“Any mind,” he said, “has a limit to how far it can be pushed. Those two farmhouses would have blown the average mind sky high. You have recalled a lot, but I’ve a feeling your subconscious knows the upcoming layers will be far more frightening. Hence, partially, the extreme panic now and the need for Mean Joe when you were growing up. If Mean Joe retaliated with violence back there he’d have been dealing in what I call ultimate ways. Sometimes that’s what saying the final ‘no’ boils down to. Ultimate ways.”
