Chapter 16
I don’t own Chuck
“Now, I need you not to freak out like you usually do,” Sarah began.
“Well, this is an unusual circumstance, so I might not be able to control my freaking out,” Chuck replied, grinning. She let out a breath. “Listen, you started it.”
“Yes, because I was trying to get your attention,” Sarah began.
“And you have it,” he cut in. She pressed her lips together and gave him a look. He mimed zipping his lips shut. “This is probably the most important thing I can teach you.” His eyes lit up. She couldn’t help herself and chuckle. “You must be aware of your surroundings.”
“As if maybe I was wearing a helmet and couldn’t see?” he asked gleefully. She put her hands on her hips, and stared at him. “Sorry.” He did not look one bit sorry.
“You must use all your senses to give yourself the upperhand so that you can try and anticipate what is about to happen,” Sarah continued.
“So I can dodge an attack or parry it?” he asked, his voice nearly going up an octave in excitement.
“Focus, Chuck,”“I’ma focusing, I’ma focusing,” he replied, excited.
“Chuck, you need to become attune to everything around. You need to learn to listen to your body as it realizes things are off.”
“Say it,” he nearly pleaded.
“Chuck.” There was warning in that tone, and he nodded that he realized he had gone too far. “Listen, I know you’re excited, but I need you to listen to me. Our body is constantly processing things, we just have to learn to listen to them, to understand them, to know when something doesn’t feel right. The big things….your body tells you.”
“Like when your hair goes up on your neck when someone is watching you?” Chuck asked. Sarah nodded. “Sarah…am I gonna learn how to use my spy sense.”
“Oh my God,” she said exasperated, throwing her head back, dramatically. “What happened to you listening to me?”
“I have never listened more,” Chuck argued. “I’m just excited to learn how to use-” He stopped mid-sentence because of both the look and her pointing at him. “I excited to try and learn to use my senses,” he finished.
Sarah twisted her lips, and he saw her trying to stop the smiled. “Chuck,” she said softly.
“Yeah?”
“Do or do not do, there is no try,” she said, unable to help herself, shaking her head in ammusement.“YES!”
}o{
“You literally have a blindfold on me, just like in Star Wars.”
“I thought it was a pilot helmet with the visor being opaque,” Sarah replied. Chuck was silent. “Sorry, was that dumb?”
“Listen, I thought we talked about this,” Chuck said, his voice a little raspy.
“About the movie?”
“No, about us being serious and you not attacking my face,” Chuck told her.
“I’m not about to attack your face,” Sarah replied.
“Yeah, but lines like that from you, make me want to attack your face,” Chuck told her. “And I can’t Sarah.” She watched the smile on his face and saw the nerves on his. He was trying to be funny, to joke with her.
“I told you that if I want to attack your face I would, and maybe right now, I’m showing you that if I decide you have no chance,” Sarah replied, making sure he could hear the teasing in her voice.
“By making me want to attack your face?”
“Like I said, no chance,” she teased. “Okay, time to get serious.”
“Okay, serious,” Chuck replied nodding. He was sitting in the chair she had set up. What he hadn’t seen as she led him to the chair was the bucket of water above his head, and the rope that held the piece of wood in place that kept it from tipping over.
“Okay, now, no matter what you hear, unless I tell you to get up or move, you do not get out of that chair, do you understand?”
“I understand,” Chuck replied.
“When you hear a sound, that’s not natural to whatever is out here, I want you to point in the direction you heard it, and call out what you think you’ve heard,” Sarah continued.
“Ready,” Chuck replied.
Sarah had sat up small speakers across the yard. She had a tablet in her hands, that she could select an individual speak and play the sound at whatever decibel level she decided. She set a countdown for one of the speakers to play a sound after five minutes.
She watched him, knowing what he would try to do, the same mistake all rookies made. When your sight is taken away, fear grips you, and you try to hear things, anything that will help you. She didn’t expect Chuck to make it five minutes without hearing a phantom sound.
About two minutes in, his finger shot out, pointing across the yard. Sarah had heard nothing. “What did you hear?”
“A cough?” Chuck asked.
“No you didn’t,” Sarah replied.
“No, I didn’t,” Chuck said. “I kept thinking I should.”
“I know,” Sarah told him. “Chuck, just listen. Don’t fall asleep, but relax, and listen.”
Three minutes later, Sarah barely heard the sound of a can of soda being opened. She saw Chuck’s finger point almost directly at the speaker. “Did someone open a drink?” he asked.
“Well done,” Sarah told him, grinning. She began to have sound go off randomly, at different sound levels, and Chuck was hearing everything, now came the grand finale. It was going to upset him, and he was going to think she was pranking him, but it was a test at the Farm.
“Okay, keep listening,” she told him. She got up, moving silently. She took her knife, swung it, and cut the rope, the knife driving into the tree. She watched him. He was told not to move, but she watched him frown, and then began to shift. The water should have poured directly on his head, instead, Chuck had heard, or felt, or sensed what was about to happen and had moved. The water his his right shoulder as he had twisted, feeling it coming.
“ARRGGGHH!” He yelled, standing and ripping off the mask, looking at her, his eyes wide. He looked one part furious and one part ready to laugh.
“It was not a rib, I promise you, Chuck,” she said quickly. “You sensed it, didn’t you?”He paused, and realized that she was right. “Yeah, something was…off,” he admitted. “Like, I felt…I felt something was headed for my head, and I would have gotten up if you hadn’t told me to stay put.”
“It’s the sense we were born with,” she explained. “Think about early man, and how he had to be aware. With so much in our world today, those senses are dead.”
“Okay,” Chuck said, nodding, and giving her a look.
“What?”
“I’m just saying there were other ways to do it,” Chuck told her. She couldn’t help but grin. “Think I’ll work on my sneaking skills.”
“Careful, Bartowski,” she said, watching the grin on his face. “If you get caught, there could be hell to pay.”
“Worth it,” he said softly. With that, he turned and headed toward the house.
“Huh,” she said, shaking her head. She watched him go inside. “Maybe it is.”