"Well, if everyone is ready I guess we can leave," Susannah announced. Viki put Timmy's coat on him. She buttoned it up all the way. She put a scarf around his neck to protect him from the cold November day. She then put her own coat on and they were on their way. Susannah wondered, as she unlocked the doors that led off the unit, if Todd or Pete were aware that they were finally getting out, past the doors they had each tried so hard to get through.
*****
Sam's brought his car to the front of the hospital. Susannah, Terry, Frank, Jeff and Viki waited in the hospital lobby with Timmy. Timmy had been apprehensive about walking through the doors that led off the unit. "Your daddy is not out there Timmy. I promise," Susannah had assured him. Once on the elevator he became afraid of the other passengers. Timmy clutched Mr. Rabbit tightly his chest and buried his head in Viki's shoulder. Viki noticed some of the other passengers staring at them. She looked back at them coldly and held Timmy close to her.
"This isn't where I live! Where's my house?" A confused and frightened Timmy asked when they got to the street outside the hospital. "We're not in Chicago, Timmy. We're in Llanview Pennsylvania," Susannah explained. She could see that Llanview held no meaning for him, any more than Asa's lodge did. He had no idea where he was. "I wanna go to my house. Maybe my mommy is there?" "Sweetheart, we're very far away from your house. We can't go there," Viki gently informed him. She was still not sure she did the right thing in allowing Todd to be put through this.
"I'm cold," Timmy complained. His body was not used to the cold outdoor temperatures. "Well, let's get you into the car," Susannah said, pushing him gently towards the back seat of Sam's car. Jeff got in first. Susannah gently guided Timmy into the back seat. She then got in next to him. Viki sat in the front with Sam. Terry and Frank followed in Terry's car.
The trip to the lodge was fairly uneventful. At first Timmy was nervous, but after calming down he started to take some interest in his surroundings and asked some questions about the scenery going by as they drove. Timmy asked first Susannah and then Jeff to hold Mr. Rabbit up to the window so he could see too. After a while Timmy curled up on the seat and put his head down on Susannah's lap and fell asleep.
"Timmy, wake up sweetie. We're here," Susannah called out softly as she gently shook her patient. She wondered if it would be Timmy who would wake up. To her relief, it was. Timmy seemed even more confused by his environment than he had been and didn't want to get out of the car.
"Where's my mommy? This isn't my house. I want mommy," he whimpered. It took about ten minutes of coaxing and soothing words from everyone but they were finally able to get Timmy to leave the car and walk into the lodge. As had been previously arranged, Frank, Jeff and Terry had gone on in and were waiting in the next room in case Susannah needed them.
"I think we'd better leave your coat on until I get this place a little warmer," Sam said to Timmy as he turned up the heat and then started to build a fire. Timmy started to look around the room. Suddenly he rushed into Susannah's arms. He was shaking and terrified. He cried out, "No! He's gonna eat me!" "Who's going to eat you sweetie?" Timmy pointed to the moose head hanging on the wall. "Timmy, that's just a big ol' stuffed moose. He's not real," Sam comforted. "Asa's decor," Viki remarked, frowning and shaking her head from side to side.
"He's got real big teeth. He's gonna eat me!" Timmy insisted. "Look pal, look!" Sam poked at the moose head with the fire place poker. "See! It's not real."
Timmy looked up. He finally believed the head on the wall wasn't going to hurt him. He started to calm down. Now that the fire was going Susannah said, "Let's get you comfortable." She took Timmy's coat off.
"Timmy, will you lay down on the couch?" Susannah asked. As usual, Timmy did what he was asked. After first taking Mr. Rabbit's vitals, when Timmy requested, "Do Mr. Rabbit first," Susannah took Timmy's pulse and his blood pressure once again.
Susannah explained to Timmy that she was going to help him get very relaxed as she had done several times before, so he was not frightened by what she planned to do. Susannah had discovered that "The Eye Fixation with Imagery Method" of hypnosis worked best with Timmy. She asked him to hold up a coin slightly above his eye level, and concentrate on just one little spot of the coin. She told him how he would become more and more relaxed. As he relaxed, she told him the coin would start to feel heavier and heavier and drop from his fingers. Then his heavy eyelids would close and his arm would fall back down to rest on his stomach. Once this was accomplished, Susannah continued to talk to him in a slow monotone, further relaxing him and deepening his trance. She guided him to imagine being in his favorite place, which was currently the hospital playroom. She had him see and feel himself there, sitting on a special flying blanket that he was the pilot of it. He could take it anywhere he wanted to go and stop and start it at will. He was in control and he was safe.
"Timmy, it's Doctor Hanen. Can you hear me?" Timmy nodded. "Timmy, can you fly your blanket inside for a while and find Todd and help him to come out and speak with me? Then you can fly your blanket back inside or to the playroom and go to sleep for a while. Todd, I want you to let Timmy know where you are so he can help you to come out." "Todd's hiding," Timmy spoke up slowly. "I know he is sweetie. Todd, I know you feel safer when you hide but I want you to come out and talk with us. You'll be safe here. Viki and Sam are here and we won't let anything bad happen to you. Todd, let Timmy take your hand and bring you to us on his special flying blanket. You'll be safe here."
"Can he actually see the alters when he's inside?" Sam asked. Susannah held her finger up to her lips to let Sam know not to speak at this point.
"Todd, Timmy is very tired and he wants to go inside and sleep. Won't you please come out," Susannah coaxed. To the surprise of all three of them, they saw Todd's hand reach out as if he were taking someone else's hand in his and watched as his fingers closed around the hand he was holding.
"Todd's here, but he's real scared," they heard Timmy's voice say. "Thank you Timmy. Todd will be safe. We'll take care of him. Now, I want you to go inside and go to sleep. Todd will be safe with us."
They watched in amazement as Timmy let go of Todd's hand and went inside. Todd, apparently realizing he was alone, tensed up. The physical change was unmistakable. Todd's body actually seemed to grow taller. His face became more angular. This clearly was no longer Timmy.
"Todd can you hear me?" Susannah asked. He nodded yes. "Todd, coming out of your hiding place and letting Timmy see you was a very brave thing to do. You are much stronger than you think you are." "I'm so tired. Please leave me alone. Don't make me," Todd pleaded. "Don't make you what, Todd?" "I don't want to be here. I just want it to stop." "Do you know where you are?" "Hospital," Todd answered. "No, we left the hospital for a little while. You are in Asa's lodge," Susannah informed him.
"No! No!" Todd cried out. He was shaking his head from side to side. "Todd you're safe here. It's November 17th 1998. Sam and Viki are here. You're safe. No one is going to let anything or anyone hurt you. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. You will be able to talk about things that happened in the past and know they are not happening now. You'll know that now you are safe."
Todd calmed. Susannah allowed him to rest for a few minutes. She began again, slowly. "Todd, can you hear me?" Todd nodded. "Todd, I'm going to take you back to the night Georgie Phillips died." "No! Please, I don't want to," Todd begged. "It'll be okay. It's not happening now. You're just going to tell us what you were feeling."
Susannah took his pulse. His heart was beating at ninety-seven beats per minute. Despite her calming words Todd was already in panic mode and they hadn't even started yet. Susannah wondered if she should administer a little more sedation. The problem was, she wanted him as alert as possible.
"Todd, I want you to take a deep breath through your nose and let it out through your mouth." He did as he was asked. "Okay, once more." Todd took another breath. "Todd, you're feeling very calm and relaxed. I know you want to go back to inside your head, to the safe place you found, but I need you to stay with us and tell us what happened. If you start to feel afraid I want you to take a deep breath and hear my voice telling you that it is just a memory and that it's not happening now. Todd, I going to have you open your eyes and become fully aware in a min . . ."
"No!" Todd's voice cut Susannah's off in mid-sentence. He was now violently shaking his head from side to side. "You don't want to open your eyes and be here in the room with us?" Susannah asked, Todd shook his head no. "Are you afraid to come and talk with us?" He nodded his head yes. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Anything you might remember happened a long time ago. You can talk about it and still be safe. Right now you are here with Viki and Sam and me and nothing can hurt you. You will be able to talk about things that happened a long time ago and know that it's not happening now. All right Todd, I'm going to ask you to open your eyes, but you will still be in a trance. When I tell you to relax your trance will deepen again. You are going to go back to the night you walked in here and saw Georgie on the floor. You will be able to hear my voice and answer my questions. I'm going to count from one to three. On one you'll start to wake up, on two you'll open your eyes and on three you'll be awake and you will have just seen Georgie on the floor."
"No! Please, don't make me." Todd whimpered. Seeing Sam, sitting there, grasping the arms of the chair, his knuckles white, Viki knew that, like her, he wanted to grab Todd and get him out of there. He wanted save him from the pain he was going through. Viki reached over and took Sam's hand into hers and whispered, " Susannah won't hurt him." "Okay Todd, here we go," Susannah continued, "one," Todd's body tensed, "two," his eyes opened, "three," Susannah said, snapping her fingers. Every muscle in Todd's body tightened.
Todd stood up and walked over the spot where Georgie's body had lain. He seemed unaware of anyone else in the room. "Todd, tell me what you're seeing?" Susannah prompted. Todd bent down closer to the spot that he was seeing Georgie on. "It's that girl. The one who gave me the envelope."
Todd looked around and went through the motions of picking something up. "What did you see Todd? What are you holding?" Susannah asked. "It has blood all over it," he replied. His hands were shaking. "What has blood all over it?" Susannah pressed. "The baseball bat," Todd answered and then his hands opened up "letting the bat drop."
Todd put his hands up to his ears and shrieked, "NO! IT'S TOO LOUD! IT'S TOO LOUD!" "What's too loud?" Susannah asked. "Bo hit Georgie with the bat. I saw him. I heard it!" Todd lowered his hands. "She tried to get away and he hit her. IT'S TOO LOUD!" Todd shrieked. Once again he held his hands up to his ears.
Viki and Sam both looked at Susannah. They all knew that what Todd was describing never happened. "Todd I want you look at Georgie and describe her to me. Tell me what she looks like and what she's wearing," Susannah instructed. Todd looked down at the floor and started describing what he saw. "She's so pretty. She has long brown hair and her eyes are open. Her eyes are so blue, but they aren't moving. I don't think she can see me. She's wearing a blue sweater and skirt. It got torn. I once told her she looked real pretty in that outfit."
Susannah looked toward Sam and Viki, her eyes asking about the accuracy of what Todd had just described. They both shook their heads.
"It's cold! It's so cold. It's too cold, don't make me! It's too cold!" Todd cried out. "Todd, I want you to come sit down on the couch," Susannah instructed. He did as he was asked. "Todd, I want you to close your eyes." He once again did as Susannah requested.
"Todd, I want you to relax, I'm going to put you back into a deep trance. I'm going to count to three to one. With each number you will feel more and more relaxed. You feel totally relaxed and calm when I get to one." Viki and Sam looked at each other, not sure what Susannah was doing. "One!" they heard Susannah say and saw that Todd was once again relaxed and quiet. "Todd, we're going to leave the night Georgie died. We're going to go back to the night of your fourteenth birthday."
