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him, and you want to go to him. Don t you?
Millie lowered her eyes. Yes.
Well, Arnold wants you to know that he is watching over you, and he doesn t want you to hasten your
reunion. He sends his love to you every day, and he knows you feel it.
Yes, I do, but sometimes it does get so hard that I lose all hope.
I know, and he knows this, too, but he wants you to be strong. Will you be strong for him?
She nodded. So long as I know that he s waiting for me. I ll keep the faith.
That s a girl, said Lilith, letting go of her hand. She reached behind her neck, unclasped a strand of beads
and handed them to her. Here, she said. This is a special kind of necklace, Millie. It holds the power of hope.
Anytime you feel that hope is slipping away, I want you to remove a single bead from this necklace and drop in
into water. It does not matter if it is a fountain, a lake, or even a puddle. Just drop it in and concentrate on the
ripples. When the last ripple disappears, it will take with it your sense of despair and desperation and leave you
with renewed hope.
Millie took the necklace and held it tightly, unsure what to say in return. It did not seem right to take such a
wonderful gift from a stranger, a gift she truly wanted if it could exorcise her demons of depression. She looked
at Lilith with bewildered eyes, but before she could speak, Lilith said, Yes. It is a wonderful gift, and yes, it
does work. Trust me. Okay?
Okay, she uttered, and no more words could she find.
Lilith smiled, satisfied. Good girl. All right, then. Now, when the time is right, you and Arnold will be
together again, but not a moment before. Meanwhile, he will wait for you. And when you see him again, Millie,
he ll be singing your favorite song.
She looked at her strangely. Our favorite song?
Sure. You know. And she began singing the tune that Millie had listened to on the ride over.
Oh, that one, yes. Thank you, Lilith.
She turned away, wondering what other secrets she would lose to Lilith and the others. Then she looked back
at Doctor Lieberman, imagining that he probably had not managed to keep a thought to himself in years. He
smiled back at her, as if knowing what she was thinking. That doesn t make it any easier, she told him silently,
in case he was listening.
The rest of the evening saw the workshop continuing small independent experiments with members breaking
up into smaller groups of two s and three s. Millie hopped from one to the other, observing, as Doctor
Lieberman explained the experiments to her. By the end of the evening, she felt comfortable enough to call
everyone by his and her first name, and seemed to bond especially well with the two clairvoyants: Barbara and
Valerie. This came as no surprise to Doctor Lieberman, as Barbara and Valerie were also widows, having lost
their husbands in accidents abroad. Ironically, both women experienced an unexplained sense of foreboding at
the exact moment their husbands died. From then on, they had come to look upon their abilities with ESP as a
gift and a curse. Doctor Lieberman has tried to show them that the gift is what they make of it, and that a curse
is something they create from the gift if they do not know how to use it. Both were trying hard to learn the
difference.
The only way out of the building after dark was through the front door downstairs. It did not open from the
outside without a key, and it locked automatically when shut. For this reason, Doctor Lieberman would often
leave the meetings before everyone else, entrusting the group to continue working on experiments unsupervised.
On this night, he did just that. He thanked the group for coming, and for making Millie feel welcomed. Then he
grabbed his coat, wished all a goodnight and left for the evening.
Not long afterward, the small groups working their experiments began breaking up. As that happened, those
members also said their farewells and filed out the door, eventually leaving only Travis Webber behind.
Travis, by all accounts, committed to the study of psycho kinesis, never took an experiment lightly. If he
were in charge, he would have the workshop practicing twenty-four seven, with summer breaks consisting of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]