Absent Mind
2012, 7 minutes
A girl discovers that she can hear the thoughts of the people around her, but by exploring her new talent she soon attracts the attention of a mysterious, intimidating stranger who seems to know what she is doing and intends to put a stop to it.
A girl discovers that she can hear the thoughts of the people around her. She explores her new talent, glimpsing the private internal worlds of the passers-by, but one man seems to be unreadable. She persists, and is suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of feedback. The man turns, stares at her, advances. She runs. He pursues, but as she loses him in the crowd, the noise of his blank mind fades to silence. Alone in a deserted street she hears only the cross-chatter of someone’s thoughts in the distance. Relieved, she turns to go – and comes face to face with the man. The feedback is unbearable as he presses his fingers through her skull into her brain, and extracts a small chunk. Silence – no voices, no feedback. The man pockets the tumour and walks away, leaving the girl vacantly dabbing at the small patch of blood on her temple.
