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Annabelle whipped her head toward Jeff. “What?”
“I can’t back away from that kind of challenge,” Mike said.
Annabelle reached for a lock of hair and twisted it around her finger. Twisting—a return of a bad habit. Normally, she wore her hair up in a tidy and simple bun, but Katie had insisted Annabelle’s brown locks had to “cascade” down her back. She hated how unruly her curls must appear.
“You ready?” Mike asked, draping an arm around her shoulders.
Her hair issues appeared not to daunt Mike; he had a point to make. After spouting off, she couldn’t very well say no now. It would be fun to prove them wrong. Besides, what could letting him try to put her under hurt? It wouldn’t work and Katie would owe her. Big time. Crossing her arms over her chest, she sighed. “Lead the way.”
She’d learned all the cons, scams and sleights of hand at the knee of a pro—her dad. Mike’s brand of backroom hypnosis didn’t stand a chance.
Mike laughed, then cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey, Heather, can we use your old roommate’s room?”
Annabelle winced as all eyes in the room turned her way.
“No one’s in the back bedroom. We can have a little privacy there,” Mike told her.
Heather raised one arched eyebrow. “What are you going to do back there?”
“Nothing wicked,” he assured. “A challenge. Annabelle here doesn’t think I can put her under hypnosis.”
“Sounds like fun, and seeing Annabelle put under…this I’ve got to see. Come on, Kelli. I can show you the bedroom while we’re in there and you can see if you think it will be big enough for your drafting board.”
Good to know Heather could multitask—throw a coasterless party with ease, aid and abet a delusional male in the name of fun, all while brokering her next potential roommate.
Jeff led the growing group down the narrow hallway. He opened the door and they all filed into the nearly empty bedroom. Only a desk, lamp, chair and bare mattress, angled against the wall, remained.
“Shelley’s going to pick up her desk and lamp tomorrow, but the mattress you can use since she and her fiancé are getting a queen-size bed,” Heather announced.
“Ladies, please. We need to create an ambience.”
Heather laughed. “Whatever. I used to date you, Mike—I know all about your, uh, ambiences.”
Mike closed the door behind the last person, positioned the desk chair in the middle of the room and gestured to Annabelle that she should sit down, which she did. He flipped on the beat-up banker’s lamp. “Hey, someone switch off the overhead lights.”
One of the women giggled when darkness flooded the room. “Why do I feel like we’re in for a session of light as a feather, stiff as a board?” Katie whispered.
“Oh, hey, I remember that game.”
Memories of late nights, bowls of M&M’s and bras in the freezer filled Annabelle’s memory. “That game we used to play at slumber parties? We could never get it to work on me. Just don’t let anyone put my hand in a bowl of warm water.”
Katie laughed.
Mike cleared his throat. “It’ll need to be quiet to pull this off. Okay, Annabelle, you’re getting very sleepy.”
She chuckled. “Oh, please. Can you come up with a line a little more original than that?”
Mike rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. “Just work with me. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Forget about everyone in the room.”
She exhaled sharply, but closed her eyes. The sooner he tried to hypnotize her and failed, the sooner she could go home and sink into a warm mountain of bubbles in her bathtub.
“Go back in your memory. Search it for a time when you were at your most relaxed.”
She opened one eye. “I’m never relaxed.”
“It’s true. I’ve never seen her relaxed,” Katie said.
“Okay, then a favorite memory.” Mike made a hand motion to indicate she needed to close both her eyes.
Favorite memory? Now, that was easy. That would have to be the time when she’d worked late with Wagner and fallen asleep on the soft leather couch in his office. He’d woken her up with the smell of fresh coffee under her nose. She’d opened her eyes and nearly fell into his deep blue ones, so much more alluring without his glasses. His eyes had darted to her mouth.
For one heart-stopping moment, she’d thought he might kiss her.
“Have you got one?” Mike asked, his voice slowly swimming toward her.
It took her a moment to answer. “Yes.” Her voice sounded heavy and slurred. Why was she having so much trouble saying only one word?
“Good. Now keep thinking of that time. Concentrate on the good feelings that memory brings to you. Let everything else fall into the background but those feelings and my voice.”
“Yes. Background. Coffee,” Annabelle repeated. She swayed a bit in her chair. Through the fog of memory, she felt a hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
“Maybe you should stop, Mike.”
Was that Katie’s voice? Weird. She sounded upset. What was she doing in Wagner’s office? The voice faded. Annabelle must have made a mistake. The scent of Wagner’s cologne filled her senses and she felt the delicious sensation of anticipation as his lips almost touched hers. She arched forward, closer to—
“What should we do?” Heather whispered.
“We should give her a suggestion. What does she need? Does she have any bad habits?” Mike asked.
Annabelle fought through a haze of vaporous words and ever-dimming darkness. Who was talking? No one was in the office with them. It must be a client outside the door. Back to Wagner…
“What she needs is to forget about work once in a while. Take a day off.”
“Great. You’ll be spontaneous.” The words, spoken next to her ear, made no sense. She squeezed her shut eyes tighter. Annabelle didn’t want talking, she wanted to return to her beautiful memory. Couch. The smell of coffee.
“You’ll crave marshmallows.” Marshmallows for coffee? Annabelle thought Kelli, Heather’s possible roommate, sure had some weird ideas.
“You’ll be a sex fiend,” someone blurted.
Katie gasped. “Oh, Jeff. Take that one back.”
“What’s the difference? This isn’t working anyway.”
“Yes, it is. Look at her.” Was that Mike?
“Just change it,” Katie told him, her voice growing more and more concerned.
What a weird dream.
“Okay, you’ll be daring, sexually.”
“Let’s give her something she could really use. I know, you’ll enjoy doing sit-ups,” Heather said.
“Your thighs won’t bother you,” Kelli said, her tone wishful.
“You’ll run naked through Bricktown Ballpark.”
Mike cleared his throat, cutting off any objection. “Okay, Annabelle, when I turn on the light, you won’t remember any of this, but the suggestions will remain with you.”
“Oh, come on, Mike. Not fair.” There was Katie’s voice again.
“Okay, okay. I was only joking. I’ll take the suggestions away and leave her only with a nice, rested feeling.”
Light flooded the room. A shock of awareness scorched through her body and she struggled to open her eyes.
A young woman stood in the open doorway, her hand on the light switch. “Oops, sorry, didn’t know you all were in here. What’s going on anyway? A séance?”
“Oh, no,” someone said.
Who was in the room with her? And Wagner? Wait a minute, she wasn’t on a couch. She was sitting in a chair. The scent of Wagner’s coffee had disappeared.
Annabelle blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. Six faces turned toward her expressing varying shades of alarm. If she hadn’t been self-conscious before, she definitely was now. “Why are you all staring at me like that?”
Katie cleared her throat. “Belle, are you okay?”
Annabelle shrugged. “Sure, fine.”
“What about the…” Her friend’s voice trailed off as she shot a pointed look in Mike’s direction.
With a few odd glances at one another, the rest of the group dispersed quickly from the room. Actually, they almost looked as if they were making a break for it. Mike had lost the carefree expression he’d worn earlier. His eyebrows were raised and his shoulders tense. He appeared borderline anxious.
“Annabelle, don’t you remember?” Tight lines strained Katie’s face. She looked worried. Strange. Annabelle felt great—there was nothing wrong with her.
You’re getting sleepy. Now she remembered why they were all in this room and why everyone was acting so odd. Annabelle suppressed a giggle.
“Oh, the hypnosis thing? Sorry, Mike, it didn’t seem to do anything. Look, I’m a little tired, though, and I’d just like to go home now.”
“You’re sleepy? Great. For a minute there I thought you’d be stuck with all those crazy… never mind.” Mike smiled and quickly exited the room.
Katie sighed what sounded like a breath full of relief. “Whew.”
“Never knew you all would be so thrilled at me being tired,” Annabelle said as she stood and stretched.
Her dearest friend smiled. “It’s nothing. Thanks for coming out with me tonight. I know it’s not your thing. But, Annabelle, please think about what I said earlier.”
“About what?”
“About your boss. You can’t move on, unless you, well, move on. Go home and get some sleep.”
“Oh, I’m not tired. I actually feel really rested. I was just saying that to get rid of Mike and all his weird hypnosis stuff.”
The color behind Katie’s glimmer makeup faded. She opened and closed her mouth, tapping her foot. “Oh no.”
Annabelle stopped stretching her back at the flicker of worry. This wasn’t good. Come to think of it, most everyone had hightailed it out of the bedroom with varying degrees of worry and anxiety etched on their faces.
Why was everyone acting so weird? And Katie led the pack in the odd behavior.
“What’s the big deal?” Annabelle asked.
Her friend tugged at the lining of her sleeve. “You were supposed to wake up refreshed and you said you were tired and—”
Annabelle shook her head and made a beeline for the door. “Katie, what are you talking about? I couldn’t have been in the chair for more than a few minutes.” She clinked the ice in her glass. “See? I still have my drink.”
“A few minutes? Annabelle, you sat in that chair for at least fifteen. Maybe we should find Mike again and have him—”
“Relax. I’m fine. Maybe with all the dark lighting I dozed off for a bit. You know how I could always take catnaps in school. Come to think of it, I did have a nice minidream. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling recharged. Besides, I’m immune to hypnosis, believe me.” She grabbed her purse and dropped her glass onto the oak end table.
“What, no coaster?” Katie asked, a line creasing between her eyebrows.
Annabelle lifted a shoulder. “Who needs ’em?” And she made a hasty escape out the door, but not before hearing Katie’s gasped intake of breath.
AFTER QUICKLY WEAVING through the mishmash of parked cars, Annabelle unlocked her used, but reliable, Volvo, fired up the engine and took off. At least Katie didn’t try to follow her. What was the big deal? So she didn’t use a coaster… that didn’t mean she’d been hypnotized.
She’d seen her share of hypnosis scams. Her father’s “clients” had sought him out to break bad habits, but the main thing he’d managed to make disappear was their money. Heck, she could write a textbook on the beaut her father had operated in Kansas. That time he’d offered a free session and people from the simply curious to the truly desperate flocked to the storefront he’d decked out to look as professional as any dentist’s office.
Of course, getting them through the front door was his sole goal. Once inside, he’d introduce them to his special vitamins, drinks and eventually the “investment club” only for his best clients. Hypnosis was only the hook—it was her father’s charisma and the sheer force of his personality which really mesmerized his unsuspecting patrons.
It was amazing how her father had become so proficient in “relieving” so many people of their money but never managed to keep any of it. When he’d died, he’d left her a mountain of bills, mostly money owed to her relatives. She’d never forget the hours after her father’s funeral when her aunt and uncle had asked about the savings and stocks her father had “invested” for them. And the sickening feeling of telling them they’d been fleeced. Like so many others in her father’s wake.
But this time had been different. This time he’d hurt family. A few weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, she’d taken her GED and went to work to support her aging aunt and uncle. She’d also shed any remnants of the carefree teenager she’d been.
A self too much like her father.
Annabelle turned off the radio, letting the road noise be her music. What she’d told her friend was true. The tired excuse was just that, an excuse. She was more than fine, she felt exhilarated, charged with energy.
Nor was she ready to go home. She loved driving through Oklahoma City at night. A leisurely car ride around the lake would buoy her lifting spirits higher. Although she wouldn’t admit it to Katie, that party was exactly what she’d needed, after all. With a few deft turns of the steering wheel, she easily navigated the suburban streets and headed north toward Lake Hefner.
Some of her favorite memories were set around this lake. Several times while she had been in school, her father had signed her out and driven her to this very area. They’d sat on the hard rocks outlining the lake and fed the ducks bread. He’d said they were playing hooky together. She’d loved those special times. Now she recognized it as one more sign of her father’s gross irresponsibility.
She rolled down the windows to let the night air chase away the blues. Thoughts of her father always made her feel blue. The dark water lapped against the rocks, awakening her senses. Tonight turned out to be one of those singular, beautiful December evenings, warm with just a hint of a breeze.
The night air caressed her skin. It was a reminder that the promising days of spring would welcome her, if she could just get through the winter.
But right now, her life didn’t hold much hope.
Maybe Katie was right. Maybe it was time to fire up the old résumé. Wagner knew of her eventual goal to work as a financial counselor. She looked forward to helping people bail themselves out of debt and learn better spending habits. Leaving Wagner was only a matter of time. What she told Katie this afternoon was true. She was ready to move on.
Maybe it was time to stop fantasizing about her boss. Yeah, right. When, in the past four years, had she not gone to bed dreaming of Wagner Achrom?
