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managed to catch up on one semester, but dropped out and headed home during semester two. She never finished college and eventually married Adrian Payne, who was on a fast track, no pun intended, to success in the train business. His best friend, Marshall Mortonson, and Adrian partnered to take over the Durand Depot and Railway. It wasn’t long and he’d finagled business contracts with various shipping companies, putting a local trucking company out of business.
    “ Maybe this is too much information, but he was a terrible husband and a worse father. When he disappeared after the train wreck in 2003, my life improved drastically, simply because he wasn’t in it.” After she explained about the train wreck and her husband’s mysterious disappearance, she went on to explain that Adrian and Mortonson had a partnership contract. The partners had voting shares in the company that did not pass to heirs upon a death of a partner. The heirs would be able to own part of the business, but they’d have no say in how it was run. So even if Adrian was declared dead, which he had never been because there had never been any evidence of his passing, she would have no control over the business. Their partnership agreement did stipulate, however, that if a partner passed away or decided to sell, the other partner either had to purchase his partner’s shares or agree to sell as well. Because Adrian wasn’t declared dead, Mortonson kept the company and had complete control of it as well. Erika was left out in the cold, except that Marshall Mortonson hired her as an employee and she’d earned small capital gains over the years. She had no other work experience, education, or training. Her son, Logan, was only ten years old when the accident occurred. Erika was trapped in Durand with no other real options, as far as she could see.
    Eventually Clay explained that after high school, he attended Eastern Michigan University on a football scholarship, but after being red-shirted his freshman year and only making the playing field a handful of times his sophomore year, he quit the football team, got a teaching degree, and began a teaching and coaching career. “About eight years ago, I took a job at Mott Community College, teaching math and coaching the varsity baseball team.” He then explained how he had met his wife, Jessie, got married, and had one son, Tanner. He outlined briefly how his wife had been murdered about eleven months before. He finished by telling that Tanner was at the University of Michigan on a basketball scholarship and that he’d been hired as the head coach of the Michigan baseball team but that he’d been unable to sell his house, so he was living alone in Flint.
    Both stories seemed kind of tragic, and there was a long pause in the conversation, neither person knowing what to say next, but both knowing exactly what they wanted to talk about. Finally it was Erika that broke the silence. “I had a huge crush on you in high school.”
    “ I had a crush on you too.”
    “ I don’t know why I broke up with you.”
    Before Clay could stop himself he blurted out, “I told you too.”
    “ No, you didn’t. The way I remember it, I was totally acting like a fool and then all of a sudden, I decided that I just wanted to be friends.”
    Clay had been hiding his powers of mind-control his entire life and it made him an unhappy person. His dishonesty, he believed, played a major role in his wife’s death, and he was determined to be honest with people, so he took a deep breath and explained to Erika what had actually happened. “You might not believe what I’m about to say, but I have a medical condition which gives me the ability to control minds. When I look into people’s eyes, I can influence their thoughts as well as their memories. I was a sophomore. You were the cutest, nicest girl in the school—everyone wanted to go out with you. I told you to like me, and you did—except you went a little overboard. You