‘Fifteen,’ I said dreamily. He waited until, for me, the grey ceiling acquired walls on a floor, a rug and lamps and a desk and a chair with Stern in it. I sat up and held my head a second, and then I looked at him. He was fooling with his pipe and looking at me. ‘What did you do to me?’
‘I told you. I don’t do anything here. You do it.’
‘You hypnotized me.’
‘I did not.’ His voice was quiet, but he really meant it.
‘What was all that, then? It was… it was like it was happening for real all over again.’
‘Feel anything?’
‘Everything.’ I shuddered. ‘ Every damn thing. What was it?’
‘Anyone doing it feels better afterwards. You can go over it all again now any time you want to, and every time you do, the hurt in it will be less. You’ll see.’
It was the first thing to amaze me in years. I chewed on it and then asked, ‘If I did it by myself, how come it never happened before?’
‘It needs someone to listen.’