"I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about brains. It's to the point where I've started to empathize with the zombies in horror movies. Not that I have any interest in eating brains--I'm just preoccupied with how they work, how mine is different, and what it'd be like to have to have a normal one."
Sariyah, protagonist of Channelle Desamours' Needy Little Things, has a very unusual talent. A voice in her head tells her things people need before they even know they need them. She can't stop hearing a need until she fulfills it. So she carries around a bag of random objects that she calls the Santa bag.
This talent is not exactly a blessing. It's very intrusive and distracting. It's tanking Sariyah's grades. Keeping the Santa bag stocked is not exactly cheap. And there is no guarantee that the objects she supplies won't be used for evil purposes.
Sariyah's life starts to go seriously sideways. A friend goes missing and the community has no reason to trust the cops who seriously drag their feet when a missing girl is Black. Her little brother's sickle cell disease flares up, requiring him to be hospitalized. Her mother loses her job.
Sariyah feels that she has no alternative to hustling her talent for cash. But it may turn out to be a risky or even fatal decision.
On a purrrsonal note, actually I have a much milder version. I inexplicably know what friends and family members want or need. I'll share 2 examples. Once when I was a teen I was doing homework after school. Suddenly I put my book down, went to my mom's room, retrieved a pair of her shoes, and went to the bus stop to meet her. It turned out she'd lost the heel on one of the shoes she was wearing. Once in my school committee days I knew I had to bake a colleague a loaf of banana bread and take it to her office April 29. I did. I had no idea that it was her birthday, her grandmother always gave her banana bread on her birthday, and her grandmother had just died.
A great big shout out goes out to people who have similar neurodivergencies.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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