Stir of Echoes Page #2

staring at the letters.

Very relaxed now. Your legs are relaxed.

Your arms are limp and heavy.

You're almost close enough

to read the letters now.

They start to come into focus.

The letters spell "sleep".

Sleep.

No!

- What the hell was that?

- What? What? What?

- Are you OK? You had to be faking it.

That was the weirdest goddamn thing

I've seen in my life!

Congratulations, Tom!

You're one of the lucky eight percent!

- You still have tears on your cheeks.

- What the hell did she do to me?

- Christ, I'm thirsty.

- Whaddaya mean? What eight percent?

There's only eight percent of the population

that's, like, highly hypnotisable.

Almost anybody can go under a little,...

...but not way under -

not freaky under, like he did.

- How's your hand?

- Whaddaya mean?

I stuck a safety pin in your hand and asked

you to bleed on one side, but not the other.

- Which I can't believe you did!

- You were very cooperative.

It was a side of you I hadn't seen before.

- That happened?

- You said it didn't hurt.

To hell with the pin!

I wanna know more about your Joey Luca.

Yeah, right!

- Who?

- Joey Luca is the kid who...

...used to pound the sh*t out of you

when you were 12.

You told us all about it. You were crying.

It was hysterical!

- Shut up.

- It was very moving, Tom.

Joey Luca! Jesus Christ,

I haven't thought about him...

Hey.

Can we go home? I... I feel kinda strange.

Yeah. Yeah, sure.

Close your eyes.

Uh!

What's the matter?

Don't stop.

- Don't stop.

- OK.

Ugh! Jesus Christ! Oh, my God!

- What?

- I-I... I'm seeing things.

What do you mean?

Oh, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait.

I-I can't right now.

- Then you were faking it extremely well.

- Ohh...

Wait. Stop, stop, stop! It's too weird.

Baby, that wasn't weird.

I could show you weird.

I felt like I was being attacked.

Thanks!

I'm sorry, I didn't...

I didn't...

I-I... I'll be right back.

What the f***...?!

Ah... Agh... Agh!

Arghhh...

Argh!

Agh! Agh!

- Hey, Jake.

- You're awake now, Daddy.

Are you OK?

Yeah. Yeah, I guess.

I just don't feel so good right now.

Don't be afraid of it, Daddy.

- What was it, then? An hallucination?

- Yeah, a bunch of 'em.

It's like all these thoughts just kept coming.

You believe this? I got seven calls.

Well, if it never happened before,

it had to be the hypnosis.

I had this headache and I was thirsty as hell.

Jake! I know you're not watching

that monster tape again!

Who was the woman?

I don't know. Maybe somebody I was just

remembering. She didn't look familiar.

- Did you f*** her?

- You gotta be kidding.

No. I mean, was she someone

you used to go out with?

You're jealous of my hallucination?

Hmm, you are pregnant!

- You should call Lisa.

- No, she's the one that f***ed up my brain.

- Then she has to unfuck it.

- Ooh! Agh! F***! F***!

Don't swear so much!

Hang on, hang on!

Let me get my bearings here.

I have... I have absolutely no caffeine

in my system, you know.

OK. You're asking me if I gave you a post...

...posthypnotic suggestion.

Did you leave anything else behind

when you were inside my brain?

- Nothing!

- Tell the truth, Lisa.

Tom! Please, this is insulting.

You know, I have done this before.

OK, good. I-I was... I was just making sure.

It was just a harmless one anyway.

- What?

- Did it actually work?

- What did you say?

- I don't wanna tell you. You're grouchy.

Lisa, I swear to God...!

Well, you know I've always said I think

you need to be a little more open-minded?

- Yeah...

- So I just said that.

"After you wake up, your mind will be

completely open, like an open door,...

...open to receive everything around you."

- What's that supposed to do?

- F*** if I know! I never said it before.

- Why? Did something happen?

- Jesus Christ!

Relax. OK? I opened a door, that's all.

You know, therapists do it all the time.

It releases repressed memories,

whatever you got back there.

- For you, it was probably old Mannixreruns.

- I gotta get back to work.

OK. Alrighty, then!

No! No more calls for Lisa!

Hey, Lise, it's me.

Call me when you wake up. Is there any way

you could baby-sit for us on Friday?

I did! I told him!

What's your name?

OK.

...but then I gotta hear about it for a month.

I called everyone who could possibly do it

and no one's free.

- Call Vanessa.

- Huh?

I said, call Vanessa and ask her about Debbie.

Anyway, call me back. Bye.

Debbie? That's the girl

who baby- sits for them?

Yep.

Oh, great idea. Pray she's free.

- How'd you know about Debbie?

- Samantha told me.

Hey, Vanessa.

Are you guys going out Friday night?

Hi. I'm Debbie.

Kozak...?

Tom Witzky.

- Hi, Debbie. I'm Maggie.

- Hi.

Thanks for coming. Jake's asleep already

and he hardly ever wakes up.

A band could play in his room

and he wouldn't hear it!

His room's upstairs, kitchen's back there.

Just help yourself if you want anything.

Here, have a seat.

This is the baby monitor.

It's on B in his room,

so you should hear everything.

- You wanna watch a movie?

- I got a book.

It shouldn't be later than midnight,

if that's OK.

- Perfect.

- Great. I'll just grab my coat.

Hel-lo!

Ready?

- Yeah. Just about.

- OK.

Hey. Uh... where'd you find that girl Debbie?

Vanessa gave me her number.

Everybody uses her. It's cool.

- Another headache?

- Too much caffeine.

Oh. OK, let's go.

Bye.

I think that Damon kid

is doing a great job and everything,...

...and yeah, the kid's got a decent arm,

but high-school football is about...

...power, it's about running the goddamn

football - it always has been.

What did you play in high school?

- Piano, mostly.

- Oh, Jesus! Sorry. Here, you want some?

Anyway, Adam...

and I admit that I am biased,...

...but my kid is having a helluva season

and it's like nobody even notices.

If they gave him the ball,

he could break a thousand yards!

And that's in an eight-game season.

Jesus Christ!

Why don't you just lick 'em

when they walk by?

Frank says the average guy carries around

a hard- on two hours out of every day.

- Three for him.

- See, now I got a picture of that!

One of these days, she's gonna find

one of my .38s and pop a cap in my ass!

He'll stick it in a bowl of soup

if it's still warm.

Go! Go!

- Are you OK?

- Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.

Over a thousand yards,

we're talking college scholarship!

Hey, come on...

The kid can write his own ticket.

And that's good for everybody. It's good

for the whole goddamn neighbourhood.

He's gonna go a helluva lot further

than lever did.

Look at the quality of tail he gets. He passed

me in that department when he was 14.

Come on! While we're young, huh?

You scared me!

She's downstairs, I think.

I don't know.

I haven't seen her yet.

Jake?

- What's the matter?

- Something's wrong.

What?

I have a secret to tell you.

Promise, promise, promise?

Samantha says it's always dark where she is.

Who did you say?

Samantha.

You... you talked to Samantha?

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