Second Lanark

Hypnosis - Part 7

We were headed to the school field for a hypnotist and a concert by some moderately successful band. It was the last night of Frosh Week on campus and we each had a water bottle filled with alcohol clutched in our hands, swigging from it periodically. It was a cool night and we were all dressed in sweaters and jeans, but it wasn't yet cold enough for jackets. I had heard that winter came early in Ottawa. The joke they'd told when I'd come for my initial tour of the school had been that Ottawa had eight months of winter and four months of bad sledding. I'd never really been a winter person, so I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy my eight months in the cold.

"Have you talked to Rob and Tom?" Tricia asked, sipping from her water bottle.

"I talked to Tom. Their room smells terrible, still, but they both insist they didn't get sick from the canal water. Just a coincidence." Lark laughed. "As if."

 Lark was wearing a down-filled vest over her sweater. She favored an outdoors, wilderness sort of vibe compared to the rest of us. I blamed British Columbia.

"Are they coming out tonight?" I asked, trying to feign indifference. I hadn't seen Rob in a couple days and my ears were aching to hear his accent.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies." Adrian, a mature student from our floor and a massive stoner walked up behind us, squeezing in between Lark and Jill as we walked. "Are you guys gonna volunteer to be hypnotized?"

Jill laughed. "Ah, no. I've seen this kind of thing before and they always make you do really embarrassing things. Funny - as long as you're not the one doing them."

Adrian puffed out his chest. "If I can, I'm going up. I don't think it really works." He was taller than us, maybe 5'10 with blondish colored hair and stark blue eyes. Coming up behind him were a couple of the other guys from our floor, including Josh.

I glanced behind me as they all started to swarm us. I was hoping to see Tom and Rob, but it didn't look as though they were coming after all.

"If you don't think it works, why do you want to go up?" Lark asked, a hint of challenge in her voice.

"Curiosity." Adrian took a lighter and a package of cigarettes out of his pocket. "Anyone else?"

I scrunched up my nose. "No, thanks." Lark, Jill and Tricia also refused for which I was eternally grateful. I wasn't sure I could stand to share a bathroom and all my free time with someone who stank like an ashtray. It was bad enough when we went out to the bars that all our clothes smelled like cigarette smoke, usually mixed with a faint whiff of pot. 

As we got closer to the stands, Adrian said, "I'm gonna need to be near the front to make sure I get picked. Whose gonna sit up there with me?" 

Josh and a couple of the other guys volunteered, and they were off to the second row from the front. We sat about halfway back with a bunch of other people from our floor and watched as Adrian enthusiastically volunteered to go up on stage. 

Once they were all under, the hypnotist started them off rather tamely by having them all pretend to be jockeys riding a horse. Adrian seemed to have jockey confused with cowboy and kept shouting "Yee Haw" and pretending to lasso cows. 

"This is hilarious." My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. "Are they always this good?"

"I should have gone up." Lark laughed. "People will remember Adrian after this."

"There's no way you'd get me up there." Jill flicked her dark hair off her shoulder as she looked around. She always seemed to be looking for something better to do. 

If there was one thing I could say about Adrian's performance, it was that his reaction to every scenario was unique. Aliens? Smoke a joint and chill out. Orgasm? Thank the girl and toss her some money. Rock Star? Some weird combination between Kiss and Bryan Adams.