She took the empty mug out of Melanie’s hands, put it on one of the end tables, then sat sideways on the couch, facing the girl. She took both of Melanie’s hands and said, ‘Honey, it’s been so long, and you were so little when we saw each other last … maybe you aren’t exactly sure who I am. I’m your mother, Melanie.’
The girl didn’t react.
She spoke softly, reassuringly, taking the child through it step by step, because she was sure that, at least on a subconscious level, the girl could understand her. ‘I brought you into this world because I wanted you more than anything. You were such a beautiful baby, so sweet, never any trouble. You learned to walk and talk sooner than I expected, and I was so proud of you. So very proud. Then you were stolen from me, and while you were gone, all I wanted was to get you back. To hold you again and love you again. And now, baby, the most important thing is to make you well, to bring you out of that hole you’re hiding in. I’m going to do that, honey. I’m going to make you well. Help you get well.’
The girl said nothing.
Her green eyes indicated that her attention was far away. Laura pulled the girl onto her lap, put her arms around her, held her. For a while, they just sat like that, being close, giving it time, because they had to establish bonds of affection in order for the therapy to have a chance.
After a few minutes, Laura found herself humming a lullaby, then crooning the lyrics almost in a whisper. She smoothed her daughter’s forehead, used fingers to comb the girl’s hair back from her face. Melanie’s eyes remained distant, glazed, but she raised one hand to her face and put a thumb in her mouth. As if she were a baby. As she had done when she had been three years old.
Tears welled in Laura’s eyes. Her voice quivered, but she kept crooning softly and running her hand through her daughter’s silken hair. Then she remembered how hard she had tried to break Melanie of the thumb-sucking habit six years ago, and it seemed funny that she should be so pleased and moved by it now. Suddenly she was half crying and half laughing, and she must have looked ridiculous, but she felt wonderful.
In fact, she felt so good and was so encouraged by the girl’s thumb-sucking, by the instant of real eye contact that had followed the drinking of the hot chocolate, that she decided to try hypnosis today, rather than waiting until tomorrow, as planned. In Melanie’s conscious but semicatatonic state, the child was withdrawn into deep fantasy and was resistant to being brought up from those sheltering depths of her psyche. Hypnotized, she would be more malleable, more open to suggestion, and might be drawn back at least part of the way toward the real world.
Hypnotizing someone in Melanie’s condition could be either much easier than hypnotizing an alert person — or nearly impossible. Laura continued softly singing the lullaby and began to massage the girl’s temples, moving her fingertips around and around in small circles, pressing lightly. When the child’s eyes began to flutter, Laura stopped singing and said, in a whisper, ‘Let go, baby. Sleep now, baby, sleep, that’s it, I want you to sleep, just relax … you are settling into a deep natural sleep … settling down like a feather floating down and down through very still warm air … settling down and down … sleep … but you will continue to listen to my voice … down and down like a lazily turning, like a drifting feather … down into sleep … but my voice will follow you down into sleep … down … down … and you will listen to me and answer all questions I ask … sleep but listen and obey. Listen and respond. And she massaged even more lightly than before, moving her fingertips more slowly, until at last the girl’s eyes closed and her breathing indicated that she was sound asleep.
Pepper slunk through the doorway and regarded them with evident curiosity. Then she crossed the room, jumped onto the rocker, and curled in a ball.