Invisible Touch Page 5

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Welcome to the PsyTown-Albuquerque Police Psycept Association, or PAPPA. I see many new faces around the room today, so we’re going to do a brief introduction and recap of our previous meetings. This will be the last time we do this, so we’ll try to make it memorable. I’m Gray Graham, a Mind Sage that works police cases almost exclusively. I’ve been in PsyTown for fifteen years. Yes, I am one of those notorious first groupers you may have heard about. Summer in El Paso is no joke.

  “We founded PAPPA to fulfill many needs we saw for the Psycepts that work police cases. For me, it was a lack of community and advocacy. We work our cases in isolation, with the police being our only point of contact. And we are a small group. There are tens of thousands of Psycepts here, but only a thousand of us work criminal cases.” By now, the three of us were pros at standing in the center of the room surrounded by people in semicircles. We stood with our backs to each other, each of us covering one-third of the audience. We also had previous weeks to refine our spiel.

  “I am Philip Biobaku, a PsyChometrist that spends over half my Psycept time on police cases. Prior to immigrating to SWACon, I was a professor of anthropology and history, focusing on world mythology. I became a resident of PsyTown twelve years ago, I was in the last large group to arrive. Like most of you here, in my entrance packet, I was given access to the Psycept database and links to some videos on how to navigate the system. Within three days I was introduced to the police detective I would work with and I read my first case within the week. It was unsettling, both the reading and the process, or lack thereof. Just because I am a PsyChometrist does not mean that I had any idea of how to read objects for a police investigation. I had many questions from what to include on the report to how to handle some ethical concerns. My first detective was nice and tried to be helpful, but he was overwhelmed with cases, we all were. The police unit and the number of Psycepts working cases are small, but the petition log was, and still is, very large.

  “I was given Gray’s name to contact, she was a lifeline. With her aid, I developed a system. I wrote clearer reports and could separate the impressions into workable segments, learning to keep irrelevant data out. And I found I could ask her questions concerning the morals of what we did. Speaking with you over the past few weeks, I discovered that she helped many of you in this manner too.

  “Gray and I have stayed in touch over the years. When she reached out to me several weeks ago asking about a support group for Psycepts that focus on police cases, I jumped at the chance. I feel that training and creating ethical standards are needs that PAPPA can fulfill.” Professor Biobaku was a wonderful orator. He spoke clearly and modulated his tone to reach as many people as possible. He and his wife were both active in Psycept community outreach programs, traveling to other SWACon regions to speak with citizens about Psycepts. Most citizens of the GT do not directly interact with Psycepts as we are approved only to stay in designated cities. He attempts to dispel many myths about Psycepts and I’m glad he agreed to be a cofounder of PAPPA.

  “I am Imital Qureshi and I am with Psycept Civilian Support Services, or PCSS. I moved here thirteen years ago with my mother and father, a flora Psycept. I began working in PCSS immediately as I had just completed computer programming and database administration education. Gray contacted me shortly after I began working because she had questions about the Psycept database system. I think she just randomly called office lines until she found someone that would answer the phone, computer specialists are not known for our verbal communication skills. I’ve been answering her random questions ever since.

  “My interactions are with fellow support service workers. I have heard tell of cases where our usual non-criminal Psycepts were called in to help on a police case and the experience was difficult for them to manage, it may have damaged their mind or spirit. You all manage difficult cases many times over, so I can only imagine the toll it takes. My father was a practitioner of Mazdayasna and my mother had two sisters become sadhvis. These concepts may not translate to you, just know that I was raised to help people where I can and do good in the world.

  “I feel that support, both tangible and spiritual, is an area that this association can provide.” Years ago, Imital changed my name from MT to Gray in the Psycept database. People still speculate how I did it, so don’t tell anyone. She emanates peace and well-being and it’s soothing to be around her. She is currently the director of the SWACon Psycept database. Some of our frustration is with how the database works or more accurately, doesn’t. Imital cannot change the whole system as it’s shared by all conservatorships, but she is on the national committee and can make suggestions for changes. In addition, she brings a network of mental health and spiritual counselors from her volunteer work.

  I resume speaking. “From our prior meetings, we’ve gauged your interest in these topics and found that you’re equally interested in them. Since we three can’t do everything at once, we’re going to divide into groups and conquer specific objectives. We ask that you wait until after all three of us speak before you decide which group you want to join.

  “I am taking on training as well as developing a Psycept database wish list. I also hope to develop a Code of Ethics. And for my group, we are going to meet during the remaining time, so this isn’t a ‘give your name and dash situation’. I ask that you take advantage of the break that Imital will call before we dive into our short meeting. The convergence area is by the Sisters Wyrd and Brother Bone seated over there. If you’re interested, we’ll see you then. Thank you.” Since Tiko and the girls came to the meeting, I’m going to put them work. They can select another group to join, I just need their aid as a beacon point for a few minutes.

  “I will handle the community aspect. If you are interested in reaching out to PCSS and our police unit, working with police Psycept groups on other conservatorships, welcoming the many new residents that will arrive in the new year, or any other community ideas you may have, please see my wife, Sharon, and my son, Ben, over there. I will also spearhead advocacy, but that will be a later project.” Professor Biobaku and his wife will do wonders with forging a community to be proud of.

  “I will focus on mental and spiritual support. This includes establishing support groups, mental strengthening exercises, counseling services, retreats, and so forth. Shaman Wakun and PsyPath Emily seated by the buffet table will be our meeting point. Oh, and my eventual project will be working on the database wish list that Gray sends me.

  “For now, please select the one group you are most interested in being a part of. There will be time to join other groups in the future. Each group will provide details on meetings and tasks. We will have a fifteen-minute break and reform in our groups upon return.”

  Everyone stood up at once and most attendees headed to designated sections of

  the room and others lingered, deciding where to go. Some left the room to take advantage of the break. Oops, I dropped a larger bomb on the MacGillivray siblings’ lap than they anticipated. Texting quickly, I stood on a chair and made sure Tiko could see me wiggle my phone at him. With an eye-roll, he took his phone out to await the chat message.

  Sorry to drop this on you. Y’all are free to choose another group, I just needed you for a meeting point. Gonna take Echo out for a sec. Any of you wanna come with?

  I saw him glance at his sisters and nod. I stood down from the chair.

  Sure. We’ve decided on your group and will join you outside. Need a break from people for a bit. Do you want us to bring Echo out with us?

  If you can, but don’t force him if he is wary. I can always wait a minute or two for the crowd to lessen.

  Needing a break from people, I know that feeling. This was PAPPA’s last ninety-minute meeting, and we still had over an hour left. I saw Tiko speak to one of the people that was in our designated meeting area, then the siblings head toward the door where I join them. I grab Echo’s leash from Jay and out we all troop.

  “So,
I’m happy y’all have attended the meetings these last few weeks. When I contacted Professor Biobaku about a Psycept support group for police cases, I expected to join an existing group, not be a founding member of one. As y’all know, I kinda keep to myself in the community. I think that the first general impression of me back from bus stop was not a good one and I figured the other Psycepts spread the word about me. For the past fifteen years, I just put my head down and did the work. I only attend the one required Psycept Council meeting per quarter and that’s been fine with me.

  “But even keeping to myself, I know y’all are big deals and I didn’t think you’d be interested in this. Tiko, your bone wards are so strong, I heard you and Shaman Wakun have been invited to meet with other conservatorships. And Libby, you’re apparently some wunderkind at blood analysis, so cool. Vic is a divination queen. Jay, I know you’re popular at plant and harvest times. So, thanks for attending and joining my group.”

  “Gray, of course we came,” Tiko replied. “We’ve always helped each other over the years. You and Granny Luna Mae advocating for us is the reason sages are treated with consideration here on SWACon. The girls and I could’ve been nothing but polite and respectful and tried to educate everyone about sages, but there is no changing some people’s minds. By giving us the space to prove ourselves, we’ve made great strides, especially within the TouchVoyants. I’ve traveled to other conservatorships and let’s just say, the other Psycepts aren’t the nicest to sages. We’ve transferred many sages here over the years and now have the largest sage community of all the conservatorships.”

  “Cool. How many sages are in attendance today? I didn’t get a chance to look at the roster yet.”

  “There are about a hundred of us here today, one-third of the attendees I’d say. I know that PsyChometrists are the largest section of police case workers, but I think our turnout is pretty good. My boyfriend wanted to be in the community group, otherwise he’d be with us.”

  Libby was typical of the MacGillivray siblings. Tall, blond, and blue-eyed, every one of them, like Norse gods and heroes. At 5’6”, I’m taller than some, shorter than others, though I am not often the shortest person in a group as I am now. My comparative lack of height plus my dark hair and light-brown eyes sticks out like a sore thumb amongst such golden splendor.

  “You’ll have to introduce me to your boyfriend sometime, Libby. Jay, you still hanging out with Dani? I know there was a period of adjustment when Araceli and Dani began dating.”

  I babysat Dani many times after arriving at PsyTown. During one of the first sessions, I received approval from both Tiko and Sheriff Lowell to watch Jay and Vic too. I wanted to give the girls an opportunity to hang out with a non-Psycept whom they may become friends with. Vic and Dani liked each other just fine but Jay and Dani really hit it off. They’ve been best friends ever since. When Dani and Araceli began dating a couple of years ago, Dani spent most of her time with Araceli. I think after the first flush of new romance wore out, Araceli finally convinced Dani to spend more time with her friends and family. Araceli loves Dani, but Araceli is also a bit more solitary and needed some time for herself.

  “Yep. The three of us are going on the eastern tour this summer. I’m trying to get Vic to go with us. Maybe even Libby and Sri, her boyfriend. Tiko said he’s too busy to take all three weeks off but may join us for a week.”

  “Sounds fun. Wendy and I went on the eastern tour a few years ago and enjoyed ourselves.” Wendy and I plan on trying the western tour in the next year or so, but this gave me an idea. I’ll have to bookmark it for later.

  “Are y’all okay with being point people for the smaller groups I’m forming? I’ll be on the database wish list, but there’s also ethics and the training. Any preferences?”

  “I’ll take training. Jay too.”

  “Thanks Vic. Libby and Tiko, you good with ethics?”

  “I think I’d like to just work on the wish list with you, Gray. Is that okay?”

  “That’s perfect, Libby. Tiko?”

  “I don’t mind working on the ethics part. But you may want someone else to lead the group.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Looks like Echo is done, time to return.”

  When the five of us make it back to our area, we find that someone kindly made the seating smaller, so we had a little cocoon area. Everyone was seated waiting for us. Many smiled when they saw Echo walking jauntily towards them, like I said, puppy power. We join them in the redesigned seat area though I scoot back a little to keep some space around me.

  “Wow, this is a great crowd. I wasn’t expecting this large a number.”

  Everyone looks at each other, then at Professor Biobaku and Imital’s groups. Each is over double our size.

  “Gray, there’s only fifty of us. You expected even less?”

  “Yeah, Vic. I like this kinda work, dealing with the details. But not many people do. It’s not as glamorous as the grand ideas being thrown around behind us.”

  A few chuckles around the circle.

  “So, we’re gonna spend ten minutes on an icebreaker. Yeah, yeah, I hear the groans, that’s fine, I can take it. Then for the last thirty minutes, we’re going to talk about next steps.

  “Okay, for the icebreaker, we’re going to discuss the Sisters Wyrd and Brother Bone. Not gossip about them, just the name itself. I think it invokes thoughts of Shakespeare, Grimm fairytales, comic book characters, or a band name. We’re gonna go around and say our name, which category their name falls under, and the specific. Like if you say band name, then what type of music will they play. Or which Shakespearian play would they be characters in. Same thing with Grimm and comic books. I’ll go first as an example, plus I’m sure many have the same thought and I want to say it first.

  “I’m Gray. I think comic book characters, they’re for sure X-Men.”

  Even more chuckles from the group. We go around the circle. There’s a little debate about which Shakespearean play, it’s down to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, or The Tempest and even the girls join in. For bands, I enjoy either the 70s funk band or 80s hair band suggestions. Tiko just sighs at us all.

  “See that wasn’t so bad. Now to get down to why we’re here. Training, Ethics, or Database. Since there are fifty-ish of us, roughly fifteen people per group, give or take.

  “Vic and Jay will be with training, Vic will be the point person. Point person doesn’t mean leader, it means someone that handles scheduling, communication, and materials. Each team will decide their own leader, if a leader is even needed. Remember, the training is not how to use your abilities. The largest part will be how to write reports. I’ve provided my template to several people over the years. I’ll send that to Vic and you can use it and adapt it, or come up with something completely new, it’s up to you.

  “Another part of Vic’s group will be the database training. It stared out with some videos, but it hasn’t been updated since. We need new videos, I think two generations of hairstyles have come and gone since then. And, I suppose, we should also incorporate the database and process changes, not just the newer hairstyles. The vids should be short, like one topic per video, and no more than five minutes per video, just a suggestion. That way, if any of the wish list changes something in the database, it will be easier to refilm a small segment than try to splice something together months or years later.

  “Next sub-group is the database wish list, Libby and I are on this, Libby is point person,” surprised her, did I? I have enough on my plate as I will be overseeing all three teams. Let her get her feet wet. “It can be frustrating, trying to make the system do something that seems intuitive to you, but it’s like pulling teeth to make it do what you want. Have you ever yelled at the system because it was being stupid? I know, computers are smarter than we are, but if the programming is not what we need it to be, then we need to fix it. So, this group is not writing programming, I barely remember the one computer science class that I muddled through. This is about identifying a
reas of improvement or suggesting new areas.

  “Finally, ethics. Tiko will be point person. Have you ever had a case that you weren’t sure if it was the right thing to do? Some of you may have heard about this, but a few years ago, I refused to provide information I learned from a reading. An abusive husband’s wife ran away, and he wanted to know where she went. So, he wheedled his wife’s family into helping him with a petition, framed it as a missing person case request. I caught the petition and I knew where she went and what name she was going by.

  “I refused to divulge this information to the husband, but I also didn’t tell the police. Both the Chicago PD and our own Psycept department were not happy with me. I didn’t have anything to back me up, just the conviction that I was doing as the subject wished, rather than the petitioner or the police. We all have cases like this, so we should come up with some guidelines or principles. Look to existing Codes of Ethics, especially in the medical and counseling fields. And know that it won’t be a few people making an ironclad document for the rest of us to follow. You will be presenting a version for the rest of us to review and make suggestions, then finally ratify in a vote.

  “Finally, a couple of housekeeping points. The next meeting of our entire group will be in two weeks in one of the meeting rooms in the foyer downstairs. I’ll send out the details shortly. For now, pick a sub-group, decide on when you next want to meet, it can be in person or a video conferencing app, I don’t care. Then you’re free to go. I’ll send out some things for the point person to cover at your individual meetings. Thanks.”

  Ten minutes later, everyone cleared out. The final tally is twenty in Vic’s group, eighteen in Tiko’s, and fifteen in Libby’s group. I quickly send out the information I promised. Three meetings down, one to go. What even is my life?

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Psycept Council meeting is the final meeting of the day. I don’t know why we meet twice a month. The population of Albuquerque is sixteen times that of us Psycepts and they manage one meeting per month just fine. I think meeting twice a month reflects our oversized opinion of our importance. Thank goodness Psycept residents need only attend one meeting per quarter, I kept to that bare minimum for years. Recently, I’ve gone to all the meetings in the past six weeks. Talk about from one extreme to another.