"You rescued her from one stinking, lousy, miserable parent relationship and put her right back into another, with you as the parent!"
At first I was hurt and angry that Karl couldn't appreciate my great and unselfish work with Neda. I sent a telepathic command to Neda to come to our apartment so that she could help me refute Karl's accusation. By this time I had so attuned Neda's mind to mine that I was confident she would soon be with us. My one disappointment was that I had not been able to develop any Macro powers in Neda, for while she would respond to my telepathic suggestions she didn't recognize them as coming from me, so true telepathic communication between us had been impossible.
As I waited for Neda to join us I tried to be as fair as I could in considering Karl's accusation. It was possible, I thought, that perhaps I had gone a little too far with my desire to protect Neda from unhappiness. But surely I wasn't treating her like a puppet. I felt that this accusation was over-dramatized and exaggerated. Particularly after all I had done for Neda. I decided to tell Karl about some of my other selfless Macro activities.
"Karl," I said, "last week I went to our university hospital and successfully practiced my PK healing powers on two cases of terminal cancer. Unaware of my efforts, they underwent surgery-mostly because they would rather take the chance of dying swiftly under the surgeon's knife than slowly under the attack of cancer. Guess what? Two miraculous. recoveries. However, some of the skeptical medics are now claiming that their tests must have been wrong because no one could completely recover from that much cancer so soon."
Karl shook his head slowly and gave me a weary smile. "You're trying to convince me that you only do good for others. I suppose you feel there is no disease you can't cure with your Macro powers."
"You're right, Karl," I said. "I've walked through every ward in that hospital and have healed dozens of the most challenging cases. Why in just a few minutes I completely healed a patient who had been shot through a lung and a kidney just the night before. He was dying when I found him waiting for surgery. I almost completely healed cases of diabetes, tuberculosis, arthritis, pneumonia, epilepsy, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, syphilis, cerebral palsy, and kidney malfunction as well as an impressive list of fractures."
"Okay, okay," Karl injected, "I believe you, but Neda has been standing here in our doorway and I think we ought to invite her in."
Karl walked over to Neda – and invited her to come in. Then he asked if she had come up to get more material to type.
"Oh, no," she replied, "I've got plenty to keep me busy. After all, you run down to bring me more material every hour or so, so I'm pretty well supplied for the rest of the week."
"Yes," I laughed, "I think dear old Karl here has developed a passion..." I paused and then continued "... for getting out at least three or four books full of material on our research."
Karl looked a little flustered as he said, "You know we were terribly backed up on our typing, and I've really enjoyed having the services of a full-time typist."
I laughed again. "I've noticed your growing enjoyment and I've got to admit that I've rarely seen you so filled with joy as you have been during the past few days."
"Yes, well, I-I..." Karl began lamely, then looked at Neda and forgot what he was going to say.
"You wanted to ask her," I prompted, "why she had come up here."
"Oh, yes," Karl nodded gratefully, "that's right, Neda. Is there something we can help you with?"
"Oh, no," Neda answered, flashing her now lovely smile which revealed the stunning white perfection of the new teeth I had molded for her. "It was just that I suddenly got the feeling that Jon wanted to talk to me."
"Oh, you did, huh," Karl said, giving me a suspicious look. "You were just suddenly overwhelmed with this idea in the midst of your typing."
"That's right, Karl," Neda replied with another dazzling smile. "I couldn't concentrate on my typing and felt I just had to come up here and see what Jon wanted."
"Okay, Svengali," Karl said, glaring at me, "I want to thank you for providing the evidence to support my earlier comments. At least you can now remember a past lifetime as a slave master, so we know where you got the practice!"
"Now, Karl," I said, "that isn't fair. I just wanted Neda to tell you in her own words how she feels about her new life."
"Oh, Jon," Neda exclaimed, "you know I never dreamed I could be so happy. In fact, it's all so impossible -my new appearance-my new life with you and Karl. I have to keep reminding myself that it's not all a dream which will end with my waking up as the ugly creature in that nightmare life I lived before we met."
"Well," Karl replied, "if you're so happy, Neda, why is it that you haven't once left this apartment building since you came here? Why did you stop attending classes? You've just about resigned from the human race."
"But I haven't wanted to go out," Neda answered. "You and Jon have brought me everything I've needed. As for my classes, I thought my work on your research was much more educational and important right now."
"After all, Karl," I added, "it was you who kept loading her down with enough work to keep her busy twenty-four hours a day."
"Okay," Karl nodded, "I apologize for that, and I'll admit to you both that most of the time when I was bringing you all that work, Neda, I just wanted to see you. I never saw anyone as beautiful as you've become. I just couldn't stay away. But now that I've admitted this, you won't feel like you have to type all the time. You can go out and get some exercise."
"But I get lots of exercise," Neda replied. "Especially since Jon bought me all of that exercise equipment and encouraged me to use it regularly."
"Yeah, I know," Karl said, "but Neda, don't you have any desire to see somebody besides Jon and me?"
"Are you saying I should want to see others?" she asked. "Because if you and Jon want me to go out and see other people, I'll be glad to."
"Oh, God," Karl groaned. "Do you hear that, Jon? She doesn't have any desire except to do what we tell her to do, and that's mostly what you tell her to do either telepathically or in words:"
Suddenly I felt a chill run through my body. "Neda," I said, "I may have to go away and never be able to return, so what would you do then?"
Karl and I watched her beautiful face slowly congeal in fear, and we recognized the light of terror well up in her eyes. She began shaking her head and moaning her disbelief piteously while I watched Karl cast an accusing glare at me as he took her in his arms and murmured soft reassurances to her. Great tears dotted her ebony cheeks and she shook her head back and forth refusing to consider the possibility that I might someday leave her life.
I tried to send her positive happy thoughts but my mind seemed to have become numb, and I slowly realized that my telepathic contact with her was futile-I was too upset to be able to control my mind. I kept thinking over and over-what have I done? What have I done?
It was some time before Karl and I could sufficiently reassure Neda so that Karl could take her comfortably back to her apartment. By the time Karl returned, almost an hour later, I had done some hard thinking and come to some painful conclusions. The first thing Karl said was that he wanted to talk to me some more.
"And I want to talk to you, Karl," I replied. "I realize now that what you were saying about my being a puppet master or slave master was true. I couldn't stand the thought of failing to make Neda happy, so I took over almost complete control of her mind. I-I didn't realize until this evening how completely dependent upon me she had become. No, not how dependent upon me she had become. Rather, how dependent upon me I had made her!"
Karl shook his head slowly. "You were having fun playing God," he said. "You know the old saying that power corrupts. According to your account of 2150, power doesn't corrupt Macro man, but it sure as hell corrupts micro man, and that's us, Jon-you and me."
"Yes," I nodded, "and while I have developed some Macro powers, I haven't learned to use them unselfishly. Rana warned me that if I used my new powers selfishly. I
would make myself very unhappy. I was sure that I had nothing to fear since I was using them unselfishly, or so I thought. Now I know what she meant."
"Then do you realize," Karl questioned, "that you were bragging when you told me about all those people you had healed at the hospital? Do you realize that you were predominantly serving your pride, not people?"
I nodded my head in painful admission, and said, "There's another ancient bit of wisdom that says that anyone who exalts himself shall be humbled."
"Okay," Karl said. "I'm sure that if I'd suddenly developed Macro powers, I'd have misused them too. I'd probably have wiped out half the world's population by now, especially those bastards who know they're polluting our planet but just keep right on doing it to pad their own micro pockets. I probably wouldn't even have healed people out of pride-I'd have killed them out of hatred. But our problem now is to undo the damage you've done to Neda."
"I'm sorry as hell," I apologized. "I had no intention whatever of hurting her." Then, thinking it over, I added, "I could be dangerous, Karl."
"I'm not worried about that, Jon. Let's just get Neda back in shape before you go on to any more projects."
In the next few days I worked to teach Neda the principles of Macro philosophy. I was pleased to see how quickly she learned to grasp the concept, for I knew that if she could see herself and others through a Macro perspective, she could not be fearful, lonely, or dissatisfied with any experience.
After a week as her Personal Evolution tutor, I gave her this journal to read. I had talked it over with Karl beforehand and, while he, at first, was opposed to introducing her so quickly to the strange concepts presented here, he finally agreed to it on the basis that we didn't want to be over-protective. Our decision was vindicated by the enthusiastic reception Neda gave to the concept of the Macro society and by her acceptance of my desire to leave the world of 1976 and become a life-long member of the Macro society of the future.
While the Macro philosophy and P.E. tutoring helped Neda, the severance of our unhealthy dependency relationship would have taken much longer to complete if Karl had not fallen so completely in love with her. He devoted almost every waking moment that he wasn't teaching to being with her. It was he who got her out of the apartment and introduced her to the world of dating. However, he wasn't successful in getting her to return to her classes for the very good reason that the girl who was a university junior and had enrolled in courses under the name of Neda Cricksley no longer existed.
It was at this time that Karl came into our room one evening after a date with Neda and told me that he didn't know what to do about the legal problem of Neda's identity.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Well," Karl answered, "we couldn't get her back into her old classes because her professors and classmates would never recognize her or accept her as Neda Cricksley. We thought of enrolling her under a fictitious name for the next semester, but we finally realized that they won't accept her without past school records, and we haven't been able to figure out how we can come up with acceptable fake records for her."
"Well," I said, "I am sure you can figure out something. It doesn't sound too difficult."
"Yeah," Karl said, giving me his crooked grin, "I haven't told you all of it yet. Seems Neda's mother called the university and found out that Neda stopped attending her classes and that the psychology department has no record of her doing any typing work for any of their research."
"How did you find that out?" I asked.
"There was a notice on our department bulletin board," Karl explained, "listing her as a missing person and requesting that anyone who knows anything about her whereabouts get in touch with the campus police."
"Hmm," I said, "maybe I'd better call her mother and get it all straightened out."
Karl shook his head. "I wouldn't advise it," he said. "I talked it over with Neda and she thinks her mother is looking for her to get money from her now that she has a job. She'll want to see her, and we can't produce the body of Neda Cricksley, that's for sure!"
"In other words," I said, "you think the mother will charge me with kidnapping-possibly murder."
"Exactly," Karl nodded, "and neither she, the policemen, nor the jury that convicts you is going to believe your story, although it may help you cop a plea of insanity."
For the next couple of hours we argued about the necessity of talking with Mrs. Cricksley. Karl was strongly opposed to this and kept trying to sell me on the idea of finding a new identity for Neda and just letting her become one more unsolved missing person case. I pointed out that she had her name on her apartment mail box in the lobby and her telephone was in her name, which would certainly make it fairly easy for the police to find her when they really started looking.
With Karl still protesting, I insisted that I would see Mrs. Cricksley in the morning and try to convince her that her daughter was safe even if she couldn't see her. I went to sleep that night wondering how I was going to convince her.
Back in 2150 I had my first precognitive experience while talking with Rana. I had been practicing review of past lives when suddenly the vision of being interrogated by two policemen imposed itself on my consciousness. I had a strong feeling that this was coming in the very near future. When Rana agreed with me, I told her about my 1976 problem with Neda's identity and we discussed ways of handling it along with their probable consequences. A wise Personal Evolution tutor never tells people what to do, but rather, helps them see their problems from a more Macro perspective, then explore alternative solutions and their probable results. So I received no simple solution. However, I did decide on a course of action which seemed to provide the best long-term results for Karl and Neda. I immediately went to sleep in the tutoring room with the strong desire of waking up early in my 1976 morning.
I awakened at 5 a.m. and telephoned Neda with the request that she get dressed and come up to our room as soon as possible. Then I woke up Karl with the announcement that the police would soon be at our apartment and at Neda's. He didn't ask me how I knew this, be just wanted to know how much time we had before our visitors would arrive. I told him that I thought it would be in a little over two hours and that Neda would soon be joining us for breakfast.
By the time Neda arrived, Karl and I had dressed and shaved. As we ate a hurried breakfast I outlined my plan of action. First we would move all of Neda's belongings into Karl's station wagon. Fortunately, she still had not acquired more belongings than the wagon could easily accommodate. Then, I suggested that Karl pack a suitcase for himself and leave with Neda for the adjoining state where they could get married and begin a little honeymoon trip.
Karl grinned and said, "Now, that's the best plan I've heard yet, Jon. I hope Neda thinks so, too," he added, taking her hand in his.
Neda gave Karl and me a lovely shy smile and admitted that she too was delighted with my plan.
With their agreement to the first part of my plan I began supplying the next steps. First I would teach Karl's classes and give out the story that he had eloped with his beautiful new girlfriend. She would get married under the false name of Neda Dailey and be Neda Johnson for the rest of her life.
At first Karl was worried about the legality of their marriage if Neda used a false name, but Neda said that she didn't mind as long as Karl loved her. Then she added that if 2150 could get along without any marriages at all, they should be able to survive a slightly illegal one.
After breakfast I helped Neda carry her belongings to the car while Karl packed his suitcase with enough clothes to last a couple of weeks. We had agreed that Karl would call me at the end of the week and if he couldn't reach me he would contact Snuffy for information from me. At a little before 7 a.m. Karl and Neda waved goodbye and drove off in the dim early morning light.
At 7:15 a.m. two policemen knocked at our apartment door. They showed me a university picture of me which they said Mrs. Cricksley had identified as the person who had abducted her daughter. I explai
ned that while I had hired Neda Cricksley as a typist and rented her an apartment she had not liked the work and had quit both her job and her new apartment just a couple of days ago. I then invited the officers to examine the apartment she had so recently vacated.
They not only searched Neda's apartment but also mine. I was extremely grateful that police of 1976 did not have the highly developed clairvoyance of some of my 2150 friends, for if they had, they would have seen the electron heat tracings of Neda's body which would still have been present on her bed!
When I explained that my roommate had left the day before to go on a honeymoon with his new bride they, at first, exhibited considerable interest in getting in touch with Karl. However, I showed them a picture I had recently taken of Karl and Neda and they could see that his new bride bore not even the faintest resemblance to the missing girl.
I concentrated with all my Macro power on convincing the two officers that they need not arrest me because I would be glad to visit their police station that afternoon and submit myself to a lie detector test of everything I had said and for any further, questions they might wish to ask me. I succeeded so well that they even agreed to drive me to the university so I wouldn't be late for Karl's first class.
That afternoon, after teaching all three of Karl's classes and joking with the students about his elopement, I went to the police station. There I found that the two officers had had real trouble explaining to their chief why they had let me go that morning. I was just in time to prevent their being sent off to bring me in.
Once again I repeated the story I had given that morning concerning Neda, but this time I was hooked up to a lie detector and was questioned by the police chief and two hard-faced detectives. My ability to control my mind and, thus, my body, naturally made the lie detector support my story. Then tremendous Macro persuasiveness got me released in spite of a rather unpleasant confrontation with Mrs. Cricksley in which I strongly planted the suggestion in the minds of the police that if any harm had come to Neda, Mrs. Cricksley was probably a partner to it. When I left, she was taking her turn with the lie detector.
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