"Hypnotized" by Seoyong Oh, 21st Wave

21st waver, Seoyoung Oh

>>This is an adaptation of chapter 26, when Holden finishes his story and says that he doesn’t really know what to say about the things he has been through. In this adaptation, Holden’s psychiatrist hypnotizes him as a treatment to help Holden realize what he really thinks and feels.

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A pocket watch or something like that swayed in front of me. I started to feel drowsy and all and things started to slowly swirl around me. It was so goddamn similar to stupid movies I’ve seen before. I could hear the psychiatrist guys voice calling my name, but it sounded weird like ‘Hoooooolden, Hoooooolden’. My head hurt like hell, so I closed my eyes.

 

When I slowly opened my eyes, God, I thought I was gonna die from a heart attack. The room I was sitting with the psychiatrist guy was nowhere to be seen and a long, long room, somehow familiar was where I stood. It smelled like it was raining outside and the floor was all stone. Boy, it was the museum. I Haven’t been there for ages. I suddenly got all happy and started to horse around the place. The museum echoed only of my footsteps. Tap tap ta tap, tap. Somehow that empty sound made me sad. I felt completely alone. So I stopped and slowly walked towards the glass case. Something was strange. I knew something was really, different.

Instead of a squaw weaving a blanket, there was Jane playing chess, her king in the back row. Instead of an Indian making fire, there was Allie writing poetry on his left handed fielder’s mitt. Morrow’s mother smiling, Stradlater combing his locks, Ackley snooping around, Mr. Spencer in his bathrobe, the prostitute taking off her clothes…and Phoebe, old Phoebe smiling on the carousel, in her blue dress, looking damn lovely once more was there. Everyone was there, standing still. Everyone was just the way I remembered them, but they somehow, well, seemed dead. I reached out to grasp Phoebe in my arms, but what I felt was the cold touch of glass. All was here, right behind that clear, solid glass. They were Goddamn safe and steady. I felt terribly depressed. No, this wasn’t at all what I wanted. No, this Phoebe is not real. “Phoebe!” I shouted with all my might, but no answer. Too safe, too steady. Then I saw myself behind the glass too, with my old red hunting cap on, smiling like the most innocent boy in the world. I screamed and everything began swirling again.

I opened my eyes and I saw the psychiatrist guy again. I still felt terrible from the crazy thing I just saw. I terribly missed everybody I told the guy about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley. I didn’t care whether they were phony or whatever. I didn’t care whether they have changed. I just wanted like hell to be with them all, just to talk with them, to see them alive and by my side. That was all I wanted. It’s funny, I guess.