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12-year-old Kevin Slattery was so happy his feet hardly seemed to touch the ground as he ran home. In his backpack he carried all the books that were required reading for sixth graders at St. Patrick’s elementary school. They were all in perfect condition. Not a one had ever been read. Tucked in between the pages of one such book was a piece of paper. . . a very important piece of paper. Kevin stopped, looked behind just to make sure no one was watching, then opened his backpack, took out that special paper and smiled as he read the note that Sister Mary had written. “Excellent work, Kevin. Congratulations! Your effort has paid off!” In the upper right hand corner of the paper there was a big 100% written in red and a hand drawn star indicating outstanding work. The rest of the paper was totally blank.
Kevin was not what you would call a “Star Student”. . . . not that he didn’t have the brains for it. In fact quite the opposite was true. But the real truth was Kevin just didn’t care. He had less interest in schoolwork than he had in just about anything else. He preferred music, baseball, computer science, bike riding and even daydreaming to schoolwork and his marks showed it. He had repeatedly failed to do his homework and as a result had failed test after test. Once his teacher had even placed all his homework materials in a nice brown envelop so he wouldn’t lose them. On the way home he accidentally dropped the envelop in a puddle. He stared at that envelop for a second or two and then continued on his way. Tomorrow he would have to face the teacher but tomorrow was an eternity away to kid in the sixth grade. But today was different. Today he had reason to smile.
Today was the day of the dreaded Final Exam, which was somewhat akin to the Final Judgment. The students were tested on everything they had learned or were supposed to have learned from the beginning of the school year. You couldn’t say everything depended on doing well in this test but it was close.
It was early morning and all the students were looking over their notes and books for one last time as Sister Mary told them to put everything away and to keep total silence. When this was done Sister Mary distributed the test to each student putting a copy face down on every desk. “Now boys and girls”, Sister began, “You have exactly one hour in which to complete your work. If you don’t know the answers and attempt to look at your neighbors test you will automatically flunk.” She seemed to glance at Kevin when she said this but Kevin couldn’t be sure. “When you are finished turn your paper over and I will come around and correct it. There are ten pages. Ok you may begin”
Kevin turned his paper over and his heart sank. About the only question he could be sure of answering correctly was his name and that was the one question he wished he could answer differently!! There were questions dealing with history, math, social studies and science but they might have just as well been written in Greek. He looked up and there was Sister Mary staring right at him with that unnerving look on her face that seemed to say. “I warned you but you didn’t study!” He could practically read her thoughts “See you right back here in the same grade next year!”
Kevin concentrated as hard as he could but to no avail. The answers were not there and he knew it. This was a disaster in the making. A second Titanic! No question about it!! He was sick. He had not a clue as to the answers. But desperate situations require desperate actions and in the back of Kevin’s mind a crazy, desperate idea suddenly took hold. He didn’t know the answers himself but he knew who did. There might just be a way. He figured he had to try.
“Time’s up” said the good Sister. “Put your papers face down on your desk and Mr. Matrango, Scott from high school and I will each be around to correct them. Kevin felt nervousness in the bottom of his stomach. His papers were nothing but a mess of cross outs and erasures all demonstrating his total lack of knowledge of any of the subjects. “Very good Susan” he heard Sister Mary say and Mr. Matrango added that the students really had done well. “It pays to study,” added Sister Mary as she smiled at Mr. Matrango and then glanced sideways at Kevin. Kevin’s heart raced. Here goes nothing! Slowly he slid his test onto his lap and just as slowly he took a number of blank pieces of paper from his backpack, which he carefully placed on top of his desk. Then he steadied himself as Sister Mary finally arrived for the Moment of Judgment.
Sister Mary looked at him with that special look that froze mere mortals in their tracks and then reached for the blank pile of paper on Kevin’s desk and turned it over. Kevin concentrated harder than ever. Sister Mary felt a strange kind of push and found her eyes slightly out of focus for just the smallest fraction of a second. She looked at Kevin’s papers and then she looked again. Her eyes went from page to page with a look of astonishment. When she finished she called out in amazement, “Mr. Matrango come over here and look at this! Kevin has a perfect test!! Mr. Matrango came over and as he did Kevin thought real hard and Mr. Matrango also felt a slightly strange sensation as he looked at Kevin’s paper.” Incredible” was his only remark. Some of the other kids tried to look but Sister Mary told them to mind their own business and keep their eyes straight ahead. “No copying off Kevin’s test!” Now that was a switch! Even Scott, the kid from the high school, came over and he too remarked at Kevin’s perfect paper. Kevin really had to make a superhuman effort to keep all three from seeing what was really there.
And then, horror of horrors, he noticed Lisa Marino stretching over her desk looking at his blank pages!! .Lisa, the one person Kevin was convinced rivaled the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz and the one person in school he was convinced was constantly gunning for him! Lisa looked first at the blank papers and then back at Kevin, then at Sister Mary and then to the papers again with a look of total puzzlement. Kevin was caught! He put forth a super human effort and just then Scott remarked, “I think it’s great to see Kevin do so well on his test.” Lisa was just about to say something when she suddenly hesitated, stopped and looked at the paper again. Then she fell back in her seat with a look of total bewilderment. Kevin meanwhile was straining as hard as he could and just when he thought he could not keep up the effort any longer Scott and Mr. Matrango went back to correcting the other students’ papers while Sister Mary gave Kevin a big hug! She put a large 100% on the top of his paper along with other words of praise and the much coveted hand drawn star. She made the appropriate mark in her record book, which was kind of like the one St. Peter was rumored to carry, and again smiled at her new found pet student and then went on to correct the other students' tests.
Kevin smiled as he walked home thinking about all this but he knew there was one problem. Moms are not so likely to be fooled and besides he could not keep up the illusion forever. Best to destroy the evidence. He took one long last look at his treasured paper then slowly tore it into bits and deposited the pieces into a nearby trashcan.
When Kevin finally walked into his home he was nearly knocked to the ground by his mother as she greeted him. “I just got a call from Sister Mary and she tells me you got the best mark in the entire class! I am so proud of you!” Kevin blushed. “Let me see that wonderful test of yours” “Oh Mom” Kevin replied, “I didn’t bring it home. I figured you wouldn’t really care” Kevin knew exactly how to manipulate his mothers feelings and he did it very well. “Didn’t care? Oh! Kevin, of course I care. Is that what you think? Well I care very much and just to prove how much I care Dad and I are going to buy you that brand new bicycle you have been asking for” Kevin smiled.
Later Dad came home and received the good news. He shook Kevin’s hand just like a man and congratulated him on a job well done.
Kevin’s parents were still singing his praises throughout supper and even afterwards when the phone rang. “Yes” he heard his mother say. “Isn’t it wonderful. Kevin did so well in the final exam. We always knew he could” She handed the phone to Kevin. “It’s Scott from school." Scott? The high school kid? “This was strange.” Kevin thought.
“Congratulations man!” Scott began with the sound of a coach whose team had just won the school championship. Maybe even the Super Bowl “Congratulations!”
Kevin relaxed. “Thanks Scott, really it was nothing! “Nothing at all!”
“Nothing?” Scott queried. “Why man you were outstanding! Never saw anything like it”
“Well” he hesitated “I have been studying hard and…”
He heard Scott snicker then silence.
Kevin started to continue but Scott interrupted.
“It was all due to hard studying” Scott said with a slight hint of sarcasm as he drew out the word ‘All”.
Kevin hesitated then continued again. “Yes It took a lot of work and studying over the past few weeks but I….
“You’re the best Kevin. Three at once” Scott interrupted again.
“What do you mean Scott?”
“Come on Kev you know what I mean”
Kevin stammered. “But I studied hard…” ‘
“Ya! Sure you did Kev! Sure you did!” This time drawing out the word ‘sure’ for added emphasis.
“What??”
“I said ‘Suuure you did’
“You don’t think I studied?” Kevin asked with a sense of alarm.
“Ok Mr. “Hard Studying Dude” “The test included a section on the Muslims, didn’t it?”
“Ya””
“Tell me Mr A Plus Student what is the name of that city in Saudi Arabia where the Muslims all go on pilgrimage?”
Kevin thought for a long second then blurted out “Egypt?”
“Ha Ha Ha!!” laughed Scott “That question was on the test and you got an “A”!. Geeze Kev now I wonder how you did that?”
There was a long pause. Then Scott added,“But I have to hand it to you, you are the best” Three at once and perfect at that!
“I don’t understand?”
“Oh Really? Try understanding this. Understand reaching into a teacher’s head and causing her to see something on your paper . . .something that exists only in her mind! Like the answers to the test, Dude!”
Kevin’s stomach tightened ands he felt sick but Scott continued. “You were great man! Best I ever saw!”
At first Kevin was feeling a mixture of shock and fear. Shock that someone knew his secret and fear that others would find out. But he loved praise and he was more than glad to lap up what Scott was dishing out. “You mean I’m the best? Best anywhere?”
“Hold on there Kev, let’s not get carried away. You’re good Really good. Outstanding in fact but you are just starting. Others have been doing this for years” “Lets just say you’re the best I’ve ever seen for your age and you show great promise.
“You mean there are others?”
“Sure! Taking someone’s thoughts and then projecting them back to that person is a rare talent, maybe one in a thousand has it to any degree and only one in one hundred thousand has your talent. It’s rare but still when you add it up that’s a lot of people.
“Can you do it, Scott?”
“How do you think I was able to discover you? Lucky for you I didn’t get to correct your paper. I would have just looked at blank pages and I would have flunked you without ever realizing your talents.
“Really? It was that close?”
”Yup. But when I heard Sister say how great your paper was and Mr Matrango say the same thing and I knew you haven’t opened a book all year, I came right over. I took one look at that blank paper they were raving about and right then I knew. You had the gift. Great work for someone as young as you.
“But you weren’t fooled?”
“That’s because I lacked the one thing that both Sister Mary and Mr Matrango both had.
“Which was?”
”Desire. You’ll soon find out that that you can reach into peoples minds and make them see what you want them to see but only if they want to see it in the first place. They wanted to see you to do well and that was the key. I could care less.
Kevin thought for a moment.
“Hey, but what about Lisa Marino. She saw a perfect test and she hates my guts! She’d love to see me fail.How come she saw the perfect test?
Scott laughed.
“Did you put the thing in her head?” Kevin asked.
“No” Kev “I could have but I didn’t. But I did give you just a bit of help at the right time.”
”What?”
”Well she did see the blank paper, and nearly said something but do you remember what I said at that moment?”
”No”
“I said, ‘I think its great to see Kevin do so well’. Now you know Lisa has a thing for me. Of course I don’t want to be robbing the cradle with a kid three years younger but I know she likes me and that was all there was to it.”
Scott could sense that Kevin still didn’t fully understand so he continued. “You see Kev it’s like this. When some beautiful girl tells you she likes skiing all of a sudden you think to yourself “Hey I like skiing too!’ Even though you might actually have broken your leg every single time you ever went. You just want to like it because she likes it. Get it?”
”I guess so”
”Well that’s the same idea here. Lisa likes me a lot and so when I said I liked your paper a little voice inside her wanted to feel the same way. That’s all it took. Just a bit of desire on her part and the door was open for you to do your thing. She still can’t figure it out! She sees a blank paper one second and perfect test the next” Scott laughed out loud at his own humor.
Kevin was speechless.
“But its like I said man, we’re not the only ones with this power. There are lots of others. It’s just that some are good and others are great at it. Congratulations Guy! Got to go”. “See you Scott and thanks for the call”
”No problem man”
The line went dead. Kevin got up and started to walk out.
“Where are you going, son?” “Out for a second Dad” Kevin needed a break. This was too much for a sixth grader. He walked for a while and began to think. Maybe this is all a dream. Maybe I’m crazy or something. He walked to the local convenience store picked up a soda. He pulled out a one-dollar bill from his pocket and concentrated. The man took the bill and said. “Its $1.75 for the large size. That will be another 75 cents”. Kevin handed him the extra 75 cents and left. “No desire there” he thought.
“Others.” He kept turning it over in his mind “Who could these others be?”
He walked for quite a while arriving home a bit after dark. He entered the living room where his mother and father were watching something on television in rapt attention.
”Kevin you’re too young to understand but his man is going to be the next President!”, his father said with a big smile of enthusiasm. Mom nodded in agreement but kept her eyes glued to the screen just as the crowd rose to its feet in thunderous applause. The man continued with a force and conviction that held ones attention. But what was he saying? Kevin, being only in the sixth grade could not understand at first but he listened intently for the next few minutes and then suddenly he understood very well. The man’s words were totally meaningless.
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