Up on the stage!

Susie and Bonnie climbed up onto the stage, shooting each other uncomfortable looks. Miss Trickett favoured them with a tyrannical glare, and directed them to sit on two folding chairs that had been set up facing the audience. This they did.

"Listen," said Bonnie, looking out at her high-school acquaintances, not liking the way that Anne-Marie and company were giggling up the back, "we're not really hypnotised, are we?"

"Oh, no. Not yet."

"Then why are we..."

"I just tricked you into thinking you were hypnotised," explained Miss Trickett. "The brain does funny things. But now you're really going to be hypnotised."

"Um. What are you going to make us do once we're hypnotised?"

"Oh, nothing too bad," said Miss Trickett. "I'll just make you take off all your clothes and run around the carnival." As the girls' mouths fell open, she laughed, tossing back her elegant head and shaking out her long sable hair. "I'm joking, I'm joking! I would never do that to a volunteer! I'd get in so much trouble! It'll be fine, I promise. Just relax."

"Fine," said Bonnie, suspiciously. "So I'm not hypnotised at all?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Then I still don't think you can hypnotise me."

"Great," said Miss Trickett, pulling out a jade pendulum. "That'll make you really easy to hypnotise. Follow the pendulum, now."

It swung back and forth in front of Bonnie's and Susie's eyes, hanging from a black silken thread. Bonnie tracked it, her eyes focusing as she struggled to make sense of it. There was something engraved on the surface of the pendulum, but she couldn't make it out. A snake? A spider? A dragon? "This is silly," she complained.

But it was as if she hadn't spoken. She tried to close her mouth, and realised it wasn't open. That didn't make sense. As the pendulum swung, she realised, it was making shapes in the air. Everything seemed very far away except for the shapes. The shapes were very close. And coming closer. Bonnie didn't like the shapes. The shapes were wiggling and squirming in the air. There was nothing around her at all but the shapes.

"Done," said Trickett, and put the pendulum away.

Bonnie blinked.

"That's it?" she said.

"Yep."

"But nothing happened. I don't feel any different. Aren't you supposed to put me to sleep?"

"Why?" said Trickett. "I don't care what your conscious mind does. It's your subconscious I want to command."

"Can you do that?"

"Oh, yes. The two of you are now in a perfectly suggestible state. You'll be fully aware of what your body is doing, but quite unable to control it. The control is all mine. This is where, if I was really mean, I could make you take all your clothes off and run around the carnival."

"Please stop saying that," said Susie, politely.

"Calm down, girls, it's just a little hypnotism humour! And stand up."

Obediently, the two girls stood up. "Hey," said Bonnie, in alarm. She hadn't meant to do that. "What are you doing?"

"Demonstrating my power, obviously. Hands on your heads."

"Okay, fine! It's real, it's real!"

"Jump up and down," Miss Trickett ordered, and the two girls, their hands in their heads, began to jump up and down. A ripple of laughter went through the crowd, getting sharper up the back where the cheerleaders sat. "Put that down," ordered Trickett, as she saw the flicker of a cell phone screen. "Absolutely no recordings of any kind in the hypnotism show! That means you, girls."

"Um," Bonnie panted. "Can we stop jumping up and down now?"

"What? Oh, yes, of course. I think I've made my point."