The Key to Midnight

antiseptics, disinfectants. You know the place I mean. You dream of it repeatedly. Now you're searching for it… drifting toward it… drifting toward that special place and time… settling into it… and now… there… you are there in that room.'
        'Yes,' she whispered.
        'Are you sitting or standing?'
        A tremor passed through her.
        'Easy, relax. You're safe, Joanna. Answer all my questions, and you will be perfectly safe. Are you sitting or standing in that room?'
        'Lying down.'
        'On the floor or on a bed?'
        'Yes. I'm…'
        'What?'
        'I'm…'
        'You're what, Joanna?'
        'I'm n-naked.'
        'You seem frightened. Are you frightened?'
        'Yes. S-scared.'
        'What are you frightened of?'
        'I'm… s-strapped down.'
        'Restrained?'
        'Oh, God.
        'Relax, Joanna.'
        'Oh, God. My ankles, my wrists.'
        'Fly away,' said the myna bird. 'Fly away.'
        Inamura said, 'Who did this to you, Joanna?'
        'The straps are so tight.'
        'Who did this to you?'
        'They hurt.'
        'Who strapped you to this bed, Joanna? You must answer me.'
        'I smell ammonia. Strong. Makes me sick.'
        'Look around the room, Joanna.'
        She grimaced at the stench of ammonia.
        'Look around the room,' Inamura repeated.
        She lifted her head from the chair in which she reclined, opened her eyes, and looked obediently from left to right. She didn't see Alex or the office. She now existed in another day and place. In her haunted eyes, a veil of weeks and months and years seemed to shimmer like a sheet of tears.
        'What do you see?' Inamura asked.
        Joanna lowered her head. Closed her eyes.
        'What do you see in that room?' Inamura persisted.
        A strange, guttural sound issued from her.
        Inamura repeated the question.
        Joanna made the peculiar noise again, then louder: an ugly, asthmatic wheezing. Suddenly her eyes popped open and rolled up until only the whites were visible. She tried to lift her hands from the arms of the chair, but apparently she believed they were strapped down, and her wheezing grew worse.
        Alex rose to his feet in alarm. 'She can't breathe.'
        Joanna began to jerk and twitch violently, as if great jolts of electricity were slamming through her.
        'She's choking to death!'
        'Don't touch her,' Inamura said.
        Although the psychiatrist hadn't raised his voice, his tone halted Alex.
        Inamura's left eye gleamed from deep in the shadows that fell across that side of his face, and the reflection of gold light was over his right eye again, a bright cataract that gave him an eerie aspect. He seemed to have no concern about Joanna's apparent agony.
        As Alex watched, Joanna's blank white eyes bulged. Her face flushed, darkened. Flecks of spittle glistened on her lips. Her wheezing grew louder, louder.
        'For God's sake, help her!' Alex demanded.
        Inamura said, 'Joanna, you will be calm and relaxed. Let your throat muscles relax. You will do as I say. You must do as I say. Relax… tension draining out of you… breath coming easier… easier. Breathe slowly… slowly and deeply… deeply… evenly… very relaxed. You are in a deep and natural sleep… perfectly safe… in a deep and peaceful sleep…'
        Joanna gradually grew quiet. Her eyes, which had been rolled back in her head, came down where they belonged. She closed them. She was breathing normally again.
        'What the hell was that all about?' Alex asked, badly shaken.
        Inamura waved him back into his chair, and Alex sat reluctantly.
        The doctor said, 'Do you hear me, Joanna?'
        'Yes.'
        'I never lie to you, Joanna. I tell you only the truth. I'm here only to help you. Do you understand that?'
        'Yes.'
        'Now, I'm going to tell you why you had that little respiratory problem. And when you understand, you will not allow such a thing to happen ever again.'
        'I can't control it,' she said.
        'Yes, you can. I'm telling you the truth now, and you are well aware of that truth. You had difficulty breathing only because they told you that you'd be unable to breathe, that you'd suffocate, that you'd spiral down into uncontrollable panic if you were questioned thoroughly under the influence of drugs or hypnosis. They implanted a