Author's note: this story follows characters first introduced in "Crafting the Perfect Story," this is designed to be read alone or for added enjoyment, in conjunctions with their first story.
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Who hasn't seen those too good to be true adds before? "Increase your penis size by 5x in just 5 weeks." "Hot singles in your area want to have sex with you—now!" "3 simple tricks for female ejaculation." Or James' personal favorite, "This one line will make any girl want to drop her panties."
"Yeah right, maybe if that line was 'I'm a billionaire,'" he scoffed to himself. James actually didn't have too much trouble with the ladies and had been happily married to his wonderful high school sweet heart for a couple of years now.
But, being an author meant "writer's block," it comes with the territory, and often James found himself aimlessly surfing the net to give his brain a break and his subconscious a chance to come up with something. However, this afternoon, James' attention was caught by an ad he'd never seen before:
"Hypnotism: click here and in five minutes or less we'll prove to you our kit works."
"I've got five to spare; this oughta be good, but I'm timing them," he thought to himself. "Okay, it is 1:25pm, here goes nothing." Click!
The only thing that popped up on his screen was the following message: "Thank you for your business! As per your request, we've charged your MasterCard. In two to three business days your kit should arrive."
"Huh," asked James, as if snapping out of a daze, "what just happened?" That was when he noticed the clock on the bottom right of his screen read 1:30. "No way. I just clicked a second ago." Was it a virus that advanced his computer's clock five minutes? But, checking the wall clock confirmed the time; James had to conclude five minutes really had passed.
"Wait, charged my card?!" exclaimed James as he logged into his online banking and discovered an order of $100 had just been placed to an Imports Limited. "Was I just hypnotized into buying their product?" It was actually the only reasonable conclusion he could come up with. "If this is for real, that is a pretty solid business model," reluctantly admitted James.
"Well, I'll keep an eye on this and see how it plays out and make sure I wasn't scammed." He'd hate to have to explain to Andrea (his wife) he was bamboozled out of a hundred bucks by a flashing online ad.
For the next three days, James diligently checked his account to make sure there were no fraudulent charges being made and to his relief there weren't. Now the question became "would they actually send anything, and what would it be?"
"Yesterday was a disappointment, but maybe today," hoped James as he grabbed his keys out of the dish and headed for the garage. "Honey, I'm headed for the post office," he shouted as he closed the door.
Andrea eagerly put down her lesson planning for 10th grade Honors English. It was her chance: James was off to the post office again; in fact, he'd been pretty excited about getting the mail the last couple of days. She raced up stairs to his "writing room" and powered up his computer. It was time for her secret voyeuristic fetish.
Since it was his personal computer, he never bothered to clear the history, probably assuming Andrea would use the main one if she needed a computer. She loved seeing what he looked at up here in his room—by himself. This week's sites included: a science fiction convention, Casting Couch Amateurs, stereo gear, teen's pleasuring themselves, music CDs, and first time anal girls.
"Yeah right," chuckled Andrea to herself considering the idea of some girl stuffing a porn sized dick up her ass for the first time and not finding herself balled up crying. "...ridiculous, oh well, he can have his fantasies. Ah, now here's something..." She was pleased to find something out of the ordinary; it'd been months since discovering anything interesting. "Imports Limited? I wonder what they sell."
Then everything made sense, "He must've gotten me a gift and wants to intercept it in the mail so he can surprise me—awe!" As she smiled to herself, pleased he still did cute stuff like this from time to time; curiosity got the best of her and she just had to know what she was getting, so she clicked on the link.
"Thank you for your business! As per your request, we've charged your Visa. In 2-3 business days your kit should arrive."
Before she even had time to consider what happened, Andrea heard the garage door and didn't want to explain being caught sticking her nose where it didn't belong. So, she quickly logged out, shut down, and snuck out right as James was coming inside the house.
Disappointment was an understatement, "Where is this 'kit' they were talking about?" James wondered to himself. All they sent was a little manila envelope. Opening it didn't yield much else; there was a single sheet of paper and a small sealed letter with the warning: Important! Read Directions Before Opening.
He couldn't believe his eyes as the literature tried to explain their hypnotism system was created using Aztec inscriptions, Egyptian scrolls, portions of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and aspects of Buddhist meditation all brought together and carefully combined. It explained that inside of the envelop was a folded piece of paper containing the correct ratios and arrangements and the reader of it would be under his control for roughly an hour or two and then not remember a thing of what transpired. There were no lasting effects and no risk of permanent damage.
"Yep, I've been ripped off," confessed James. "But then how did they get me to buy this 'kit' in the first place?" Finally, concluding it was worth a shot before recycling it, James went in search of Andrea.
"Could it be tickets to one of my favorite bands, or maybe plane tickets to somewhere exotic, or maybe reservations for one of those languid winding train rides we've always talked about taking?" were the possibilities racing through Andrea's mind when she saw her husband approaching her in the kitchen with a letter in his hand. "What do you have there, James?" she gleefully asked.
Flying by the seat of his pants, James suggested, "Well, why don't you open it and find out?"
As she unfolded the piece of paper and began reading, James prepped himself for ridicule; however, Andrea's face just went blank and she didn't say or do anything.
"Oh, come on, you can at least laugh at its preposterousness," suggested James.
A mechanical "Ha, ha, ha..." was all she mustered before returning to a catatonic state.
Furling his brow, James suggested, "Pick your nose."
As strange as it sounds, it was the first command that came to his mind, and before he could pick (no pun intended) some better way to test his theory, Andrea's finger shot up and was digging for buried treasure. "Stop it," quickly brought her hand back down. "No way, that silly piece of paper actually worked," he said aloud.
He was woefully underprepared for this opportunity. He hadn't given any thought to what he'd have her do under hypnotism since he assumed it wouldn't work. How far could he take this became his consideration.