In which Becky grills Bill about lunch, where capsules are found in both ladies heads, and Karen and Stacy meet Dr. Wong.
Who Was I
By: Annette MacGregor
"Yes Mr. Wyman. If you recall Ms. Stewart's description, the tower was on a cliff above the ocean. Yours, on the other hand, was in the middle of a forest."

"You're right. I'd not noticed that. I was paying more attention to the similarities in her description. Karen, it's like we were describing the same tower!"

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Part 30
 
Tuesday evening (5-Dec-2006)

"How'd lunch go today Bill?"

"What, a lunch with two lovely young ladies and you ask me?"

"Bill." she said sternly, obviously trying to keep a straight face.

"Sorry Becky, I couldn't resist." I said grinning a bit as she broke out in a laugh. "Actually lunch was really good. It felt a lot like I've known them for years and years and we were just catching up, if that makes any sense."

"Maybe. After all, you were good friends at one point."

"True. In any event, lunch was good. And, they're going to see Dr. Wong and Dr. Johanson this week."

"That's quick!"

"No kidding. I was afraid Dr. Johanson was going to be booked, but I guess this thing is more worrisome than either of us wanted to believe. In any event, they'll both get MRIs Thursday, and he's even got an OR cleared if they have capsules!"

"Wow. Not taking any chances is he. That stuff in there MUST have been bad! I know Dr. Wong said so, but this sounds even worse than she made it sound."

I nodded. "I'll take Karen to meet Dr. Wong tomorrow too."

"Going along, is probably a good idea Bill. See if you can sit in as the observer for her."

"Good Idea Becky. As much as I'm coming to trust Dr. Wong, the idea that someone mucked with my head, and I'm guessing used some techniques like Dr. Wong is using, well, I'd like to be there to avoid that if I can."

"And, I think I'll give Jane a call, and see how she's been getting along."

"Jane? Oh, the PI. I'd be curious to hear as well."

# - # - # - # - #

Wednesday morning

"Bill, I'm really nervous about this. I've never actually met a shrink before."

"Dr. Wong's really nice. Oh, I should mention she's a red head." Karen looked at me in surprise. "Guess I forgot to mention she's Irish. Her parents died in a bombing in Northern Ireland and she was later adopted by the Wong's."

"That's an amazing story Bill. You didn't just make it up did you?"

"No, though thinking back, I guess we both used to be good at making up stories." Karen gave me a funny look at that, and I realized I was thinking back to our childhood. "She told me in our first meeting. She's actually pretty nice, and from what I saw was willing to answer any questions and concerns."

"Thanks for coming with me."

"What are friends for?" She looked at me a bit questioningly, and I continued. "Well, we do have a good bit in common it seems and you are fun to be around."

"Okay Bill, do go defensive. I guess I was just surprised to hear you say it."

"Here we are Karen, let's go on in and see the Dragon lady."

"I heard that Mr. Wyman" said Dr. Wong, as she was coming out of her office. "This must be Ms. Stewart, right?" We both just stood there and nodded. "And you're wondering how I knew you were here? Coincidence really, I was just going to drop this in the mail slot" she indicated a letter, "and was opening the door when you gave that little description of me."

"Sorry about that." I said a little sheepishly.

"Think nothing of it. I've been called worse, and I think I got mine back by surprising you. Shall we go in?" After we were inside, she turned to Karen and said. "Now Ms. Stewart, I'd like to thank you for coming in today. Based on what I think Mr. Wyman has been telling you, you're probably a little confused and disturbed." At her nod, Dr. Wong continued. "Shall we go into my office and discuss things a little? Maybe I can set your mind at ease."

"Would you mind if Bill sits in Dr. Wong? I'm afraid I'm a bit nervous about all this, and he's been through it."

"I don't normally include non-family members in discussions, but this situation is a bit unusual and you are aware of the issues and may be able to contribute based on your experiences. Hmm. Ms. Stewart, are you sure you want someone else in with us?"

"Very much doctor."

"All right then."

What went on then was a pretty detailed question and answer session, where Dr. Wong did a pretty clear job of explaining things, including risks and drawbacks of her techniques. I chimed in once or twice. Somewhere in there, Karen agreed to do a start, and see where her safe place was, in preparation for unlocking her memory should she decide to do that.

"Well, we can go into the room now. Ms. Stewart, am I correct in assuming you want Mr. Wyman to observe this session as well?" At her nod, she continued. "Okay, Ms. Stewart, you'll sit here. I'll be in front of you but out of your direct view over there. And Mr. Wyman will sit quietly in that chair behind you where I can see him. Let's get you comfortable now."

Dr. Wong took her seat, and started. "You're walking quietly to a place you feel safe. You hear the sound of surf. Look around and describe your environment."

"I hear the surf from the window of my room."

I watched Dr. Wong work with her. Eventually, she was walking along the beach, with her feet in the surf, sorta like the place she'd described as feeling the most peaceful. If that's what it took to get to the glade. WOW. Hmmm. The tower, I guess I recall it, but it feels different, fuzzy like. I'll have to talk to Dr. Wong about that.

"And you wake up slowly in your peaceful secluded beach." Dr. Wong waited a minute or two for Karen become more aware of her surroundings, "How are you feeling Ms. Stewart?"

"Uhhh, a little tired I guess, but also refreshed in a way. If that makes any sense."

"It does. I'm afraid we had to work as hard with you as we had with Mr. Wyman to get you to go to YOUR safe spot, instead of that tower. Though, your tower did have a small difference from Mr. Wyman’s."

"Really?" I was curious about this.

"Yes Mr. Wyman. If you recall Ms. Stewart's description, the tower was on a cliff above the ocean. Yours, on the other hand, was in the middle of a forest."

"You're right. I'd not noticed that. I was paying more attention to the similarities in her description. Karen, it's like we were describing the same tower!"

"Hmmm. But if that teacher you described was making us go to a place, wouldn't he have used similar terms to describe it and tell us?"

I nodded. "Dr. Wong does that explain the similarities?"

"Mostly, but not completely I don't think. I've some ideas, but would like to do a bit of research and see how things go with Mrs. Wrangle on Friday before sharing them. There's nothing to worry about with any of my ideas, so don't worry about it."

We both nodded, though I suspect that Karen was almost as unsettled by this as I was.

"One thing we have established is that the nature of the memory block which you have is very similar to the one we were able to break through with Mr. Wyman. That means we are likely to be able to break yours as well. I'm willing to try, if you are."

"Today?"

"No, I wouldn't want to stress your body more today, and I'd like to reinforce YOUR safe beach some more. We could do it on Monday, if you'd like."

"Ummm. Let me think about it. I'm inclined to agree, but this is all so sudden."

"Of course."

# - # - # - # - #

Thursday morning

"Hello again Mr. Wyman."

"Dr. Johanson, this is Karen Stewart and Stacy Wrangle."

"Hello ladies. Why don't you both head down to the MRI Suite." He said indicating a sign on the wall. "They're expecting you, and I can check out this hole in the back of Mr. Wyman's head."

We went into the exam room, and I had to get into one of those wonderful gowns.

"All ready I see. Let’s hop up here and lay down so I can take a good look. If things are healing nicely, I'll remove the packing and close things up." It felt a little strange with him poking and prodding inside, but eventually he seemed satisfied. "Okay, everything is healing nicely. The new packing seems to promote healing even more that was advertised. I'm going to put some lattice in here and then close up. You had so little seepage this last week; I believe we can go without the drain as well. I'm going to numb up the back of your neck a bit, so that you won't feel the stitches. The ones inside will dissolve over time and you'll need to get the outer ones removed in a week to ten days. Okay, you'll probably feel a prick here and there, and then nothing." Yep, there were pricks. No worse than when the dentist does it. "There, did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"That answers my question; I should be done in about 10 minutes, so you can take a short nap."

"Right."

"Now hold still." He went on describing what he was doing. If it hadn't been my neck, I'd probably have been more interested. I'll say one thing tough the commentary did help make the time pass. "And that does the job. You can go get changed and I'll check on the results from your lady friends scans."

"Friends!"

He laughed at that. "I see you're awake there. Sit up. Dizzy? Good, now stand up? Still good? Okay, now you can get changed." With that, he headed out the door. I got back into my regular clothing, and headed out, just to meet Dr. Johanson, Stacy and Karen.

"Well, Mr. Wyman, your friends are lucky enough to have extra toys inside that look like yours did."

"You call that lucky!"

"Yes, in that we've found them, and confirmed their presence. And, if the lesser amount of scar tissue is any indication, they are in better shape than yours was." He turned back to them, "Do you still want to get rid of your toy today Ms. Stewart?"

"YES, if it's got the same stuff you folks said was in Bill's I want it out yesterday!"

"And you Mrs. Wrangle, Are you sure you can't loose yours before Monday afternoon?"

"I'm afraid so Doctor. And I'm hoping that your statement that indications are good that they're in better shape than Bill's was is true."

"Well then Ms. Stewart, I'll have the nurse take you down and get you ready. I'm afraid you'll be spending the night will us, and enjoying the lovely accommodations here at General."

It was almost funny to hear Karen snort almost at that. "You're too much doctor!"

"I try; I've got to earn those big bucks I charge the Insurance companies." We all laughed at that one. "I'll be down to see you in a little bit, and we can take care of your little bit of extra." He turned back to Stacy and me, "If you'd like to visit this evening, I'm sure she'll be done by evening visiting hours." At our nods, he turned to follow Karen.

"Well Bill, I can't say I'm surprised at this, but that doesn't mean I like it any more than I did before."

"No, I've been getting more and more disturbed by this as time goes on. That's one of the reasons we've hired a PI to track down the teacher that did this to us!"

"Wow, any particular reason you don't just want to fix things and go on with life?"

"What if we're not the only ones Stacy?" At the look of horror on her face, it was apparent she'd not thought of that. "There's evidence we weren't alone Stacy. My daughter found some papers published by him, and there were actually a good number of kids from different schools."

"My goodness Bill, they have to be notified!"

"Our thought as well, so we're first trying to find him."

"If there's anything I can do, let me know!"

"For now, just take care of yourself Stacy. Are you going to come back to see Karen this evening?" At her nod, I continued. "I think I'll stop by as well."

"Oh, I forgot to ask Bill, what did he have to say about your head?"

"It's healing better than he expected, and he was able to close things up today."

"That's amazing Bill, recovery keeps getting better and better."

"Yes. Though, it's still amazing to me that he was actually able to insert this thing in the first place. I mean today, I can see it almost, but back in the '60s?"

Stacy nodded at that. "Well, I may run into you here tonight. Otherwise I'll see you tomorrow morning."

# - # - # - # - #

Late Thursday evening

"I take it they had capsules too."

"Yes Becky. Though, at least in Karen's case, at least on first look, it seems theirs are in a little better condition than the one in my head was."

"That's good, though I do wonder why yours was in worse shape."

"You and me both!"

"So tomorrow you'll be taking Stacy to see Dr. Wong I believe you said."

"That's right. Oh, did you get anything from the PI yet?"

"No, she said it would probably be the first of the week before she was able to get back to me."

"Okay. I'll leave it to the professional then."

"How's your latest report coming? You've been spending a lot of time on this."

"Surprisingly well, considering. I'm afraid I'll have to spend a good bit of time Saturday on it though."

"Okay, don't forget Ginny's winter concert next week."

"Right, that's Tuesday afternoon isn't it?"

"Yes, and make sure you charge the camera this year. I'd like to see the whole thing, not just part of Ginny's class."

"Sorry. I'll go plug in the charger now, that way I won't forget."

# - # - # - # - #

Friday morning

"Hi Stacy, sorry I was running a little late."

"That's okay Bill. It's not that cold out here." I snorted at that. "In any event, it's only five minutes."

We walked in and up to Dr. Wong's office. "When Karen and I were here the other morning, I made the mistake of asking if she were ready to meet the Dragon Lady, and just as I said that by coincidence Dr. Wong was coming out of the door." She laughed a bit at this and I continued. Dr. Wong's from Northern Ireland and was adopted as a child. So don't be surprised at the red hair."

"Thanks, though I suspect I might have figured something of the sort out."

"True, well here we are. Any last questions before we go in?"

"No, most are for her." With that, I opened the door and we went in.

"Hi Dr. Wong."

"Hello Mr. Wyman. This must be Mrs. Wrangle." she said as she turned to Stacy.

"Yes Dr. Wong. I've heard a bit about you."

"Well, I hope most of it's been good." At Stacy's nod, she continued. "I suspect you have a few questions for me."

As it turned out, Stacy was amazingly prepared, well, maybe not now that I think about it. She was always the one to go look stuff up in the encyclopedia. I never got really interested in reading them until fifth or sixth grade. I think Dr. Wong was a bit surprised at the insight some of her questions had too. Anyhow, after a while, she was ready to go. I was a bit surprised that she found a forest glade safe as well. Though, hers was moonlight. It seemed she also had issues with the tower.

"And you find yourself back in the peaceful moonlit glade. You slowly wake up." Dr. Wong waited a little while Stacy recentered herself.

"That was some experience. Nothing like the ones I described in my journals."

"That could be for two reasons Mrs. Wrangle. It could be because you're older now. But the more likely one is that the glade is totally your place of rest, while the tower was imposed on you."

"That makes sense."

"Mr. Wyman, did you notice anything about the tower this time?"

"Yea. Her descriptions of the tower itself seemed to match Karen's and what I remember myself. But her tower was in a forest too, and not above a cliff, like Karen's."

"Exactly."

"Wednesday, you indicated that you might know a reason for the towers being both similar and different. Are you willing to share now?"

"Some, yes." She said with a nod. "It's apparent, that despite his efforts to put you in towers, you all were able to insert aspects of your natural safety spot into the ones he imposed."

"Is that good?"

"Neither good nor bad really. It's more that it shows your subconscious was fighting him to some extent, which is fairly normal."

"Okay. How about the towers being so similar?"

"That's harder to explain. If you were triplets, I might have an explanation, but you're not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's been demonstrated that twins sometimes seem to share events and/or know what each other are thinking. Most theories are that they know each other so well, they can guess. In any event, I'm going to keep looking to see if I can find an explanation for you."

"Thanks Doctor."

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To Be Continued… What is this thing that caused the shared memories? Is there a difference in the capsules? Will the three continue to see each other? What does Becky think of Bill spending time with two other ladies? What will the PI find?
 
Author’s Note: Thanks for all of your comments! They really help me, and encourage me to keep going on this story.