"I'm not really hypnotized," Valerie said quietly. "I'm pretty tired, I'll admit. Pretty..." She paused, momentarily distracted by a gleam of light from Jacqueline's crystal pendant. "Um...vacant...but I'm not hypnotized."
"Of course you're not," Jacqueline agreed. "You're just relaxed, that's all. You're relaxed and happy, feeling pleasantly sleepy and enjoying the sensation of listening to my words and watching the pendant."
Valerie nodded. "I'm just watching the pendant," she said. She was so grateful to hear that Jacqueline wasn't going to disagree with her on this; after the long plane ride and the exhausting process of dragging her bags from the airport to the train station to the hotel, she didn't have the energy to argue with the bunkmate she'd been assigned to. Even thinking about thinking felt too hard right now. It was a relief to hear that the two of them could spend the night before the teachers' convention relaxing and chilling out, instead of bickering about whether you could really hypnotize someone against their will. "I'm just relaxing."
"Mm-hmm," Jacqueline murmured, her eyes fixed on Valerie's gaze. "You're relaxing deeper and deeper, Valerie." Valerie only kind of noticed Jacqueline's stare, though, because she was looking more at the pendant than at Jacqueline. But the pendant swung past Jacqueline's deep blue eyes, and every once in a while it felt like she would lose track of the pendant and sink into Jacqueline's gaze for a little while. But that was normal, when you were tired like this. You wound up zoning out every once in a while, not really thinking about much of anything. It was perfectly natural.
"It's perfectly natural," Valerie repeated out loud. She hadn't even realized that Jacqueline had said it until she'd repeated it; she'd kind of blanked out, losing track of her surroundings for a moment while she stared at Jacqueline's pendant. But that wasn't the same as hypnosis. She was still aware of Jacqueline's voice, and Jacqueline's eyes, so she wasn't hypnotized. She remembered everything that Jacqueline said...eventually. That proved she wasn't hypnotized. She was just relaxed and happy, that was all. "I'm not hypnotized," she said, eager to make the fact clear to her temporary roommate.
"No, you're not hypnotized," Jacqueline said, her voice calm and soothing as she agreed with everything Valerie said. "You're just tired, that's all. You're sleepy and relaxed, drifting and floating on a warm tide of pleasant drowsiness as you listen to my words and follow along with them."
"Exactly," Valerie responded. She felt her head sink back into the pillows as she reclined onto the bed. It made it a little harder to see the pendant--she had to look up at it from this angle--but she was too drowsy to sit up much longer. "I'm just tired," she said. "It's been a long day."
"Such a long, exhausting day," Jacqueline agreed. Valerie was so glad that she was being reasonable about this. She'd worried when she first met the other woman that she was going to be rooming with some sort of obnoxious kook, but Jacqueline was turning out to be so nice. "So exhausting that you're worn down. All the effort of travel has left you weary, deep down in your mind. You don't even want to think anymore."
Valerie nodded enthusiastically. "I don't want to think anymore," she replied. That was exactly right. Jacqueline understood it perfectly. She didn't want to think about connecting flights or train tickets or registration forms, she just wanted to kick back and relax deeper and deeper. She just wanted to let her mind go...
