“He survived in prison before,” someone said.

“Yes, but Ragen was around to protect him. If he’s once again raped by a hostile male—you know that often happens in prison—he’d probably commit suicide.”

“Its our job to fuse him,” Harding said. “That’s our charge from the court.”

The core Billy was encouraged to listen to and answer his other people, acknowledge their existence, and get to know them. Through constant suggestion, Billy was able to remain on the spot longer and longer. The fusing was to be done in stages. Those people who were similar or who had compatible qualities would be fused first, in pairs, and then the results of those pairings would be fused, by intensive suggestion, until all would be merged into the core Billy.

Because Allen and Tommy were most alike, they were to be fused first. Hours of argument and analysis with Dr. George were followed, Allen reported, by even more hours of internal discussion with Arthur and Ragen. Allen and Tommy worked hard with Dr. George on fusing, but it was difficult because Tommy had fears that Allen didn’t have. Allen loved baseball, for example, but Tommy was afraid to play it because once when he was younger and played second base, he had made mistakes and was beaten for them. Dr. George suggested that Nick Cicco, Allen and the other people should help Tommy by talking to him about his fear and by encouraging him to play baseball. Art therapy would continue, including oil painting.

The younger ones, Allen said, were unable to understand the concept of fusion until Arthur explained it to them through an analogy. Arthur compared it to Kool-Aid, something the children knew about, and explained that Kool-Aid powder is made up of individual crystals, each grain separate. When you added water, they dissolved. But if the mixture was allowed to stand, the water would evaporate, leaving a solid mass. Nothing had been added or lost. It was just changed.

“Everyone understands it now,” Allen said. “Fusion is just mixing the Kool-Aid.”

Nurse Nan Graves recorded on June 5: “Mr. Milligan has stated he has fused for an hour as ‘Tommy’ and ‘Allen’ and it felt ‘weird. ’ ”

Donna Egar reported that Milligan told her he was worried about the fusion because he didn’t want to let any of the others die or any of their talents or strengths be weakened. “But we’re working on it,” Allen assured her.

The next day, Gary Schweickart and Judy Stevenson visited and passed along good news. The court had approved an extension of Billy’s observation and treatment at Harding Hospital, giving him at least another three months to complete the fusion.

On Wednesday evening, June 14, in the music building, Rosalie Drake watched and listened as Tommy played the drums. She knew that only Allen had played them before. In this fused state he was obviously not as good as Allen had been on his own.

“I feel I’m stealing Allen’s talent,” he told her.