26 April 2008 ~ Hourglass

Lindsay and I worked with Mr. Pollack all day today. She was happy to be out of the house and we both learned a lot. I think Mr. Pollack even learned a few things from Lindsay. It was a lot easier to communicate with Lindsay around. She's used to me by now and can usually figure out what I want without having to write it down. It made things run a lot smoother. I'm pretty comfortable with working with the air now that I've had the chance to learn about it from two different sources. I can't seem to match them for strength, but I'm not worried about it since I can do more than just the one thing whereas they seem to be limited to just working with the air.

I still can't quite figure out what it is that we are doing to the air exactly. The energy we are working with doesn't follow the same laws of nature as everything else, but it does seem to work under its own set of laws. I'm slowly coming to understand what those laws are. There's really no way to put them into words. Everyone just seems to suddenly have the ability to manipulate their body energy in a new external way. There do appear to be limits to what and how much can be done. After working with our abilities all day today Lindsay, Mr. Pollack and I all feel drained. Not our bodies and not our minds, something else is just not there. I can feel some of it returning now that I've been home and not working with the energy required to use it for a while. Lindsay is the same way. In some ways it is similar to physical exertion, but very different in other ways. Lindsay had a good way of explaining it.

Our abilities are like sand in an hourglass. The energy we use is the sand and the amount we can use it is the size of the hourglass. If whatever we are doing with our abilities is a scale then the more sand we use the more effect we have. There is always sand slowly filling the top of the hourglass, but it can only fill the bottom to its limit. When the bottom is full it remains the same size, but as it empties as the sand gets used the size of the hourglass grows. The less sand you have the faster the bottom grows and the more sand you'll have the next time it fills up.

Just make sure you have enough sand for what you need.

25 April 2008 ~ The Pollack's Talents

Early this morning after making sure someone was awake to take care of Mary I went into town to see Mr. and Mrs. Pollack. Mr. Pollack was already out helping one of his neighbors check on family that lived out in the countryside. After twenty minutes of me trying to get my point across with hand signs Mrs. Pollack found a pad of paper and a pencil for me to carry around so we could communicated. Once she finally knew what I was trying to ask she agreed to work with me more in learning her ability to make dirt flow like a liquid. We decided together to call her talent liquid earth, just to give it a name. She, and I, seem to be limited to moving dirt or sand that doesn't have very many rocks in it. If there are rocks they seem to kind of float down to the bottom of whatever patch of dirt we are working with, being too heavy to flow with the rest of their surroundings. I found that if I increase the amount of energy I am focusing that the density of the dirt I am moving decreases, which allows rocks to simply float to the bottom of the less dense dirt moving around them. Moving dirt in this way is more difficult when there are more rocks present, particularly if the rocks are heavy. By the time Mr. Pollack returned home this evening Mrs. Pollack and I had moved every inch of her yard to a new location. All of the heavier rocks had shifted to about two feet below ground level because two feet was as deep as either Mrs. Pollack or I could get and still make the dirt move. Unfortunately our practicing also left most of her yard void of any grass. On the positive side new grass shouldn't have any trouble growing considering the soil is now clear of rocks and freshly turned, not to mention perfectly flat across the entire yard.

Mr. Pollack wasn't too happy about the ruined grass, but he still agreed to work with me to learn his talent. I picked up on what he does much faster than I did Mrs. Pollack's talent because Mr. Pollack's abilities have to do with manipulating the wind and uses the same air energy that Lindsay uses. There isn't a lot to Mr. Pollacks talent beyond using energy to push the air around how he wants it to move. The most difficult part of learning what Mr. Pollack does is using energy that he creates outside of his body. Until now I assumed that when people used their abilities it was by creating energy inside of their body and then moving it outward to do what they do. Mr. Pollack says that is how he does it too, but that's not what I'm seeing. There is nothing and then there is something. Even when Mr. Pollack describes where his energy is I can't see it until he gets to the part where he describes how he changes the feeling of it to grab the air. At that point I see the energy he is describing surrounded in a yellow glowing aura. It really threw me at first. I think I know what it means now. The energy that we create originates inside of us, but it isn't until we change it to a usable form that I am actually able to see it. My mind translates the energy's aura into a color so my mind can process it. The different colors are related to different uses. At least that's what I've come up with. Now I need to figure out how to tell where the energy I can't see is at. Mr. Pollack has agreed to help me try and figure it out.

Lindsay is upset that I keep going into town and leaving her at home to be bored. I agreed to take her along with me to the Pollack's tomorrow while I work with Mr. Pollack. Maybe they'll be able to learn from each other as well since they both use the same kind of energy, who knows. Mary overheard us talking about it and wanted to come too, but I'm not ready to let her leave the safety of our house just yet. I'm still not comfortable with everything that's going on in town. I don't really want Lindsay down there either, but at least she's old enough to know that it is dangerous. There weren't any explosions in town while I was down there today, but that could just mean the ones doing it felt like taking a day off. I'll have to be a lot more comfortable with it before I let Mary or Grandma come into town. Grandma seems to be content with staying home. Mary might be a little trouble though.

24 April 2008 ~ Mary's Garden

Mary spends every waking hour working with her garden. We no longer call it mom's garden. It's Mary's garden now. She's taught me a lot about how she does what she does, but she works with it so often she's always learning more. The weather has been too cold lately and even with my help her garden wasn't doing well so I told her we could start a garden in the basement for her. We keep the fire lit when it gets too cold so the plants will be able to grow without any problem. Most of the open space in the basement was cleared out to make room for firewood, but I cleared out the storage room shelves to make room for Mary's new garden. The stuff on the shelves I just threw out into the grainery where the firewood used to be. All except for the canned food I didn't know was there before. That went into the cupboards upstairs. Mary and I were in the process of filling buckets with dirt from the old garden to move down to the basement when I realized that I knew a better way to do it. I left Lindsay to help Mary with the dirt and went into town to get Mrs. Pollack to teach me how she is able to make dirt move like a liquid. By the time I was able to make dirt move where I wanted it to Lindsay, Grandma and Mary had already filled more than half the storage shelves with potted soil. Between being able to easily fill buckets with dirt and levitate them down into the basement the remaining shelves were filled within no time. It's passed midnight and Mary is still up tending to her new basement garden. There are already little shoots popping out of some of the pots. I'll put her to bed when I finish writing this, for now she's having fun.

Working with Mrs. Pollack today was an eye opener. Just since learning to create the type of air energy that Lindsay uses and the type of plant energy Mary uses I find it easier to learn the other types. Mrs. Pollack works with a kind of earth energy to move dirt around, which is similar to the plant energy Mary uses. I have decided to make it my primary goal to learn as much as I can about the different types of energy people use and see if I can learn to do all of the things that I've seen others do. I don't know why I seem to be the only one who can see and understand what is happening when people use their abilities, but I plan to take full advantage of it.

For now it is time for bed. Tomorrow I start learning as much as I can.

22 April 2008 ~ Getting The Hang Of It

I've spent the last two days doing pretty much nothing but working on levitating objects. Lindsay finally got fed up with me and left me to work on my own earlier this afternoon. I've come a long way. I can lift two things at the same time as long as neither one is very heavy. Lindsay's still way ahead of me in that regard. The most I've seen her lift is five things at once, but she did that pretty easily so I imagine she can do several more. If there's only one thing to lift though I can lift just as much as her. She wasn't too thrilled when she found that out. She got back on top again when she realized she could lift as many as three different objects of the same weight when I was limited to just the one. She's pretty proud of her ability, and protective, so I think I'll focus on learning what Mary does now so I'm not intruding on her territory too much. I think if I wasn't her brother she wouldn't even consider teaching me anything.

20 April 2008 ~ My First Levitation

It fucking snowed again! This weather is insane. It's April for fuck's sake. Go away. Ok, that's out of my system.

Aside from the crappy weather we've been having things are looking up for us. We have everything we need moved into the house and thanks to Mary's talent we have mom's garden growing already. Both Lindsay and Mary have been working on their talent and have become a lot more adept at it.

Lindsay has been trying to teach me to do what she does for a few days now. It wasn't until this morning that I was actually able to create the same sort of energy that she does. Nothing she said was making sense until I connected what she was describing with the air where she was focusing. I believe that the aura I see around the energy Lindsay makes is yellow because it has to do with the air and the energy that Mary makes is green because it has to do with the plants she is working with. That's the only thing that makes sense. I haven't been able to create any of the green energy that Mary makes yet. I've been focusing on learning what it is Lindsay does. At first all I could do was make the yellow energy form around my entire body in an uncontrolled mass. Lindsay helped me learn how to control it and focus it into one place. I usually choose to gather it all in my hand in the same way she does. From there we worked on moving it away from my body. That was even more difficult than bringing the energy into being in the first place. As soon as the energy moves away from my body it immediately wants to rush back into it. If I lose focus for a second then I lose control of the energy and have to start over. We spent all of today working on it until I was able to focus the energy enough to lift a coffee cup off of the kitchen table. The cup only lifted half an inch off the table, but that isn't bad for my first time. Lindsay was too tired and frustrated with me to keep going any more tonight. Tomorrow I plan on spending all day working on it until I get comfortable with it.

The more I try to figure out what is going on with the world the more confused I become. None of this makes any sense to me. Why would God suddenly change everything about the world. I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything like this in the Bible. I mean really, this is ridiculous.

Crolas

17 April 2008 ~ I Can Do It Too

Today I had a little time to reflect on what is going on with the world and I realized that more than likely everyone is affected and everyone is capable of manipulating energy in at least one of the forms I've seen. I also realized that my ability to see the energy and how it is being used is not the limit of what I should be able to do. Lindsay has agreed to work with me to see if she can show me how to do what she does. If this works out I may be able to learn how to do other things as well.

16 April 2008

It seems that the people who had been causing the most trouble finally ran out of gas, literally and figuratively. They no longer roam the streets in the same way they used to. People are less afraid to come out of their houses now that there aren't men waving guns in the streets. I helped where I could to repair houses and bring food to those who had none. Our situation here at home is far better than most peoples in town. Hopefully some kind of help comes soon.

While I was helping out in town I discovered that nearly everyone has one special ability or another. Whether they know how to control it or not, that's another matter. Each one has an aura that springs up around the energy they are using. So far I've seen different shades of yellow, green, red, blue and brown. I saw one woman with blue energy who could turn water into ice just by touching it, but she couldn't unfreeze it and managed to freeze her hand into a bucket of ice. The two men with her had to build a fire to melt the ice before her hand died from lack of blood flow. They managed to save her hand, but it may never be as healthy as it used to be. Another woman was able to make dirt flow like a liquid. Her aura was a light brown. She was making the dirt in her driveway move around when her husband stepped into the softened sand. He sunk slowly down into the driveway up to his waist before she was able to make the dirt solid again. I found a shovel and helped her dig him out. His ability was similar to Lindsay's, though he couldn't lift things with the air only make a powerful wind that could blow a car over if he wasn't careful. To be honest I'm more afraid of what will happen when people start learning exactly what they can do with their abilities than I am of a group of men running around with guns.

14 April 2008 ~ Mary's Talent

We seem to be figuring things out now. Lindsay and I have fixed the house up so that we can live in it again. Carl's sawmill is just across the street so we have more than enough lumber to fortify the house however we want. There was enough firewood left in the grainery to last us this winter and some of next. We've moved most of it into the basement now. The sawmill will provide any further wood we need.

Lindsay's ability to levitate objects has been useful, particularly for clearing out the basement and bringing in firewood, as well as other things that need done. She can lift about ten times as much wood by levitating it than she can with her arms. It's made everything move a lot faster. I'm a little jealous. All I can do is see what she's doing, not actually do it. Mary's found a way to help out too. This morning while Grandma was watching her play in mom's garden in the back yard she somehow made a tomato plant sprout out of the ground. Lindsay and I were moving firewood down into the basement when she yelled for us to come see. Grandma was pretty excited about it as well. When we came over Mary bent down and cupped her hand over a spot in the dirt. Lindsay mumbled something under her breath, but I was too busy staring at the green energy forming under Mary's hands to catch what she was saying. After a few seconds Mary lifted her hands to reveal a small shoot sticking out of the ground where there had been nothing before. Lindsay's reaction echoed my own thoughts when she blurted out, "Damn!" We had a little party to celebrate the girls' abilities and have a little fun for the first time in a long time. Lindsay even participated instead of being a typical teenager and avoiding it like she normally would have. We managed to find some cake mix in the cupboards and enough ingredients to make a full cake.

Yesterday I found a battery operated radio at the mill and brought it over to listen to while we moved firewood. We were only able to find one station that was broadcasting and we could only make out parts of what was being said, but it was something. We learned that the riots were still happening in Spokane and there were warnings for people to remain indoors whenever possible. There seemed to be a group trying to maintain order, but we weren't able to make out how well they were doing.

Tomorrow's chores include moving in the last of the firewood to the basement and looking around the mill for anything that might be useful. There are a lot of tools and stuff over there that'll come in handy. Eventually I plan to have everything we need moved into the house.

Every once in a while people drive by our house hanging out the windows waving guns. No one has stopped at our place or shot at the house since we've been here, but I make sure that we are all out of sight and safe whenever I hear someone coming. We have several guns in the house, but I haven't been able to get into Carl's safe where he keeps the bullets so using the guns for hunting or defending the house is out of the question until I can get into it. I don't know what those guys think they're getting by scaring people, but eventually their gas will run out and one problem will be solved. There hasn't been any kind of supply truck, or any vehicles really, traveling into town. Only those vehicles of people leaving town and likely not coming back.

I still haven't had any time to sit and reflect, but I have had time to think while moving the firewood into the house. I'm pretty sure that we're set up well enough that we won't have to worry about anything until winter unless some of the people in town get desperate and decide they want what we have. In a few days I might try to go back into town and see if I can help anyone with their own situations, not everyone is causing trouble. I'll have to be careful not to let anyone know where we're at though. I'll just lead them to believe we're still holed up at Grandma's house. There is more to do here first before I can start worrying about anyone else.

11 April 2008 ~ Moved Home

I didn't sleep very well last night because my neck was giving me trouble so I woke early and stretched out for a while. My body is weak from having been in a bed for three weeks straight. Once Lindsay woke up I tried to tell her what I was doing and had to write it because my voice still isn't working. It hurts just to open my mouth too far so I gave up trying. The first thing I did was take a walk around town to see what all had happened. Most of the houses on main street are damaged to some degree, a couple completely burnt to the ground. Grandma's house is one of the least damaged. Houses and buildings on the side streets vary in destruction from minimal damage to being leveled. It took about two minutes of walking the streets to conclude that I needed to move everyone out of town as soon as possible. The mood of the town isn't pleasant. I made sure to avoid talking to anyone else after I was chased by the first group I came upon. As soon as they noticed me a red aura sprang up around two of them. Balls of red energy flew towards me and exploded in a ball of fire where they landed. Luckily I was able to see the balls of energy and avoid them. Needless to say I didn't stay long. I swear I recognized a couple of them, but they didn't seem to recognize me nor want me around so I got out of there.

My house is relatively untouched. I guess we live far enough out of town that nobody really cares to come out here, although the front of the house does have some bullet holes in it and the front and side windows are cracked or shattered altogether. It is still an improvement on being in the center of town at Grandma's place. The windows need to be boarded up anyway so the missing windows don't matter. My only concern is that the place is made of wood if anyone got it in their head to set the house on fire for whatever reason. That isn't out of the question it would seem judging by what I saw in town.

As I suspected and hoped the water is working just fine. Lindsay has expressed her appreciation of it numerous times already. There isn't much food here except for what we brought with us. Tomorrow's chore is to fetch the rest of the food and supplies from Grandma's. The house needs a lot of work done to it too, but it'll be fine until tomorrow. Mary is already asleep with Grandma in her bedroom. She was a lot happier today now that we're home. The first night in weeks that she fell asleep without crying herself to sleep according to Lindsay. We have enough wood moved in to keep us warm tonight. That's another thing for tomorrow, stocking the basement with firewood. I'm going to move as much junk out of the basement as I can in order to fit more firewood down there so we don't have to walk outside as much to get it. There's so much to do. At least we're getting into Spring and the weather will be warming up.

I saw my neck in a mirror for the first time today. All the mirrors in Grandma's house were broken or taken down to keep them from falling down and hurting someone. I could feel the scar before now, but I didn't realize just how big it is. It starts behind my left ear and forks out across my neck. A couple of the lines extend all the way down to my chest. A few separate scars mark where I imagine shards of glass from the accident were stuck into me. I don't like to look at them, but I keep running my fingers over them anyway.

I thought about Jess a lot today. Thought about her sitting in her bedroom, scared of everything that's happening and scared for me. She worried enough about school, I don't want to think about how she's dealing with this. I'm not looking forward to her reaction when she sees my face either.

I didn't have any time to sit and reflect on what's going on, what little time I have had has produced nothing for answers and I won't have much time for sitting and reflecting for a long time yet. There's a lot to do to fix our living situation.

What is going on with the world?

10 April 2008 ~ 3 Week Coma

I woke up last night after having been in a coma for the past three weeks. There was some damage to my neck and I haven't been able to say an understandable word yet. Fortunately, aside from the scaring, there is no permanent damage. At least not according to Grandma. I don't remember anything after stopping to write the last entry in my journal, but I guess something happened that sent my car flying over an embankment on my way home. I was found by a truck driver who pulled me out of my car and called 911. I spent two weeks in the hospital and then Lindsay brought me to my Grandma's house because there was nobody in the hospital left to take care of me after the riots. A lot has happened in the short time I was unconscious. I'll start from the beginning.

Within a couple days of me being admitted into the hospital people around the world started experiencing strange things happening to them. Judging by some of the stories I've heard so far, what was happening to me and seeing those auras is nothing in comparison. People all over the place have suddenly gained special abilities. Lindsay says she saw someone lifting things in the air without touching them, among other things. I thought it was a bad joke at first, but then I saw first hand what she was talking about. Lindsay had not only seen someone lifting objects into the air without touching them, she had learned from them. She can levitate objects into the air too. I think seeing that glass of water float off of the table and into my hand was one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. What scared me the most wasn't that my sister suddenly had some kind of super power, what scared me the most was that I could see how she was doing it. Whenever Lindsay focuses, or whatever it is she does to do it, a yellow aura springs up around her body and then extends outwards to touch the object she wants to lift. The... energy is the only word I have to describe it, collects underneath the object and somehow condenses the air around the object's base to the point where, when lifted, it can hold the object up. Needless to say I was a little shocked when I first saw this. She's had some time to work with it now and she's become comfortable with it. She uses it frequently, sometimes a little too frequently. To be honest she's become a little bit lazy when it comes to some things. I must admit though, overall she has been working hard. Between taking care of Mary, Grandma and myself it couldn't have been easy on her.

Lindsay, along with Mary and my grandmother have been hiding in the house in fear for the last two weeks. It's a good thing I woke up because they are beginning to run low on supplies. Lindsay has to go down to the river every day to get water to boil. Other than that nobody goes outside. All of the doors and windows are boarded up as well as a few holes in the walls caused by the rioters.

Mom and Carl haven't returned from Mexico yet. Before the power went out Lindsay says she heard that all flights everywhere have been grounded permanently due to national security threats. Anything in the air will be shot down without warning. Mom and Carl won't be coming home any time soon.

I'm worried about Jessica. The last I spoke to her was on the phone and she was on her way home to Helena. I'm pretty sure she got there, but I'm worried about her now that everything is happening like this. I can only pray that everyone is safe, wherever they are. Speaking of prayer, I think I need to do a little talking with God to figure out what he's up to. I'll get to that a little later.

Continuing on with what's been happening... the rioting even affected our small town. A lot of people with new abilities aren't afraid to use them or cannot control them yet. Whatever the case it isn't safe to travel outside. Most of the looting is over with, but explosions can be heard around town at odd hours. I guess a few people have a talent with fire. The same people also have no problem with using it for personal gain, no matter how much they are scaring everyone else. Many people have even been killed because they tried to stop those who were looting and starting trouble. On a larger scale every city in the world has seen rioting. The last newscast Lindsay saw said that buildings were being destroyed right and left and that was just in Spokane. The death toll was greater than 2,000 for the first week alone. I don't even want to think about what is going on in the rest of the world.

I finally had enough strength to get out of bed today. Tomorrow I'm going to take a look around town and see what's going on and if I can find more food. Grandma has a good stockpile of canned foods, but that won't last as long as we're going to need it to. If nothing has happened to our house I'll probably take everyone up there to stay. It's outside of town far enough that we won't have to worry about the rioters and looters as much. We also run our water on a private well so Lindsay won't have to run down to the river anymore, or worry about boiling it first. I think it will be better all around.

Now it's time for me to pray and figure out what's going on.