James

I looked up to my brother James. I admired him. He knew so much more than I did. And he had special powers. He told me so himself. He could see faster than light. And he had x-ray vision, almost like superman.

"Tink," he said to me one day, when no one else was around, "My teacher told me that the fastest thing in the world is the speed of light. Nothing moves faster than light. It moves so fast that you could not possibly see it move." But then he learned toward me and said in a low voice, "But my eyes are so fast that I can see light move."

"No! Really?" I asked. I was impressed. "What's it like to see faster than light?"

"Well, when I turn off the lights it gradually gets dark, and not all of a sudden. My eyes are seeing the light go out of the room. Pretty neat, huh?" That night when I turned off the lights I was surprised to find out that my eyes were fast, too. I turned the lights off and on a few times just to be sure. Amazing! So there were two of us in the world with eyes faster than the speed of light.

James told me about his x-ray vision one day when he was in a mood to share a special secret. He said that if he held out his hand in front of him, he could see right through a finger.

"Look," he said. "I hold up this finger." He had his left eye closed. Then he moved his finger from side to side. "Behind my finger is that book on the shelf. Now when I concentrate real hard, to get my x-ray vision going, I can see both my finger and the book behind my finger." By this time James had both eyes open.

"That's amazing," I said. "X-ray vision, just like Superman! How do you do it? Maybe I have x-ray vision too!" I held up my finger and closed one eye to determine better what was behind the finger. I tried to look through it, but I couldn't. I must have ordinary vision. How disappointing.

"I'm really special, Tink," whispered James. "Don't tell anyone else. You don't think just everybody has x-ray vision, do you?"

"Why can't we tell the others?" I whispered back.

"They'd be jealous and mad at me." I could understand that. That was normal life for me.

I tried it again. "Hey, I can see through my finger now. My x-ray vision is working now!" I was sure excited. James looked at me in disbelief.

"Ah, you're just saying that to copy me. Let's see if you can see what is behind my back."

I stared and stared. But it was no use. I couldn't see through him. This made me feel bad. Then I had an idea. "Well, can you see what is behind my back?"

"Hmmm," said James. "That's a funny thing about my x-ray vision. It must not be as good as Superman's. I can only see through little things close in front of me."

"Well, I really can see through my finger. Only it kind of comes and goes. I look at my finger and I can't see through it. But then I try to see the book and I see it. The finger is then sort of hard to see. Strange."

James looked again at his finger. "Hey, that's just the same as it is for me. Maybe you do have x-ray vision, too. We'll have to keep it a secret, O.K.?"

"O.K." I said. It was great to have a brother like James. We were both special.