Nightrise

remember, we've known what's been going on inside each other's heads. That doesn't make it easy when one of us is trying to pick up girls…"
    They weren't his words. They were the words he had been taught to say and he didn't think the joke was even slightly funny. But he forced himself to smile. The audience was listening to him with a bit more attention. They had seen the poster. Telepathic twins. But nobody had said they were going to be so young.
    "It was only recently that we discovered the truth," Jamie went on. "It's not just that we know what we're both thinking. We're true telepaths, connected to each other in away that science cannot understand or explain. And that's what we're going to demonstrate for you tonight. Starting with this."
    While he had been talking, a stagehand had carried in a table with a pile of newspapers. There were twenty different papers from all around America. There were other props too. He would come to those later.
    Jamie scooped up the newspapers and walked down to the front row. He stopped in front of a large, frizzy-haired woman who was wearing pink leggings and an I reno
    T-shirt. "Would you like to pick one of these newspapers?" he asked. 'You can choose any one."
    The woman was with her husband. He nudged her and she pulled one out of the middle of the pile. It was a copy of the
    L. A. Times.
    "Thank you," Jamie said. "Now this paper has several sections. Will you please choose any one of them and pass it to your husband."
    The woman did as she was asked. She chose the Metro section. Her husband took it.
    "Will you please tear one page out of the section and pass it to the person behind you," Jamie instructed.

    He was fortunate that there was someone in the row behind. On bad nights, he knew, he might have to travel three or four rows to find a third spectator.
    The page was being held by a Korean tourist who had come with his wife and daughter. Jamie hoped that he would be able to understand English. He took out a pen. 'You have a page with more than a thousand words on each side," he said. "That means you have at least two thousand words to choose from. Could you please circle one of those words. It can be in a headline or an advertisement. It doesn't matter. The choice is entirely yours."
    The Korean man smiled and muttered something to his wife. He took the pen and circled something, then handed the newspaper back to Jamie. Jamie looked down. Without speaking the words, he read: THE LATEST TREND IN LOS ANGELES IS THE ECO-FRIENDLY FUNERAL. CELEBS ARE
    LINING UP TO MAKE SURE THEY GO GREEN WHEN THEY GO.
    One word had a ring around it. He looked at it.
    On the stage, Scott spoke for the first time.
    "Funeral," he said.
    Jamie held the newspaper in front of the Korean man. "Is that the word?" he asked.
    'Yes. Yes…!" The man was astonished.
    For the first time that evening, the applause was loud and genuine. It had to be a trick, of course.
    Everything that the audience had seen had been a trick. But how had it been done? Both the frizzy-haired woman and her husband had been given a free choice. The man behind her could have chosen any word. Perhaps the two boys had secret microphones. They could be in radio contact. But how would that help? Jamie hadn't said anything. He'd barely glanced at the page.
    Jamie had already returned to the stage by the time the applause died down.
    "I'd like to invite someone to join me," he said. He pointed to the husband who had already taken part.
    "Would you mind, sir?"
    The man climbed onto the stage. Scott didn't move. Apart from the moment when he had spoken, he could have been a statue. A boy carved out of wood. But Jamie was moving around, collecting the next prop, welcoming the man.
    "I'm going to blindfold my brother," he explained. "And I want you to make sure that he really can't see.

    While you're here, I'd also like you to check that there are no hidden microphones. Nothing in either of his ears."
    The man went over to Scott and ran a finger behind each of his ears. For just a second, something flared in the boy's eyes. It was a humiliation he had to endure twice a night, every night — and he could never forgive it. But the man didn't notice.
    "He's clean!" he announced.
    A few people laughed. They were enjoying this. They wanted to see what would happen next.
    Under Jamie's guidance, the man placed two coins against Scott's eyes. They were old English pennies, larger than modern coins. Next, he was blindfolded. And then, to