Listen, kids. You might think your ability to understand each other is normal, but outside of Loleta it’s not. For people outside, people’s thoughts are like blank chalkboards. They wouldn’t like it if they knew we can read their minds. They’ve grown up without it, and they’ve gotten used to hiding their thoughts from other people. They would regard it as an infringement, like stealing their things. They would punish us for stealing their thoughts, which is ridiculous, because we only read their thoughts; they still have them. But still, they’d be mad at us. They call it an intrusion. This is why we keep our ability a secret.
It’s been with us for a long time, this ability. At first, we weren’t very good at doing it, or at keeping it a secret. That’s what got Billy Macintyre into trouble. Billy was born long before your grandfather and grandmother, and he lived here. He worked at the gas station. It wasn’t unusual for people from the outside, on their way to or from the beach, to stop and fill up their tanks.
It’s illegal to embezzle from the company you work for, but it’s not illegal to think about it. Even if you know that a crime has been committed, it’s no good to blame the perpetrator unless you have proof. Billy knew which company was robbed, and he knew that the guy getting his gas was the robber. But he didn’t have proof. Overhearing the embezzler’s thoughts isn’t proof.
For Billy, this was crazy, so he wrote a letter to the company and signed his name on it. He didn’t know that the embezzler would be the one to open his letter.
In the end, Billy had to deny he knew anything. He had to say he made it all up. If you tell them what they want to hear, then they believe it. And people outside don’t believe mind reading is possible.
Monologues