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Chapter 7
– 
That’s Good Enough for Hollywood
There’s really no escape when you hate your own skin. You can cover it, you canhide it, but you can’t get away. You can’t get away from yourself.It all started that day back in 2011. It was February, but thanks to global warmingand the Southern California sun, I decided to throw a barbeque. So, like many days before and many after, it was me, Ryan, Kevin, steaks, and a basketball game. UCLAwas playing Arizona in Tucson, making this another one of those conference rivalrygames that we just couldn’t miss. I had just run out of the house to check on the grillduring a commercial break. I didn’t want to miss anything, so I peeked in through thewindow as I turned the steaks.But then I felt a steak drop. I looked down, and instead of resting on top of thegrill, the steak sat underneath, burning on the steel plate over the gas grills.“What the hell!?!” I hated trashing a good steak, but I also had no clue how itended up there.“What’s wrong, honey?” Those words carried a familiar tone of annoyance.They flowed from a tall, slender female stretched out for a tan on a lawn chair. She wasKari Hayashi, currently working on her tan, and currently my fiancée. And though her question seemed to show interest, her eyes were still locked on her fashion magazine of the day. A stack of yesterday’s sat next to her.“I just… I don’t know? Shit…” I tugged away at the steak, but the meat wasstuck under the grill. I didn’t want to flip the whole thing over, but I didn’t know how itgot under the steel to begin with. As I tugged away, I noticed Ryan and Kevin next to me.
 
Apparently, they noticed me gone. And I used to think they wouldn’t notice if they housefell down during a UCLA game.But they didn’t skip a chance to goof on me. “Dude, Steve, you’re supposed to bethe iron chef. Can’t you flip a steak?”“Well, Kev, I can when it’s on the right side of the grill.”“What the hell?” Their eyes went wide open at the sight of the steak under thegrill, much like mine. They tried lifting it out too, but as before, the steak was stuck.I tried again, as I explained what had happened. It wasn’t too easy. I was just onautopilot since I wanted to get back to the game. But then something happened.The steak was now on the right side of the grill. Ryan said that it looked like Ilifted the steak without any trouble, like the grill wasn’t there. That was the first timesomeone saw me phase anything. And I didn’t see it. I just noticed a lot of confusion.“Yo, Steve, look at your grill. Hey!”After a few moments, they got my attention to the steak, now charred, now sittingon the grill. And for the second time today, everyone heard me say, “What the hell?”Kari jumped this time. Must have been kind of loud. Probably, I mean, it’s noteveryday that you find out that you have magical powers.Ok, nowadays, it’s kind of everyday.They guys were just as excited. There was a lot of yelling, something about,“How’d you do that? Do it again? Hey, what else can you move? Try that thing, see if you can go through wood? Or concrete?”“Can you guys do me a favor and keep it down?” Even though Kari’s wordssounded nice, she said it in that condescending third grade teacher tone that I hated.
 
Maybe I didn’t hate it then quite as consciously, but I know that made me want to tryagain. Unfortunately, trying harder doesn’t work for magic.“What are you doing, man? You look constipated.”“Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate. I can do this again.”After a minute, I said, “Really, I can do this.Then again, after ten minutes of trying, maybe I couldn’t.I heard the yells from my friends. “You can do it, maybe you need to relax. Or maybe you need to do some weird thing with your other hand? Like in the video games. No, just act natural. That’s how the shot put dude did it. They never figured that out.Well, that’s what I think.”“Dammit, I don’t know how I did it! Just shut up for a second.” Part of mehoped getting pissed would do it, but it doesn’t work like that. And now the yard wasgetting smoky from a few burning steaks.And that’s when I did it, sort of. Rather than phase a steak, I phased the tongs inmy hand, and they passed right through the steak and the grill. Of course, in my currentemotional state, I didn’t notice until I heard my friends.“Yeah! Woo hoo! You the man!” Hi fives and cheers filled the air.This was followed by another sigh from Kari. “I’m going back inside.” Shegrabbed her garbage magazines and marched back into the house.We had more important things to do. “Hey, try that thing! Try putting it throughthe chair! What happens if you let go?” By the end of the day, I knew how to phasesomething in my hand, something attached to a pair of tongs, and that unphasing inside a
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