Strangers

with Alex Christophson that he did not tell her was that the retired espionage officer had warned against becoming involved with her. If Ginger knew Alex had been deeply disturbed, she might decide that the situation was too dangerous to justify Pablo's involvement. Out of concern for her and out of a selfish desire to be part of her life, he withheld that information.
        At their first meeting on December 27, prior to the session of hypnosis, he prepared a lunch of quiche and salad. As they ate, Ginger said, "But, I've never been around a sensitive military installation, never been involved in any defense research, never associated with anyone who could conceivably be part of a spy ring. It's ludicrous!"
        "If you stumbled on some dangerous bit of knowledge, it wasn't in a high security area. It was someplace you had every right to be… except you just happened to be there at the wrong time."
        "But listen, Pablo, if they brainwashed me, that would've taken time. They'd have had to hold me in custody somewhere. Right?"
        "I imagine it would take a few days."
        "So you can't be right," she said. "Of course, I realize that while they were forcing me to forget the thing I'd accidentally seen, they'd also repress the memory of the place where they held me for the brainwashing. But there'd be a blank spot in my past somewhere, an empty time when I couldn't remember where I'd been or what I'd done."
        "Not at all. They'd implant a set of false recollections to cover the missing days, and you'd never know the difference."
        "Good God! Really? They could do that?"
        "One thing I hope to do is locate those false memories," Pablo explained as he finished his quiche. "It'll take a long time, slowly regressing you back through your life week by week, but when I find the phony memories, I'll recognize them tout de suite because they won't have the detail, the substance, of genuine memories. Mere stage sets, you see. If we find two or three days of tissue-thin memories, we'll have pinpointed the origin of your problem because those will be the dates when you were in the hands of these people… whoever they may be."
        "Yes, yes, I see," she said, suddenly excited. "The first day of the mushy memories will be the day that I saw something I shouldn't have seen. And the last day will be the day they finished brainwashing me. It's terribly difficult to believe… But if someone really did implant this memory block, and if all my symptoms - the fugues - are a result of those repressed memories struggling to the surface, then my problem isn't really psychological. There's a chance I could practice medicine again. All I've got to do is dig out the memories, bring them into the light, and then the pressure will be relieved."
        Pablo took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Yes, I believe there's real hope. But it's not going to be easy. Every time I probe at the block, I risk plunging you into a coma… or worse. I intend to be oh-so-careful, but the risk remains."
        

    ***
        
        The first two sessions of deep hypnosis were conducted in armchairs by the huge bay window, one on December 27, one on Sunday the 29th, each lasting four hours. Pablo regresse'd her day by day through the previous nine months but found no obviously artificial memories.
        Also on Sunday, Ginger suggested he question her about Dominick Corvaisis, the novelist whose picture affected her in such a peculiar manner. When Pablo hypnotized her and established that he was speaking to the inner Ginger, to her deep subconscious self, he asked if she had ever met Corvaisis, and after a brief hesitation she said, "Yes." Pablo pursued the point cautiously and diligently, but he could get almost nothing more out of her. At last a thin vapor of memory escaped her: "He threw salt in my face."
        "Corvaisis threw salt on you?" Puzzled, Pablo asked, "Why?"
        "Can't… quite… remember."
        "Where did this happen?"
        Her frown deepened, and when he continued to pursue the subject, she withdrew, sinking into that frightening comatose state. He quickly retreated before she had spiraled down as deep as she had done before. He assured her that he would ask no further questions about Corvaisis if only she would return, and gradually she responded to that promise.
        Clearly, Ginger had at one time met Corvaisis. And her encounter with him was associated with the