“Fuck!”

Jira wobbled on the thin strap beneath her feet, waving her arms, desperately searching for her balance.

It was no use. With another curse, she fell to one side of the slack line and let gravity pull her to the floor, the tightly wound line springing out from under her weight. She landed gracefully on her feet, but walked off in a huff, brushing her sweaty palms against her spandex costume.

“What’s the matter, Jira?” Loni, one of the circus dancers, asked as she walked over to her, handing her a bottle of water. Jira took it, trying to swallow down her frustration with the lukewarm water.

“It’s the fucking new routine!” Jira huffed. “I know I can do this shit, but I can’t get my mind into it! I keep losing my concentration halfway through. I’m supposed to perform it next week, but it’s nowhere close to ready!”

Loni sucked the inside of her cheek, cocking her curvy hip to one side.

“I got an idea. It sounds like you need help managing your stress.”

“Oh?” Jira asked, bemused. She was pretty sure Loni had a crush on her, which didn’t sound half bad to Jira. The best thing about trapeze artists is that they swing both ways.

Ba-dum Pssht!

“Yeah. You should try getting hypnotized!” Loni said, her words surprising Jira.

“Hypnotized? Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah! Go talk to Derek, the magician. I was having trouble keeping up with my dance numbers and he suggested I try hypnosis to deal with it. It worked! I’m completely in step with the other dancers now.”

“Was it …weird?” Jira asked. Derek was young and attractive and she wouldn’t mind the opportunity to talk more with him, but hypnosis sounded a little out there.

“Oh no! He just started talking really friendly, he was shaking my hand, and then next thing I remember was waking up, feeling great and really clear headed. Try it! It should help!”

Jira promised she would consider it and after another frustrating afternoon rehearsal that ended in more falls, she found herself walking to Derek’s trailer parked out on the empty field next to the circus tent.

As she came within view of the small, rundown camper, she saw Margaret, the buxom clown, stumble out of Derek’s trailer looking content, but somewhat listless. Jira called out to her and waved. Margaret blinked and waved back to her with a big, dopey grin on her face.

Jira shrugged it off. Margaret was a clown after all. She was probably just getting into character.

Jira knocked on the door and Derek showed her in. She took a seat in his trailer, decorated with odd assortments of juggling equipment, playing cards, lit candelabras, and more books than Jira had ever read. He bade her sit down next to the table in his breakfast nook.

“So, Loni tells me you want to be hypnotized?” says Derek, his green eyes piercing through her.

“No, I just want to not lose my shit on the high wire. I’ve been jittery and unfocused all week trying to rehearse for it.”

“Hmm. Ok,” Derek says with a sympathetic look. “That shouldn’t be a problem. Before we start,” Derek leans down to pick up a prop bag, “why don’t you tell me what you know about hypnosis?”

Jira scoffed. “Only what I’ve seen on cartoons. Someone swings a pendulum and says how the subject is getting very sleepy until they drop off into trance. Is it like that?”

Derek laughed softly, his café colored skin catching the candlelight. “Mmm…not exactly. For one thing, we don’t have to use a pendulum.”

Derek held out his hand, holding a clear, crystal ball about the size of a large orange. The surface looked smooth as glass.

“Did you know you can focus on just about anything and go into hypnosis? Have you ever seen my crystal ball act?”

“Hey! I thought you were a magician, not a fortune teller!” Jira laughed.

“Well, to be honest, it’s more like juggling. It’s an illusion where if I can keep my hand steady…”

Derek began rotating his hand with the ball around in circles, centering the ball in the pivot of the circle. Jira watched in amazement.

“It can look like the ball is floating…can you see that?” Derek asked, his voice softer.

“Yeah! That’s so cool!” Jira said. She knew how the trick worked, but Derek was so smooth the ball really looked like it was hovering.

“It is…and the more you watch, the more you can imagine the clear, smooth ball is just floating in midair…it just hovers weightless while my hands just spin down the sides…nice and easy…”

Derek deftly switched hands, letting his open palm caress under the ball before grabbing it in his fingers seamlessly.

“Actually, the ball can feel like it’s made of helium, drifting up and up as you follow it with your eyes…like watching a balloon get farther and farther away…can you imagine that, Jira?”

“…yeah…it’s…it’s very pretty…” Jira said watching the ball drift up.

“It is….and the more you watch it, the happier you feel…light and floaty…watching it get higher…and higher…until you drop.”

Derek swished the crystal ball away while swiping his palm gently over Jira’s eyes. Jira felt like someone cut a cord in her mind and she fell straight down into sleep.

The next week, the big top was filled with patrons ready to see a spectacular show. They laughed at the clowns and admired the dancers, and then, it was time for the high wire act. Jira climbed to the top of the rig where her wire waited twenty feet in the air. The safety net underneath her did little to steady her nerves. Jira slowed down her breath, letting the sounds of the audience fall away. Derek’s green eyes flashed through her mind, and she remembered her exercises.

One foot in front of the other.

Focus on what’s ahead of you.

Eyes tethered to the other end of the line.

She stepped out, feeling her body take on a heavier gravity, her stability as unshakeable as a boulder. She kept her eyes razor-focused on the other end of the line and pranced her way down, turned, and sauntered back. She crossed again juggling clubs, balancing an egg on a spoon in her mouth, and then, as her finale skipped rope all the way across without hardly a single toe out of place.

She slid down the circus pole and took a bow as the audience showered her in applause.

She disappeared backstage, and Loni immediately ran up to her.

“That was amazing, girl! I’ve never seen you so focused!”

“I know!” Jira said, beaming. “That hypnosis stuff with Derek really did the trick!”

“I told you!” Lonia said, laughing. “Hey, how’d you like to join me and Margaret after the show for a small afterparty?”

“Yeah!” Jira didn’t usually socialize after the shows, preferring instead to get a good night’s rest. But for some reason, the idea sounded really good to her. “That sounds like fun!”

When Jira showed up and Loni’s trailer, Margaret was already there, stirring a cocktail and laughing with Loni on the bed of her trailer. Jira jumped in as Loni made her a quick drink and the three began talking girl talk.

“You were great on the high wire tonight, Jira!” Margaret said, her chubby face fresh and clean after washing off the clown paint.

“Thanks, but credit where credit’s due. I had help from Derek.”

“Oh! Did he hypnotize you too?” asked Margaret. “He helped me get over my stage fright. It’s like I don’t even care what the audience thinks now. But hey!”

Margaret glanced around the trailer, conspiratorially, as if she was worried some one would overhear her.

“Did either of you notice some weird triggers after your session with Derek?” she asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” asked Loni.

“Like…okay, I just kinda noticed this in the shower, so maybe it’s just me, but have you girls played with your nipples recently?”

Jira and Loni exchanged glances with each other.

“No, why?” asked Jira.

“Because, I don’t know why, but when I start to play with mine…” Margaret reached her hand down her blouse, quickly finding her nipple over her voluminous tits. “I just kinda get…all…fuzzy…and …I dunno…a little dumb?...uhhhh…”

Margaret trailed off, a placid grin spreading over her face. Her fingers were tweaking and twisting her nipples as her eyes glazed over and she drifted into her own personal la-la land.

“Margaret?” Loni asked, both intrigued and worried. “Are you okay?”

“Yeaahh…it feels…nice…happy…sexy…you girls try…”

Margaret pulled up her blouse letting her two, milky white tits flop down. She teased and ticked her pink nipples, giggling softly to herself, almost as if she was getting aroused by the action.

“I don’t get it…do you think that Derek did some—Uhhh…” Jira gasped as Margaret grabbe both girls nipples over their shirts. It was like some one hit a button in Jira’s brain flooding her body with happy, sexy feelings. Her brain slowed down and she let Margaret pull up her shirt without a second thought. It just felt too sexy and yummy to stop.

Loni closed her eyes and let her head tilt back as Margaret rolled her puffy nipples around her fingers, bringing Jira’s hand to Loni’s other breast. Soon the three girls were moaning and giggling together as they tweaked and played with each other’s nipples. Jira felt like she was floating on a cloud of cotton candy. It was like every time she masturbated to her favorite fantasy, except her nipples had turned into two needy, sensitive clits, drowning her brain in erotic pleasure.

The girls never reacted when the trailer door opened but the did turn their heads when they heard Derek’s confident voice from the center of the room.

“Ah, so I see Margaret showed you the little surprise I left you girls. You like this, don’t you?”

“mmm…yes, Derek…” three voices cooed back.

“Good! I think you girls are ready for the next act.”

The suave magician undid his belt and let his pants drop, his cock beginning to grow harder and stiffer.

“Just look at the pendulum ladies…keep your eyes on my beautiful, sexy pendulum swinging back and forth, back and forth…ready to obey anything I say.”

Three pairs of glassy eyes stared at the fleshy brown pendulum and felt their minds drain into their slits.

“Yes, Derek…we are ready to obey.”