Fence Key - Six

Jed and Johnny were sipping their lattes when Damien arrived.

“What’s he doing here?” Damien asked, pointing at Johnny.
“He’s my friend, now sit down and tell us how to deal with this forehead thing.”
“Well, first of all, are you sure you want to get rid of it? It’s a unique skill you know.”
Jed nodded a yes and stared at Damien.
“Okay, but we have to go back to when you first got the skill… ability… what do you call it?”
“Yeh, I think of it as a skill and it appeared when I was twelve."
“At puberty, that’s interesting. When were you referred to the psychiatric services?”
“It seems like a life time ago, but it was at the same time as I developed my ability.”
“I’ve got something to tell you my boy,” Dr. Damien Kelly, said as he intruded into Jed’s personal space.
“You don’t have a psychiatric disorder."
“I don’t?”
“No, you don’t. There are two explanations available for a case like yours. Would you like to hear them?”
“Of course I would.”
“The first is put forward by the Church. They would say you are cursed and an evil spirit has entered into you. Their cure is exorcism. The other explanation and the one that I favour is more scientific. A friend of mine, Dr. Handsome Cab, is a leader in field of virology. He has discovered a virus, which has the ability to break down the mind – body continuum.
“A virus! Are you serious?
“Yes, I am. This is a very rare virus, which has allowed a few people to read minds, and they have invariably been wrongly classified as suffering from psychosis. ”
“Go on.”
“The virus enables people to read minds, but it does not put the thoughts on a forehead, that's something we as intelligent beings have created to deal with this phenomenon. The forehead writing is in fact delusional to the extent that it is not real; however, the mind reading is real. We have been able to prove it."
“This is all very interesting but is there any hope for me?”
“Yes, I have spoken to Dr. Cab, who is by the way, a close friend and luckily for you, he has developed an anti-viral at his own expense, the government would not condone such research. However, it comes at a price; £50,000 and a guarantee of normality for ever. With your skills, raising that will be difficult but not impossible.