Chapter Six. Betty, 1964
CHAPTER SIX
“Project Stargate was a multimillion-dollar program launched by the CIA at the height of the Cold War to try to get ahead of the Soviet Union on powers of the mind.”
—
Time was blotted out within the walls of the Trimble Institute’s testing spaces. Drapes covered the windows and no clocks were visible.
Betty’s stomach was painfully twisted from the tension of performing test after test for Dr. Trimble. Betty suspected she’d done much better the second time with the card game; she’d reclaimed the clarity of mind she’d experienced at home with Douglas.
“Am I doing well, sir?” she asked.
For the first time, Dr. Trimble looked her in the eye and spoke to her instead of addressing her husband. “You may have potential.” As he lifted his pipe to his lips again, she noticed his hands were shaking.
For the next experiment, Betty was told to relax and name any images that floated into her mind. Dr. Trimble and Douglas explained they would stand behind her and look at a series of photographs. Her job would be to try to pick up what they were seeing.
As Douglas passed behind her chair, he briefly touched her shoulder, and she found comfort in the warm, citrusy scent of the Shulton’s Old Spice she’d given him for Christmas.
She’d get through this, then they’d go home, she reassured herself. Tomorrow she’d vacuum and do laundry and serve a chicken casserole or meatloaf for dinner. Douglas just loved it when she added a can of Hunt’s tomato sauce and a few slices of American cheese to her meat loaf.
She named the final image that popped into her consciousness—an automobile—then looked over her shoulder to see Dr. Trimble jotting something on a notepad.
“Have there been peculiar experiences in your life you can’t explain, Betty?” he asked.
Betty smoothed her plaid skirt. “I’m not certain I understand, sir.” But she did; he wasn’t through probing her brain.
“There are four branches of abilities I am exploring in my laboratory. One phenomenon is precognition. That’s dreaming of or seeing events that will happen in the future.
Then there’s telepathy—the ability to communicate with someone else’s mind.
To see what they are thinking or viewing.
Psychokinesis is the ability to influence matter with your mind.
Moving an object without touching it, that sort of thing.
The fourth ability is clairvoyance. That’s perceiving information about something happening in a distant place.
Have you ever experienced anything along one or more of those lines, Betty? ”
Betty swallowed hard. “I-I’m not certain.”
Dr. Trimble moved closer to her. She couldn’t tell whether he believed her.
“We’re at the forefront of a revolution.
Right here at Marquis, we’ve established the premier parapsychology institute in the world.
We’ve conducted thousands of trials like the ones you just experienced.
We’re being watched by the entire world.
And they’re doing their own experiments in Boston, in England—it’s catching on like wildfire.
Distinguished people believe in what we are doing.
Sigmund Freud, for example. Margaret Mead.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Albert Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell were believers, too. ”
He wasn’t speaking to her anymore. It was as if he were onstage, addressing a captive audience.
“Our research has been thoroughly examined by the American Psychological Association,” he said, pride ringing through his sonorous voice. “We are legitimate. We are scientists. We are trailblazers.”
Douglas was watching Dr. Trimble in the same way her girlfriends watched Elvis on the silver screen.
“Bring her back tomorrow at nine AM,” Dr. Trimble instructed Douglas, who instantly nodded.
Betty’s chest constricted. She stood up and held her handbag against her stomach. Then she did what was expected of her.
“Thank you, Dr. Trimble. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He jotted something down in his notebook. She glimpsed her name at the top of the page, and just one digit next to it. It was heavily circled in black ink.
Betty was Girl Four.