"ahh! it's wild out there." i heard her before i realized the door had opened. i had been a bit lost in a book.

"mine were fine today. sleepy if anything."

"it was the subject today, in part, i think. although i didn't expect so." she adjusted her glasses. "they had very strong feelings about the...scandals of the gilded age. teapot dome. you know? credit mobilier. they were like, outraged. and they weren't like, arguing with each other. vying in peroration i suppose would be accurate. an observer would say i had lost control either way. i couldn't get a word in for the last fifteen minutes. it was wild. i was almost wondering if this is like, some thing, where you try to carry a conversation through to the end of class, for like a dare. or you know, as a goof. i don't know though. no one was laughing. they all seemed really ticked!"

"i will keep an eye out for that game. i think it will be easier for me to tell. though if they were to really carry on a gag argument about like, which acid/base definition to use, i think i would just let them."

alice sat down on the couch. "ahh." she took off her glasses & rubbed her eyes, a bit worringly hard. "ohh." she put her glasses back on, blinking. "i can't believe i have two more classes to go. one should be...fine. the last one though...people are tired by the afternoon." she threw herself back into the couch, sighing, staring up into the ceiling light. "i wish i could just be like, hypnotized and not remember the next few hours. or like, not realize it's happening. think i'm in egypt." she blinked. "i'm not sure why i said egypt. i mean, sure, you know, they have beaches, right?" she sighed. "i'm so tired."

i blinked. "yes, i think they must have beaches."

"hmph. i'm not sure how i'll make it through three more months."

"you -- uhm. you mentioned being hypnotized."

she looked at me curiously.

"i just wanted to say that you should be careful with that subject around me."

she laughed. "why?"

"well -- it's -- you know, it's a real thing. and a lot of people are not...aware of that, and so...we end up in quite long...discussions of it."

she blinked. "well, sure, i guess it's real. it's in medical journals. there's like a process that they do, and in some people they can really be...cured of something, like a fear mostly, or they can really be numb."

"right. yeah. well. that's all."

"i am curious if it would work on me, though."

i blinked. she looked at the ceiling light & went on.

"ever since i like, read about it in, i don't know where, a magazine maybe, i was curious if it would work on me. it seems peaceful. like sleeping except you can sleep through anything, like sleep in the middle of anything. sleeping with someone else protecting you from everything. i just like, never got the chance to meet anyone who did it, or be in a study on it, or anything.

she was quiet for a minute, then took a deep breath, still looking at the light. then, slightly quietly & slowly, she said, "so i am curious about what it's like." she was still looking at the light.

i watched her eyes. "i know a little about it," i said. she didn't seem to react. "you can try...just keep looking at that light there." i faintly saw her focus fix more sharply. "i actually know...well, this is one way you can supposedly be hypnotized." i saw her breathe slightly faster.

"you just keep your focus right there on that light, and...taking one number at a time, i'll count to ten, and at each number, take a slow, careful breath in. and then slowly, as slowly as you can, let it out. you cane take all the time you like, all the time you can, and i will say the next number only once i see that you are ready."

"one." she took a long, slow breath.

"two."

(and so forth.) after ten, she was looking calmly at the light, blinking at widely-spaced yet regular intervals.

"now i will go to ten again, yet this time, i want you not to think about the breathing, yet you can do just the same if your body remembers. yet what i want you to focus on is this: to slowly, as slowly as you can close your eyes, and then as slowly as you can open them. and you can take all the time you can, take as long as you can, and i won't say the next number until i see that you are ready.

"one." she very, very slowly closed her eyes, & very slowly opened them. i could see that it was in sync with a long, slow breath in as she closed her eyes, and out as she opened them.

"two."

(and so forth.) at ten she kept breathing very, very slowly, and closing here eyes partway on in, opening them wide on out. i let this happen for about thirty seconds, four or five breaths, just watching.

then i said, "now here is...a test on how to be hypnotized." i saw her blink right at the word "test." her breaths got a little faster -- steady, yet harder. she kicked off her shoes & criss-crossed her legs on the couch under her, sitting up quite straight now, keeping her focus intently on the light. yet it was now a more active, intentional focus, rather than the calmness of a moment ago.

i watched her for a few moments. she seemed to settle a bit into that active focus, waiting for me, so i went on. "the first thing is to imagine a million tiny little weights all along your eyelids. all so tiny, yet so many little weights creates an odd force that makes your eyelids feel heavy. and just imagining, all along your eyelid, all those tiny little shining weights hanging down makes your eyelids heavier." i saw a flicker of movement in her eyelids, & they were now maybe a millimeter lower. "i want you, this time, to just let your eyelids close as you feel that weight." she let her eyelids slowly fall until her eyes were closed, with a few faint flutters along the way. "now i want you to let that weight increase, let those tiny little weights each weigh ten times more, until you can convince yourself that your eyes are too heavy to open. and when, once you have convinced yourself that your eyes are too heavy to open, that's when i want you to just try a few times to open your eyes, to prove to yourself that your eyes are too heavy to open." i watched her for a few moments. usually it takes people five or ten seconds of focusing on that feeling of weight before they try to open their eyes -- she took a little longer, yet after twenty or maybe thirty seconds i saw her eyes flutter, then relax, then flutter again, then relax, then flutter again, longer, and then finally relax. i knew that she was trying to open her eyes and experiencing that funny feeling where you can't -- and you keep thinking you can, yet you try, and you can't. yet there's no reason you can't -- so you try again, and you can't. it's a funny feeling. eventually people work their way out of it if you just leave them there trying, yet it's surprisingly convincing.

"now a strange thing will happen. in a moment i will snap my fingers, and your eyes will pop open, just like that. and when they do, i want you to focus right there on that light again, taking deep breaths, in, and out, just as you were." i snapped my fingers. she blinked her eyes open, looked at me for half a moment, & then focused again on the ceiling light, totally calm, taking deep, slow breaths.

"now...i want you to imagine all those tiny little weights again." i saw her vision unfocus slightly & her eyelids drop a few millimeters. "and this time i want you to try...as hard as you can to keep your focus there, to keep your eyes open. no matter how heavy the weight, try...to keep your eyes open just like they are right now. yet...a funny thing is going to happen. when i snap my fingers and say the word "sleep," your eyes will drop closed. your body will relax. your mind will be awake, listening to me. i will count to ten, and your eyes will get heavier from each number that i count. if they close, that is perfect. then you can relax completely. it is an incredible feeling. yet try...as hard as you can...to keep your eyes open...all the way to ten."

"one." i saw a faint flutter in her eyes as she focused more intently on the light.

"two." a stronger flutter. definite motion.

(and so forth.) by ten her eyes were about half-closed yet i could tell that to her they felt extremely heavy & that keeping them half-open was an incredible effort. i could see it in the vibration of the muscles there beside her eyes, & in the way she would gather strength to lift them just a bit up, then slacken, to gather strength again, and they would drop back, just faintly, faintly farther -- and just then, i snapped my fingers. i waited just a moment there to say "sleep" and i could see that her focus was refined to a perfect point. at "sleep" her eyes closed, fluttering. she fell back against the back of the couch, sliding down in it slightly, & her legs came uncrossed, one foot falling to the floor as the other stayed stuck under her.

i watched her rest for a few moments. i wanted to lift her arm and sway it side to side by the wrist, like i naturally would next. yet i didn't want to get quite so far into hypnosis to someone i saw here & in the office so often. people can feel intense things about being hypnotized (i would know) and so i thought it best to leave off there & see if she brought up hypnosis again of her own accord another day.

"in a moment, after a calm count of 5, you'll find your eyes open, awake and aware, right back here in the lounge with me. now out loud, yet as quietly as you like, i would like you to count to five...now." after a few moments, i saw her lips start to move -- i couldn't hear her say one, and on two her voice was almost too quiet for me to hear, then three i could here faintly yet clearly, and four, and five approached normal volume. at five she opened her eyes. she looked at me & then at the light for a half-moment each, then blinked, sat up, took off her glasses & rubbed her eyes.

blinking, bleary-eyed with her glasses off, she looked in my general direction & said, "oohh. that was certainly something." she rubbed her eyes one time more & then put her glasses back on, & checked & slightly fixed her hair.

"so am i going to like, sleep through the next two classes now?"

"aha, no. at least i don't think so. that was just basic, like, coming in and going out. i don't really know much more than that, i just have that bit memorized, kind of."

"well, that was interesting, anyway. i think it was. it's a little fuzzy. i think i couldn't open my eyes or something. or i couldn't close them. or they were closing really slowly. gosh, how tired am i?"

"that's fairly normal. it's surprisingly actually kind of an altered state, and memory can be disordered, or, you know, disrupted."

she blinked. "i don't know if i believe that. i'm just really tried. i spent like five minutes panicking earlier because i thought i'd lost something i already handed out to people. at least i'm not sure that just...you talking...could affect my memory or my brain that much in so short a time."

i didn't say anything. she stood up, looked down at her feet, & sat back down. "i didn't even remember taking off my shoes." she put them back on. "i almost walked back out there in my socks. see? i need to sleep. they would be like, 'ms wen is cracked. she forgot her shoes today.' i can literally hear it." she leaned back on the couch, sighing. "okay. damn. it's already five after." she smacked the couch on both sides of her. "i gotta get in there. hoo! uhm. okay. see you later. or tomorrow. and thanks? i guess? for the...being hypnotized." she stared into the distance for a moment, then blinked, stood up, & went out, with the short "huh!" of someone getting back to it.