Read When the Tripods Came for Free Online Page B

room, rearranging her dolls. She had more than a dozen, and I realized it was weeks since she’d played with them. I went down with the others, and Pa poured them drinks.
    “I’m still not sure I know what that was about.” He handed a glass to Dr. Monmouth. “She’d been previously hypnotized by someone else? But who?”
    “You heard her: the Tripod.”
    Martha said, “That’s ridiculous. The Tripods were destroyed. By the television show, do you mean? Is that possible?”
    Dr. Monmouth took his drink. “Hypnosis is a state of artificially induced sleep or trance, in which the subject is susceptible to suggestion. There are various m-methods of inducing it. I’ve never known of it being done through television, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.”
    “But the actual suggestion,” Pa said, “how would that work?”
    “It could be subliminal: a message flashed onscreen for a microsecond. Reinforced by the spoken message, ‘Hail the T-Tripod.’ It’s interesting that it affects some people and not others. But so do other things, of course. Strobe lighting doesn’t bother m-most people, but induces epilepsy in a m-minority. It could be the result of a minor cortical irregularity. A difference in alpha rhythm, perhaps, which makes them susceptible.”
    “But done by whom,” Martha demanded, “the Russians?”
    “I suppose that’s possible. But the show originated in the United States.”
    “Why would the Americans want to do such a thing? It makes no sense.”
    “There have been experiments in the past with subliminal suggestion in advertising. M-maybe somebody’s preparing the launch of a T-Tripod toy, and the p-project got out of hand. Or maybe it’s like the mass hysteria you get with pop stars—hysteria and hypnosis both involve surrender of the will—and by some freak it’s got tied in with this particular show.”
    Pa asked, “Which do you think?”
    “I don’t know. There’s a third possibility.”
    “What?”
    “Television signals aren’t stopped by the ionosphere. The show originates in America, but the suggestions could be superimposed from somewhere else.” He paused. “F-from space.”
    Martha shook her head. “Now that really is ridiculous.”
    Pa said, “From whatever was behind the Tripods, you mean? It’s a bit unlikely, isn’t it? The Tripods were a joke.”
    “Scientific knowledge doesn’t have to follow the pattern we’re familiar with. The Incas had a superb road system, but didn’t m-manage to invent the wheel. The fact of using something as clumsy as a T-Tripod doesn’t mean they might not be a long way ahead of us in studies of the m-mind, and mental processes.”
    Pa shook his head. “An advertising gimmick getting out of hand sounds more likely.”
    • • •
    The television news was full of Trippies, demonstrating and chanting about the Tripod and clashing with the police. And not just in England; there were similar scenes from America and Canada, Australia and Europe. There were rumors it was happening behind the Iron Curtain, too, but we weren’t shown any of that.
    The media had invented the name Trippy, and they called the demonstrations Tripping. The Trippies took it up themselves, and started singing a new song to one of the minor tunes on the Trippy Show.
    “Trip, trip, trip with the Tripod . . .”
    Then suddenly the Trippies were on the move. It began in London. We watched the report on early evening television, and it was like a mass migration.They had managed to pick up cars and vans from all over the city and were moving out into the country. Others waited by the roadside. The weather was terrible, with rain slashing out of a black sky and a near-gale blowing. They stood patiently in the rain, wet, bedraggled, uncomplaining. Many of them carried hand-lettered signs and banners: H AIL THE T RIPOD ! T HE T RIPOD L IVES ! or just a drawing of a Tripod. Cars and vans driven by other Trippies stopped to pick them up, and crawled on,