Hypnotizable

Some of the Answers

"I was going to tell you," said Olivia.

"I know. It's all right."

Olivia, Gabriel and me were in her dorm room. Fortunately, her roommate was out somewhere.

"I still have the video I took," said Gabriel. "When you were over at my house. You can look at it, if you want."

It must show me being hypnotized. The thought of looking at something like that was enough to make my body feel weak.

"You wanted me to take a video," he said. "I guess you may not remember."

"Oh, I remember now. I can watch it sometime later." In private, I mentally added.

"But you didn't remember at first? Not at all?"

I shook my head. "No. Not at all."

"Wow," he said. "You really are hypnotizable."

"Yes. I am." There was no way to downplay it.

"I guess you know we've been having some phone calls the last week or two."

"Actually, that's what I still don't remember. How about you fill me in."

He picked up his phone and played around with it. "I recorded that, too," he said. "Here."

And there was my own voice, coming from his phone. "Sure. Record all you want."

"Are you ready to be hypnotized?" said Gabriel's voice in the recording.

"Go ahead and give it a try." My voice sounded skeptical, but willing.

"Is it all right if I have you not remember it afterwards?"

"Give it a try," said my voice.

"That's enough," I said. "I see what happened."

He stopped the recording. "We did it several times," he said. "Then I saw you in person several times. I was curious how far we could go. You always gave consent for the amnesia."

"I always gave consent before I got hypnotized?"

"Yes."

It did sound like me. I could have demanded to listen to the recording some more, just to make sure. But I decided to trust him.

"This is weird," said Olivia. "Was it really what you wanted?"

"I gave consent to having amnesia, including amnesia for giving consent."

"That's...." Olivia seemed to be having a hard time thinking it all through.

"The bottom line is, I gave consent. I'm OK."

"You liked it, didn't you?" said Gabriel. "I mean, you really liked it."

A jolt of electricity went through my body. "Yeah. I did."

"Um," said Olivia, "would you two like some privacy?"

"No," I said. Maybe Olivia could tell there was an unspoken not yet.

Something else occurred to me. "By the way," I said, "how about that dinosaur thing?"

Olivia smiled, but didn't laugh. "We took care of it," said Gabriel.

"At least I don't have a thing for being hypnotized like you do," said Olivia. "If I did, I'd never have let my own brother hypnotize me, eww."

"How about you?" said Gabriel to me. "How are you doing with the word 'regression'?"

I laughed, tried to hold it in, and wound up making a ridiculous snort. "We've got to take care of that," I said.

"That's enough for me," said Olivia. "I'll leave you to it." As she left, I caught a glimpse of an expression on her face like she'd decided it was all good even if she couldn't quite understand it.

"I guess we've cleared the air," said Gabriel. "So, do you want to keep doing what we've been doing?"

Gabriel might have been a bit of a player, but he wasn't a creep. I trusted him enough. And I wanted more of what I'd been getting. "Hell yes," I said. "We can keep doing it."

"Including the amnesia?"

"Whenever I say it's OK." Playing with my own memory might be a bit of a dangerous game, but it still seemed better than getting blackout drunk.

"I can't promise to be, well,..."

"Exclusive? Is that the word you're looking for? That's fine, Gabriel. I'll graduate before long, you know. And then I might move to New York."

I hadn't tried flying by myself yet, but the thought was less frightening than it had been. And, somehow, accepting that I could lose control in one way made it easier to assert myself in other ways. Going to New York to interview or intern felt more appealing now.

"I spend time there now and then," said Gabriel.

"Come and see me when you do." I meant it.

"I will," he said with a small smile. "Though you may never remember it."

"Oh," I said. "How about this?" I took out the necklace and ring that had mysteriously appeared in my pocket.

"Oh, those," he said. "Thanks for giving them back."

"How did I get them in the first place?"

"Do you really want to know?"

I just stared at him.

"I think you'll like it better," he said, "if you have some unsolved mysteries to wonder about."

And he was right.