Eye for Eye

For other uses, see An eye for an eye.

"Eye for Eye" is a novella by Orson Scott Card. It appears in his collection Maps in a Mirror and also as a double novel, with "The Tunesmith" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., from Tor Books. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1988.

Plot

Mick Winger has an unusual gift and with it has accidentally killed several people. When Mick gets angry at people, his power manifests itself by launching an attack upon them by giving them cancer, leukemia or related terminal illnesses. If made angry enough, his anger can outright kill the victim.

Mick was raised in an orphanage and along his journey to manhood unintentionally killed several people who mistreated him, as well as nearly everyone he loved, though nearly every occurence was accidental. The only intentional murder he describes while growing up is being nearly molested in a Denny's bathroom. This is when he discovers the intensity of the attacks are greatly heightened when he's touching a target. When fifteen, he fled child custody and set out on his own.

When Mick becomes angry, he gets, as he describes it, "sparkly." He can see sparks surrounding and envoloping him and then those sparks lashing out on the object of his anger. Unavoidably, those attacked by his "sparks" end up with terminal illnesses and soon die. The effect of his attack is much more pronounced if he is touching the victim.

Until he was a young man, Mick had no idea he was different from other children. He discovered he was different when discussing "sparkiness" with other children, who had no idea what he was talking about.

Soon after setting out on his own, he encounters a young woman who not only knows about his gift, but who even seems to possess the same gift, although to a lesser extent. She however possesses the ability to "call," to influence Mick so that he unintentionally heads straight for her, as well as intense sexual attraction, which she describes as simple pheremones that all people have, except that people like Mick, due to a different biochemical makeup(though Mick doesn't understand this when it is first explained to him), is far more susceptible to these pheremones than a normal human being. Eventually he is led back to his birth parents, who are members of a mysterious, secluded colony. Talking to his parents, who also posses his ability, he learns he is far more powerful than they or probably anyone else at the colony. When he arrives there, the colony's patriarch decides what is to be done with him.