From Alba's diary
Olivier: Stupid sink...
Olivier: And don't laugh.
Nacho: Meow?
Alba: (from downstairs) Olivier, Kate's just arrived, forget about that sink!
As Kate promised when she arrested Drew, we are now starting to receive visits from a specialist from the telepathic units in New Sixam. After all, we underwent e a lot of telepathic manipulation for years too, Olivier still struggles to remember many things he said and did in that period, so in many ways we are not in a very different position than Helios a few years ago.
And, luckily for us, Kate has been assigned to this task too. I think we have many reasons to be grateful to her, considering how much she did to help our family. But, to be totally honest, I'm also very glad she was assigned to our case, instead of some of her colleagues, because I have still quite a few things to ask her.
Kate: Good morning. Ready for another telepathic therapy session?
Alba: Oh, good morning Kate! I didn't hear you arrive.
Kate: Where did Olivier go? I have several things to test with him today.
Alba: He was arguing with a broken sink.
Olivier: (cautiously) Hello. So, what's the plan for today?
Kate: First of all, I would like to check that your motor memory is intact. Would you like to play something on your keyboard? If you want you can also sing along with it.
Olivier: (relieved) Sure, no problem.
Five minutes later…
Kate: Well, the motor memory seems to be fine. So I think it's time to move on to the emotional one.
Alba: Is everything okay?
Kate: I would say excellent
Olivier: Wait, that thing again? Is it really necessary?
Kate: I'm afraid so.
It took Kate most of the morning to complete her work for the day. Olivier seemed pretty exhausted to me, actually even the few tests I had to do gave me some headache. I'm sorry that he has to undergo many more procedures than I do, but I don't think I can do much to change this.
After finishing her work, Kate immediately started to pack her stuff, aiming to leave as soon as possible. But, after seeing Helios in the last few months, there were definitively another couple of things I had to ask her before letting her go.
Alba: So, do you still think that Olivier will be okay?
Kate: I would say so, he didn't suffer any permanent damage. But I'm sure there are at least five short-term missing memories in his mind, I had the impression that they were erased with an even more advanced technique than the one used on Helios. So I'm afraid I won't be able to recover much this time.
Alba: Uhm…
Kate: I didn't notice anything off with you instead, and I doubt that he ever knew anything useful for the investigation you weren't aware of.
Alba: If you say so…
Kate: Anyway, you don't need to think so hard now. I know you have some inappropriate questions for me, and that you're waiting for the best moment to bring them up. I read your memory three times this morning, did you really think I didn't notice?
Alba: (taken aback) ... Well, if you already know that I want to ask you, you'll also know that I want to hear a serious answer, right?
Kate: Correct.
Alba: So, what do you have to say?
Kate: I understand that you are worried about your brother, and you should see how many messages Iris and River wrote to me... And I also understand that the rest of you also miss spending time with me, to a lesser extent. But for me this must remain just a job, really.
I didn't say anything, but probably for her it was enough to look at my face and sense my emotions to understand. I mean, she spent so much of her time right next to Helios in these last years, how can we believe her when she says that the relationship they developed during this time was purely professional?
Kate: I've read the minds of most of you Millers so many times I've lost count, do you really think I don't know what you think of me?
Alba: But—
Kate: Even if I work for an investigative agency, my role is that of telepathic therapist. Sometimes it's not that different from being a psychotherapist, you know?
Alba: ...
Kate: What Helios, and to a lesser extent the rest of you, are experiencing is due to a banal transference phenomenon. During such long therapy processes it is very common for the patient to transfer a lot of trust and emotions in their therapist, sometimes they may even think of having fallen in love, but—
Alba: So do you really want to tell me that you never really cared about us, that this was purely work for you?
Kate: (evasive) I know what you're trying to do, you want me to answer yes or no to try to understand if I'm lying to you, or if I'm sincere instead. But sometimes things aren't that simple.
Alba: But—
Kate: Honestly, what you have in your head just seems like the plot of a bad romance movie, you know? It's really inappropriate, it would be like taking advantage of my role.
Alba: But Helios isn't even your patient anymore, why are you still reasoning in terms of a therapist-patient relationship?
Kate: Now you're my patient though, and these questions are starting to be a bit too personal. Anyway, I repeat, it's not as simple a situation as you think.
Alba: Whatever your reasoning is, the way you left Helios out of the blue is really making him suffer a lot, you know?
Kate: (tired) I saw it in your memories today, you don't need to tell me.
For the first time since when we started talking, Kate looked away, as she thought how to justify herself. She seemed torn, much more than she let on in words.
Kate: There's no need to lecture me, I already know what I have to do.
By saying this she was already waving her hand to say goodbye, she had no intention of telling me anything else.
Kate knows her patients' minds at least as well as her own, but sometimes it's so complicated for us to understand what she is actually thinking...
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A few weeks later...
Rowan is really determined to do his best in school, the more the months pass the more his grades improve.
Alba: (surprised) Oh, so are you already studying fractions?
Rowan: It's an after-school lesson, actually. With that teacher we study way more interesting stuff than in the morning!
Alba: Oh.
Rowan: Mom, do you know that today at school I got an A+? The teacher was very happy, she even put a star on my homework, did you see it?
Alba: Wow, very good!
And he always says the same kind of things to Olivier too.
Rowan: Today I was the first one to finish the test again, you know dad?
Olivier: That's great, good job!
We decided to always encourage Rowan, no matter what kind of passion he would have developed during his life.
Yet, Rowan is clearly a very determined, not to say ambitious, kid. Up to now, he never really needed much encouragement at all.
Seeing him now it's very clear that he really likes studying, but also that he likes even more to get good grades, and to be the best kid both at school and with the scouts' group. He always seems so happy, he's not lying about it, but couldn't this be a bit too stressful for a kid his age, I sometimes wonder?
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To change a bit, we decided to go to a restaurant together one evening. After all, Olivier comes from a family of restaurateurs, so he always liked to dine out from time to time.
Rowan: Actually, there was another thing I wanted to ask you.
Olivier: Sure, what is it about?
Rowan: Why was uncle Drew arrested? He's in prison now?
Alba: Um…
That's true, we had never explained in detail how things really went to Rowan. He had always thought that Drew was one of the many friends of ours who came to visit us at our house, probably for him the arrest seemed to come out of nowhere.
Olivier: ... You see, uncle Drew broke the law, he used telepathy as he was not allowed to do.
Rowan: So what did he do, exactly?
Alba: Well... it's a bit complicated. He wanted to do an experiment to make telepathy even stronger than it already is, but to do this he hurt many people who weren't really aware of being involved in his trials.
Rowan: But did he do something to you too? Is that why you went to court, and all those doctors and Kate came?
Olivier:... He also tried to do experiments on of us, yes. But luckily nothing bad happened to us, the doctors confirmed it. So you don't have to worry, everything is fine.
Rowan thought about it for a moment, and evidently was satisfied with our answers because he closed the topic by telling us:
Rowan: Uhm. That sounds fine, then.
Alba: Oh, here's dinner.
Olivier: Bon appetit!
After dinner, we decided to take a longer but more panoramic route to return back home. Today was another very hot day, and the evening was the perfect time for a walk.
Okay, to be totally honest, I just love to walk on these piers, it is almost like walking directly on the water.
Olivier: The acoustics of this point remain impressive.
Rowan: Have you already come to play the guitar in here?
Olivier: A couple of times.
Rowan: Hey, what's that stuff over there? The water glows!
Alba: (taken aback) The water... what? Where?
Hearing that, I immediately put down the guitar to look at what Rowan was pointing at.
There was little doubt, the sea was undoubtedly emitting blue light.
Alba: Sorry, Olivier, can you take Rowan home? That's definitely something I should investigate.
Olivier: (worried) Of course. Be careful!
I took a sample of that stuff and took some photos, hoping that someone in the labs could identify that stuff. In theory, light emissions of that type can occur when some very small bioluminescent algae are present in the water, so after all it could have been a simple natural phenomenon that decided to be more spectacular than usual tonight.
But when we analyzed that water we didn't find any luminous organisms. Rather, the light seems to come from some phosphorescent molecule dissolved in water, even if the laboratories we usually have to carry out these analyses were unable to recognize any known compound in the sample yet.
I may be overthinking, but that light really reminds me of my only visit to planet Sixam, when I went there in high school on a school trip. The plants are so blue up there. Who knows, maybe I could try talking to Helios about it, maybe he knows someone who could try to analyze our samples with one of Tech Sixam's matter recomposers, or some other instrument I could barely pronounce.
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So I could only continue working, even harder than before.
There must be some clues somewhere, we just have to find and understand them...
At least the volcano seems relatively calm… Although I'd probably be better off not getting any closer than that.
To ensure we weren't ignoring anything, we have also decided to undertake a campaign to monitor the ocean floor. And that's how I learned how to dive.
But, no matter how many strange accumulations of waste and pollutants we can find, their nature and origin continue to remain unknown to us. What the heck is happening to this place, I wonder?
I really like how you've written Kate. It's hard to know what she thinks, but everything she says makes sense. I do hope that IF she does actually like Helios, they're able to work something out. I also hope that Alba can get Sulani cleaned up.
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