Strangers

respect for her suffering and from a certain reverence for her ultimate triumph.
        When Sandy finished, Ned embraced her, held her close. He was amazed by her strength. He had always known she was special, and the things she told them tonight only strengthened his love and admiration.
        Though he was deeply saddened by what had been done to Sandy, he was delighted that she was at last able to talk about it. Surely this meant that the past had lost its hold on her.
        Faye and Ernie commiserated with her in the awkward manner of friends who want to help but who know they can offer only words.
        Everyone needed another beer. Ned got five bottles of Dos Equis out of the cooler and brought them to the table.
        Corvaisis, who no longer seemed like the enemy to Ned, shook his head and blinked as if Sandy's story had left him in a daze of horror. "This turns things upside down. I mean, if our unremembered experience had one basic effect on the rest of us, it was terror. Oh, I benefited because I was brought out of my shell; I share that with Sandy. But Ernie, Dr. Weiss, Lomack, and me… we were for the most part left with a residue of fear. Now Sandy tells us the effect on her was strictly beneficial, not frightening in the least. How could it affect us so differently? You really have no fear, Sandy?"
        "None," Sandy said.
        Ever since Ernie pulled a chair up to the table, he'd been sitting with his shoulders hunched and his head lowered, as if protecting his neck from attack. Now, with one hand clamped around a bottle of Dos Equis, he leaned back and relaxed, though not much. "Yeah, fear's the core of it. But you remember that place along the interstate I told you about, little more than a quarter-mile from here? I'm sure something weird happened there, something that relates to the brainwashing. But when I'm standing at that place, I feel more than just fear. My heart starts to race… and I get excited… but it's not entirely a bad excitement. Fear's a part of it, yeah, maybe the biggest part of it, but there's a stew of other emotions, as well."
        Sandy said, "I think the place Ernie's talking about is where I often wind up when I take the truck out for a ride. I'm… drawn there."
        Ernie leaned forward, excited. "I knew it! Coming back from the airport this morning, as we were passing that place, you let the truck slow way down. And I said to myself, 'Sandy feels it, too." "
        Faye said, "Sandy, what exactly do you feel when you're drawn to that piece of ground?"
        With a smile so warm that Ned could almost feel the heat of it, Sandy said, "Peace. I feel at peace there. It's hard to explain… but it's as if the rocks, dirt, and trees all radiate harmony, tranquility."
        "I don't feel peaceful there," Ernie said. "Fear, yes. A queer excitement. An eerie sense that something… shattering will happen. Something that I'm eager for, even though it scares the hell out of me."
        "And I feel none of what you feel," Sandy said.
        "We ought to go there," Ned suggested. "See if the place affects the rest of us."
        "In the morning," Corvaisis said. "When it's light."
        Faye said, "I can see this might've had a different effect on each of us. But why has it changed Dom's and Sandy's and Ernie's lives - and the lives of that Mr. Lomack in Reno and Dr. Weiss in Boston - yet done nothing to Ned and me. Why aren't we having problems, too?"
        Dom said, "Maybe the brainwashers did a better job on you and Ned."
        That thought gave Ned the heebie-jeebies again.
        For a while they discussed their situation, and then Ned suggested that Corvaisis try to re-create his actions on that Friday night, July 6, up to the point where his memories were erased. "You recollect the early part of the evening better than we do. And when you came in the first time tonight, you were close to remembering something important."
        "Close," Corvaisis agreed, "but at the last moment, when I felt the memory within grasp, it scared the crap out of me… and the next thing I knew, I was running for the door. Made quite a spectacle of myself. I was totally freaked out. It was such a visceral thing, instinctual, so utterly uncontrollable, that I think it would probably happen again if I made a second attempt to force the memories."
        "Still, it's worth a try," Ned said.
        "And you've got us for moral support this time,"