By W. Loraine Kelley
A Highlander/Tomorrow People crossover vingette
© 1995
This file accessed
"How do you do it?"
The question reverberated inside Richie's head, dragging him from
near sleep. He sat up on the couch, and focused on the tv
mindlessly yapping away in front of him. No, the question wasn't
part of the TV show.
"Richie?"
"What?" he asked, shaking the sleep from his mind. He sat up
straighter and scanned the empty room. No buzz. The phone
isn't off the hook, he confirmed, checking it once and then
again. "What?" he asked into air again, louder this time.
"How do you do it?"
The voice... in his head? ... sounded familiar. A male's voice
with an Australian accent. "Do what?" This is weird, he
thought, This is really weird.*
"Is it really that weird?" The voice responded. "I guess I'm just
used to it. Hang on."
The air between the couch and tv crackled electricly. A bright
flash of light filled the room. The light cleared, revealing a
young man about Richie's age. "Adam..." Richie groaned, frowning
as the spots caused by the flash obscured his vision.
Adam looked approvingly around the apartment until his eyes reached
on the rapier resting on top of the tv. He cringed and skipped
over it, continuing to check the place out. "Nice," Adam
commented. "Sure beats the space ship."
Richie glared at Adam, then smiled to show he didn't really mind
the intrusion. "What do you want?"
"I want to know how you do it."
"Do what?"
"How you tell them."
"Tell who? What?" Richie asked, beginning to get exasperated.
Adam really needed to spend more time with people who couldn't read
minds. This business about assuming everyone always knew what you
were thinking really made it hard to have a conversation with him.
It was bad enough he could talk telepathically with the other
Tomorrow People, now it looked like he'd started being able to read
Richie's mind. Richie ran his hand over his chin, feeling the
beginnings of a beard. Then again, it was too bad Adam couldn't
teach him how to do some mind reading of his own. That could
really save time when dealing with Mac.
"There's this girl..." Adam began, blushing.
Richie stared at Adam blankly and waited for him to continue.
"I want to tell her about me. I'm just... not sure. I'm not sure
how to begin. How do you do it."
"You mean, how would I tell someone about my immortality?" Adam
nodded. He seemed so much less sure of himself than Richie
remembered. But, then.... Richie had to think about how to answer
this one. It was a good question. "I've never had to," he began
after a lengthy pause.
"Do you just kill yourself and let her figure everything out?"
Adam interrupted. Richie's expression turned inward in thought.
Adam watched him, wondering if he'd get an answer.
"You should just teleport her to the spaceship...." Richie
mentioned. He meant the idea as a joke, remembering how surprised
he's been the first time Adam teleported him to the spaceship.
That event almost beat the discovery of his immortality as
the biggest shock of his life. Almost.
Adam looked up a Richie with interest. The random idea suddenly
sounding very promising. He vanished without a word into another
flash of light.
Richie stared at luminescent outline of his friend until it faded.
How would I tell? he wondered.
****
end of Good Question