When Jenna looked back she traced the moment her life took a strange turn to the night she and the girls went to the hypnotist for Carrie's birthday.
Before that night Jenna was a shy, self-contained woman. At twenty five she may have been a little bit prudish compared to the other women she knew, but her life had made sense to her. After that night, and ever since, her life had taken a turn. Jenna had become a sexual being in a way she never had been before.
When someone suggested going to see a hypnotist show for Carrie's 27th birthday it had seemed like a great idea. Everyone loved the idea of the potential risk and fun of it. The guy had a great reputation for putting on fun, sexually titillating shows. He worked in adult only bars and apparently made his subjects perform all kinds of hilariously risqué activities.
Jenna could take or leave the sexual element to the show, but she did like the idea of people being made to do silly things for her amusement. Jenna had a wicked sense of humour and enjoyed laughing at people.
Once the night began and the shooters were flowing the five of them agreed, with Jenna the lone holdout, that they would all get up and try to be hypnotized. Jenna went along with the ladies, but fear coiled in her belly. She was nervous about getting up on stage.
It wasn't just that Jenna was shy, but more that her mother had instilled in her a sense of propriety that she had never been able to shake. Even in college when other girls were throwing off the bonds of repressive households and acting wildly Jenna held back.
One long term relationship in college and a messy public break-up left her cautious. She felt like an old wise man in a Kung-Fu movie deflecting would-be suitors by redirecting their energy elsewhere. If a guy came on strong she would let him slip by and crash. If they came up slowly and cautiously she would fade into the back-ground and disappear.
She simply wasn't interested in having any messes in her emotional life. Public humiliation seemed like the worst thing that could happen to her, and yet for Carrie's birthday it seemed that was the price of her friendship.
When the Hypnotist asked for volunteers and all her friend had jumped up Jenna reluctantly stood and went to the front of the bar with the crowd of other hopefuls.
The hypnotist, the Amazing Mesmer, was younger than she would have thought, in his late twenties or early thirties, and handsome in a neutral sort of way. He had shaggy dark brown hair that swept over his brow and grew just past his collar. His only dramatic characteristic was an artfully designed beard making his chin more pointed and elongated.
He wore dark jeans, a white dress shirt open at the collar covered by a deep burgundy coloured velvet dress jacket.
He was on a stage where bands would usually play, but there wasn't enough room for all the would-be subjects to stand so he had them all gather on the dance floor. He spoke to them over a microphone that was taped to his cheek and nearly invisible. He asked all those wanting to be hypnotized to hold their hands in front of them with fingers interlocked like they were begging except their index fingers. These were to be held upright a half inch apart, pointing to the ceiling.
"I want you to look at the space between your fingers. Keep that space open, don't let the fingers touch. If the fingers touch you will fall asleep. Look at that space and hold those fingers apart. They want to touch, but hold them apart. There is a great magnetic force trying to pull them together but you mustn't let it."
Jenna was amazed to find her fingers drawing together. It scared her, she didn't want to be hypnotized, but she couldn't keep her fingers from drawing closer and closer together. Then they touched, but nothing happened.
"Your fingers are sticking together. They are glued to one another, you cannot part them."
Alarmed Jenna found she couldn't part her fingers no matter how hard she tried. Fascinated she gazed at these parts of her that no longer obeyed her commands, struggling to separate her index fingers.
The hypnotists began to walk among the would-be subjects and he tugged on their fingers. "Your fingers are welded together. Growing into one finger. Don't' let me pull them apart. They are one big finger. You are all giving me the finger." A chuckle from the crowd echoed behind her, but Jenna only had eyes for her strange, long, single finger. How was this possible? Would she be like this forever?
When Mesmer moved in front of her and pulled on her hands her fingers were fused into one new big finger.
"Help me. My fingers are growing together."
The hypnotist pulled a handheld microphone from his pocket and pointed it at her mouth.
"Would you please repeat what you just said to me?" He said in his soothing calm voice, which made her less self-conscious speaking in front of a crowd.
"I said 'Help me. My fingers are growing together.' It doesn't seem right."
The crowd laughed happily but Jenna was nervous. She didn't like having such weird fingers.
"I want all of you whose fingers are stuck or growing together to step up on the stage so I can help you with your strange fingers. If your fingers are not growing together go ahead and sit down, you don't need my help."
Jenna and a smaller group of people all stepped up onto the stage and she saw that they all had strange fingers like herself. Carrie was one of them, as was Nicole another of their friends and perhaps ten other people.
Her fascination with her fingers blocked out the fact that she was standing in front of hundreds of people in a bar.
Jenna was usually quite uncomfortable in front of crowds. She understood that she had a very idealized look in North American society. She was a petite, blonde with a slim athletic build; the proto-typical cute blonde. Being the media's version of an ideal woman somehow made her feel guilty. She tried to hide her small hips, round pert bum and perky B cup breasts in loose, but pretty clothes. She wanted people to notice her fashion sense not her physical attributes.
But her usual distaste for being in front of a crowd was swamped by the apprehension of what was happening to her fingers.
"Who here wants me to help them with their fingers, raise one hand?" Mesmer said and Jenna tried valiantly to raise just one hand but it was impossible with her fingers grown together. The crowd laughed, but she was really worried.
"Oh. So everyone is happy with this new development? No-one wants me to fix their fingers."
Suddenly Jenna didn't mind her fingers being one big weird finger. She was bemused by this development.
"It seems that you are proud of your new big finger."
Maybe she was a new step in evolution. Maybe this was important scientifically.
"Who wants to show us their amazing new finger?"
Jenna stepped forward with most of the others on stage and held up her finger to the crowd. It seemed to be growing bigger and longer and looked beautiful to her.
The crowd applauded.
"Don't be shy. Go show everyone your wonderful new finger."
Jenna went out into the crowd and began to show off her great big finger to anyone who wanted to see. People were smiling and laughing, they loved her finger. Behind her the hypnotist was speaking and she could hear him but knew if wasn't for her, he was talking to the people still on stage who didn't want to show off their new fingers. Why not show how beautiful they were.
When Jenna got to her friends table she eagerly showed off her amazing digit. The girls were taking pictures and laughing really hard they were so impressed by her finger.
"Come back to me now everyone. Don't be rude and show off too much."
Jenna felt immediate contrition. This was no way to behave. She apologized to her friends and went back to the stage.
There were fewer of them now eight people on stage, some of the people wandering around the audience had sat back down and some of the people that didn't want to show off their fingers were gone too.
"Now all of you are getting sleepy. Soft warm sleep waits for you. Go ahead and rest. Go deeper, deeper asleep and relax. Relax. When I count down from ten you will fall deeper and deeper asleep. 10. No-one else is here. 9. Mine is the only voice you hear.8. Deeper. No-one else is here with us. 7. Nothing worries you. 6. Everything is safe, calm and beautiful. 5." He continued to talk but Jenna was so relaxed and sleepy she could only hear the numbers now. The world receded and she felt more at peace than ever before in her life.
"1. You are completely asleep, safe and happy. When I touch you on the shoulder you will wake up and see only me, hear only me and you will be happy to do anything I say. You are safe."
