The Seeing

DR. JULIAN HOMEWOOD

PSYCHOMEDICAL GROUP, TRINITY COLLEGE CASE FILE 111

SUBJECT: JESSICA MALLORY

To summarize the past year: I have succeeded in gaining Jessica’s confidence. To summarize the two years prior to the past year: It was not an easy task, not without its up-and-down crises. A tentative conclusion: While a subjective relationship has been achieved, I’m not quite sure that’s for the best. That, however, may be a dysfunctional conclusion.

A friendship does exist between us — among all three of us, for that matter — Dalworth, Miss Jessica and myself. While I have supervised tests, some written and others under lab conditions, we have also enjoyed a number of non-working “social” interludes, such as soccer matches, trips with Andrew Dalworth to horse shows, art auctions and so forth. Naturally and inevitably I have been able to draw further conclusions about Jessica Mallory from these ostensibly social occasions.

For example, a picnic at Skyhead beach. Luncheon packed by Mrs. K. Jessica in a triumphant (almost malicious mood) about the rabbit incident. (In brief: Mrs. Kiernan planned a dish of braised hare for dinner the previous weekend. The usuals expected: Charity Bostwick, the local priest, etc., plus two of Dalworth’s business friends from Paris. At breakfast the day of the dinner, Jessica warned Mrs. K. that the rabbits would not be delivered by Mr. Cobb, the local purveyor of game. Apparently Mrs. K. dismissed this without much tact. We learned later that Mr. Cobb had suffered an accident with his wagon several hours earlier, but Easter Hill didn’t get the news till later in the afternoon and this threw the kitchen staff into a near panic. Instead of braised hare, there was a great scrambling about for substitute items. I sensed that Jessica enjoyed the confusion and Mrs. K.’s discomfit hugely.)

In attempting to analyze this nuance of character, I taped the following exchange with Jessica at the picnic on Skyhead beach:

“Tell me the truth now, Jessica. Why were you pleased that Mrs. K. was so upset?”

“Oh, she just likes to bang pots and pans around to scare Rose and Lily...”

“Don’t give me that, Miss Mallory. The poor woman had planned that special dinner for weeks. She’d even made the wine sauce.”

“Then she shouldn’t have treated me like a child. She should have taken me seriously.”

“But you must understand, Jessica, that what seems so clear to you isn’t always that way to others.”

“I’d better take Andrew a sandwich...”

“You better sit right where you are and listen to me. Never mind Andrew or your big, theatrical stares out to the sea. Talk about banging pots and pans around...”

“But Dr. Julian, I’m so tired of feeling responsible.”

“Jessica, I’ve explained to you that knowing about something in advance doesn’t make you responsible for it.”

“Dr. Julian, I don’t always know what’s going to happen. Don’t you understand that?”

“It’s clear enough. You don’t have to shout about it.”

“Well, it’s not easy not to. I try to stay calm. Things are easier that way. When I’m sad or frightened or angry, everything gets sharper, pushes at me. I don’t always like those colors...”

“I’m trying to understand, Jessica. And I’m trying to suggest that you be more patient with yourself and other people.”

“It’s difficult, Dr. Julian, because — well, if they’d listen to me, there wouldn’t be such troubles.”

QUESTION: Might the subject’s rebellious mood in this interview be ascribed to the fact that we were On the beach near where the dog Holly had drowned?

In reference to the above query, several thoughts occur to me, all of them disquieting. At times a darkness settles over Jessica. I don’t quite understand it. It is dissimilar — more pronounced, more foreboding — to attitudes I have encountered in other psychic-clairvoyants studied.

I related it at first to the tragic death of Holly and the overt demonstration of Jessica’s powers to Andrew Dalworth this occasioned. Perhaps this display of her psychic capacity has become fixed for her in an unsettling way with her feelings as an adopted child.

If this is true, if the death of Holly is a simple, triggering incident, it is hardly a serious matter. But I must try to ascertain if something else, something presently unknowable, may be causing these deep moments of anger and resentment, emotions which could be dangerous not only to Jessica but to others.

I think I must review her case histories with particular attention to testing and scoring on the one hand and related ephemora on the other. I must ask Dalworth to bring Jessica down to Dublin as soon as possible.