The Hypnotist (F)

[Bombast]

I've been wanting to do a revised version of my only story for quite some time now. It originally appeared on Bondi's Storyboard in August of 2001. The changes do not affect the plotline at all, only tweaking certain parts here and there. Many of you weren't around when I posted it before so it'll be new to you. Hope you like it.

The Hypnotist

It started out to be just another routine day for Ron Adams. He stepped out of the subway train at his stop on the way to work and went up the escalator to the mezzanine of the station where the elevator was waiting to take him to street level. He got in and looked to see if anyone else was coming and was just about to hit the button when he noticed a woman running to catch it. As she came closer, he did a double take for he couldn't believe his eyes. It was Sandy Barnett.

Ron had been in the same class as Sandy in high school. She was gorgeous but also sharp as a tack. He had been on the debate team with her and also worked on the school newspaper where she was the editor. He always thought that she totally exploded the myth about blondes being dumb. She dated a lot of guys back then but her relationships never seemed to last. At some point her paramours would always be intimidated by her intelligence, say something insulting to her and she would drop them like a bad habit. Ron kicked himself more than once for being too shy at the time to take advantage of the missed opportunities.

She entered the elevator; he pushed the button and the door shut. He looked at her for a second and when she didn't respond right away he said, "Sandy?" Her face then broadened into a wide grin and she replied "Ron? Ron Adams?" She walked over and gave him a big hug.

"I'm so glad you remembered me, Sandy. I'd have been devastated if you hadn't."

"What's it been, 8 years? How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. Do you work downtown too?"

"Sure do. I'm surprised this is the first time I've seen you here."

"You look great. You haven't changed a bit."

"Neither have you."

The elevator door opened and the two twenty-somethings walked out into the street, still excited by their impromptu reunion. "I've got an early appointment,” said Ron, "but we should definitely meet for lunch sometime and get caught up." "How about today?" was Sandy's response. "Does Alphonzo's at noon sound good to you?" After his initial shock, Ron said "Sounds like a plan." "See ya then" said Sandy, waving, "Bye". As he watched her walk away, Ron pinched himself.

The lunch date was going fabulously. Time flew as Ron and Sandy discussed what had happened to all their mutual friends and acquaintances. Finally the conversation turned inward.

"So what have you been doing with yourself?" asked Ron.

"I work at a modeling agency," answered Sandy.

"You're a model?"

"No no no. I'm an account executive. I tried modeling for a few years and the pay was good but the guys I had to work with were icky. They weren't even subtle about wanting a roll in the hay with me right after I met them. So I joined this modeling agency run by only women and I have a job now that let's me do a lot more than just be a piece of meat."

"Glad to hear things worked out for you."

It was now Sandy's turn to play What's My Line.

"So what do you do to pay the bills?"

"I do hypnosis. Smoking cessation, eating disorders, fear of flying, that kind of thing. You'd be surprised at who some of my clients are. I can't tell you their names, but many sports figures have come to me to help them with their concentration problems. Mostly from basketball, baseball and golf. Do you remember when Shaquille O'Neal raised his free throw percentage 20 points last season? That was me."

"I thought you said you couldn't tell me any names!"

"Oops...well I can't stand the Lakers anyway."

They both laughed.

"When you hypnotize people, do you ever give them a post hypnotic suggestion to bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken?" Sandy queried. Ron feigned being wounded by that remark as if he'd been shot. "Sandy, I am a professional. I'm not one of those show horse hypnotists you see in Las Vegas in front of an audience. I use my talent for good, not evil or stupidity." "I...I'm so sorry Ron" stammered Sandy. "I didn't mean it that way." "Forget it" smiled Ron slyly. "I get this all the time."

"You know I can't be hypnotized" said Sandy. "People have tried, but none were able to do it." Ron said: "You can't fight it. You have to submit to it or it won't work." "I did," she protested. "I did everything I was supposed to do and still nothing happened."

"Whoever was trying to hypnotize you must not have known what they were doing. If you let me, I could get the job done. Guaranteed."

"I'll take you up on that offer. Are you busy tonight?"

"I just happen to have a free evening" deadpanned Ron, once again wondering if he'd died and gone to heaven.

"Here's my card" she said, writing her home address and telephone number on it. "Is eight o'clock cool for you to come over?"

"Perfect."

"I'll see you then. I gotta run back to the office. I'm massively late" she said as she gathered her things and took off. Ron's heart started pounding like a jackhammer and didn't stop for the rest of the afternoon.

At 8:00 on the dot, Ron showed up at Sandy's apartment. He rang the bell and she answered the door wearing a very fetching low cut black dress. "Whoa Sandy!" he exclaimed. "You could cause a major traffic accident dressed like that." "This little number is just one of the perks of the job. Come on in" she said, motioning him inside. "Would you like some wine?"

"I'd love some."

They proceeded to sit on the couch, drank almost the whole bottle of wine and made small talk. Ron sensed that Sandy was a little nervous though and decided he would offer her a graceful way out.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

"Sure, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I?"

"It's only natural to have a few butterflies"

"Look, it's all right. You can start any time."

“I will in just a moment. You can relax Sandy. There’s nothing to be apprehensive about.”

“If you say so. You’re the expert.”

Little did she know that he had already begun to seamlessly cast his spell. As they continued their conversation, he could feel her anxieties melt away while at the same time he was assuming control.

After a bit, Ron paused to observe Sandy's face. It had that blissful look he knew so well. She was under! Just as he suspected, the others who had tried to hypnotize her were a bunch of hacks. He didn't expect it to be that easy. Now he turned to the matter at hand. What would his post hypnotic suggestion be? Of course the first thing to pop inside his mind was to make her do the wild thang with him. He thought about it, as any red blooded straight male would, but decided if and when it did happen, he wanted her to do it of her own free will. He wanted it to be real. But what would be a viable alternative? He only had to think about it for about a nanosecond.

For as long as he had known her, Sandy had the most erotic sneeze he had ever seen. What did it for him was her pre-sneeze expression, her incredible buildups. They were 10-20 second affairs at the very least. There was no way you could miss them. Her hitching breaths, fluttering eyes and flaring nostrils never failed to drive him nuts. Sometimes she would try to suppress a sneeze and would appear to be successful for a few seconds but in the end the battle would always be lost. The sneezes themselves were divine too. You never knew what sound would be coming out because she had such a vast repertoire. He stared at her intently and even had she not been sitting right in front of him ready willing and able to do his bidding, the mere thought of what was about to happen would be enough to light a fire in his pants.

"Sandy can you hear me?" he asked. She nodded silently. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. Every time you hear a number, any number, you will sneeze that exact number of times. Do you understand my instructions?" She nodded again. "All right now wake up" he said and snapped his fingers.

Her eyes opened with a start. "See" she said, "I told you that you couldn't do it."

"I already did." he retorted.

"I don't believe it"

"Well I'll just have to show you then, but first I'd like you to do me one favor."

As if on cue, Sandy raised her hand and started wildly fanning her face.

"And what exact...t...t...ly...wud...tha...ah...ah...ah...ah...AAAACHUH!!! Oh, excuse me. Wow! I have no idea where THAT came from."

"I do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you know what they say. Good things always come in threes."

"Yeah, b..b..but what d..d..d..duh..does that have to do wi…wi…wi…WIIIICHHH! Uh oh here comes anoth...eh…eh… ah..ho..he...ho...HUTngchoo! Oh boy, guh, gonna sneeze again..hutch..hutch... adja...raj..huh... HEEEEISHAA!!!”

"Bless you Sandy" said Ron.

She cocked her eyebrow at him and mused "Hmmm...wait a minute! Is that it? Is it you that's making me sneeze?"

"You always were a smart girl."

"But how?"

"Every time you hear a number, I told you to sneeze that number of times."

"Why of all things did you pick sneezing?"

"Well it's more fun than barking like a dog or clucking like a chicken isn't it?"

"Touche. I guess I deserved that." She moved a little closer to him on the couch and his head began spinning.

"You know what?” she asked. “I think you really enjoy watching me sneeze."

"Hey, I'm just proving a point here."

"I think it's a little more than that."

Ron's face turned beet red at that little revelation.

"Whatever you say Sandy. I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now," he managed to croak.

She then put her hand on his ever-bulging member and said "Now I know why you were able to hypnotize me while nobody else could. You must be the only man in the world I can really trust." He was about to jump her bones right then and there when the phone rang.

"Aaaaargh" she groaned, throwing her hands up and tossing her luxurious mane of blonde hair back in exasperation. "Let me answer that. I'll get rid of whoever it is." She walked to the kitchen and picked up the phone.

"Hello"

"Hi, it's me, Barbara" said the voice on the other end.

"Oh hi Barb. I'm sorry but I've got company right now. Can I call you back later?"

”I couldn’t wait to tell you Sandy. I picked up a lottery ticket today and and ended up winning 1,000 dollars. Can you believe it???!!”

Sandy froze in her tracks. Immediately a monster tickle formed deep within her nose which she knew would not be denied. Her face transformed into a look of genuine horror, but she struggled to end the conversation.

"That's great news but…ah... I b..better be going."

"Okay bye."

"B...bye."

She hung up and ran back to the living room where Ron was taken aback by her apparent distress. "What's wrong?" he asked. "The... the...call..m...my friend s..said a b...big number a..and...AAAAASHEEE!!!" "What was it?" he asked, quickly adding "No wait! Don't say it!" He spotted a message pad and pen on the kitchen counter and in a flash he brought it to her. "Write it down" he instructed her and she complied with trembling hands. "Shit" he thought to himself as he read it, but bore no expression so as not to increase her panic.

She was already out of control. "R..R..Ron...w..what am I gonna d..do... I can't stop sneeze snee...SCHEEOOOO! P...please make it stop I'm s..so scared..uh...ah..ha..hoo...HUSHOWW!! Oh....h..h..how c...could you d...do this to me...it's all your f...f...fault that I'm...I'm...KUT-CHAA!! Oh gosh...I'm..b…b…begging you...d...d...don't leave me like this...oh I'll do anyth...any..eh...haash...HU-mph-CHUH! d..d...don't just s…s…stand there...DO SOMETHAAAATCHOO-HOO!"

Ron could only watch like the proverbial deer in the headlights. The sneezing fit of his dreams was happening right in front of him and he was unable to enjoy any part of it. He thought about the cruel blow life had just dealt him. In the last few minutes he had gone from the heights of ecstasy to the depths of his worst nightmare. It was as if he had been at the top of the Empire State Building and was now hurtling toward earth, next stop Splatsville.

He then noticed that the tears streaming down Sandy's face were not just from sneezing. They were from crying too. This could be the end of his career. He had done what he swore he would never do - use his unique power over people for his personal amusement - and it had come back in a big way to bite him in the ass. More importantly though, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing Sandy now after how close to her he had almost been. He also knew that if he was going to salvage himself, his gray matter had better get busy and fast. He thought about how he could stop the sneezing attack and flashed back to the woman who had the longest record for sneezing in the Guinness book. The doctors could only stop it with electroshock. That was obviously out of the question. The only chance was to somehow render her unconscious but the last thing he wanted to do was whack her in the head, risking a grave injury.

Out of the blue, he had an idea. He remembered from his martial arts training a chokehold, which if applied correctly, activating the right pressure points, could knock someone out for a short period of time. He walked over to Sandy, whose sneezes were coming at longer intervals now because she was so exhausted, held her hand and told her "There's not much time. I'm going to cut off the oxygen to your brain for a moment to put you out for a while. It's the only way. I'll try my best not to hurt you but you will feel some discomfort. Just don't tense up when I do it OK?" "Thanks" she whispered, too weak to muster anything more. He put one arm around her throat and said "Ready? Here it comes" and applied the hold. For a second or two her eyes bugged out of her head and then her whole body went limp. He breathed a sigh of relief. It worked.

He carried her to her bed and sat by her side till she awoke only a few minutes later. Her eyes opened slowly and her speech was slurred and groggy.

"Ron what happened?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"I don't feel so good."

"Shhh....don't talk. Just listen. Do what I say and I promise you'll feel better."

"Mmmm...all right" she said in her semi-conscious state.

Words of reassurance from Ron, administered carefully, took her to another place, a special place, a quiet place. After a few minutes, he noticed that the trance that Sandy's angelic face exhibited earlier in the evening seemed to take hold again. He was home free.

"Sandy, can you hear me?" She nodded robotically. "First of all you will remember nothing of what happened tonight and when you hear a number, your reaction will no longer automatically be to sneeze that exact number of times. Do you understand?" She nodded again. "You may wake up now" he said, snapping his fingers, feeling a bit like the Prince in Sleeping Beauty.

Sandy's eyes were like slits and they rolled around in their sockets a few times before she opened them fully.

"What did you do to me Ron? My head hurts and my sinuses are killing me."

"I didn't do anything. You were right. I couldn't hypnotize you. I'd just given up when you got dizzy all of a sudden, lurched forward and hit your head on the coffee table. You must have blacked out. We did drink that bottle of wine pretty quickly. It looked like only a fainting spell but I was really worried."

Sandy smiled triumphantly. "You should have listened to me when I told you hypnosis doesn't work on me. I guess I'm too much of a control freak."

"What can I say? You're a tough nut to crack."

"I don't feel so tough right now but I am sorry that I wasn't any fun tonight. How can I make it up to you?"

Ron struck a thinker's pose and said "Oh I probably can come up with something."

[Bombast]

One good story bump deserves another, eh Shep?

[Pilgrim]

Awsome! Good work!

[Hypnos]

A story particularly close to my own heart. Thanks very much!

Of course, I would have my get out clause all planned in, or perhaps I should say, I did have my get out clause all planned in.

[megacycle]

I don't care how old this story is I just have to say that I love it!