One day, when I was very small and still in a highchair, my parents came to view me in a very different light. It happened like this. I was sitting in the aforementioned highchair busy scribbling with crayons when suddenly I began laughing helplessly.

    My father asked me what I was laughing about, so I told him that a man at the store down the road had dropped a whole bag of potatoes that were rolling all over the floor and under the counter. The man and the storekeeper were scrambling to pick them up. This seemed very funny to my childish brain.

    Dad asked me how I knew, and I told him I saw it happen. He asked me how, so I told him I saw it in my head, kind of like how you see pictures in your head when you dream. My father, of course, walked down to the store where the shopkeeper verified my account of what happened.

 When Dad came back from the store he began to question me about the incident. I think my Catholic father found my curious gift to be very disturbing. There may have been a time in history when I would have been accused of witchcraft. 

    This was not an isolated occurance. All through my life, I have been able to witness what I am not actually seeing with my eyes. These events come to me unbidden, and I have no control over when it happens. What I witness with my mind's eye is as though spotlighted and everything around the scene fades into shadow.

    My psychic powers are limited. I cannot move inanimate objects or make stones rain down on houses. I cannot strike people dead or locate missing persons or communicate with the dead. I have often wondered how I am sometimes able to listen in on and observe what I cannot see with my eyes or hear with my ears. Could it have something to do with quantum physics? 

    Sometimes I wonder whether, if agents of the federal government knew of my curious gift, would they spirit me away somewhere. Would they conduct experiments on me and try to use my talent for their own nefarious purposes. I can only hope they never find out.

    I never saw any value to my ESP ability. I would rather have had the gift of a Beethoven or a Monet or a Shakespeare. I can't even make any money from it. If I could, I would wrap it up, tie it with a bow, and give it to someone else.