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Scott MacLeod's avatar

Cool story, good job

This is a spectacular summer storm, really one of Our Father’s better efforts, thought Brother Matthias as he hustled out back and reached for the handle to the corrugated tin shack to refill the water barrel. The next thing he remembered he was laid out flat. Sans eyebrows but otherwise no worse for wear. Except for that racket. The chatter. Everyone at once marveling about the lightning strike and his miraculous survival. Then it struck him. Not a lip moved. Yet he heard them all clear as day. He was a long way from Damascus but apparently he had awoken from his electrocution with powers of telepathy. He could tell what each of his comrades was thinking. Interesting in a vacuum. But beyond useful in a community sworn to silence. Once his powers became known he was called upon throughout the monastery for all sorts of workaday communications.

Now instead of crude pantomime or tiresome writing on chalkboards to convey even the simplest requests, a sideward glance would be all it took to let Matthias know it was time to gather the turnips. Or trim the candles. Productivity soared.

But the gift came with a dark side. Exposed now were the secret thoughts and desires of every friar. What lay behind Brother Franco’s lingering stares at vespers. More than the love spoken of in 1Corinthians. And laid bare were Brother Brutus’s innermost thoughts on sheep and goats which went well beyond separating them at Judgnent Day.

The head of the order saw his young charge’s anguish and scribbled down that he would pray for the Good Lord to take away this thorn, this scourge masquerading as a superpower. But of course, Mathias already knew that.

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Skeptic Fail's avatar

An ethical dilemma and a cool plot!

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