Mind Games Read Online Free

project at this time, I asked Mr. Ennis whether I could pursue my Hubble investigation instead. He encouraged me to pursue any topic I wished; however, he made it clear that our group experiment must be complete before he would allow me to enter an individual project in the science fair under his sponsorship.
    As my fellow group members failed to grasp the exciting possibilities of the Hubble constant, I realized it was incumbent on me to assume a leadership role and prod them into some sort of action. In an attempt to interest them in the investigation—any investigation—I suggested the Paranormal Pursuits projects to be found throughout this document.
    As we devised ideas for our individual Paranormal Pursuits, I also enlisted help from the group in collecting materials for our legitimate parapsychology experiment. The complete list turned out to be as follows:

    M ATERIALS
    1) One black pen (which will not bleed)
2) 5" X 7" index cards (25)
3) One shoebox
4) One pair of dice
5) One plastic cup

    To this, we later added:

    6) One dictionary
7) Drawing paper
8) Lottery tickets
    Traditional ESP testing cards (aka Zener cards) were made using the black pen and index cards. Claire, known since first grade for her neatness, made five of each of the following designs: plus,
circle, box, star,
and
wavy lines
(see cards, display table).
    From here, we embarked on our first attempts to discern evidence of the paranormal in the world around us.

Exhibit C: Paranormal Pursuits: Telepathy
Claire Phelps
    I F I WERE EVER GOING TO TRY TO READ SOMEONE'S mind, I didn't think it would be my twin sister's. The person I know better than anybody is Ji. At least, I used to. But by the time we decided to do this ESP project, I was surprised that she thought we were on the same wavelength anymore—about anything.
    Now that Ji has so many new friends, I spend a lot of time wondering what she wants to do with me. When I ask her, she says I'm crazy to worry that things have changed. But her not admitting it to me—that's definitely part of the change.
    What is our friendship about to her? If I could read her mind, that's what I'd want to know.
    But I can't do it. I've tried and tried. That's when Ben pointed out to me that I've tried and tried with Ji, and who knows how long we'll be friends? With Kathleen, who's my sister for life, I've never tried.
    ***
    I am older than Kathleen by four minutes, although sometimes it seems like four years. My father held me during those four minutes, and my mother gave me a name—Claire Catherine, after her two favorite saints.
    The first thing I did in this world was to almost kill my sister (not very saintlike) by using all our oxygen when we were being born. The first thing Kathleen did was shut her mouth tight and not breathe and not cry. She has since made up for this many times over.
    Kathleen didn't get her name until the third day, when everybody was sure she was going to live. I was already home from the hospital then, and Aunt Lynn came to take care of me. Aunt Lynn says I cried the whole time. She says I couldn't bear to be separated from my sister.
    So when Ben started talking about research on twins separated at birth, I thought about Kathleen and me and all the things between us ever since the day we were born.
    I tried to understand how these twins who had never met each other in their whole lives could be closer than me and Kathleen. How could they share butter pecan ice cream across 2,000 miles when Kathleen and I can't even share a birthday cake? How could they laugh at the same jokes when I've heard Kathleen's chicken crossing the road every day since kindergarten and never laughed once? How could they feel each other's gut-wrenching pain (literally) when Kathleen's can only make me a little bit numb?
    And I thought,
How come I can't read her mind when she's never out of my thoughts for one minute
?
    I definitely feel that being Kathleen's twin