Chapter 21: Name of Name Game
The Hart's was munching on cookies and playing a game of names. "Alright Nicolas, your turn, "Esther said as she faced Nicolas head to head. "Three, two, one, go!" Martha counted. "Name of name, name of name, name of name that you know, Michael" Esther began.
"Becky"
"Joshua"
"Andrew"
"Peter"
Daniel"
"Christopher"
"Emily"
"Chucky"
Tony"
"Evans"
"Harmsworth"
"Nicolas"
"What?"
"Ha-ha, I win" Esther giggled, causing Nicolas to be frustrated. "But mom, she called my name, and I was confused" Nicolas whined. "No dear, a name is a name, whether it is yours or not, that's the rules. You see Esther, that's a clever way to beat your opponent, by calling their name and breaking their thoughts chain" Martha explained.
"So, who's next? Anthony?" Esther asked. "No Esther, you just beat me, I don't think I can beat you anymore. Besides, my head hurts" Anthony said, holding his head dramatically.
John came forward and sat down. "I'll play. I think I can beat my daughter" John then made a serious face that made the family laugh. "In your dreams dad. I'm the best in this game." Esther jokingly boasted. She then raised her head and faced her dad. "Three, two, one, go!" Martha counted down.
"Name of name, name of name, name of name that you know, Kira" Esther began.
"William"
"Richard"
"Henry"
"Paul"
"Kenneth"
"Kevin"
"Gary"
"Beyoncé"
"Jonathan"
"Daithi"
"Jonathan"
"Haa! You lose!" Esther giggled and jumped up. "How did I lose Esther?" John asked before he realized what he did. "You are not allowed to call the name you've called twice. I win!" Esther proclaimed. John then smiled "I never knew you were a fast thinker Esther, you won again".
"Yep. That's me, so who's next" Esther asked, drawing the 'so' word as she panned across the faces in front of her. "James, are you playing?" Martha then asked James, who was in the middle of recording a toy Martha gave him in the hospital where he first met her.
"Uhh, okay." James then left his PC and the toy robot on the table as he approached the rest of the family. "Alright James, you will be playing a game called 'Name of Name' with Esther. She happens to be the best in the family, so don't beat yourself if she wins okay?" Martha informed James. "Okay Aunt Martha" James replied.
"Alright James, sit here, let me sit here so we can face each other." Esther then instructed James. "Alright James, three, two, one, go!" Martha counted down.
"Name of name, name of name, name of name that you know, Eric" Esther began.
"Scott'"Samuel"
"Brandon"
"Frank"
"Raymond"
"Patrick"
"Jack"
"Rose"
"Peter"
"Ethan"
While the name-calling was going on, James began to think "Why is she making that funny face? Is this game that hard?" James asked.
[It's because she's putting pressure on her brain. Coming up with names at the is tasking to the mind, hence that funny face. But it does help in strengthening the neurons of the brain though, so this is a mind building game.]
"I guess so," James thought, as he simultaneously called random names. Of course, he knew the reason it was easy for him to do so. His brain synapses speed was 4 times faster than an average person.
Esther was dumbfounded. She noticed that James was not even struggling to call names. She thought it was weird. It was like he had already prepared a list of names before coming here. But she knew she was better at this game, so she tried to confuse James.
"Czeslaw"
"Harold"
"Joaquin"
"Carl"
"Lkhagvasüren"
"Roger"
"Oisin"
"Christin"
"Yvonne"
"Jeremy"
"Adagio"
James squinted his eyes. Esther was trying to confuse him with difficult names, well that's a tactic to confuse your opponent in the game. He has to admit that Esther has foresight. She knew that James was not going to back down, so why won't she drop some difficult names to confuse him.
Unfortunately, this method of tactic does not work for James. James can think of hundreds of random names per second, while Esther would struggle to think of one name per second. James then decided to play her own game.
"Sangye"
"Sarbaturi"
"Tadhg"
"Warcislaw"
"Schuyler"
"Shiloh"
"Yves"
"Bijoux"
"Deirdre"
"Eithne"
"Enkhtsetseg"
"Fleur"
This fierce competition had already garnered the attention of the family, as they stared at Esther and James to see who loses.
"Haneul"
"Ingibjorg"
"Niamh"
"Orlaith"
"Spezala"
"Siobhan"
"Tonje"
"Esther"
"Esther"
"What?" Esther asked confused. "Yay! James won! That's incredible!" Martha squealed as she grabbed James and rolled him around. Everyone began cheering at James as James fought his desire to giggle and failed. Esther then bowed her head and lay down and grabbed a cookie.
James could not help but pity her. He might have just stolen her thunder in her own family. James was not even sure if this little game would break the relationship they already have. Maybe next time, he would intentionally lose for her.
[James, I've got something, remember when you were at that hospital, where you first knew Martha?]
"Yes I remember, why?"
[You have forgotten that you activated your Stray Mnemonic Data Capture?]
"What's that? Wait, is it telepathy?"
[Yeah yeah, that's what a layman would say it. You can switch it on so that you would know what she's thinking.]
James was surprised that he had forgotten this feature. Now that he would turn it on, he would listen to what Esther is saying in her mind, that way, if she's holding a grudge over him, he would try to solve it soon before she begins to dislike him.
James brought up the stats in front of him and located the telepathy option. He then became nervous. If he turned it on, he would not only hear Esther's thoughts, he would hear the entire family's thinking. What if they liked him on the surface but disliked him on the inside? He would not be able to handle the sadness it brought with it.
On the other hand, it was beneficial for him. If he knew the truth inside their head, though he would be depressed, he would distance himself from the family.
James headed back to the dining table and sat down. He looked at the toggle option, then looked at Esther, who seemed to have forgotten that she lose to him. Then he turned it on.
[Mnemonic data capture is active]
James then began to hear noises inside his head. The noises were getting too loud for him. He stared at the submenus and noticed an option called "Data Capture Radius". He then clicked the option, prompting James to put a number in meters.
He typed '10 meters' on the text area, and the loud noises were reduced to a few voices.
'Doesn't this manager think straight? He should approve of this paper'
'Wait! I've got it. I think it is spelt f-u-r-n-i-t-u-r-e, furniture'
'What is James doing to his toy? He should give it to Toby if he does not need it.
James began hearing John, Anthony, and Nicolas' thoughts. But James wanted to listen to Esther's thoughts. So he began to focus on her as her thoughts became clear to listen to.
'I thought James was weird, but he is an intelligent boy. I better tell Vanessa about this. At least I know who to spar within the Name of Name game. Wait, this should not go together
James heaved a sigh of relief. Esther does not dislike him, that's good. James then happily looked for the option to toggle off, he heard something that made him stop in his tracks.
'What a very intelligent kid. Who can come up with names that fast, I mean look at Esther's face when she noticed that James would beat her, really funny. It's just sad his parent died in his early life.'
'The thing bothering me was why the police report said it was a malformed appliance that caused the fire when it was a type 3 grenade shards outside the kitchen. Maybe they did not want to put the community at unease'
Grenade shards? That's new information. So, his parent's death was not natural after all. Someone had killed his parent, but who? Why did they want this chip so much, and most importantly, what did they want to use the chip for?
James vowed to answer these pressing questions when he recover his memories.
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