Chapter Thirteen. Betty, 1964
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I am not one of those who dismiss a priori the study of so-called occult psychic phenomena as unscientific, discreditable, or even as dangerous. If I were at the beginning rather than at the end of a scientific career,… I might possibly choose just this field of research.”
—Dr. Sigmund Freud
The meaning of the number four circled after her name became clear to Betty the very next day.
“My final girl is here,” Dr. Trimble said to someone on the phone as he opened the door for Betty and pointed her toward a testing room.
Kathleen and two other girls Betty had never seen were gathered there.
Kathleen stood up and hugged Betty. “He’s been on the phone awhile,” she whispered. “You might as well get comfortable.”
Betty sat down next to a girl with bouncy dark curls who was so pregnant she could rest her folded hands atop the shelf of her belly. The woman smiled, revealing deep dimples, and put down the yellow blanket she was knitting.
“I’m Ivy,” she whispered. “Are you a new volunteer?”
Betty nodded. “You, too?”
Ivy shook her head. “I’ve been volunteering with Dr. Trimble for a few months now, ever since my husband was hired as a Marquis football coach.”
That was reassuring. Ivy seemed robustly healthy and full of good cheer. Nothing troubling could be in store.
Belatedly, Betty reminded herself that of course nothing untoward could exist, since Douglas was intimately involved in the work at the institute.
“And I’m Helen,” said the last woman, whose wispy blond hair was swept into a high ponytail.
Helen looked the youngest of all—maybe eighteen.
She wore a plaid skirt and saddle shoes that were twins of the ones Betty had in her closet, and she seemed shy; she kept her gaze downcast, occasionally flicking up her eyes to meet Betty’s.
“I’ve been volunteering here for about four months. ”
“I’m Betty. My husband, Douglas, works with Dr. Trimble.”
“Oh! I know him!” Helen exclaimed. She seemed to have the kind of fair complexion that easily turned pink; spots of color bloomed on her cheeks. “I mean … he’s given me lots of tests here.”
Dr. Trimble entered the room and the women fell silent.
“Collective energy is exponentially more powerful,” he told them, as if he were in the middle of a conversation. He paced back and forth, looking at each of them in turn. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time.”
Ivy and Helen stared at him, wide-eyed. Betty flicked her gaze to Kathleen. She was nibbling one of her perfect fingernails.
“We are on the cusp of something very special. But in order for my work to be effective, you girls must trust me completely. And I must be able to trust you.”
Betty found herself nodding along with the others. “Of course, Dr. Trimble,” Ivy said.
“I need your cooperation with a few things.” He handed them each a document.
“First, sign these. You will be legally bound to never disclose what takes place inside my lab. Not with your husbands, mothers, or friends. Certainly not with newspaper reporters or researchers at other institutes who are trying to mimic my trailblazing work.”
Of course they all signed the papers; he was a man of authority.
“You four girls will be working together during my next phase of experiments. In order for my hypothesis to be tested, I need your minds to be in sync. To that end, your experiences need to be as uniform as possible while you are my subjects. Starting today, you will be served lunch here so that you consume identical meals. You will arrive and leave at the same time. I also want you girls to dress alike so that you don’t fuss about or compare clothing.
You’ll wear all white. As with the Ganzfeld experiment, the white canvas will create a uniform field, enhancing your untapped gifts. ”
Out of the corner of her eye, Betty saw Kathleen wrinkle her nose.
“Sir, I don’t have anything in all-white that’s suitable for fall,” Kathleen protested.
Dr. Trimble massaged his beard with his thumb and forefinger. “My wife will make your uniforms then. It’ll be better that way; your dresses will truly be identical. I’ll instruct her to have them ready by tomorrow.”
Gathering material and sewing four dresses would take at least a few days, even for an accomplished seamstress, Betty thought. But she didn’t dare speak up. Dr. Trimble was pacing now, looking at each of them in turn.
“Fear,” he said loudly. Betty flinched as his voice seemed to boom around the room.
“The human mind is the greatest undiscovered terrain in every realm of every world. But fear is its mortal enemy. People used to burn witches at the stake. In some religions, visions are considered the work of the devil. I need you four to be unafraid. To embrace the unknown. To covet it.”
He leaned against the edge of his desk and lit his pipe.
“I know each of you holds secrets. You hide them because of the reactions you fear. Or because you’re frightened of your own capabilities.”
Betty jerked away her eyes, but she still felt utterly exposed, like he could see through her.
Helen cleared her throat. “I’m not sure what you mean, sir.”
“I think I do.” Ivy sat up straighter as she spoke. “When the phone rings, sometimes I know who is calling before I answer. It’s been that way since I was a child. But my parents forbade me to speak of it. So I don’t.”
“Yes.” Dr. Trimble leaned closer to her. “But that isn’t all. Tell me more.”
Ivy’s voice quavered. “A year ago I was longing to visit my sister, and my husband, David, took me to the train station to buy me a ticket. I was holding my suitcase, about to board, when all of a sudden I knew I could not get on that train. David was so impatient with me, but I just cried and told him I felt unwell. He took me home and I went straight to bed. The next morning we learned the train had crashed and six people on it had died.”
Dr. Trimble nodded. He leaned even closer, his eyes burning with intensity.
“It was commonly believed the world was flat until Aristotle revolutionized that assumption. People used to postulate that the stars in the sky were gods. That the sun went around the earth. Now we’re on the cusp of another great scientific leap.
But our exploration will be the most complex and meaningful one yet.
Our discoveries will transform not just the way we see the world, but the lives of every single person in it. ”
He leaned even closer to them. “I am a pioneer of the human mind.”
Betty felt as if a shudder were running through her soul. And we’re your laboratory animals, she thought.