There was a boy.
He heard other people's thought.
It helped. He was able to understand why one of his friends got annoyed.
It was not consistent, though.
Sometimes, he could hear the whole conversation, but other times, especially when he really needed, nothing was heard.
He managed to learn how to deal with this inconsistency.
He also learned to show a poker face when some thoughts were heard.
Reacting to a thought is strange most of the time.
Not reacting to a word could be rude, but it is better than strange.
He became quite, avoiding saying any specific things.
In contrast, his understanding on people got deeper.
He learned that what people say has very little truth.
He went to a college.
He studied English literature.
Reading is like hearing thoughts of somebody else.
He didn't need to speak while reading. It was safe.
He loved books.
There is another girl in a class, who seemed to like books.
She was quiet.
She was beautiful.
She had tighten lips, white skin, and black hear.
He was not able to hear her thought. It was little strange.
He liked her, and wanted to be a friend of her.
Except for the one time. When he bumped into her just outside of a class.
He felt startled, and soon be relieved and excited.
He briefly thought that this could be a chance for him to talk to her in person.
What he heard was grumpy "fxxx, this guy again."
His heart was frozen.
He lost his confidence to talk to her ever again.
He had a couple of classes with her later, but both graduated without ever talking to each other.
Then, he was hired to a book publisher, a good one.
He was still quite, but he could read people's mind, which helped him make good decisions that satisfy others, especially upper managers.
One day, one meeting was held.
His boss was supposed to lead the meeting, but she asked him to lead this one probably because of her son, a troubled one.
He attended the meeting.
It was her.
She was still beautiful, with a bit short hair.
Surprised and delighted, but his poker face didn't show any emotion.
"Rob, I didn't know that you are working here."
He was surprised that she knew his name.
She was here, so she must be wanting to publish her book, but she didn't want to talk much about her manuscript.
It is quite strange. Usually, authors in this room are salespersons. She was not.
She didn't even talk about it.
The initial manuscript was short. It must be poetry or something.
He asked what this is about.
She is quite.
He actually has lots of other questions in his mind. How have you been? How are you doing? Is she a full time writer? Is she seeing anybody? None of these questions was asked.
The meeting was short.
What he had was her email and manuscript, via his boss.
He said that he was going to get back her after reading it.
She didn't say anything. He still wasn't able to hear her thought.
He came back home early, ate instant noodle, and started to read her manuscript. He resisted his temptation to open it in the office because he didn't want to be interrupted. He wanted solid two hours.
It was not poetry. It is rather a story of a girl falling in love with a boy.
Interestingly, the speaker of the story is not the girl, but the boy.
It starts:
"She is quiet.
She is beautiful.
She has tighten lips, white skin, and black hear.
I cannot hear her thought. It's little strange."
After finishing the manuscript, he wrote and deleted about 100 emails and ended up email her saying "Can we meet tomorrow?" around 1am.
The reply was instant, and it only said "Yes, "
followed by "but It was not me. You never heard of my thought."
He wasn't able to sleep that night.
When sun rose, he smiled though.
This is an impromptu bedtime story for my lovely girls (Kaylin and Lena).
