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outbreak of weird science. Maybe Naomi
is
faithful. Maybe there are such things as poltergeists. Personally, I think you have to ask the non-supernatural questions first.’
    Karen was upset, and the last thing I had wanted to do was upset her. But twenty years ago, in the Sisters of Jerusalem Hospital, Karen had given birth to that grotesque and stunted creature that most of us had believed to be the reincarnation of the seventeenth-century Wampanaug medicine-man, Misquamacus. It had been a devastating experience. People had died. The appearance of Misquamacus had stretched my faith and my credibility to their utmost limits, and beyond. I had been there, yes, at the Sisters of Jerusalem. I had witnessed what had happened for myself. But these days I preferred to think that Karen’s unique condition had somehow been the epicentre of an extraordinary outbreak of mass suggestion. How, or why, I couldn’t imagine. But I just preferred to think of it that way. Better to be nuts than have to admit that something like Misquamacus could actually exist.
    Karen said, ‘A professor came all the way from Seattle Pacific University to check out the Greenbergs’ apartment for himself. He was some kind of expert in poltergeists andpeople who can move things with their mind, things like that. He said that it wasn’t poltergeists. At least, it wasn’t like any poltergeist behaviour that
he’d
ever seen. Poltergeists are much more erratic, much more mischievous. All that happened at the Greenbergs was that the furniture all slid over to one side of the room and stayed there.’
    â€˜But if it wasn’t poltergeists, what did this professor think it was?’
    Karen shrugged. ‘He didn’t know. He couldn’t account for it. Just like everybody else. The police saw it and they couldn’t account for it. The rabbi saw it and he couldn’t account for it. Naomi’s shrink came to see it and he couldn’t account for it. So now they’ve all decided that it probably never happened — or, like you, that Naomi’s making it up.’
    I laid my hands on top of Karen’s. ‘Karen, I wish there was something I could do. But this is way out of my field of expertise. Not that I really have any expertise, or ever will. I’m sorry.’
    Karen said, ‘You fought Misquamacus.’ I knew how difficult it was for her to say that name. ‘You fought him, and you won!’
    â€˜I don’t know. Maybe it all happened a lot different from the way we remember it’
    Karen’s eyes glittered with tears. ‘Harry — Michael and Naomi are two of my very best friends. They’re both going crazy. This whole thing has practically destroyed their lives. It might seem trivial to you, but to them it’s the end of their marriage, the end of their sanity almost I promised them —’
    I glanced up. I had one hand raised for the waiter, to bring us two more drinks. I paused.
    â€˜You promised them what?’
    â€˜I promised them the best psychic expert in New York. In fact, the best psychic expert in America.’
    I didn’t know what to say. The waiter came and stood beside me and all I could do was sit with my arms raised likea schoolboy and my mouth arrested in mid-pronunciation.
    â€˜Can I get you anything, sir?’
    â€˜Check,’ I blurted, at last. ‘Get me the check.’
    â€˜Harry —’ Karen began, but I interrupted her.
    â€˜You promised them the best psychic expert in America? You mean
me
?’
    â€˜I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know where else to turn.’
    â€˜Karen, for Christ’s sake! I tell fortunes! I read tea-leaves! I make it all up as I go along! I’m about as much of a psychic expert as Pee Wee Herman! In fact, why didn’t you ask Pee Wee Herman? He’s even loopier than I am!’
    The young business type had stopped laughing all of a sudden, and was