Heirs of Planet Life 2 - The Origin Of Life

X - Helen's Secret

Helen liked to walk with her grandfather and felt that she was safe next to him. They had fun going to new places along with Lorena. Over time, Merko used these moments alone with the girl to teach her how to use telepathy to communicate, without invading the privacy of others. Together, they had a lot of fun using this extraordinary ability. When they went out for ice cream or walking, they talked only with their minds and smiled knowing that the people around didn't know what was really happening. The grandfather had not yet explained to his granddaughter how they had this ability, but decided that, along with Helen's parents, he would reveal everything at the right time.

Merko also realized that the girl's intelligence was unique. At school, the girl showed extraordinary performance and all teachers were amazed at her ability to reason. She was always at the head of the class, reaching the conclusions of the subjects addressed before all the other students. She was seen as a girl well above average compared to the other students.

"Helen, don't say the answer yet, because your classmates need to understand the subject," her biology teacher would say in class, smiling, as she saw her raise her hand to answer the questions.

The young woman obeyed by nodding her head. In addition, she liked to study and nurtured within herself an intense desire to learn. It seemed that she knew the importance of knowledge and how it could be useful sometime during life. On that day of school, however, strange things would begin to happen.

As she waited for the teacher to finish an explanation of the functioning of the human body, Helen stared fixedly at the skeleton being used in class. The teacher touched the bones of its arm, saying their names, as a student ran into the classroom and stumbled, knocking over the structure the skeleton was in. The boy also fell on the table and the teacher ended up on the floor.

Some bones were displaced from the others, because the hooks were released with the shock. The teacher got up and saw the bones at her feet. The students began to laugh, because the sequence of events had been very funny. The crowd remained in a great commotion.

"You're so clumsy, Anthony! Besides taking so long to return to the classroom, you also knock everything down when you enter." Said the teacher in a serious tone.

"I'm sorry, teacher. I'll try to be more careful the next time I walk into the classroom."

After the teacher caught the boy's attention, the other students became serious and silent. They thought she would tell them off too if she caught them laughing. Helen felt sorry for the boy and thought about fixing his gaudy act. She stared at the skeleton and, suddenly, the bones levitated in front of the board. The loosened hooks snapped back into the bones, as if the skeleton was being repaired by invisible hands. In what seemed pure magic, they positioned themselves one by one in the right place; the skeleton rose and repaired itself. Everyone was frightened by what they saw. The girl kept her gaze focused on the bony structure as if in a trance, and suddenly she fell on herself, again realizing where she was.

"What is going on? Who did this? Is it some joke? Is that you, Anthony?"

"No, teacher. I don't know how to do this..." replied the boy, impressed.

The teacher was trembling with fear and sweating cold. She walked slowly toward the skeleton that was in a metal frame, hung by a hook at the back of the skull. She ran her hand over it slowly to see if there was any thin nylon thread or something. The students stared at her with wide eyes.

"It must be some line, like the one used in puppet theater or some magic trick. A student wants to prank me." She wondered.

Disappointed by her attempt to elucidate the case, she found that there was nothing. Not from above, nor from the sides or anywhere. She kept moving her arms around the skeleton, but there was nothing. She looked at the group and for a moment thought they would laugh at her reaction. But she realized that the students were scared, too. No one could explain what had happened. Two boys who were close to the bony structure looked at each other, amazed, when suddenly Helen became deconcentrated and the bone staples again loosened, causing the structure to dismantle, collapsing on the floor. The boys hurried out of the classroom. The paralyzed teacher could not help but faint. The other students imitated he other two's reaction and, in hysteria, left the classroom. Only Helen stood there, quiet, motionless in her chair, not knowing what to do.