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Others were chewing on pencils and tapping their fingers in some semblance of rhythm. Each person wracking their brains trying to find the answers to the test. But not Daniel. He didn't need to think about the answers. They screamed out to him. The words jumped off of the pages. Numbers carouseled into intricate patterns and spun around the page before returning to were they began. The patterns cried out to him and revealed their hidden information. Information he had always had. The patterns were part of him and he knew how to read them. It didn't matter that it wasn’t the way others thought, or the way they learned or even how they observed the world. This was his mind and if it showed him patterns and he knew that they meant, then the letters and number would do cartwheels down the hallway with him and he would be just as happy.
The bell sounded. Several students were hurriedly scribbling answers that had only been have conceived when the first instant of the ringing tolled. Before anyone had a chance to gather their belongings, Daniel was out the door. Why shouldn't he be? He had finished the test thirty minutes earlier and was just waiting for the bell, and the end of high school. He ran down the hall, past the ferris wheel of words that stood out from the bulletin boards. A waterfall of mathematical symbols poured down the hall, flowing from a book which had been dropped by a dark haired girl. The portraits of the schools former head master's lost their color as he walked past, instead the color was replaced with hard dark lines that showed the geometry of the images breaking them down into their basic shapes and angles.
School was done and his life was about to move on. He had a little over two months to live before he was pulled into college. Why worry about college now? He had always been able to know what he needed to know when he needed it. Would college be any exception? Probably not he decided, and headed home.

Later that night Daniel drove over to Phillip's house. Matt and Aaron were already there when he arrived. It was the last day of high school and there was a massive party being held at the house of one of the more well-to-do students. Each of the four had been invited, but none really felt that was the place for them. Besides, they had known each other their entire lives. This night was going to be theirs. In a few months, they would be spread around the country.
It wasn't the typical high school graduation party. Definitely not the big throw down that was going on across town. The four of them sat in Phillip's room with music going. Each telling funny stories from their pasts and talking about things they wish they had done and things they hoped they would do in the next few years.
“I'm not really sure college is for me,” Matt said. “I mean high school was hard enough. I'm thinking about not going and just getting a job. I'm sick of sitting and learning, I want to actually do something, ya know?”
“I know exactly how that feels” Phillip answered. “I think it'll be kind of hard, but worth it. It should be fun at least. What do you think?” Phillip motioned to where Daniel was leaning back against the bed.
“I think I'll be a breeze. I don't really see how it can be worse.”
“You wouldn't” Aaron cut in. “You never think anything's hard. You just kind of show up, get everything the first time and move on. It's not fair if you ask me. You have to have a computer for a brain or something.”
Daniel gave a laugh. The thought had never occurred to him about having a computer for a brain. As he laughed he saw the endless dance of the letters and numbers parading around the room. They moved to the beat of the music, even flashed from color to color. In mid laugh, a tingle when down Daniel's neck and into his shoulder. The color drained from the procession of letters. The whole room seemed to grow dim. He closed his eyes tight when a chill, that made his hair stand on end, shot through his body. When he opened his eyes the color was still washed out of the room. Things were spinning slightly, almost like he had spun himself in circles. The spinning slowed to a halt. The music was now pulsing visibly, he could see the sound waves reverberating off of the walls and his friends. There was no sound now. It was all waves and patterns. Letters, numbers, symbols and shapes. Everything slammed into him at once and then there was nothing.
A noise, faint in the distance. It sounded almost like static, but not quite. More like a scratchy microphone with someone talking. The room's color flooded back. The music rushed over him. His three friend's faces were locked hard into his. Each showing more concern than they would have ever admitted having. “Are you okay?” Phillip asked. “You kinda blanked out for a minute.” His concerns were echoes by the other two.
“I'm not sure what happened.” Daniel rubbed his eyes and massaged his ears. “It was strange. Like everything got dark and then quiet. I thought I could see the music, as crazy as that sounds. Then I thought I heard someone trying to say something to me. Then everything came back to how it is now.”
The three just sat there staring, not sure what to say. As they sat there the words paraded around their heads.

The next morning, Daniel left before anyone else was awake. For a few minutes, he just sat in his car staring off at nothing. Sleep had hidden itself from him the night before. He started the car and began to drive home.
Gloom had filled the world. Clouds blanketed the sky and a drizzle fell. In some places, the sun broke through but was quickly swallowed up by the gray ceiling. The sound of the rain pattering against the windshield began to grow. Light ticking sounds turned into the roar of waterfalls. The sound grew louder still to the point of becoming unbearable. His own voice was drowned before it had a chance to leave his lips.
The rain was still falling in a soft shower but the torrent of sound swept over Daniel in waves. As the waves grew, he pulled the car to the side of the road. The noise filled him for what seemed like minutes, but in actuality could have been hours or seconds. He sat rocking slightly trying to think about anything other than the noise. Slicing through the roar came a sharp crack. It was louder than even the roar and carried the weight of an impact through Daniel's chest. Every window had the look of fractured ice.
The noise had stopped. There was no sound. Only the broken glass. He could see the cracks growing. First stretching out to meet one another and then, changing. The lines in the glass moved and turned. Each taking on a life of it's own. Some turned into faces, staring at him, through him. Others became people he knew. Each going about his or her life unaware that he was seeing them. He watched as the lives of the glass people danced around his car.
Each face and each person looked at him. From their mouths, came the distant crackling he had heard before. The voice that he wasn't sure was actually a voice. It moved toward him, but from where he couldn't tell. It was behind him, in front, on every side. It grew clearer but still barely more than crackling static. Again the silence.
The voice hit like a sudden clap of thunder after a bolt of lighting turned midnight into noon. “YOU!” The word echoed in Daniel's head. The glass faces and people were back. The roar of the soft rain beat on the car. Daniel could feel his stomach lurch and heave. He clawed at the door trying to force his way out. Something was pushing against it. He pressed his back to door and pushed as hard as his legs would allow him. He screamed, kicked and jarred at the door. It gave way and Daniel tumbled out backward. Everything went black.

Small lights dotted the room. Daniel was vaguely aware that they were lights. He felt like he was spinning. There was a rhythmic chirping sound coming from his right. The sound stayed steady. The lights remained constant. The world began to slow and the spinning stopped. He could feel a pillow under his head. Rough sheets itched at his feet and ran almost to his chin. The room was dark but not pitch. He could see a sink and over large chair that had a disheveled pillow and blanket on it. A curtain hung next to the bed attached to a bar with rings. A feint odor came from the half cracked door.
When he woke up the second time the sun was coming in through the window. His parents were both there. His mom was in the chair sleeping. His dad was over next to the door talking to a nurse. When they noticed he was awake, they rushed over and began telling him about where he was, the reasons he was there, and why he couldn't just leave. Between tears, Daniel's mother said something about a coma and seizures. He really didn't hear much of what was said, or rather he didn't really think about what he heard.
After several minutes, a doctor entered the room and asked his parents out for the time being. They needed more tests he said. It was a strange relief seeing his parent's go. They always had exhausted him with their excessive worrying.
“Yesss...” a voice rasped from some unseen corner of the room. The doctor had his back turned talking to the nurse, but the voice wasn't his. The voice came again. “Alone again.” It had an unsettling way of ending. Not the trailing off that normal words had, but a sudden stop that made the rasp seem final, dead.
The charts on the walls began the vomit out their words into the parade march Daniel was so used to, his way of thinking. They walked to the doctor and encircled him. Words were growing and turning colors. “Psychiatric” turned an engorged bright red and then was bifurcated by “Delusions.” A score of other words joined in and filled the room. They hid the doctor and nurse and pushed right up against Daniel's face. He could feel his breath being forced from his lunges.
“Do you like me gift?” the voice echoed in both ears. It thundered and rent the words. The doctor came back into view. His eyes were large and he was shouting something that Daniel couldn't make out. The nurse ran out of the room and when the door closed behind her everything lost it's color. Life drained from the world.
Slow, so slow. Time crawled. Each feature of the room, the doctor, and even his own body became a caricature of itself. Thick black outlines surrounded everything. And they grew. Shadows rising from gray stone and engulfing whatever they touched. The room was nothing but black and white stripes now. Black, white, and the voice.
“You like it,” it said quickly with it's gravel on stone voice.
“What's happening? Who are you?” Panic tinged at Daniel's questions.
“What?” The voice repeated. “What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what..... Ah.. What is, is what you know. Your mind. My gift.”
Daniel heard what he thought was a chuckle. “Wh-who are you?”
“Who? Not now. Not who. Who later. Who!?” The voice laughed to itself and faded.
The black stripes receded into the white. Daniel could once again see the animated room but more people were there now. Slowly the color returned to the room and time began to flow again. Breath filled his lunges and slowly he let it escape.

Days passed. The doctors did not want him to leave. They said something about afraid he would go back into a coma. Each day his parents took turns staying with him. From time to time a friend would drop by. One day Matt, another Phillip or Aaron. He felt fine. The words danced as they always had.
It was his ninth night in the hospital. Everyone was gone. He had grown used to having the array of blinking lights spot the room. The sounds and smell of the hospital were familiar now. Daniel lay there wondering when he could go home. This was no way to spend his summer; stuck in a hospital bed, watching the world go on without him.
“No, it's not,” said the raspy voice. “This is not the place for you.”
Daniel had not noticed it's coming. There were no dark splotches or rushing noises. Nothing that didn't belong. The room was as it should be. Only the voice continued to speak.
“I think it's time you left here. It bores me. Get up.” Each word was bitten off in finality.
“What are you? Why should I listen to you?”
A harsh laugh filled his ears. “Questions again? For your answers...” The voice paused. “Get up! Out! Leave now!”
The room grew darker. It was the same darkness he knew would flood over him but not touch the rest of the world. He could feel it now. In a flash like lighting, the room burst into brilliance. He was not in his room. He was in the hallway outside. The light vanished and the darkness came over him again.
Flash. Stairs. He was heading down.
Darkness.
Flash. He could see cars.
Darkness.
The heaviness began to lift from Daniel. The cliffs behind the hospital were haloed with the light of dawn.
“Climb and ask” the voice boomed.

The trees were spread out going up the slope and the brush was thin. It would make for an easy climb. As Daniel climbed he asked his questions. “Who are you?”
“Ah, again who. Gift bringer. I give your gift. The spinning and dancing. You seem them. Easy to see and remember things, yes? My mind, I let you use.”
“What do you mean you let me use your mind? What are you? Am I possessed? Am I going crazy? I'm probably just out here talking to myself.” Daniel could see the top of the hospital now, with it's flat room and many pipes and vents.
“You are talking to me.” The voice lost it's rasp. He heard himself. “I am who you are talking to. Maybe by talking to me you are talking to yourself? Would that bother you?”
Daniel almost lost his footing when he heard his own voice addressing him. “So, I really am crazy?”
“Crazy? If you really thought you were talking to yourself would you have asked me? Maybe I don't feel like telling you if you are,” the voice shifted back to the rasping bitten off voice, “crazy! Climb more. Ask.”
Daniel's hands were beginning to grow tired from the effort of pulling himself up by the tree trunks. He was high enough now to see out across the entire city. “Why are you doing this?”
“Why. Good question. Maybe I am crazy. You are in my head, maybe. Doctor say talk to you, make you go away. So little voice in my head, go away!”
“I'm no voice in your head. I'm alive. I can see the world from where I am. I have friends and family. It's all real. You are the one in my head.”
“Maybe I'm not.” The voice boomed and echoes off of the cliffs. The sound made Daniel's hands tremble and his feet slide on the slick stones. It was the first time he realized he was above the trees, up on the cliffs.
“In your head, you in my head. Maybe neither or both? Does it matter. Good fun we have, yes? Life we have. We. You. I. We. My gift, you use. Makes us we. Does it matter why? What? Who?”
In the distance, Daniel could seen a large billboard. The words and colors began to spin. They came toward him making a tunnel of red and white, slashed of black cut through it all. The darkness closed on him again.
Flash. He was higher now. The sheer face of the cliff was inches from his feet.
Darkness.
Flash. He hadn't moved. But there was something there, protruding from the cliff. It looked like a board.
Darkness. In the dark, came the rasp. “No hospital. Summer. Time for fun. Freedom. Swimming. Diving. Time for diving.”
Flash. The board was still there overlooking a lake of roiling blue shapes and words all mingled together. They invited him.
Darkness.