Part 22 (1/2)
”Oh fine.”
”Well, you'd still prefer to find her alive, wouldn't you?”
”Couldn't someone tell me?”
”And have you radiating the fact like a broadcasting station?”
”Why couldn't I have joined her--you--?”
He shook his head in the same way that a man shakes it when he is trying to explain _why_ two plus two are four and not maybe five or three and a half. ”Steve,” he said, ”You haven't got Mekstroms' Disease.”
”How do I get it?” I demanded hotly.
”n.o.body knows,” he said unhappily. ”If we did, we'd be providing the rest of the human race with indestructible bodies as fast as we could spread it and take care of them.”
”But couldn't I have been told _something_?” I pleaded. I must have sounded like a hurt kitten.
Marian put her hand on my arm. ”Steve,” she said, ”You'd have been smoothed over, maybe brought in to work for us in some dead area. But then you turned up acting dangerously for all of us.”
”Who--me?”
”By the time you came out for your visit, you were dangerous to us.”
”What do you mean?”
”Let me find out. Relax, will you Steve? I'd like to read you deep.
Catherine, you come in with me.”
”What are we looking for?”
”Traces of post-hypnotic suggestion. It'll be hard to find because there will be only traces of a plan, all put in so that it looks like natural, logical reasoning.”
Catherine looked doubtful. ”When would they have the chance?” she asked.
”Thornd.y.k.e. In the hospital.”
Catherine nodded and I relaxed. At the beginning I was very reluctant. I didn't mind Catherine digging into the dark and dusty corners of my mind, but Marian Harrison bothered me.
”Think of the accident, Steve,” she said.
Then I managed to lull my reluctant mind by remembering that she was trying to help me. I relaxed mentally and physically and regressed back to the day of the accident. I found it hard even then to go through the love-play and sweet seriousness that went on between Catherine and me, knowing that Marian Harrison was a sort of mental spectator. But I fought down my reticence and went on with it.
I practically re-lived the accident. It was easier now that I'd found Catherine again. It was like a cleansing bath. I began to enjoy it. So I went on with my life and adventures right up to the present. Having come to the end, I stopped.
Marian looked at Catherine. ”Did you get it?”
Silence. More silence. Then, ”It seems dim. Almost incredulous--that it could be--” with a trail-off into thought again.
Phillip snorted. ”Make with the chin-music, you two. The rest of us aren't telepaths, you know.”