Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38i)

I could have died in that bathroom of the rest stop along the highway on the way out of Florida.

All it would have taken was for that mirror to have exploded once my *actual* fingertips touched the *reflection* of my fingertips.  The power of the energy that fueled my gift could have sent shards of glass in my direction and I could have been impaled or seriously sliced.  I could have collapsed and bled out before Mattie, or Gator for that matter, would have gotten suspicious about the length of time it was taking me to use the facilities.

Instead, the mirror shattered ... but stayed in place.

I quickly dropped my hand and took a step backwards.

I didn't leave though -- not right away.

I was drawn in by the image staring back at me -- through the shattered looking glass, as it were.  In what I was seeing, I no longer had a mouth, and so I had lost the ability to communicate except through my eyes.  I felt like they were trying to send me a warning, but I couldn't quite comprehend the message.

Then I started to understand.

In them, I saw all of my pain ... and then I saw how it was reinforced with the pain of the others that I had absorbed.

I knew then that my thought that maybe I could have "reset myself" in that mirror was farthest from a possibility.

They were lonely eyes staring back at me -- damaged eyes.  Eyes that were uncertain exactly how much more they could take.

The mirror wasn't shattered.

I was.

Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38h)

All things considered, it was probably good that I was the only one in the highway rest stop.

I stared at myself in the mirror, not breaking eye contact, as the fingertips on the right hand I was holding up got closer and closer to the touching the surface.

I could take away the pain of others with just a touch.  I held my breath in anticipation in hopes that I could trick my "gift" into taking away my own pain.  Well, my own pain and the pain of all the others that I was still carrying around with me.

Maybe mirror image contact could serve as my way to reset myself ... to wipe my disk clean so I'd be fresh to start again.

Since discovering my power, I had set about testing it one way or the other.  This was no different.

I had learned I had to be making eye contact as well as the tactile contact for the exchange to happen.

I had learned I had to have been exposed to the tale of at least some of the heartache and woe immediately before touching the person.

I had learned that multiple events back to back in a short period of time would put me in the hospital.

I had learned that the energy that was involved in what I did could be dangerous if the person I touched was also touching someone else.

I had learned that the memories I absorbed could be altered if the person was inebriated or heavily drugged.

And there in the rest stop, with Mattie and Gator waiting for me out in the car, I learned that it was a mistake to try to come into contact with myself in a mirror.

Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38g)

We *were* kind of made for each other -- my puppy Gator and I.  And we *were* each kind of a handful -- in our own adorable ways.

Just like Mattie had yelled at us across the parking lot at the rest stop.

Although, admittedly, I'm not sure if Mattie's exhortation contained the subtext that we were "adorable" in our handful-ness.

Regardless, Gator finished up his business and I needed to conduct my own, so we headed back toward Mattie and the car.

"I gotta piss too.  You got him?"

I passed control of the leash over to Mattie and made my way into the rest stop facility.

Yet again, I was hit with flashbacks as I opened the door to the building.  This time, it was memories of the drive down the coast after I had been kidnapped, and how that particular stop on that particular trip had led to me figuring out that my captors were Mario and the guy I only knew then as "angry texter".

So much had happened in so short a time ... and so much was still unresolved.

"One step at a time," I muttered to myself aloud.  "One.  Step.  At a time."

As I washed my hands, I couldn't help but stare at myself in the mirror.

And I couldn't help but fantasize about being able to hold my hand up to its own reflection in the mirror, in hopes that that type of contact would unleash my special power so that I could take away my own pain just as I could do for others with only a touch.

Stranger things had most certainly happened.

I flexed my fingers and slowly reached out to the hand in the mirror, being certain not to break eye contact with myself.

 

Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38f)

Gator, at his young puppy age, had been on enough long distance car rides to know that when the vehicle starts to slow down, being able to run around is next on the agenda.

As Mattie pulled off the interstate at the rest stop, it was all I could do to try to keep him in the back seat.

"No, no buddy.  Stay back.  Wait one moment!  Hold on!!  We're almost there!!!"

My attempts proved to be futile, and it wasn't long at all before I had an over-eager crazy-excited puppy on my lap.

I did what anyone would do in that situation.  I covered my crotch with my hands to avoid a stray hit to my privates.  And I prayed that Mattie would hurry up and get to the parking spot already.

He finally did, and it was all I could do to get the leash attached to Gator's collar.  If he had been able to open the door, I'm sure he would have done it ... but I was the one with thumbs and so I had to do it for him.  He took off and I barely kept up with him as he expended all his pent up energy from having spent a few hours in the car so far during our great escape from southern Florida.

I was having flashbacks to the night Laura's daughter gave him to me at the closing dinner of the service trip, and how he had gotten loose and was running excitedly all around the back room of Ruthie's Roadhouse until we finally caught him.

It was true that I had lost some time with Gator during my captivity ... but it was good to be getting back to the basics when it came to our relationship.

I looked over toward the car and saw that Mattie was watching me get tugged around the lot by Gator.

"He's a handful," he yelled in my direction -- followed by another exclamation.

"You guys are MADE for each other!"

Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38e)

"Of course.  Of course.  If I feel one bit like I'm too distracted to drive, I will let you know before I kill us all."

I wouldn't have thought that I'd have had to promise that I wouldn't do something as drastic as to cause the deaths of the three of us, but I guess Mattie didn't know me well enough to know that my desire for self-preservation was pretty strong.

My life had prepared me well.  I was too stubborn to give up so easily.  I had faced down too many foes to take that route in this situation.  You could just go ahead and add my name to the list of things that would survive a nuclear holocaust -- me and cockroaches and Cher.

Mattie was giving me a quizzical look -- something he did quite often I was beginning to realize.

"I wish I could hear the things going on in there," he said.  "I can *see* you're off somewhere deep in your thoughts, and my imagination starts kicking in as to what you're thinking."

I couldn't suppress my chuckle.

"Are you really sure you want to know?" I asked.

"Maybe.  Maybe not," he replied.

"I was thinking about the end of the world ... and Cher."

He was speechless -- understandably.

I gently chided him, with a smirk on my face.

"Careful what you ask for ..."

Lorem Ipsum: The Aloysius Angelasia Archives (Chapter 38d)

"You spend a lot of time up there don't you?"

Startled by Mattie's interruption of my silent reverie, I glanced over at him in the driver's seat and saw he was pointing to my noggin.

I nodded in agreement.

"Why do you ask?" I asked of him.

"I thought we were about to have a conversation," he replied.  "And then you just zoned out and stared out the window.  For the last twenty minutes."

I had lost track of both thought and time -- but luckily I hadn't fallen asleep or slipped into a state of semi-consciousness, as that would have risked a potential appearance by Papa Kalfu.

"We're almost at the rest stop ... that is, IF you still think you can get out of your head and pay attention to the road while I take a nap," he countered.

"Of course.  Sure.  That's the right plan," I assured him.

"And you're not going to drive us off the road or anything, right?"

I shot him a look in hopes that it would serve as a reply.

But apparently it did not do the trick.

"I'm serious," he repeated.  "No off road driving with this car without the permission of *everyone* in the vehicle."