... and Who Else Might Play that Game

Simon, Beatrice and a few others were part of a small gang who was playing a game of look-alike trickery. Doing that, they were all more or less proud about being able to con and pretend to be at least one other person each. "It's we who can deal with telepathy smarter than they can." Simon once told Elvira, whom he was trying to get laid with.

Now Elvira didn't exactly keep her mouth shut about it. Fairly soon many people in their community had heard about their aspirations. But the gang were lucky enough to have someone who looked much like Elvira, and who could talk about it in a way that seemed silly in a sense so that people tended much to ignored it. To the extent they didn't, they got curious about it so that there was a good chance for her and her friends to use knowledge of it as a bate. Using that bate they tempted people to try it themselves.

Most of those who tried the trickery felt that it was difficult to figure it out thoroughly without keeping it more or less secret. Then, also, while experimenting with their telepathy and cons, they eventually began to do things to people that they did not want those people to find out. So hardly anyone quite wanted quite everybody to know. Those few who did were distrusted and ridiculed, partly both by those by those who wanted it to be kept secret and by very many of those not introduced to it all  -  most of whom simply did not believe them.

As years went by, some of the look-alike-con players had children. Some of those were seemingly their look-alike person's kid, especially for the male players. But many who were into the occult game did start families in ordinary ways, often living seemingly only ordinary lives.

After one more generation, there was a child with two parents who both were raised into belief in belief in such con-game telepathy. As part of his child-play, he was played many a game for learning the (for this family only kind of secret) stuff. While doing it, he started to try to have telepathic communication with insects, frogs and rats. Dong it, he got frightened. Because there were signs that those animals were cunning in telepathy, not just the small stuff his that society and his parents seemed to feel they were.

When he told his mother about this, she looked doubtful but curious. After a few hours, her husband returned from work, and they talked to him about it. At first he didn't say anything, only looked as if there were things about it that started his mind working. But at last he asked: "Are you sure the rats weren't into pretending to understand what these things are about?"

"It's certain," his wife answered, "in that we have tried to fool them about why we try to study them! They reacted by certifying that we seemed ridiculously into believing that of ourselves!"

"Really?" he asked bluntly.

"Yeah, really!" both his wife and his son replied.

"... and the mice too, I think!" the son added.

"Really ..." his father said again.

"Mh, yeah," the mother said."And worse than just that, it seems they are into trying to fool us all, I mean people in general!"

"But .... " the father began.

"It's not they who seemed to know it when our parents first started with this stuff!" his wife filled in. "I've already thought about that! But they do seem to be catching on with it!"

"Oh! Do you mean it's because we're doing it?"

"Perhaps. ..." she replied. "But they seem to be cunning in a different sense than that it's from us they've learned most of it, I think."

Her husband sighed. "Does this mean that we can be spied upon as long as they're near us, or is there something long-distance too about their fashion of telepathy?"

"It seems that they're into mostly the nearby stuff. That's why I said that their cunning of it different."

"So I thought," he said with a little smile on him.

She sighed. "It's not as safe as it can seem, even so. They seem to be learning us for it!"

"Damned them!" He looked at his son and wife. "Why don't we call those expert exterminators of rats? I mean they wouldn't be experts, would they, if they got stuck in their traps of spying by telepathy!"

"Yeah! Or let's just get a cat!" his son burst out.

"A cat! You're right. Let's try that."

"I'm afraid I'm allergic to cats," his wife said.

He wrinkled his eye-brows. "Oh shit! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"It didn't seem important!"

"Do you think it's not? I want a family without that!" He looked at their son. "Even you, perhaps?"

"What?"

"Do you think you're allergic to cats?"

"No!"

His father peered a bit scornfully at him. "Are you sure? I mean do you pet them ever? And are you sure they don't get you ill when you do?"

"The son though about it. "Yeah, I fondle them at times. Once when I did it a lot, mom got ill afterwards, but I didn't."

His father smiled, then frowned and looked at his wife. After a while he drew his breath. "I don't feel that you can't be living with Jessica's former boyfriend, and then pretend to be her for the rest of your life!"

"But what if Jessica finds out?"

"I don't know. You'll have to solve that problem!"

She looked thoughtful a while before replying: "No, I can't!"

"I think you could've done it if there was money in it all!"

She sighed and thought about it. "Yeah, alright, perhaps I can," she said at last.

"Do I have to help you, or will you manage?"

"I'd prefer if you did, but I can handle it  -  preliminarily!"

A few months later Jessica's ex had seemingly moved out of town  -  with a new girlfriend or something, it seemed.

The cat that she moved out of the way for seemed to catch mice quite well, but was not quite keen on rats. But even the they seemed inhibited by it.