Seeing Right Through You

Have you ever really thought about how truly awful it would be to know what other people are thinking? No one is as simple as they seem. Everyone has secret thoughts and feelings that they hide.
What if you were talking to your best friend about your breakup with your boyfriend and you overheard her thinking about how pathetic you sounded, or about how bored she was, or even about how she wished she had ordered a burger instead of the ceasar salad. The waiter may smile, but you hear him thinking about what snobs you are. The man who bumps into you in front of the rest rooms may be your father's age, but he's thinking about how your breasts would feel under his hands.
Movies about mind reading make it seem like a simple, clear, sometimes voluntary thing. People think, then speak - never both at once, but one at a time. They always think clearly, in complete sentences. Sometimes they can even turn it on and off.
How do you think? Do you always use words to think to yourself? Not always, right? Sometimes you talk to yourself, sure, but sometimes you remember things that happened to you. You see images, you remember songs or music, or sometimes a rush of strong emotion can bring a feeling back as though the even just took place.
Hearing thoughts is noisy business, but it's not like hearing a voice. And it isn't exactly like seeing, either. A thought is as different from a sound or a sight as a smell or a touch. A thought is it's own thing, and being able to receive the thoughts of others is a completey new sense. A kind of sixth sense, if you will.
I know what you're thinking. Trust me, I do. But you should listen to me anyway.