Skull Session (42 page)

56

"I
KNOW ABOUT YOU AND Ben, Vivien," Paul said. "I know you X were lovers." When she didn't speak, his anger rose. "Vivien? Did you hear me?"

"What is it, exactly," she said, "that you want me to say? How, precisely, do you wish me to respond?"

It was a fair question. What had he hoped for? Denial? Apology? Against her weariness and resignation, his anger seemed suddenly trivial. Paul stood in the cold kitchen at Highwood. Lia was in the carriage house, cleaning herself up before they took a couple of hours off to go to dinner at the Corrigans'. After the revelations of the last few days, he'd felt a growing pressure inside: Vivien had a lot of explaining to do. He'd called her impulsively, determined to put an end to the mystery.

When he didn't answer, she rallied. "So you have discovered some of your father's letters. And you're angry with me. What would you have had me do, Paulie? Announce it to you beforehand?"

"Did you ever tell Aster?"

"Don't be absurd! What—I went to her on the eve of her husband's suicide and told her that he'd not only killed himself, he'd betrayed her? Do you know, I believe you are asking me something else entirely. You want to know if my telling Aster, or threatening to, drove him over the cliff. It sounds to me as if you are looking for a scapegoat for your mother's, your family's, unhappiness. Well, for that I will accept no blame. To my knowledge, she never knew. She and I both had enough to suffer with."

Her insightfulness stopped him. Yes, it would have been nice to pin the blame neatly on someone. Vivien, or anyone.

"There's something else, Vivien. I know you don't own Highwood. I know about Royce, that you've got a life estate and that he comes into ownership if you don't move back in here soon. Why didn't you tell me that?"

She was wordless again. He heard her breath come erratically, as if she were struggling with her feelings. At last she spoke: "Must I trumpet everything to all and sundry? No, I am not proud that my residence in the house I have lived in for forty-five years is contingent upon conditions and strictures and the whims of others. No, I do not like to recall the very, very difficult period of my separation from my husband. And yes, though I am sometimes ambivalent as to whether I ought to resume residence, yes, I am concerned that I will lose my home if I do not return. I'd have preferred to make my personal choices without duress." Her voice had been rising, her breath coming harsh and fast. "But is this another confession I was somehow
obligated
to make to Paulie Skoglund because I hired him to repair my house? Have I
no
right
to keep anything at all to myself, just because my house has been destroyed? Having been violated once, must I therefore be violated again? Frankly, your intrusion offends me. If I were not, as you
so
tactfully pointed out, rather desperate at this time, I'd fire you."

He couldn't find a reason to contradict her. If he were in her shoes, he'd react the same way. In comparison to the injuries she'd suffered, his earlier pique seemed petty.

He made one last sally: "I only ask because the destruction of the house seems to implicate Royce. If he's doing this to force you out of here, why don't you want to do something about it? Why not accuse Royce?"

"You're assuming I agree with you—that Royce was responsible."

"Why don't you think so?"

She got quiet, as if searching for an answer that would make sense to him. "I have no doubt that Royce would be quite happy to come into possession of Highwood. And I know that there is nothing Royce wouldn't do to accomplish his ends—nothing. But he would never let his desires be so obvious. I would of course see his hand in things and be, frankly, rather flattered by his attention. And I assure you he would never permit
that.
So," she went on witheringly, "I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere in your little detective games."

How well the two of them understood each other, Paul thought. He had no reply.

To his surprise, when she spoke again it was in the husky, hushed tone she took on when the hunger for intimacy came upon her. "You have learned some very private things about me, Paulie. My weakness, my vulnerability. Do you know, you are the only living person who knows these things about me?"

"Look—"

"Tell me something private in return, Paulie. You have changed your medication, haven't you? I would hke to know how you are finding it—sailing forth into the unknown waters of your own mind. So much promise there, yes, Paulie? And so many perils."

"I've made a habit of not discussing my—"

"Then break your habits! What are you afraid of?"

He was relieved when Lia came into the kitchen, dressed in clean blue jeans, her hair brushed and tied back. She gestured with her thumb: toward the door.

"I've got to go now. It'll have to wait until you come out, Vivien."

"I'll look forward to it, then," she said. Her voice was full of insinuation, as if they'd agreed to a lot more than Paul intended.

57

"O
H, BEFORE I FORGET," Dempsey said. "I got this in the mail for you." He handed Paul a manila envelope, a question in his eyes. The envelope was from Roosevelt Medical Research Institute.

"Thanks. Just doing some neurological research." Paul tapped the side of his head, and Dempsey nodded understandingly. It wasn't entirely a he, Paul told himself.

With only five days before Vivien's arrival, Paul had only grudgingly taken time to have dinner with the Corrigans, and had explained he'd have to cut it short, get back to another late night of work—after talking with Vivien, he was more anxious than ever to finish the house and get the hell away. They'd eaten another of Elaine's excellent meals, and the Corrigans had insisted the three of them stay at the house when Lia returned with Mark. Paul had gratefully accepted the invitation.

Dempsey launched into one of his fascinating narratives, but Paul couldn't make himself focus on it. The letter from Stropes burned in his hand, and it occurred to him that he'd have no chance to read it later, at the carriage house, without Lia observing him. Willing the preoccupation from his face, he realized that for the first time in his life he was concealing things. Not a wise idea for a Touretter.
You
bottle up, you blow up,
was the way Damon put it. But this couldn't wait, and he wasn't sure it was something he wanted Lia to know about. Not just yet.

After a few minutes, he excused himself, went to the bathroom, locked the door, and ripped open the envelope.

Dear Mr. Skoglund:

I received with interest your message concerning hyperkinesis and
hyperdynamism.
I am sorry I haven't had the time to return your call, but my free
time during daylight hours has been very limited. Rather than disturb you with
a late-night call, I am taking a few moments after hours to address your inquiry
by mail.

By way of a disclaimer, I must tell you that my own field is the regulatory
mechanisms of human autonomicfunctions, which bears only peripherally on
HK/HD phenomena, and that while my interest is enthusiastic, I have not
been able to devote the research time the subject deserves. Because reports of
extraordinary physical speed or strength tend to have a hyperbolic quality, and
because the state cannot be reproduced in laboratory situations, the topic is often
regarded with skepticism in the scientific community. The phenomenon has
therefore not attracted the serious attention it warrants.

To my knowledge the only two exceptions to the above are experiments in
deliberately induced HK/HD carried out by German military intelligence
during WWII, and the joint Army Intelligence-CIA project during the
Vietnam War, both intended to produce men who could fight with "
superhuman"
strength, speed, and ferocity. The latter effort has received some
attention in the press, but the details are shrouded in secrecy. We know little
about the German effort beyond the fact that one by-product of their research
was the synthesis of a compound related to methedrine, which the Reich gave to
soldiers in a few theaters of war, with mixed results.

However, despite secrecy and skepticism, there is abundant evidence that
under certain circumstances humans can move at speeds and with muscular force
vastly greater than the norm.

HK is characterized by hyperactivity and extreme rapidity of motion. That
even the average person is capable of motion much faster than we consciously
use is demonstrated by a common reflexive response to everyday mishaps.

Perhaps you have had the experience of tipping a glass off the dinner table and
catching it before it hit the floor. Commonplace, but bear in mind the glass is
falling at 32 feet per
second
—
from a 30-inch-high tabktop, therefore, leaving
you about 1/13th of a second to notice the glass, calculate its arc, and move
hand and arm in response.

This example of our latent reflexive potentials provides proof that the
average human being has neuromuscular capabilities far beyond the needs of
daily usage. It also illustrates the difficulty of subjecting these latent capacities to
clinical testing. Our normal reflexive responses, not to mention the "altered
states" of HK/HD, seem resistant to conscious activation. The inability of
researchers to duplicate HK/HD activity in laboratory settings has
understandably
contributed to the medical establishment's skepticism.

Nevertheless, there is a large body of evidence that substantiates the existence
of the phenomenon. The most well-known, probably, is the case of William
Anderby, which was written up in Life magazine in 1946. Anderby was
serving on a destroyer attached to a convoy in the North Atlantic during World
War II. The Germans ran a bomb and torpedo attack against them, during
which Seaman Anderby witnessed the destruction of several nearby ships.
When a large bomb fell onto the forward deck of his ship andfailed to explode,
Anderby picked it up, carried it rapidly to the railing and threw it overboard.

Anderby was 5'7" tall and weighed 152pounds, according to his enlistment
records. The bomb was a naval armor-piercing bomb, weighing 610 pounds. If
we additionally take into account that he had to wrest itfree from the crease it
had made in the deck armor, and that (as witnesses swore before the admiralty
board) he carried it "effortlessly," "ran" to the railing and
'
(
flung" it
overboard, we must acknowledge a demonstration of muscular strength far
beyond that of a normal
man
—
at least that of a normal man in a normal state.

This episode illustrates a typical feature of the HK/HD phenomenon: that
HK/HD behavior is brought on by a specific "
trigger"
—
a psychological
catalyst. Seaman Anderby reacted as he did out of fear for his own life and
concern for the lives of his shipmates. Precisely what the range of triggering
emotions is, I can't say, but extreme emotional stress, often of imminent mortal
danger or protective concern for loved ones, is the common denominator in most
cases.

Displays of hyperkinesis and hyperdynamism seem to fall into two general
categories. The most common is what I call reflexive HK or
HD
—
that is, a
momentary single act of supranormal strength, speed, or agility, brought on by
a reflexive response to mortal peril or extreme emotional shock. Catching the
falling dinner glass, though it hardly qualifies as HK, could be viewed as a
minor demonstration, brought on by a tiny "spike" of subconscious urgency.

Rarer, and more interesting, are the prolonged or sustained displays, which
/
refer to as hysterical HK or HD. It is during these incidents that the most
astonishing feats are reported. HHK/HHD is usually induced by anger,
mortal peril, protective concern, etc., but there are also reports of the trigger
being emotions of a more long-term and seemingly less urgent sort. One case I
have researched appears to have as its stimulus a long-held, pathologically
intense sibling jealousy.

I owe much to the research done by Dr. Frederick Simpson Wilkes, an
English physician bom in 1881. Before his death in 1949, Wilkes recorded
scores of incidents of "superdy namism," and did clinical work with about a
dozen people who had displayed various degrees of HK/HD and HHK/
HHD. His science is somewhat dated, but his meticulous description of the
incidents and his investigation into the family histories of HK/HD
"carriers" are very helpful. (He demonstrated convincingly that there is
an inherited trait, a propensity or tendency, in people who display HK/
HD, and that there are specific indications in childhood for HK/HD-prone
individuals.)

He was fortunate enough to have interviewed several individuals shortly
after reported hyperdynamic activity, and so could assess their physical and
psychological conditions. His reports leave the reader with unforgettable images.
One elderly gentleman ran through the wall of his house to lift away a farm
tractor which had tipped over onto his adult son. In a grief-stricken rage, the old
farmer also dismantled the tractor with his hands when he found his son dead
beneath it.

According to Dr. Wilkes, HK/HD activity appears to be an inherited
tendency, most common (if still very rare) in people of Scandinavian /Germanic
descent. In his book,
A Study of Superdynamism,
he cites the well-documented
tradition of the
berserkers
of Viking lore, who entered a state of
irresistible killing frenzy during battle. The berserkers were used as elite
bodyguards for Norse chieftains, or point menfor attacks; to cast fear into their
enemies, they wore the furs and skulls of
bears
—
thus the appellation "
bear-shirts"
—
and wolves.

Norse sagas refer to the berserkers' "fire-rimmed eyes" and the "rage-stink"
of their bodies, statements that give us excellent clues to their metabolic
states
—
the bloodshot eyes suggesting radical increase in blood circulation, their
odor suggesting the overload of arousal hormones in their bodies. They wielded
weapons the average man couldn't even carry, many favoring battle-axes with
which they would cleave armored enemy warriors in two halves, top to bottom.
Or they dismembered them with their bare hands. Berserkers were usually
isolated from their own comrades-in-arms because when the state was upon
them they didn't distinguish between allies or enemies.

My own research is more technical than Wilkes's. While I do catalog new
incidents as they are reported to me, and conduct limited investigation into
these reports, myforemost effort has been to look into the physiological processes
that would permit such extraordinary feats. Such expenditures of energy
require appropriate biochemical and neuromuscular activities, and these I can
project fairly well with computer models.

Without getting too technical here, I believe that the triggering sequence
involves a form of epilepsy. Triggered by emotional stress, the seizure sends an
extraordinarily powerful signal to the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal)
axis. A cascade of neurochemical processes ensues, producing vastly altered
activity levels. In HHK/HHD-prone individuals, I believe, these responses
are greatly exaggerated by a rare combination of unusual electrical activity in the
brain
—
the initial
seizure
—
and neuroanatomical abnormalities that greatly
amplify the response. The HHK/HHD is sustained for as long as the
combination of chemical and neurological conditions lasts, and its degree
depends upon a wide range of variables.