Teaching Manipulation

Part 4

It was nearing evening when Alice appeared at Elizabeth's sight.

"Do you want to see a magic trick?" asked Alice

Elizabeth reacted rapidly and looked up towards her sister where she had been reading her school's required reading material. She was definitely interested in any form of 'break' from her homework.

"Yes!" cried Liz.

"Perfecto, remember that a magic trick is a trick that resembles magic. Alright?" And with those words Alice took out a blank sheet of paper and a marker. She took the paper and ripped a portion of it off. She uncapped the black marker and drew a cross that resembled the one hanging from the wall in their room on the sheet and scribbled something on the small portion. She then wrote out the numbers one through ten next to the cross.

"I want you to circle four numbers"

Elizabeth circled the numbers one, three, six, and eight with slight uneasiness with the fact that her sister had drawn a cross. It upset her that her sister might be doing something she shouldn't be doing, but this didn't deter her.

"Alright, now write down the circled numbers on the cross" And she did,

"Now, circle two of those numbers". Liz circled one and three.

"Nice, now write down those numbers at the bottom of the cross and then circle one of them. Write down the one that you didn't circle"

This was all done under the surveillance of Alice. Liz had circled the one and wrote out the number 3. At this point, Alice revealed that on the scrap piece of paper she had written down the number 3.

"Is this your number?" finished Alice.

Elizabeth was astounded and confused. No surprise. How had her sister managed to guess the number she would have picked. Could she tell the future?

"'...remember that a magic trick is a trick..."' That's what her sister had said before hand. This meant that there was something going on that she wasn't aware of.

"How did you do it?" asked Liz

"It was a trick" answered Alice.

Alice then taught Elizabeth the secret and revealed that through the right words Liz had thought she actually was in control when in reality Alice was guiding her actions through mere suggestions. And as if a light hit her she realized that it wasn't the first time. Her older sister had tricked her into taking the yogurt instead of the chocolate paleton. She had been tricked into taking out a board game she hadn't wanted to play in the first place and even though she won she still put it away as if she had been the loser. Throughout the entire day she had been acting in the way that best suited her sister.

Liz felt upset and betrayed.

"Does that mean that you took two chocolate paletons?" asked Liz.

Of course this was what she focused on. Alice knew that she was going to be upset but figured that the result outweighed the means. She noticed the watery eyes and betrayed expression and knew she wanted to avoid a scream-fest.

"You're the most meanest sister in the world! You took all the chocolate!" whimpered Elizabeth.

In order to calm her cries Alice took out the paleton that she had saved for this occasion realizing the irony of the situation.

"'...by the end of today you will understand what manipulation is..."' She sure did. Liz wiped her crocodile tears and hid her triumphant smile.

Just because she had not known what the word was didn't mean that she wasn't an expert at the act.