affect human consciousness. Another theory was that someone powerful wanted us to have mind-reading capabilities so we would be forced to work for them. Temmy liked both of those theories. But she liked the third one the most because it was the most reasonable explanation. Someone on the internet really did send some sort of signal to brainwash millions of people into getting mind-reading powers.
Now she was wondering if it might be a type of advertisement by an alien civilization. She remembered the figure that had been following her ever since she watched the signal. She didn’t see his face, but she could hear his thoughts in her mind, which had helped her save herself from the bullies. Now she wished she could meet him someday.
Well, I’m happy now, she thought, as she used the internal voices of cats to hear the thoughts of the birds in the trees outside. But suddenly, she saw a small figure moving across the street in the corners. She wasn’t sure at first, but she had a feeling that he was the one she had been looking for. Without hesitation, Temmy rushed outside the house and ran towards the figure. As expected, the figure disappeared a mile away, but she didn’t want to give up just yet. She called the birds with her mind to find the figure’s whereabouts. Within a few seconds, Temmy saw the earth from a bird’s eye view, looking down from the sky. It was an attempt by Temmy to actually connect with other animals, and it worked. Now she felt as if there were two consciousnesses within her head. It almost felt like a third-person perspective. Then she saw through the bird’s eyes that the figure went into a street corner and disappeared through a portal. Temmy was shocked at what she saw but continued to rush through the street anyway. Within seconds, Temmy arrived at the street corner and saw the portal closing rapidly. Without a second thought, she jumped towards the portal in an attempt to reach wherever the figure was going. She leapt so fast her hat fell on the floor. In the blink of an eye, she successfully entered the portal just before it sealed.
All that was left was her hat in the middle of the street.
