("Sure. Take it easy. Take all the time you want. I'll listen. I want to know.")
(Deep breath, almost a sigh)
Anyway, he kept telling me that his Natural, the girl he would hypnotize; her hands and arms would get heavy, pleasantly heavy, and that was when she first realized what she really wanted: just to let go of all her troubles and all her worries and let him help her go into a trance. She was just starting to understand that that's what she needed; needed more than anything else in the world. He just sort of went on and on about that, and I think I let my mind wander a little, because instead of listening then, I began to realize that there was something wrong with my arms. I couldn't move them. My hands were just sort of lying in my lap, and I couldn't even budge them. I wanted to tell him that there was something wrong with me, but I didn't want to interrupt him, because that would be rude.
I was really tired; more tired than I think I've ever been in my whole life. Now, he was talking about how his Natural would be so wonderfully tired, and so wonderfully heavy, and so wonderfully relaxed that she was really past the point of all resistance. The thing she wanted most was just to submit to the wonderful sleep that was coming for her. All she had to do was focus all her attention on the watch and his voice, and sleep would come for her and she could surrender and follow him as he led her into the special place she wanted to be. It was something she wanted more than anything! She wouldn't want to wake up. That's why she had to obey. She had to obey him completely. That way, when he led her to the place she wanted to be more than anything else, he could lead her back. And that made sense to me. Of course he would have to bring her back, and since she didn't want to, she would have to obey him or she would never wake up.
That's when he began telling me that I must look only at the watch, and listen only to his voice; that there was nothing for me except the watch and his voice. And I swear that that was the first time I actually even thought that it was ME he was trying to hypnotize. It was as if the idea was always there, but I'd just been ignoring it. And now it sort of washed over me like a revelation that comes too late. I thought "Oh, my God! He hypnotizing me!" but I didn't know what to do about it. It never even dawned on me that I should look away from him or stop listening to his voice. After all, those were the things he was telling me to DO; and he was telling me to obey him, and somehow I just didn't seem to know that I could do anything else.
And then the strangest thing happened. It was as if a thick fog had rolled into the diner, and it was obscuring everything except the watch. I could see the watch with crystal clarity, but everything else just sort of went away. At the same time, I realized that I couldn't hear anything else in the diner. No voices, no clattering dishes, no clink of silverware, nothing. Total silence, except for his voice. It was so strange, and yet so ... comforting in a way. All I had to do was submit and obey, and I could surrender and follow him to the place I most wanted to go in the whole world. I didn't know where that place was, but suddenly I wanted nothing more than to find it.
He told me to "Surrender and sleep!" and I did. Immediately and completely. Oh God, it was wonderful!
(20-second pause)
I opened my eyes, and I was a little girl, sitting on my mom's lap. The knee of my jeans was torn, and my leg was scraped. I was crying. I knew I was dreaming, but I couldn't, or didn't want to, wake up. She was comforting me, stroking my hair, telling me everything was going to be alright. I snuggled into her chest, sucking my thumb, feeling the softness of her cotton dress, the lumpiness of her bra underneath, the spongy softness of her breast beneath that. I could hear the liquid thumping of her heart. She held me in her arms and told me to go to sleep because I was so tired. And I did.
And then I was grown again and standing on the roof of a building downtown. There were other buildings towering above me, but I knew that I was still pretty high up. The wind was wet and cool, and I began to shiver. I realized that I didn't have any clothes on, and I knew that I had been in such a hurry to leave my room that I'd forgotten to get dressed. That was silly, and again, I knew that I must be dreaming, but I didn't even know which sleep I was dreaming in. Was I just asleep, or was I dreaming that I was asleep, and this dream was a product of that? I couldn't figure it out; so I was suddenly resolved to make the most of this dream and just get through it somehow. There was a terrible storm coming, and I had to get inside. A door in a little structure was sticking up from the roof, so I walked over and opened it. There was a flight of stairs going down, and as soon as I'd gone down a few, I became aware that with each step I took, I was actually, physically, going deeper and deeper into my hypnotic trance. This disturbed me, but there was really nothing else to do. I couldn't stay above in the storm. There was nowhere to go but lower ... and deeper.
When I emerged from the staircase, I found myself in the furniture section of a department store. There was no one else there, and I began to wander around a bit. Then, I saw a man, obviously an employee, walking toward me. I puzzled a little about my predicament, since there was nothing anywhere around that I might use to cover my nakedness. But irrationally, I decided to just walk past him as if there was nothing out of the ordinary. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to notice. After I passed him, I found myself standing in front of an escalator, under a sign that said: "Express Escalator to the Basement." While I was trying to make up my mind what to do, I happened to glance back at the man that I had just passed. He was just standing there, openly leering at me. He had only pretended not to notice me! He was taking in my every feature. He wanted me! I quickly got on the escalator.
Immediately, I realized what I'd done. I was now going deeper and deeper into my state of hypnosis, and this route was going to take me all the way down. I thought for a moment about going back to the furniture department, but that nasty man was up there, and I knew what HE would do to me! I could actually, physically, feel myself going deeper. It was not unpleasant. In fact, I was really enjoying it, but I somehow felt that I shouldn't be. Does that make sense?
All of a sudden, I became aware that the sides of the escalator were made of glass. I could see out, easily viewing the next floor as I descended into what was obviously the women's wear section. The trouble with that was that the people on this floor could also see me! No one seemed to be paying any attention, though, and I was beginning to think that I would escape unnoticed, when an elderly lady looking at blouses happened to glance up and see me. She hated me, I could tell. She thought I was whore, coming into this store in the nude. She thought I was ungodly, and interested only in sex. I wanted to tell her, to explain to her, that I had only forgotten my clothes, that I hadn't done this on purpose; but then I was going deeper, deeper past the women's wear floor, to the floor below.
This was the men's wear level. Three guys were looking at a display of boots, and one looked up and spied me almost immediately. He laughed and pointed, the others following his gaze and gawked at me. I blushed furiously and started walking downward, hoping to end my humiliation quickly. But strangely, inexplicably, my breasts seemed to bounce and jiggle much more than they normally would. I stopped, and their wobbling motion finally settled and they became still. I was mortified. Before I descended below this level, I couldn't help but look back at the men. The "pointer" was laughing hysterically, using his hands to emulate my jiggling breasts, as one of his buddies laughed along and stared at me. The third one, though, wasn't laughing at all. He was leering. The way he looked at me left little doubt: he wanted me! Wanted to take me sexually; wanted to do things to me I didn't even know about. I shivered. It excited me, and that made me more ashamed than ever.
On the next floor, Winter Wear, a woman with a very short haircut was looking at black leather jackets. She also looked at me, curiously at first, but then she increasingly acquired the gaze of the man above. She wanted me, too. Sexually. I couldn't take much more of this. With a sense of self-disgust, I realized that I was very wet between my legs.
And finally, it was over. The escalator ended, and I stepped off. I was as deep as I could go, both in this building, and in my hypnotic state. I was a little awed. I didn't know what to expect. I was at one end of a long hallway, but it was poorly lit, and I couldn't see the other end. There were doors to either side, and they all seemed to have writing on them. Cautiously, I approached the one nearest me on my right, and saw the name "Jennifer" written on it. Below the name, in flowing script, the words "Submit and Obey" were literally etched into the hard wood of the door. I couldn't make any sense of it. Tentatively, I tried the knob. The door was securely locked. On the opposite side of the hall, there was a door with the name "Suzy" and the same etched inscription, also locked.
Slowly, I walked down the hall, looking carefully at the doors on either side. Betty, Wanda, Nancy, Dawn, Rhoda; the names just went on and on, and below each name, the same words were etched into the wood. And suddenly it became very clear to me. These were the Naturals. Menlo's Naturals. Each had been given her own room here in his "Hall of Conquests." Somehow, I knew that each one of them had given herself to him, not just hypnotically, but sexually as well. For the first time, I knew that I was going to join them. I was going to become the latest in this long, long line of girls who would give themselves to him.
