“So this is it,” Karen said, wide-eyed.

A.J. had been showing off his house to her, with Jim keeping up the rear. The final room, of course, was the gym.

“Yes, this is it,” A.J. responded.

“Welcome to the rubber room,” Jim added.

“It’s huge!” Karen said in awe.

“4900 square feet, and 20 feet high,” A.J. said. “And yes, getting the building permits were tough.”

“Jesus fucking Christ! It’s bigger than my house! Did I miss a dimension portal someplace?”

“Nope.”

“But this is Pacific Palisades! Your house is in a tract on a cliff that will someday land in the ocean. How did you get something this size? Here, of all places?”

“Well, this is more than one tract. It’s three.”

“Three? Just how much do you guys make?”

“Well,” Jim said, “I don’t know about my brother here, but last year in royalties and sales proceeds I made 9.4 million, after taxes.”

“Shit!”

“I did a bit better,” A.J. put in, “but then I believe in the stock market. Jim here doesn’t.”

“Believe?” Jim asked in mock alarm. “Of course I believe in it. It’s one of the bastions of capitalist civilization, and I am certainly an avid capitalist. I simply choose to ignore it.”

“A good portfolio could put you in a position to retire...”

“I am in a position to retire if I should choose to do so. I simply have no desire to become William Randolph Hearst.”

“Why not?”

“I think I know,” Karen said. She looked at Jim. “Rosebud?”

Jim nodded. A.J. looked at them both. “You lost me,” he said.

“You never saw Citizen Kane?” Karen asked. When A.J. shook his head, she continued. “You should, it’s a great film. Well, without spoiling the film let’s just say that ‘rosebud’ is a metaphor for innocence lost. Hell, we even use the term in my line of work.”

A.J. turned to his brother. “Is the one and only Jim Christopher admitting he’s human?” he asked.

“I’ve never out and out denied it,” Jim responded.

“Holy shit! Call Guiness!”

Karen laughed.

“Hey, don’t laugh too hard,” Jim said. “One time I admitted a mistake and Mr. Wiseass over here actually placed the call.”

“It was turned down,” A.J. returned, “but the people in their offices thought it was funny too. We sent them some autographed pictures covered with obscenities.”

“They’re more valuable that way,” Jim said.

“They are?” Karen asked.

“One went at auction,” A.J. added. “Southeby’s if memory serves. Fetched £10,000 sterling.”

“We sent a telegram,” Jim put in. “All it said was ‘don’t you know we haven’t died yet’?”

Karen laughed even harder. “That’s from Ansel Adams, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Correct, but we digress.”

“Ah, yes,” A.J. said. “We did invite Karen up to see our stuff.”

“You were getting close to making me forget,” Karen responded.

“Sorry, it’s just that you’re the first person we’ve ever invited up for this. Pardon us if we ramble a bit.”

“It’s all right.”

Jim walked to the center of the room. “The first thing to do,” he said, “is to get you familiar with how we do what we do. For example, take floating.” Jim rose six feet into the air.

“Gravity,” he continued, “is a force exerted by everything. Even the air above us does it. The only reason nobody notices this is because of Terra below. Air, for example, puts out an insignificant amount of gravitational pull in comparison. It also comes from all sides and equalizes, as opposed to the ground which comes from only one direction.

“Now suppose that the mass of the Earth was considerably less. You’d jump higher, and stay aloft for a greater period of time. If Earth’s mass were zero, everything would float away.”

“You don’t do that, do you?” Karen asked. “You’re staying in one spot, not floating away.”

“Very good! Remember that the Earth moves at a speed of 18 miles per second. If I lowered the planet’s relative mass I’d smack myself into a wall. If I suddenly turn the Earth’s mass to zero from normal, I’d be dead and floating in free space within five seconds. The neighborhood would be a mess too, because I’d go right through it in about 1/50th of a second.”

“Shit!” Karen whistled. “I never realized just how dangerous your ability can be.”

“Now you know,” A.J. put in, floating up.

“I still don’t see how either of you survived childhood.”

“We’ve always had the abilities,” A.J. continued, “but before Jim hit high school physics, we didn’t know the formulae to change.”

“I let my imagination wander one day,” Jim said, “and, shall we say, shit happened. I went through a lot of broken bones during my early teen years.”

“And we both went through some wild moments as small children. Our parents at first didn’t let us out because of that. Again, we digress.”

“This is true,” Jim said. “What was I saying?”

“You were about to say how you float,” Karen put in.

“Ah, yes. Remember what I said about air? What I do is change the formula for the mass of the air above me, as it relates to me. I make the mass higher than Earth’s so that I float up, then equalize them.”

“Why aren’t you crushed by the mass?”

“You see dear, that’s the beauty. The mass itself doesn’t really change; just the formula, as it applies to me. I’m not hurt in any way, and only my self and what I’m strong enough to carry are affected.”

“So instead of being free of gravity,” Karen said, “you’re between two equally strong gravitational fields. Isn’t that cheating?”

“It’s not cheating if it works,” A.J. replied. He was not at the same height as Jim, and started floating slowly towards him.

“Now wait a minute,” Karen said. “How are you doing that?”

“There A.J. and I use different approaches,” Jim replied, “as we have recently discovered.”

“What do you do, introduce another gravitational field?”

“Doesn’t work that way,” A.J. responded. “We can only use a formula for one application at a time.”

“I thought you guys could think two thoughts at once.”

“We can, although it’s dangerous and Jim doesn’t like to use it. The problem is that the brain recognizes the same chemical reaction happening when you try to use a formula a second time, and channels the reaction into the first thought. We simply can’t do it that way.”

“Then what do you do?” Karen asked.

“What I do,” A.J. continued, “is create a line upon my grid using a formula on a graph...”

“Whoa. Back up. Grid? Graph?”

“Sorry, I forgot. Included in my weird vision is a three dimensional grid that I placed there, with myself at the zero point for all three axes. I create a line upon that graph using a formula. X’s and y’s and z’s is all - just the slope of the line, intersecting at zero. What I do once I can see the line I’ve created is to change gravity, either up or down, and move along the line.”

“You don’t fly level,” Karen stated.

“Nope, I don’t. However, I can create a line with such a small slope that it’s just as good. The end result is that my velocity changes, albeit very slowly. For simplification, that’s how I refer to it.”

“So you think two things at once and let gravity do the work.”

“That’s right.”

“I thought that was dangerous.”

“It is, but I’m a risk taker. Should something distract me or should I screw up, it could kill me, but it hasn’t yet. I won’t try anything without using this room first.”

“I, on the other hand,” Jim said, “think he’s crazy. I will only release my second set of thoughts in this room and only with A.J.’s supervision. Should something go wrong I want someone around who can stop me.”

Karen nodded. “How do you fly?” she asked Jim.

“Flying isn’t the word. I glide.”

“Glide?”

“Yes, and from here I can’t do it.” Jim floated to the ground.

“You see,” he continued, walking towards the far wall, “for my sake I had to find a way to do all that A.J. does in a single thought. The only way to do that is with a push.”

Jim reached the far wall, and floated up to his previous height.

“When I push off,” he went on, “I change the formula for velocity, to set a speed that I travel at.”

“You lose gravity,” Karen stated.

“Yes, but only for a millisecond. Once velocity is changed and I’m moving, I don’t need it any more and I can concentrate on gravity again.”

“Doesn’t wind and friction slow you down?”

“Eventually, although I rarely do this outdoors, so wind isn’t a big factor. Thing is, you’d be amazed how little air affects you without gravity or wind being a factor.” Jim pushed off, gliding across the room. “With a little push I could go all the way across the room, and by changing my velocity to zero,” Jim said, stopping, “I stop, with a bit of a dip thrown in while I re-assert gravity.”

Jim floated down to the floor, then walked over to Karen, kissing her on the cheek. “How are you liking it so far?” he asked.

“Starting to get a feel for it,” Karen replied. “I take it these things have been known to you at least on an individual basis for quite some time now.”

“True.”

“Our older brother Larry,” A.J. said from his perch in the center of the room, “you’ve heard of him I presume? He was an assistant teacher at our high school. When Jim first started showing these abilities could be harnessed and not just exhibited at random, Larry locked him in a wrestling room with foam mats and began working out guidelines to follow. Larry’s a smarter son of a bitch than either of us, so he reasoned out everything that could go wrong, then told us what not to do.”

“I wonder why he’s not like you two,” Karen said.

“Don’t know.”

“Maybe it’s because he’s tone deaf,” Jim added. “You know, A.J., I’ll bet that’s it. It’s the music that allows us to do this shit.”

“Get real,” A.J. responded, laughing.

“No! Listen! How would we know if Todd Rundgren or Mark Knopfler or David Gilmour could do what we do? I mean, short of asking them.”

“You forgot Steve Lukather.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re digressing again,” Karen stated. Both men stopped arguing, and turned to her.

“Okay, smart girl,” A.J. said, “how do you do what you do?”

“This is your rubber room, not mine.”

“You’re welcome to use it at any time.”

Karen sat on the floor, cross-legged, and frowned as if lost in thought. Jim came up behind her and sat, massaging her shoulders. After a moment, she looked up.

“It’s a blanket ability,” she began. “What I mean by that is that it covers everything else in a person’s mind. It also works as a read/write function. I can sense as well as project.”

“Is it directional?” A.J. asked.

“Yes, in your sense of the word. I can use my abilities on a single person.”

“How does it work?”

“I honestly don’t know. I can just tell you I can use it. You’re amused to the point of disbelief, and Jim obviously wants to fuck.”

“Absofuckinglutely,” Jim said.

“You’re batting a thousand,” A.J. added, “although that was an easy one. What about now?”

“Jim hasn’t changed,” Karen said. “You, on the other hand, are trying to change from inquisitiveness to anger. You’re not doing too well wither. You’ve got no reason to be angry.”

A.J. stopped trying. “I’ll have to grant you that one,” he replied, shaking his head, “but I still don’t see how it works. I mean, I’ve been watching you to see what’s different about your brain reactions and I haven’t found even one thing out of the ordinary. Nothing at all unusual.”

“Like I said, I don’t understand how it works or why it works. It just works.”

“Would you do a projection for me? I mean, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind. What are you thinking of?”

A.J. laughed. “What am I thinking of? So much for telepathy. Oh, I don’t know, really. How about if you project fear my way?”

Karen raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want fear?”

“Go for it! Let’s see what you’ve got!”

Karen sighed and directed her thought internally, on fear. Then she looked up at A.J. and projected. It took less than a second.

A.J. began floating up, waving his arms frantically. “Hey! Whoa! Shit! Let’s....Jesus!” Karen let A.J. go, but he kept pushing himself up to the ceiling, screaming.

“Had enough?” Karen asked.

“Yes! Jesus!”

Karen thought about calm, and sent it A.J.’s way. He brought himself under control immediately.

“Holy mother fucking piss-ant shit!” he screamed. “Jesus fucking Christ!” He looked down wildly, with a grin plastered on his face. “That was intense! And I floated up reflexively just to try to get away! Amazing!”

“You enjoyed that?”

“Fuck yes! Look dear, the roller-coaster people make their money because people like being scared under controlled conditions, and I’m too fucking big to ride one of the mother fuckers!”

“A.J.,” Jim said, “could you see any equations?”

A.J. turned to his brother, frowning. “I was a bit occupied, in case you didn’t notice. More experimentation will have to be done, of course.”

“Don’t you think you’d better ask me first?” Karen said.

“My apologies. It’s just frustrating when you can see the potential for something amazing and not be able to anything about it immediately. May we?”

“Permission granted. I’d like to know more about what I do. And what do you mean, potential?”

“I think I see,” Jim said, standing. “The most either of us can instill in people is awe or fear. You can actually control people. Can you send thoughts?”

“Yes, but it’s very limited.” Karen also stood, stretching.

“Stretch like that again when naked,” Jim responded.

“Later lover, lover. Thought projection is limited, at least from me, because I work on the subject mind’s emotional channel. Any thought I send replaces emotion. Do it long enough, or don’t remove the thought, or make it too complex, reasoning goes and animal instinct takes over.”

“You’ve seen this?” A.J. asked, wide-eyed.

“No, that’s just my theory, based upon the work I do professionally. I’m too scared to try it.”

“That’s what this room is for.”

“Maybe. How does unattainable potential affect you two?”

“Pop psychology?” A.J. asked.

“No, curiosity.”

“For us,” Jim said, “it’s the flight. Did you notice that we don’t turn? We can’t.”

“Why?”

“It requires thinking three things at once. Like I’ve said, we can only do two.”

“What does it require?”

“Gravity control, velocity, and a movable grid. You have to change velocity when you turn, otherwise you can turn yourself into mush if the turn is too sharp. You have to be able to move the graph because the self is always set at zero.”

“My grid,” A.J. added, “is so ingrained that I can’t move it. I’m stuck in the same boat as my over cautious brother. It’s a drag knowing how to fly and not being able to do it.”

Karen looked at the floor during the ensuing silence, lost in thought. After a minute she looked up and slowly spoke. “What if I supply your third thought?” she asked.