Extracted
By Karen Singer
Chapter
12 – Hello, It’s Not Me – Part 2 of 2
“Why my son?” Agatha finally asked. “Why did they have to do this to our
Stephen?”
“That’s a great question,” Rosenberg admitted. “We don’t know. But if I were to take a guess…. Now mind you, I’m not an expert on the medical
and psychological aspects of whatever this is that we’re dealing with, but if
you think about it, your son may be the perfect target.”
“The perfect target?” Henry asked. “What do you mean?”
“You sir, are an important figure, just as the family in
New York is as well.”
“A U.S. congressman, according to…Stephen out there.”
“Yes,” Rosenberg admitted. “But your son is also very physically fit,
and I’m guessing that he’s pretty smart as well. Most likely an excellent student. It has all the characteristics of someone
perfect for their needs.”
“And how about that poor young girl in New York? I’m guessing she’s not big and strong,”
Agatha asked.
“No,” Rosenberg admitted.
“The truth is, we simply don’t know anything at all.”
“How did you manage to put all this together?” Henry
asked.
“There’s a doctor in New York. A psychiatrist who’s been working with
Nancy. She discovered the link between
the two cases and alerted us. She even
went so far as to propose what we told you tonight. I can tell you though that she’s pretty much
chomping at the bit for a chance to talk with both the doctor you use for
Stephen, and she wants to talk with Stephen himself.”
“She’s got to be better than Stephen’s doctor,” Agatha
replied. “He thinks Stephen has some
kind of multiple personality disorder.”
“I can’t speak to that,” Rosenberg told her. “I’m no expert in any of it.”
Agatha nodded. “I
know I asked this before,” she said, “But where do we go from here? I know I’d like to meet this girl in New York
and see for myself if my Stephen is really there or not.”
“I’m sure you do, but this all happened today. This afternoon. I don’t know what we need to do yet. I do know that I need to talk with Stephen’s
psychiatrist, if you’ll give him permission to tell me what he knows.”
“No problem there,” Henry answered. “We’ll call him in the morning. In fact, I’ll be there myself. What else do you need?”
Rosenberg looked at Henry, then at his wife, and made a
quick decision. “I probably shouldn’t do
this, but since he called, how would you feel about talking to your son up in
New York again?”
Agatha and Henry were both visibly interested. “Yes!
Please!”
“And if she agrees to let you talk to your Stephen, will
you let her talk to her Nancy?”
“Of course!” Agatha agreed, anxious now to speak to her
son…or whoever it was that was claiming to be her son.
“But!... Rosenberg
continued. “Since I probably shouldn’t
be doing this, I’m going to insist that it be kept very short. I’m going to give you and Wanda both exactly
one minute to talk to your children. Not
one second more! And I’m going to time
it.”
“One minute?” Agatha complained.
“That’s it. Not a
second more.”
“Why?”
“Because as I said, I probably shouldn’t be doing it at
all at this point, especially not without consulting a psychologist first. I don’t know if we should be looking for any
psychological fallout from the contact.”
“Fallout?”
“I simply don’t know Mrs. Marsh. Look, I’m sure that at some point we’re
probably going to have to get both kids and both families together
somewhere. But we’re not to that point
yet. All this information is simply too
new. So let’s just think of this phone
call as a warmup. Okay? A quick warmup.”
Agatha wasn’t happy about it at all. “I’ll take what I can get,” she agreed. “And maybe this time, he won’t be so afraid
to talk.”
“I think we can cover that problem,” Rosenberg assured
her. She pulled out her phone again and
pushed some buttons. “Wanda? It’s me again. I’ve got a proposal for you that you may or
may not like. I’d like to give you and
Mrs. Marsh here exactly one minute each to talk with your respective children. But it’s only going to be one minute, and I’m
going to time it.” She listened for a
moment then replied, “Because I probably shouldn’t be doing this at all. I just thought it might be…nice. And who knows, maybe we can learn something.”
Rosenberg looked to Agatha. “She’s looking for Nancy.” While they waited, she put her cellphone on
speaker so everyone could hear. Finally,
a young girl’s voice came over the phone.
“Mom? Are you there?” Rosenberg glanced at her watch.
“Stephen?” Agatha asked quickly.
“Mom?” the little girls voice came again. “It’s me, Steve. Really, it’s me. I know I don’t sound like myself. Believe me, I don’t look like myself either,
but it’s really me.”
“Steve, son!” Henry said, standing up to get closer to
the phone. “How are you?”
“Dad,” the little girl’s voice said. “You’re there too?”
“We’re home Steve.
We’re both here.”
“It’s so good to hear from you. I’ve been going crazy wanting to see you.”
“Us too,” Henry told him.
“Steve, we’ve got the FBI and the police here with us. We’re all trying to figure out what to do
about this problem.”
“Good. I’m going
crazy here!”
“Steve?” Agatha said.
“Was that really you who called me earlier today?”
“Yeah Mom. Sorry,
but I just had to take a chance and try to tell you where I was.”
“Are they not letting you call or anything?”
“I don’t know.
They never said, so I wasn’t sure.
They’ve actually been really good to me.
I was just…afraid. And what if
you wouldn’t believe it’s me. What
if…I’m really there with you, and I just…think this is me here.”
“Steve,” Henry said.
“It’s like we’ve got your body here, but you’re not in it. Someone else is.”
“Who?”
“A little girl named Nancy,” Agatha told him.
“Nancy. The
other…I guess me. The person who should
be in this body instead of me.”
“Time!” Rosenberg suddenly called. “Wrap it up.”
“Steve,” Agatha said quickly. “This FBI woman is making us stop now. But we’ll try to get in touch again. Soon!”
“I love you Mom,” Steve said. “Love you Dad.”
“We love you too!” Agatha told him.
“Rosenberg took the phone and said into it. “Wanda, are you still there?”
“Yes,” the voice came back. “Can I please talk to Nancy now?”
Rosenberg looked to Agatha. “She’s just outside watching TV,” Agatha told
her.
Rosenberg carried the phone out of the home office and
found the large boy sitting in front of the TV.
Agatha grabbed the remote and turned the TV off.
“What’s going on?” Nancy, in Steve’s body asked.
“You’ve got sixty seconds to say hello to your real
mother,” Rosenberg told Nancy.
Nancy grabbed for the phone as fast as she could. “Mom?
Momma? Is that you? Are you there? Momma?”
“Nancy?” her mother’s voice came over the phone. “Oh Nancy.
Is it really you?”
“Yeah Momma.
Believe it or not, it’s me. Mom,
I’m stuck in someone else’s body. A
boy. I know it sounds crazy but it’s
true. And Mom, this boy that I’m in
is…huge!”
“Nancy!” Mike Stiller said. “I’m so glad to hear from you.”
“Dad!” Nancy replied as tears started to roll from her
eyes.
“Nance!” Emily exclaimed next. “Is it really you?”
“Em! Oh God I miss
you. I miss you all.” She was crying openly now. “Momma,” Nancy continued. “I don’t know what to do here. I hate being a boy, and believe it or not, I
hate being big. I just want to be me
again.”
“Nancy!” her father said.
“Please be honest with me. Are
they treating you okay?”
“I’m fine Dad.
Really, I am. It’s just…they
don’t know what to do with me and I don’t know what to do with me either. I’m not a boy!”
“We know honey,” Agatha told her. “We’re hoping to be able to see you soon.”
“I hope so!”
“Time! Wrap it
up,” Rosenberg called.
“Nancy, they’re making us go now. We love you.
We miss you so much!”
“Me too!” Nancy replied.
“Love you all!”
Rosenberg took the phone.
“Wanda?”
“Yes. I’m here,
but Steve…Nancy, is a mess.”
“I understand.
“I’ve got to go now, but I promise, I’ll be in touch soon.”
“I’m sure,” Wanda replied. “Ellen, thanks for this. It was great to talk to Nancy…if that really
was Nancy.”
“So far, we think it might be.”
“But what do we do about it?”
“Wanda, we’ll be in touch,” Rosenberg replied, avoiding
the question. “Bye.”
Rosenberg put her phone back in her purse. Since she was there with Stephen, or at least
his body, she took a moment to study him.
He was crying. A strange sight to
see from someone so…muscular. And that’s
the best way she could describe him.
Muscular. And big. He looked like a football player. Not to mention, he was fairly well gifted in
the handsome department as well. She had
no doubt that he was a real heartthrob to the girls at school. “Are you okay?” she finally asked him.
“Yeah. Fine,”
Steve replied, managing to pull himself a little more under control. “So is it okay if I call them again
sometime?”
“Maybe…not yet. We
just found out about your…problems, and we just found out that the two cases
are connected. This entire thing is very
complicated, more so than I’m sure you realize.
Let us do our jobs. I have no
doubt that in the near future you’ll get a chance to actually see your…um…other
family soon. At least, I would think
that would be the case. Right now, I’m
not sure of anything.”
“You think I am?” Stephen replied. “I’m a girl stuck in this hulking ogre’s
body. I hate it!”
“I have no doubt,” Rosenberg agreed. “I’m sure I’d hate it too.”
