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Ten Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Isaiah The more Ted thought about Maya’s psychic test with the photo album, the more he rejected the notion that he had some special ability. Part of his response was sheer stubborn- ness. He didn’t want to be different from other people, either. He wanted to be a normal guy, have some fun, do a good job, and enjoy his life, that was all. But another part of his mind rejected thoughts of psychic ability because it frightened him, and he didn’t understand why. When Ted tried to dismiss it from his thoughts and found he couldn’t, he decided to talk to his friends and get their opinions. But even bringing up the subject was difficult, because no one else ever talked about strange things. Sitting in the break room relaxing one evening with a few other employees, he took a chance and asked, “What do ya’Il think about psychic abilities?” Leanne, Bert, and another waiter, Sydney, reacted in sur- prise. “You mean, mind-reading and stuff like that?” Leanne laughed. “You don’t believe in it, do you, Ted?” “Well, no,” he hedged, “‘not really. But this friend of mine, Maya, she told me that I was psychic the other day. And I just don’t know what to think.” “What makes her think you’re psychic?” Bert asked. “She gave me a test,” Ted told him. When the others pressed him to explain, he recounted the incident with the photo album. “TI told her what I thought about each of the people in the pictures,” he concluded, ‘“‘and The Child - Ten Maya said I was correct. Do y’all think there might really be anything to this psychic stuff?” “Why don’t we do a little test of our own?” Sydney offered. He was a waiter like Ted, but he only worked at Sun Valley in the summers. For the rest of the year, Sydney was a college instructor somewhere along the east coast, and of all the employees, Ted thought that Sydney was probably the smartest and certainly the best educated. So he listened in surprise and curiosity as Sydney explained the sort of test he had in mind. “You think we could try some experiment that would prove I don’t have any special powers?” he asked. He wanted to discredit Maya’s test and relieve himself of the uneasiness it had stirred up in him. “Who knows?” Sydney countered. “Maybe it will prove that you do. Some people do have psychic abilities, they’ re able to do things that mere chance says they shouldn’t. But I would think that it’s a rather rare gift, Ted, and I’m pretty doubtful that you or any of us here would have it. Care to try it anyway?” “Sure,” Ted agreed. If there was a good test, he’d fail it, and that would put an end to Maya’s talk. He and everyone else would find out that he was just a typical guy. “All right,” Sydney began, “here’s what we’ll do. Pll choose a number of items, and you try to guess what they are. I'll select five things, one at a time, okay?” He motioned for Ted to move back, and Leanne and Bert gathered in close around Sydney to witness the process. “You go across the room and turn around,” he continued. *T’Il give you three guesses on each item, and if you can get even three of them right, out of nine guesses, I’d say that would be a higher than average performance. If you do that well, I’ll concede that you might have some abnormal abili ties.” The others laughed and joked as Ted crossed the room, and he laughed along with them. There was no way he could guess the objects, he was certain, and they could all have a good time watching him fail. He faced the wall a few moments, while Sydney chose the first item and then called Masquerade of Angels 87