Astra's Medical Consultation

The doctor noticed her looking at him appraisingly. "You don't remember me, Astra, do you?" he said. She shook her head. "That's a pity. I've been your physician for over two years."

"I don't think that I need a physical examination," she told him, as she followed him out of the room into the outer office, which fortunately was now free of the media people. (Fred had taken them all into a nearby briefing room.) "I feel perfectly fit. It's just that everything seems so wrong. My memory is fine; it's just that nothing seems to be as I remember that it should be."

"You may be suffering from delayed concussion, from a blow to the head that you don't even remember. That is one of the things that I need to check."

From what Fred had told him about Astra's condition, the doctor decided not to take the elevator, which might alarm her. So he led her out of the outer office, along a corridor and then up a flight of stairs. "Why are you barefoot?" he asked her, just as they started up the staircase.

"I couldn't possibly walk in those strange things that I had on my feet."

At the top of the stairs, a short walk brought them to what must be the doctor's consulting room. "Please lie down on the couch," he told Astra.

When she had done so, he said: "I'm going to shine a bright light into your eyes, to see if your pupils dilate normally. That's a well-known test for concussion."

"That all seems fine," he said after completing that test and a couple more. "There's no sign of any physical injury. It may be that your mind is trying to suppress some unpleasant memory, but if so it has gone to rather extreme lengths. I am qualified in psychiatry as well as in general medicine, which is fortunate. You may not remember this, but we have had a couple of sessions in which I have hypnotised you...

1. "Ah, I think I have it! By an amazing coincidence, at the theatre last night you must have heard the trigger phrase which I use to put you under, a phrase which I thought was completely safe. It would have left you extremely suggestible."
2. "The trigger phrase is 'Ralph says'." After checking that Astra had gone under, he added: "I was with you at the theatre last night. You see I'm working for your enemies. You won't remember this conversation. This is what you will do next..."
3. "I would like, with your permission, to hypnotise you again, in the hope of extracting the memories that you have blocked off."

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