Visits From A Man Named Nobody 25

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Nobody stood and walked over to place a hand on Paul’s shoulder. “What I say may convict you, but I don’t say it to make you feel bad. I say what I say to you to help you. Sometimes a young man just needs to take stock of what’s in his heart.”

Nobody took his hand back and started to walk toward the door. 

“You’re leaving?” Paul hated the sound of longing in his voice for some reason. 

“It would get very awkward for both of us if our conversations got too long at any one time,” Nobody said, stopping just before reaching the door. “I come when there’s something you need to know, and I leave when I’ve said what I came to say. That’s what you need.”

“What if I need more?” Paul asked. He had teachers. He had friends. Well, he had a friend, and when you had a friend as good as Jordan, you didn’t really need many more. But he knew something was missing. He just didn’t want to say what it was. 

“If you need more, then maybe let those who’d like to be in your life have a chance.” Nobody stepped out of the house.

Paul didn’t rush to the door. Indeed, after a few moments, he heard that strange surge of power. The tv and windows reflected the flash of light that always accompanies one of Nobody’s teleportations. He must have been too far away for the odd temperature shift to be felt. If Paul had tried to see it, he wouldn’t have made it in time. He was starting to think about how one might teleport, and soon, he’d start to take notes on his own plan to recreate the technique.  

In the meantime, however, he sat thinking about what Nobody had said. Sure, a lot of what he said made Paul feel bad for a moment or two, but they always helped him do things that made everything better. 

Maybe Bill wasn’t so bad. Paul honestly didn’t know. Paul had never spent more than three seconds around him. Nobody convinced Paul to make friends with Jordan, and that was great. Nobody helped Paul see how cruel he was being to his own mother, and since then, he was closer to his mom than they’d ever been. So what could it hurt to give Bill a chance?

The end of Chapter Six.

… to be continued …