Kalico 2: Hypnotized & Naked in Hope Springs

Kalico: Wallflower, Rapport & Ethics

Kalico: Thursday morning Johnson Gate

Wallflower's idea of hypnosis might have been fine for one of her therapy group sessions with her Linda, but it didn't do a lot for me.

As far as I am concerned her hypnosis was not any more effective than David's chicken hypnosis, Mr. Coltwright's imaginary tea service, nor even Hypno-the-Horrible back at that summer camp.

Completely ineffective. I wasn't hypnotized, not even nearly. But I didn't want to hurt Flower's feelings by being too abrupt about it. She had been nice enough to give it a try.

Her method was interesting, though, so I'll give a brief outline of what happened. And maybe tomorrow I'll ask her to try it again.

First, Flower asked what experience I already had with hypnosis, or had observed or read about. Deciding to keep it more or less in chronological order, I gave her a brief review:

– The topic seemed interesting when I came across it in comic books, cartoons, and novels. I suspected that those media were mostly inaccurate with their presentations.

– On several occasions when we were in the Army with Daddy, I had seen stage hypnosis presented at Service Club shows at various military installations. These were either straight-out hypnosis shows or hypnosis as an adjunct to some magic act.

– The summer camp experience with Harry the Horrible. I didn't hide from Flower that it was a camp for troubled children. Well, maybe I glossed it over by explaining the camp was for kids who they thought might be having some emotional problems related to their parents' military careers. An anti-stress camp with lots of counseling. (I was upset because Daddy was being assigned to Iraq.)

– Mr. Coltwright's little exercise with the imaginary tea. (I didn't tell Flower about the other little exercises we did, such as my naked forays down the hallway with maximum skin showing, nor my use of the opposite-gender restroom facilities on the third floor of the high school building. Honestly, I hadn't been as troubled about those adventures, after they were over, as I might have expected – as long as no one else knew about them.)

– The chicken hypnosis and experiments with David, which Flower sort of knew about already. I don't think she knew about the finer details (such as David's assertion of 'groping rights') and I wasn't going to tell her because it was too personal.

I forgot to mention Granny Johnson's magnetic finger and nose game. I don't know why it slipped my mind.

When I had finished my brief litany, Flower paused a moment and took a deep breath, as if to calm herself, and asked, "You are sure now? You want me to hypnotize you right here? Right now?"

Looking back on the moment as I review it now, it almost seemed as if Wallflower was not quite as surprised as I might have expected at my request that she hypnotize me. I almost had an idea that she might have been expecting me to ask her, and she was seeking confirmation that I really wanted this.

"Right here? Right now?" she asked again.

"Wallflower! It has always been my dream that the beginning of a perfect morning would be to get up at 4:00 to get hypnotized by a naked girl on a dark and lonely road," I said sarcastically. "Yes, right here. Right now, if you are up to it. Or at least tell me more about it. I can't get that science project out of my head."

"Oh I am sure you will do just fine with your science project. Maybe I will take the first-semester Psychology 1 class and we can collaborate. Would you want to do something like that?"

"Maybe we can do that," I said. "But if you need to change your schedule, you better see Mr. Watson first thing this morning. The class might be full, or who knows what sort of complications there will be with last minute changes.