Resonance

Chapter 28. Brainwashing

  The Ys were inserted right into Jessica's bedroom at quarter to one. I guess Kirk A had done the same research we had, about when her parents would be checking on her, and he knew when it was safe.

  Yarnall watched the door, which was open about a foot so that it wasn't totally dark in her room. Yancy had another chloroform pad like the ones they'd used on Halloway and his wife. Jessica was asleep, he held the pad over her face for fifteen seconds, then he took her out of her bed, and he and Yarnall lay down on the floor and injected themselves.

  Whoosh, they were in Kirk A's TSA, waking up groggy and confused, with a still-sleeping Jessica.

  Then it got really creepy. They took her into a room that looked exactly like every hospital room you've ever seen, took off her pajamas, dressed her in a white hospital nightie, and put her into bed.

  The Ys went next door, to a room like a motel room, and went to sleep for a while. Yancy's wristwatch woke him, but Yarnall stayed asleep, so Shep followed along with me as Yancy got ready to greet Jessica.

  When she woke up, "sunshine" was shining through her window and Yancy, dressed in a white doctor's coat with a stethoscope around his neck, was just coming into her room.

  "Good morning, Daisy," he said. "How are you feeling this morning?"

  "I'm Jessica. I want my mommy," she said.

  Yancy shook his head and looked very sad. "Oh, Daisy," he said. "I thought you were getting better. You've been very, very sick, and part of your sickness was thinking that your name was Jessica. But it's not. It's Daisy."

  Holy wow, I said. He's brainwashing her!

  Will it work, do you think? asked Shep.

  Don't know—we'll see, I guess.

  "I want my mommy," Jessica said again and started to cry a little.

  "What do you like to drink?" he asked her. "Do you like Coke?"

  "Yes." She sniffed hard. "But I'm only allowed to have it sometimes. You're the man who took the pictures."

  "No, I'm not," he said. "I'm Doctor Yancy. You've been sick, that's why you're mixed up. And because you're getting better, you can have some Coke now." He went and got a glass of Coke with a straw from a magic hatch outside the room.

  "Here," he said. "But you have to take your medicine." He gave her a little pill. "Chew it up and then drink the Coke."

  "I don't want it," she said.

  "Daisy, I'm the doctor, and I'm trying to make you well. You have to take your medicine so you can get well and go home. You want to go home, don't you?"

  She took the pill.

  I wonder what that is, I commented.

  Something to help with the brainwashing, you want to bet?

  Probably.

  Yancy brought her strawberry ice cream for breakfast. He did make her brush her teeth after. He brushed her hair and braided it again. He took her—Yuck! said Shep—to the bathroom, and he bathed her. He brought in a TV for her. He basically gave her anything she wanted.

  He gave her a pill about every four hours.

  He also showed her the photo Mr. "Smith" had given Kirk A, in a nice frame on her bed table, and told her that it was her daddy.

  He told her she didn't have a mommy.

  She cried. He comforted her and told her she was getting well, she'd be well soon and could go home to her daddy.

  He played a DVD for her, the one "Smith" had given Kirk A. It was of "Smith" in his house, talking to her—talking to Daisy, saying things like "Daddy loves you so much, sweetheart" and "Daddy misses you so much, Daisy" and "Daddy's hoping his little princess will be well enough to come home soon."

  He walked through the house, showing her all the rooms and asking if she remembered them. Last of all he went into a totally pink, frilly room with a canopy bed and told her it was her room—"Remember your pretty pink room, sweetheart?" It had a flatscreen TV in it and was full of dolls and toys and stuff. He opened the closet, which was full of stuff, and said, "Your new clothes are waiting for you, Daisy." It was beyond creepy.

  Holy wow! I'd suddenly noticed something. The pillowcase she's sleeping on—it's the one "Smith" gave Kirk A!

  So? Shep didn't get it right away because my thoughts were all jumbled.

  I bet you he'd been sleeping on it and sweating on it and putting his aftershave on it for a couple of weeks before he delivered it to Kirk A. So when he shows up, he'll smell familiar.

  Double yuck! said Shep. Eww—that is totally gross.

  Totally, I agreed.