This story is a work of fiction.
*
This is a true story. My son Arnie was nineteen and going to a small college in our city, not far from where we lived at the time. He was staying at home to save money and avoid having to do his own laundry. I guess you might call Arnie a nerd, although physically he's well-built and strong. It's more his interests and hobbies that would brand him a nerd. He likes comics, computers, and video games, and he's really into magic.
That's how our adventure got started -through magic.
One of Arnie's favorite magicians was doing a show at a small theater downtown and Arnie just had to go, and he wanted me to come too. I'm no fan of magic shows, but I hadn't been to the theater in ages and I thought it might be fun to dress up, so I bought us the tickets.
Arnie was very excited for our 'date' and he wore his good suit. I wore a black dress with some of my good jewelry. I had my hair pulled up in a loose twist, and wore some red lipstick. We were both looking our best, and Arnie said that since it was a date he wanted to drive, which was cute.
As it turned out we were both overdressed for the show. There were a lot of people in blue jeans, and I even saw one lady in sweatpants. The magician, The Great Saltini, was pretty good -he had a way of drawing your attention to the corniness of a magic show while also expecting you to be amazed by the magic, which was actually very impressive. Arnie could probably explain how all of it was done, but that didn't ruin the show for him at all.
Toward the middle of the show The Great Saltini said he was going to demonstrate the powers of the subconscious mind through hypnosis, and that he needed a volunteer from the audience. Arnie's hand shot straight up and he was called down to the stage. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't work or that Arnie would be humiliated in some way, but I figured that the magician knew what he was doing.
It started pretty typically with Arnie sitting in a chair and being told to relax. The Great Saltini held up a gold coin and told Arnie to stare at it and concentrate on the sound of his voice. he gave Arnie some relaxing images to picture and then told him that when he was finished counting down from 20 he would do whatever he was told and remember nothing.
I was afraid it hadn't worked when he got to zero and there was no visible change in Arnie, but The Great Saltini told Arnie to stand on one leg and bark like a dog, and Arnie did it without hesitation. The audience laughed and I laughed along with them. My son was a hit. Next he told Arnie that he was a baby in a crib and Arnie laid down and made baby noises and when The Great Saltini told him he was hungry, he cried loudly until the magician put a pacifier in his mouth. He also gave him a rattle to play with and I must say Arnie looked pretty funny and the audience thought so too.
I knew the hypnosis was real at that point because Arnie was not that good of an actor. There was no way my son could do a baby impression that well in front of an audience if he wasn't hypnotized.
The Great Saltini put two chairs facing each other and told Arnie to lay between them, stiff as a board. He put his head on one and his heels on the other and somehow stayed completely straight all the way across. He called up a girl from the audience who he had stand on Arnie's stomach, and Arnie held her there without the least sign of strain. The act was starting to creep me out at that point. That was my son up there.
The Great Saltini let the girl go and solicited a round of applause for my son and then asked if the audience had any suggestions on what to make him do. Someone called out to make him strip, but the magician said that would be unethical. I called out to make him clean his room and the audience laughed. The Great Saltini seemed intrigued and called me down to the stage. I was nervous, but I headed down. He asked my name and if I was Arnie's mother. I told him I was.
"And this young man keeps a messy room?"
"Yeah," I said, "it's a pigsty."
"Can't you have the lad's father speak to him?"
"If I knew where the sonuvabitch was." I said, getting a big laugh.
"Oh, I see." The Great Saltini said. "Does the young man help out around the house? Does he ever do the dishes or yard work?"
"Ha, not likely." I said, feeling comfortable on stage now and getting another laugh.
"Well I think we can remedy this little situation right here and now, would you like to do that?"
"You mean you'll give him a hypnotic suggestion to help around the house?"
"I could," he said, "but I had something much better in mind. I'm going to speak directly to Arnie now but when I point to you I'd like you to say one word 'Rotunda'. I will speak directly to Arnie again and when I point to you a second time I'd like you to say 'Balderdash'. Do you understand?"
"Sure, Rotunda, Balderdash."
The Great Saltini turned his attention to my son. "Arnie, from this day forward when you hear the word-" he pointed to me.
"Rotunda." I said.
"-spoken by that voice, the voice of your mother, you will enter the state you are in now, a hypnotic state. You will do whatever your mother tells you to do, without question or comment, until she says the word-" He pointed at me again.
"Balderdash."
"-at which point you will emerge from your hypnotic state and you will remember nothing of the intervening period , do you understand?"
"Yes." He said.
"Good. Every time your mother activates this hypnotic state it will be reinforced and the connections I've established will be made stronger. The effect will never wear off, is that clear?"
"Yes." He said.
The magician turned to the audience. "I would like everyone here to understand that I would never set up a hypnotic connection between two people without considering the ethical problems it poses. The reason I feel that it is acceptable in this situation is that this is the boy's mother. She can be trusted to never abuse the power she now holds over him. You may go on back to your seat, and don't mention a word of this to your son. I think you'll find him a much more useful man to have around the house from now on." He winked at me. "How about a round of applause for the boy's mother?"
The crowd cheered me and I shook The Great Saltini's hand and went back to my seat. He brought my son out of his trance and got applause for him and told him he was a good sport. My son came back to his seat a bit confused looking and we watched the magician's final tricks, which involved interacting with prerecorded video in fun and surprising ways. My son and I joined the standing ovation for the show.
In the car Arnie asked what he had done under hypnosis. "You really don't remember?"
"Was I looking at lights or something?"
I laughed and told him about how he'd acted like a baby and about the girl standing on his stomach. He was confused and a little embarrassed, but we had a good laugh about it. No, I didn't tell him about the other thing, do you think I'm crazy?
Now this is a hard thing to admit, but hey, it's the internet right? You don't know who I am, and I certainly don't know you, so I'll just say it: I had fantasized sexually about my own son. A lot.
I know it's fucked-up and wrong, but before that night at the magic show I had never even considered actually doing anything about it. It was just a fantasy, and I was content to leave it at that. After all, thoughts in my head couldn't hurt anyone.