Page 40 of A Touch of Murder
"Thanks. I know that now, but at six years old, I struggled. Mom already had me in counseling because of the stories I would tell her. It took time, but I came to realize my dad's suicide wasn't my fault. He had a lot of problems. Having a strange kid was only one of them. Anyway, Mom and I managed to get by. Around that same time, I came to understand that my visions came from touch. I was careful about what I would touch and wouldn't. I withdrew from physical touching like hugs and stuff because it got so overwhelming. But that just made my mother worry about me more. It wasn't until I was a little older and able to get online and do some research that I found out about psychometry. For the first time in my life, I understood and didn't feel like I was some mentally ill child. There were others like me out there, though they were rare and most weren't taken seriously." Adam paused to take a bite.
"How old were you then?" Barret asked.
"Maybe ten or so. I contacted a lady I found on some chat board and started to talk to her. She lived in California, and she walked me through everything, helping me understand what I did and what it meant. I guess I'm stronger than a lot of others. Beth, the woman I talked to, she could turn it on and off. She said she had to concentrate on an object to get a reading, where for me, a simple touch brought a vision on. She's the one thatsuggested I wear gloves and see if that helped stop the onslaught of visions I'd get just from touching a doorknob."
"It obviously worked since you're still wearing gloves." Barret tried not to seem as fascinated as he was. The truth was, he was very interested in what Adam did. He wanted to know everything about it.
"Yeah, but it also drew attention to me. I'd always been the weird kid in school, but the gloves just made it worse. I was bullied and teased non-stop. I got in a lot of trouble because my revenge for being picked on was to touch the person, then reveal some big secret I'd seen about them that they didn't want anyone to know. You can imagine the mess that caused." Adam smiled. "The teasing eased off a bit in high school, but I was still the weird kid. Teachers would try and tell me I couldn't wear gloves in class. Mom had talked to the school counselor, and she had to let the teachers know I had permission to wear them due to a medical issue. Rumors of a medical issue flew around the school, and I became even more of a loner. I had a couple friends, but not many."
"And after school? Did you go to college?" Barret asked.
Adam shook his head. "No, but you're getting ahead of things. My sophomore year, I was almost sixteen, Mom met a man she was dating. I didn't like him. I couldn't tell you why. I never touched him to see his past. In fact, I stayed as far away from him as I could. He just had that aura around him. Not like an actual aura I could see, but that feeling you get when you're around someone that isn't nice. I'm sure you know what I mean."
Barret nodded. He'd met a lot of people like that in his career. People that just gave you an uneasy feeling. "I know the type."
"Well, I came home one day and found my mother beaten and dead on the living room floor. It was horrible. The side of her head was smashed in. There was blood everywhere. It wasway worse than Trina. I called for help, but I knew she was gone. I'd pulled off my gloves and witnessed what had happened to her. It was then I realized the different feeling from the living and the dead, but that's getting off topic." Adam took a long drink of water.
Barret stayed silent, allowing Adam to collect himself.
"I saw William, the man Mom had been seeing, beat my mother unconscious, and as if that wasn't enough, he took a metal statue that Mom had loved and used it to kill her. I witnessed the whole thing. Told the cops as much when they showed up, but no one believed me. Sure, they figured William was the one who attacked Mom, but they told me I'd come up with a story in my mind about how it had happened. It was so frustrating."
"Did they end up arresting the guy?" Barret asked.
"Two years later. He'd taken off and was living in Alaska when he got arrested for a domestic situation. He'd beaten his new wife to the point she has brain damage. He's now in the Colorado State Penitentiary for fifty years. He'll die there probably, and I'm okay with that."
"Did you have to testify?"
Adam shook his head. "No. The D.A. thought I would bring up things I had imagined and not just stick to the facts. He was probably right. I'd seen what happened when he killed her, even if it was after the fact, but I doubt I could have kept quiet about it. They didn't need me to testify. His prints were on the statue, and his blood was found mixed with Mom's. He'd hit her so hard he'd cut his knuckles open."
"Not to mention he skipped town right after," Barret said. "So, what happened to you after that?"
"I didn't have family around to take me in, but I got lucky. My neighbor was a sweet older lady who I'd always liked. I helped her with her yard work and stuff as I got older. She talkedthe state into letting her take custody of me for a couple of years. I stayed with her until she died when I was twenty-five. She was barely able to get around and since she took me in, I couldn't just drop her off at a nursing home. She died comfortably in her bed. She left me her home, which was a surprise. She had a daughter who lives in Florida, but I guess she didn't want the home and agreed it should go to me. I stayed there until I sold it to move here and buy the shop."
Barret set his spoon down. "That's one hell of a childhood."
"It wasn't all horrible." Adam shrugged.
"It wasn't all good either. I'm so sorry you had to find your mother that way. That was what you were talking about when you told me Trina wasn't the first victim you'd read, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. I was a mess after that one. I hadn't fully learned how to recover from reading things yet, and as you saw with Trina, a murder victim hits me a lot harder than any object does. Police and paramedics thought I was in shock, which I was, but I was also feeling the effect of reading Mom's body and seeing what happened to her." Adam stood. "Want more? I'm going to have a second bowl."
"If you have enough. I don't want to take your leftovers for tomorrow."
Adam laughed. "If we finish this tonight, I have chicken to toss in the crockpot in the morning. Having company while I eat is worth the sacrifice." He grabbed Barret's bowl and filled it.
Barret took the bowl. "Thanks. So how did you decide to use your ability for a career?"
"Well, I started out by going to some new age type fairs. I'd have a booth and would advertise that I could tell people the history of almost any item. It was slow going at first, but the more fairs I participated in, the more word of mouth brought people to me. I'd get calls in between fairs to go do readings sometimes. I was stunned people wanted to pay me to do it. Iwasn't sure at first what to charge so I just said twenty dollars. I found that small of an amount had all kinds of people coming to see me and got burned out pretty fast. I raised the price to fifty dollars. That cut back on the people who weren't really serious or were using me like a side-show performer. I did okay in Denver, but I was never happy there. Like I told you before, a simple drive up to Yellowstone brought me through here and I fell in love with the place." Adam reached for another piece of cornbread.
"This place is something magical. It's got issues like any town, but I love the tightknit community. I thought I'd hate everyone knowing everything about me. Thought at first it might be a huge gossip hub, and it is in many ways, but people are nice about it. I didn't think I'd miss my sister as much as I did while I was in Seattle. I was young and had big dreams of living in the big city and being a big-time cop. Didn't take long to realize that wasn't what I wanted out of life."
"What do you want?"
Barret thought about the question for a moment, then shook his head. "I'd like to meet someone someday, maybe get married. I was a bit worried when I first moved here that being gay in such a small community might be a problem, but Becky promised me it wouldn't be an issue. She pointed out that there were several gay couples around and they were accepted just fine. At the time, dating wasn't big on my agenda. I'd had a bad breakup in Seattle right before I left and was feeling a bit gun-shy when it came to dating. Now, after settling in here for a few years, I think I'm ready to start dating and thinking more about my future." Barret paused for moment, then decided what the hell. He had nothing to lose. "I was hoping that maybe once this case is closed and I have a bit more time on my hands, you might like to go out with me."
Adam looked up, an expression of shock on his face. "Me? I'm flattered, but you know that's not possible. I mean, I enjoy spending time with you, and sharing meals, but as far as dating goes, well, that's just not in the cards for me. Dating leads to other things. Things I can't really…" Adam held up his gloved hand.
"Let me ask you something. Is that rule more for your protection from seeing a person's past or is it to protect them from you seeing it?"
