In a trance, she turned the page. "Hypnotism is no subject for the uninitiated," she read. "It is a useful but at the same time a most dangerous weapon in the arsenal of psychological treatment. The enormous advances made in the past century, especially from 1978 on...." The past century—the more than a century yet to come, she thought.
Impossible, she told herself again. This was not published in 2083. Or rather, it wouldn't be published until 2083. Why, the important discoveries wouldn't begin to be made until 1978. Then, what was it doing here?
"This book is therefore not meant for general circulation and should be kept out of the hands of all but qualified medical men...."
It should, should it? She looked at the list of chapters. Hypnotism, General—Hypnotism, Direct—Hypnotism at One Remove—Hypnotism at Second Remove—Specifically Directed Hypnotic Acts—Generally Directed Hypnotic Conduct—Hypnotism as Therapy—Mass Hypnosis—Hypnotism via Electromagnetic Waves—Reverse Electromagnetic Effect....
The list was incredible. The book looked thin enough, but there were over a thousand pages in it. It was full of information. Too full.
She still didn't understand how it had got to the library shelves but at least one thing was clear. James must have started reading it that very first day when he had got it for her. He must have realized what it was and hidden it so that he might have a chance to study it. Hypnotism Direct—that had been Reardon. Hypnotism at Second and Third Removes—that had been Bill acting on his office, herself on her bridge group, Barbara on her college mates. The Reverse Electromagnetic Effect—that had been all those weird happenings over television.
She stared at her bound and gagged son. If it hadn't been for that postcard and if she had gone for the book herself instead of sending James, this wouldn't have happened. As it was the book had turned him into a little monster.
Her own child! And she had thought that he was becoming such a fine upstanding young man of late! Had he hypnotized her into thinking that? Probably. Just as he had tried to hypnotize her again before. Let her untie his hands and he'd snap his fingers and in a moment her eyes would glaze....
She shuddered. She couldn't let him loose. But she couldn't leave him there like that either. You can't keep a child bound and gagged for the rest of his or your natural life. You can't do it for more than a few hours. Sooner or later, even if it were only to permit him to eat, she'd have to untie him and then....