'Hmmm…' Karl closed his eyes.
'Hmmm…' Karl opened his eyes.
5 minutes passed with the repetition of this process when he finally lost it.
'This won't do! Fuck why can't I sleep! Sleeping should be the lifestyle of a child. Ain't I a child? No I don't care I was 28 years old. I am now a child! That's what matters!
If I can't control my sleep cycle, this boon will turn into a curse of boredom for the next few years.
Wait, is that how luck is trying to fuck with me! Giving me hope for a perfect future and suddenly killing me after I bore in this hell for a few years! Fuck I have to do something!
This won't do. I will have to make some plans so that I don't stay bored whilst not being able to speak and poop.'
Karl closed his eyes as if in deep focus.
'I can first learn the language everyone speaks. I have to keep in mind the repetitive words and understand their meaning by comparing them and keeping in mind the expressions and emotions of the one speaking.
This is easy but I can't do that if someone is not speaking. Where do I get my sample of words from at night! I can play with maids but after the party I don't think I can act more.
Ok so learning language is what I can do when someone is playing with me. I will have to play along and try to make them speak as much as possible.'
Karl nodded seriously which due to his childish face just looked like a kid dozing off in sleep.
'Next question is what do I do whenever someone is not playing with me. I don't think I will be able to act with smiles and giggles all the time. I need something else to pass time.
I got the boredom of a kid with the intelligence of an adult. If I could think like a kid, I would just stay busy with anything but sadly my advantage has become my disadvantage.
I don't think I will be able to keep a 'work during day and sleep during night' schedule. I will just have to wake up till my body allows it and sleep is... also decided by my body.
It feels like when I fell ill as a child. Can not sleep when I want to and will have to sleep whenever my body screams sleep. At least, then I could hear some novels or listen to stand-up comedies but now let alone entertainment, all I can do are giggles and shits.
I have to think of some other thing to do. Something that I can do. Maybe something they told in the novel. Think, think.
Wait, am I stupid?? How could I forget about ether! I can use this time to learn to sense and control ether which will put me ahead of everyone my age.
I can just get stronger to pass time.
The first step if I want to get stronger is to gather ether in the body! But first I will have to learn to sense ether.'
James straightened his hands towards the ceiling, his eyes still closed as he started-
'Wait, What do I have to do?' Karl thought trying to remember the novel.
'It was said in the novel that many geniuses like Karl learned to sense ether by themselves so it won't be too difficult. It was clearly said in the novel that ether is everywhere.
Then maybe I should try to feel ether through my skin, like air feels on my skin.'
As James focused on the air touching him, his face serene as if asleep, he could not feel a thing.
'Hmmm, not working. What should I try next?' Just as James was thinking what to do next he remembered it.
'Lungs! It was said at the start of the novel that people learn to sense ether as it enters in their body as they breathe.
Man what the hell is happening with me. I keep forgetting such basic things. Lets try to sense the ether around my lungs.'
James once again tried to feel something unknown and this time he did. He felt something… different.
'Bingo!' James exclaimed in his mind.
As James focused on that new feeling, he was able to sense it a bit better.
It felt like something was entering his body with every breath. It was not like smoking or vaping, it had no temperature. It was just there, that was all he could sense.
As he kept his focus on the slight amount of ether he could feel inside his lungs, trying to understand it better, time slipped by.
Karl suddenly felt a hand holding him which broke his concentration.
His first instinct was to move his hand towards the hand that held him, still not used to his eyesight when he remembered who and where he was.
'Habits die hard huh.'
Karl opened his eyes and saw his mother who was looking at him with smile.
'Why at this time?' as Karl wondered and looked around the room, his eyes went towards the window, the sight shocking him.
'What the fuck! I have understood shit and its already morni-!'
Just as Karl was getting angry he felt all the power slip out of his body as laziness took over him and he fell asleep in his mother's embrace.
***
As Karl woke up, he saw the sun high up in the sky.
'I must have slept from morning till noon.' Karl thought looking around to see where he was.
He was now in a bed with his mother lying beside him, her palm on top of his his stomach, slowly patting it.
'So how much did I understand?' As Karl ransacked his brain to remember how much he had understood of ether, his mother feeling his movement, turned to look at him.
"H#&*@" she said as she patted Karl on the stomach.
'Those words must mean something like 'you are up?' or 'good morning'. Gotta keep paying attention to the language, but right now I want to focus on ether.'
Karl thought as he closed his eyes again and started feeling the energy he was now all too familiar with.
'I can now sense ether inside my lungs clearly. Though that is the limit.
Another thing I became sure of, during ether search is that my brain is a lot faster. I was always able to think fast but this is on a whole another level. If I before needed a whole day to read and understand a book, now I feel like I will be able to do the same in under 5 hours.
The reason can not be due to ether, because if it was everyone will be able to think as fast as me which I did not think was the case in the novel.
If I have to make guesses then it might be because this body is better than my body on earth. Nothing more I can think of, not like knowing the reason changes anything.'
Karl put a stop on his thoughts and tried to sense more ether, ignoring the words his mother was speaking to him.
***
'One week has passed since I first sensed ether. I can now control a bit of ether inside my body and can sense it a bit even outside of my body.
Controlling ether just involves being able to move it according to my will. To control ether I need to focus on ether, try to understand wherever it is going and use my will to change its direction or manipulate it however I see fit.
I made a breathing method in which I inhale and exhale heavily like a patient on ventilation. Not very cool but it works. Though it was only useful until I was learning to sense ether inside my body. It doesn't help in learning to sense ether outside the body or in learning to control ether that I can already sense.
At first breathing like that worried mom and others but after another check up by the same preacher, I guess, they thought it was some kind of sleeping habit. They let it go as I stopped doing it after a few days, when I could sense it clearly inside my body.
But what feels better than my progress with ether is being able to understand others.
Ether practice becomes boring unlike the process of understanding the language by myself which I remembered was called Arhius in the novel.
With my increased learning speed and such, I can learn a language by myself faster than I ever learned another language with the help of 'duallingo'. So it feels awesome to use my enhanced brain.
One of the things I now know is that my mother's name is Ercia. I already knew my father's name from the novel, Kevin Hearth.
My granny's name is Martha. I am yet to know of this body's grandfather's name but I think I can live without knowing it. I have also not seen grandma and grandpa since the party so I think that they have left.
I have also came to understand a lot of phrases. I now know whether one is wishing me good morning and good night or asking me how I am feeling. Just those basic lines but they are a start.
My schedule is mostly playing with mother trying different things to ignite new emotions in mother and understanding the words associated with those emotions.
Sometimes maids take care of me but mostly it is mother. Maids don't get too friendly with me which is also because of me.
When some did try to act friendly with me, pulling my cheeks, I replied in kind with a loud cry, so they don't play with me anymore. When taking care of me they do talk to me which I try to understand but they know that I will cry if they touch me.
They just change my clothes when I shit and giggle, give me a bath and feed me.
I do act friendly with one of the older maids though. Her name is Helda and she speaks a lot! I can take a bit of physical harassment like cheek pulls if it means knowing more words of Arhius.
Playing with Helda turned out to be a good thing as the other maids also started talking a lot which I gave my approval to with a smile. So now they talk a lot but don't touch me needlessly. Perfection if I say so.
My next plan is to understand Arhius better, at the level where I can understand each and every word the maids or my family speak, and also to learn to control ether freely, all by the next two weeks.'