It's all Me

After class, Professor Gonzalez-Mercer had office hours, and Peter met with her. He sat across her desk from her. He took out his pocket watch and let it swing from his fob. "So if I hypnotized you, I couldn't get you to say **** the dean?"

"Oh god, not this again. Look, you can't hypnotize me, nor anyone who doesn't want to be, and even if I wanted to be hypnotized...which would never be by you, I would never **** anyone." She kept watching the watch swing.

"OK, then so...."

The professor blinked a few times then watched Peter pocket his watch. "Um, what were you saying."

So if you were to remove your blazer, for example, it would be because you want to, not because I hypnotized you."

"Exactly." She stood up and removed her blazer. "I'm doing this voluntarily." She hung it on the back of her chair before sitting back down.

"And if I said, 'take your hair out of that ponytail and tease it up, and you did, it would have nothing to do with hypnosis."

She reached up and took the band out of her hair and started to tease it up. "I'm doing this on my own free will. It's all me: not you."

"So if you were to so something off the wall like remove your blouse. That would be all you?"

She stood up again. "I'm removing my blouse because I want to. It's all me. Why is this so hard to understand?" She unbuttoned her blouse, folded it neatly, and put it across the back of her chair before sitting back down.

"And if you removed your slacks, came around the desk, and bent over in front of me? All you I'd suppose. I mean I could never hypnotize you to do something so outrageous."

The professor rolled her eyes. Stood up and started to undo her slacks.