My Library

Zelda and I became the deepest and closest of friends in more ways than one. I spent a great deal of my time at her apartment after her day's work was done. Our favorite thing to do together was to cook, eat -- and play heated games of Scrabble even while eating. I was thus present at her apartment when the McCanns arrived with the infrared film. A couple of intense psychic types had come along to try to produce energies for the film, and I was mildly amused by all of the carrying on. But then one or two other people wanted to be photographed, and so everyone had to be. I didn't really want to go into Zelda's blacked-out bedroom because, well, I didn't have the least idea of how to produce psychic energies. But it was a convivial group. I thought the two McCanns were wonderful and optimistic, and we had gotten a little tanked up on cheap wine. Since everyone was being photographed, I eventually sat in the chair and wondered how to make some psychic energies for the benefit of the infrared film. "Just do what you want," Bert suggested, and who was trying to manage the camera in complete darkness. The room was hot. So I said, giggling: "Well, I'll try to make a ball of light about three feet above my head." So I "gathered my energies," or thought I did, above my head. I "pictured" a ball of light about a foot in diameter.