They didn't know.
Provert smiled. The first month had been difficult: in Tiffany's eyes, the vaguest hint of recognition. I have seen you before. Haven't I seen you before? A thought left unexpressed, then later quashed through hypnosis and drugs.
"You will forget you ever saw me," Provert had murmured, focusing his attention on her rather than the husband. Grant was more suspectable. He never knew, never suspected. Only the wife. But Provert fixed that.
"You will forget you ever saw me. You will drive home, and all you will remember is that the two of you went out on a date. A lovely date. Dinner and a movie." Each week, Provert repeated the ritual, even giving them the name of the movie they saw, something light and fluffy, that would never provoke discussion between the two. A silly comedy. One week it was an Adam Sandler film, one so trite that no conversation about the idiotic plot would ever arise.
The two of them, hypnotized together, shared memories of events that had never occurred. This thin overlay was enough to smoother their awareness of the last four months. Some couples would not have been fooled so easily. Some couples -- the police detective and his wife, for example -- were too observant. They picked up on details. That was a problem, and at the first sign of it Provert would discontinue therapy, or refer the couple to another, more conventional therapist.
But not Grant and Tiffany. Provert was very, very careful; this couple hadn't noticed anything. They had been perfect for this experiment. No kids. Jobs they could leave with few questions asked. Few extended family members, and none they contacted regularly. Grant had no friends. Tiffany's only friend was Julia, the coworker who had referred them to Provert in the first place. Julia who, along with Anne, was now a willing participant, almost as enthusiastic as he was to see what would happen.
Participants? No. They were more like his assistants. Anne, the newest addition to his team, was already in the process of destroying the couple's vehicle, and would later do the same to their credit cards and identification. Later on, she would take them where they needed to go and get them situated. The cameras and microphones were already set up. Julia, meanwhile, would observe them from a distance, reporting back to him each day.
All that was left now was to begin. The two of them, Tiffany and Grant, were waiting for him. Grant already looked bored. He was wondering why he was here, why Tiffany had dragged him to a marriage counsellor. His wife was thinking about Julia, her only friend, who told her about Doctor Provert each week, during a conversation they had repeatedly, but which only Julia remembered. On each occasion, Tiffany had thought she was hearing about him for the first time. On each occasion, Julia had convinced her that she needed to see this therapist, this miracle worker who could straighten out any relationship, who charged almost nothing for his services.
And here they were. Neither of them knew what was going to happen. Each waited, patience rapidly dwindling, for him to say something.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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