Just some quick ideas.

The sky was clam and the air was cold the night I was born. Zero in room complications and one healthy baby boy. They checked my heart, counted his fingers and toes, and then gave my bottom a smack. Everything went fine, all things considered. The doctors were astonished, "I thought this type of thing only happened in the movies." he said "I didn't really think the little guy would make it and yet..... Here he is without a scratch." "I know!" said the other doctor "Mother good as dead, child healthy as a horse." The family car was still wrapped around that light pole, my father was going so fast and the road was still slick from the night before, there was no way he could have stopped that urban assault vehicle. When the paramedics finally got to the scene he was gone and she was close behind with her soon to be born child. It was all they could do just to save me. My mother was brain dead when they got her to the hospital, but somehow they were able to get me out and without a moment to spare. 1

I spent the next sixteen years with family. My Nana took care of me till I was twelve, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jill from twelve to fifteen, and then Grandpa Lou until he passed in January 17, 2000 two days from my sixteenth birthday. After that I spent some time living with friends and did some things that I wasn't very proud of. It was then I discovered I had a very special a gift. I could read people, in ways that others could never could. I could tell when people were lying or about to do something, like pull a gun or offer to pick up the check at lunch. I didn't think much of it at first but as time went on I started to play with it a bit. I found that if you do certain things people will a certain thing in response. Nothing much maybe wipe their chin when you cough or blink twice when tap on the table, you know little things. The funny thing about the small stuff is that enough of it makes something big. From that point on the world was mine, I never paid of another meal, worked for another dollar, or spent one night in a place I didn't want to be.2

Then when I was nineteen I got all patriotic and decided to use my gift for my country, so I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. I was confident in my skills but I didn't want to put myself in any unnecessary risk. I figured the Navy was close enough to the action to do some good and far enough from the bullets to not get shot. I was right about one thing; I could do a little good from where I was at. I was able to get my ship anything the guys wanted, everything from some extra booze and smokes to an engine our SK forgot to order and everyone knew who did it. Life was good and I left the service with four years under my belt, and a very special set of skills. 3

I thought I could I do anything I wanted, any where I wanted, with anyone I wanted. Then one day I met a young girl about a year or so younger than me, I tried everything I could but she was different. I couldn't control her no matter what I did, I became completed consumed by her (or at least the idea of her). I saw her several times a week by knowing where she'd be, she may have been special but her friends weren’t they gave me every bit of info I needed to "bump in to her". Over time our friend ship grew and one day, after about a year of knowing her, I let my little secret out. I told her what I could do and how I did it, unlike everyone else I had ever told she believed me right off had. Also unlike the others she expressed no interest in learning the skill. Her response shocked me to no end, and with a bit of eagerness I offered to teach it. She smiled for a moment attempting to hold back a laugh and told me that I couldn't teach anyone how to do what I do. She started to tell me that she too had a gift, that she could hear what people where thinking and she know that I wanted from the very start. I didn't know what to think, I knew that it couldn't be true it just was not possible, but with my life and what I could do I wasn't sure what was possible. So we talked for a wile and told each other about our interesting life’s and what we have done with our gifts. After a few hours sitting in a bookstore catching odd looks from passersby she gave a card with an X and an out of state phone number and told me I should give them a call and that they could help me with my gift. I never saw her again, after all that we had been through she just up and left, almost like she knew what was going on and that I needed the help she could offer. 4

This is my story so far, a lost and lonely twenty-six year old with a gift. I guess I'll just give the X a call....