The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Inga and Sasha Sanders

They looked as different as two women could, as the younger one with bobbed hair dyed jet black, wearing a zebra striped ascot and the older one with well-styled hair dyed red and wearing a green silk scarf, walked into Feline’s. The young girl looked just like the quintessential Goth rocker with pale skin, bright red lipstick, dark mascara eyes, a way too short skirt, a tight leather jacket over a wifebeater that passed for a top, and the high riding boots to match. The older woman looked essentially what a real estate agent looked like, with a crimson pastel business suit that made sure to look both smart and trim on her figure and cleavage, a tan that showed she spent some time in Florida, and mirror plated sunglasses that helped to mask her already worn weary eyes. As they waited in the lobby of the already packed restaurant, the fact that they were two opposites, did not slip by the mother and daughter themselves.

“We have reservations for two this afternoon.” said Inga the daughter, “I talked to Catherine on the phone yesterday, I think she said she could squeeze us in?” The mother put her shades up above her head, and took in the ambiance of the whole scene. It met her approval of a decent place for a daughter to take her mother, and although it seemed that it was packed to the brim due to the holiday lunch rush, it would be an acceptable alternative for a woman to go to, if her other places of rendezvous hadn’t panned out.

The hostess was cordial, and smiled at the mother, and looked again to Inga.

“Under what name. We have a few places left, so it shouldn’t be a problem either.”

“Sanders, Inga. Inga Sanders.” She smiled nervously because she had asked her friend, on the Friday before if she could pull some strings quickly, to get her a spot in a nice restaurant, and although Cath swore she did, Inga had a nagging doubt, that maybe it wasn’t done in time. It was an emergency lunch, since her mom Sasha had just flew in, last night, and they only just discussed Mother’s Day plans, that Thursday evening. If they didn’t get in here, Inga wasn’t sure with the holiday rush, with every Tom, Dick, and Sally seeing their moms, if anywhere else was feasible, or at least to Sasha’s tastes anyways. And Inga was now dreading spending anymore time than she needed with her mom, in her apartment loft. Sasha would no doubt, have more time to look over the apartment, scrutinizing every detail, in her motherly manner.

But the hostess, looked the list over, and nodded her head. “Yep, you’re fine. We had to make a lot of room today, even open up our private space, to fit more in. I’m Verona, your hostess. Please follow me.”

Verona led them into the main dining area, where most of the generally female diners’ tables were situated in. Sasha guessed that on the left side of the restaurant, the doors past the small bar and the kitchen entrance, was the access for the private area. She wondered if perhaps it was more ritzier than the main tables, but she didn’t expect if it was, that her daughter would be able to pull those seats. Still it had the wonderful, dreamy ambiance of a typical three star Italian restaurant, with oil painted pieces and photographs from the old country on the wall, nicely ambivalent music piped in, seemingly cleanly environment, and having impeccable good taste of furniture and fixings throughout the restaurant, with a well dressed patronage of their culinary arts. It was simple and aesthetically pleasing with not being too overly showy, just like in some of the restaurants that Sasha had the delight to sample in Europe. Her daughter had picked a good location, for a nice mother-daughter lunch.

The two women sat down at their table, and Verona explained the lunch specials for the day to them. Inga quickly decided on their chicken and risotto dish that was on special, since it was always easier to just pick chicken, and picked beer as her drink of preference, much to the dismay of her mother. Sasha studied the menu over, all the while tugging her silk scarf, and finally after some inquiring picked their salmon and pasta plate with their house wine, and allowed their waitress Sicilia, that had arrived ten minutes later, to take their orders.

The mother and daughter didn’t say much, just looked around, occasionally making small talk, in hopes the other might bring up a topic, that would start a conversation. Inga looked around, and was pleased it seemed that Sasha was liking the restaurant. Her friend Cath was a business partner in a few restaurants in the city, and being the time for an actual reason to go to a nice place, she needed her restauranteur friend’s help. Cath wasn’t really much of a restauranteur, she just dabbled here and there. She was mostly known however, for her bars, one of which, was the Panty N’ Bra Bar that Inga had played gigs in with her band, exclusively. As it was explained to Inga, by Cath once, restaurants sometimes can be very fly by night, and some close after a few years, even a few months, due to various problems like bad reviews in a few strategic newspapers, sudden loss of funds due to bad drug, spending, or gambling choices, or even bad blood with health inspectors or organized crime. Or just unforeseeable circumstances.

Feline’s, Inga supposed, was doing somewhat well, since they seemed afloat for at least a few years now, but it was the first time she had dined there. But she was just overall glad, that she didn’t have to pick, let alone think about a place to go to, she just let Cath do the arranging, and it had worked out fine so far. She noticed that almost all the tables, had exclusively female customers. Inga guessed this was because the restaurant had advertised it’s Mother’s Day Daughter Lunch special, which included entertainment. It was geared towards moms and their girls, so it wasn’t surprising that the environment consisted of that.

Sasha was constantly looking towards the back of the hall, seeing if she could get a peek, of the private rooms in Feline’s. She thought about that maybe just out of curiosity’s sake, if she excused herself to the woman’s room, maybe she could pass it, and see inside, just to see if it was anything special. But as she looked towards the general area, a perky looking, young blonde woman, walked in from the most outer edge of the restaurant’s end, and strode towards the mic stand that was in place in front of the dining area. This was setup as a general stage with the microphone, a podium, a stool in front of the mic, and two rows of seats lined up, one behind the other. Seeing her guitar case, Sasha could see, that there would now be live music, and everyone seemed to be turning their attention to the blonde, who began to open her case and tune her guitar. Sasha reasoned that it might be a bad time to go take a sneak peek, because she would totally be in eye view of not only her daughter but everyone else. She noted that the blonde had come from a door, that must have led to the private area, and possibly another entrance.

Their meals came, and while Inga dug into her chicken, Sasha gingerly picked over her salmon, slightly angered that she didn’t just go to the washroom, and take a quick glance of the other room, when she had the chance. The blonde girl introduced herself as Christine Sierra, and after asking how everyone was doing, went into a few chords on her acoustic guitar, and sang what sounded like an atypical country song. She was definitely pretty, Inga mused, but her blonde hair was so obviously fake, and her tanned Mediterranean looks seemed to contrast the bad dye job. For some reason her singing a few slaphappy country songs just didn’t seem to fit her, and Inga after awhile found her to be quite trite. She tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but Inga was used to listening to something with a harder edge, and she guessed that Christine was a debuting singer, that was perhaps getting her shot through one of her relatives that worked for Feline’s.

After a few songs, that the general audience gave a reasonably favorable response to, Christine got up from her chair, and began to pack her guitar in her case. One of the hostesses came up to the mic, but looked nervous, and quietly asked if it was alright to make an announcement, if it was ok to do so, for the departing guitarist. Christine motioned that she was done with her set, and the hostess, one of the very good looking ones with their rich Mediterranean features and tight fitting black tops, looked out to the diners in the crowded restaurant. She took a moment to pause, as if to recollect her thoughts, and then said something into the mic, which no one heard, because it wasn’t on.

After a brief moment in order for someone to turn up the volume on the mic from the sound board, the diners could finally hear the hostess loud and clear, “Sorry about that. Feline’s would just like to say thank you to the marvelous voice of Christine Sierra, she really entertained us this afternoon. Please give her a final hand of applause, for Christine Sierra!” The diners politely applauded, there was even a few hoots coming somewhere in the back of the kitchen. Inga squirmed a bit in her seat, as she clapped, trying not to look too underwhelmed. But Sasha caught it, and as she clapped, a fine smirk developed around her glossy lips, as in agreement to the critique of the previous musical arrangement.

“Boy, Mom, in this city there’s always some musical hopefuls.” Inga moved some of her chicken to the edge of her plate, in order to capture it better on her fork. Her eyes were downcast on her plate, in order to avoid looking at her mother during small talk.

“Oh, by the way, how are you doing? I mean, how is your band doing?”

Inga took in a mouthful of her chicken and risotto, and looked up at the overhanging chandelier, as if in quiet contemplation. She knew the answer to her mother’s question, but she wondered if there was a way, to phrase it so she would understand better. “Um, the bands fine Mom, I mean, we have been doing a lot of gigs, we will have a new CD out soon. It’s been very busy, and hopefully it can be an eventual full time job.” She looked at her mom and smiled sheepishly, in hopes no scathing comment would be made.

“Oh that sounds good, a new CD? Well I hope you send me a copy.” Sasha picked up her wine glass and swished the rosy liquid in her hand. “Sorry, what was the name of your band, again, honey?”

Inga knew she had told her numerous times, but allowed herself, once, just this once, because it was Mother’s Day, to reply to the question, as though she was never asked it. “Our name is Gutterglitter, Mom.” She too took a sip of her drink, her Heineken, and allowed herself to pace her drinking politely. “Oh yeah, also you can listen to some of our songs, on our site. If you get the chance, I mean.”

“That would be nice. I will try to do that, maybe when things are a little less hectic, like later this summer when I take time off.” Sasha smiled to reassure her daughter that she would get to it at some point. She thought that maybe now would be a good time to ask how Inga’s social life was like, but didn’t know exactly if it was a good time to, broach the subject. She didn’t have much time to ponder, because the hostess returned to the mic stand, at the back of the restaurant reserved for entertainment.

“Hello again. We now have the second act of our Mother’s Day Daughter Lunch special, she was a little late in arriving, due to the heavy air traffic that happens this time of year. But she’s here. And I can rest a little easy now. Thank you. So Feline’s today wants to give a warm welcome to someone who has entertained us with her, well her, shows for a while now. So without any further ado, please welcome, Zoely!”

The hostess quickly gave the entering woman her mike, and after making sure the performer got the mike, whispered a few notes to her, patted her on the shoulder, and quickly made off to the side of the restaurant, nearest the kitchen. The woman took the mike, and began to fiddle with the stand, but then decided to just keep it in her hand, and moved closer to face all the audience. Her appearance was slightly remarkable, in that she wore a fine suit, with a nice distinguished maroon tie, but although she looked very businesslike, it had the impression of being a man’s suit. It was no question that she was a woman, she had nice dimpled cheeks, slightly plain but pretty enough features, that had a nervous expression more jittery than the nervous hostess herself. Her hair was long, dark, and frizzled, and although pushed back, some strands tended to rest on her forehead. She would continually now and again, wipe her forehead, to keep the hair out of her eyes.

Inga chuckled at the site of this peculiar woman, and Sasha gave a quiet smile. “Who is she?” Sasha asked. “A comedian?”

“Yeah, she must be stand-up. I’ve seen quite a few of them, working gigs. They can be pretty obnoxious Mom, but she looks harmless.” Inga wondered if maybe this wasn’t going to be that great after all. Her meal was fine, the service was good, but after the disappointing display of music, and now this impromptu performance by this clownish woman, Inga wondered if she should just save herself embarrassment in front of her mother, and ask for the check quickly.

Oddly enough, the rest of the audience seemed much more energetic than they had been before especially when Christine was singing. It seemed the lunch rush was dwindling, and Inga and Sasha were nearly finished, and she noticed that others had their plates being taken away by the waitresses. But no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave their seats, in fact the mere awkward charisma of Zoely, seemed to have people riveted to her. Inga could see that even Sasha was interested in what Zoely might say or do, and Inga decided that even if Zoely’s act bombs, in the very least it would be funny for them to at least laugh at her in her attempt.

Zoely after a few murmurs among the tabled crowd has subsided, began to speak. “Hello, my name is Zoely... and I... well I guess I should explain who I am.” She took out a card, and began to read what looked like her cues. “Ok, Step One, introduce yourself. Step Two, tell them your show business experience.” Inga guessed that Zoely had somehow frozen up, and being the bundle of nerves she presented herself to be, had forgotten her lines. Yet, with her manic behavior, her awkward expressions, especially the way she tended to tug her tie, in a very Rodney Dangerfield way of desperation, tended to come off as comically inspiring.

In fact the audience was laughing, and every time Zoely spoke, she seemed to get the crowd going. It seemed it didn’t matter at all, what Zoely said or did, she just seemed to secrete laughter out of her two sizes too big suit. Inga guessed that everything up to this point, even with her stupid suit and awkward presence had been coordinated with her act. As Zoely continued with her Nervous Nelly demeanor and monotone shaky voice instructing herself on how to address the crowd, Inga could see, that Sasha was particularly amused, and hadn’t as much as looked back at Inga, since Zoely took the stage.

“Ok, well first, you can pretty much tell, I’ve done... stand up in comedy clubs, like across the country, for god knows how long... and I had to do comedy... cause well I didn’t have the face for TV or the voice for radio.” The audience laughed loudly, too loudly Inga thought, and pretty much wondered why it seemed that any lame joke, would be that funny. But Inga was committed to hear out the act, since everyone seemed to think she was work watching. Inga supposed that since Zoely came here to perform often, she must be a hot act, and would eventually warm up and get better.

Zoely continued, still hemming and hawing, not really having much to say, the audience not minding, laughing like she was comedy gold, until she finally got to the crust of the matter. “After now probably being bored with me boring you with my bad show biz tales...” She took out her cue card and scanning it again, she wiped her hair for the millionth time out of her eyes. “Step Three, tell them you are a hypnotist. A hypnotist? Oh oh... this is going... I dunno about this.” She tugged her tie, as if to show it was a noose around her neck, which got the crowd going. Someone yelled in the back, “Yeah, hypno us Zoely”, which Zoely in reply took a double take, as if in disbelief, that SHE was even there to do a hypnosis show.

“Ok, ok. So I’m a starving comedian, and I... was at the end of my rope, and so I thought, hey, if I can’t beat them... I’ll just hypnotize them to laugh.” There was a few snickers in the crowd. “And it’s obvious its working, because as you can see I’m so entirely unfunny, that I have to control people just to get them to watch my... my fucking show.” More guffaws came out from the tables, and Inga could see Sasha’s smile widening. Inga didn’t expect Sasha to laugh out loud, it wasn’t her way, but she could tell that Sasha was amused, and not just anything amused Sasha.

“So please no heckling, I’m pretty bad at this, as it is... in fact when I take out my shining gold watch, I hypnotize myself to sleep.” She took out a plastic kids toy watch, on a shoe string, and began to hold it in front of her eyes, and swung it. It looked like such a ludicrous prop, Inga wondered about the actual sanity of the comedienne herself. The crowd loved it though, and applauded as they could see, her already droopy eyes closing like they were sleepy, and her monotone voice becoming more hushed and quieter. “You are getting sleepy, sleepy... sleeepy, YAWN, sleepy, sleeeeeeeeeeeeepy, YAWN, you are getting... yeah I could use a nap. SNORE, huh, wah, what happened? Must’ve did it again.” They laughed again, and Inga for the first time could see, even Sasha chuckle, as she turned towards her.

“This is nonsense. I can’t believe some people fall for all that jazz.” The redheaded matron looked quizzically at her young daughter. “What do you think? Is she for real?”

“Well, I definitely think hypnosis is real, but as for her, well, I don’t know. I think it’s just a comedy act. I don’t think she could hypnotize herself out of a wet paper bag.” Inga gulped down the last of her beer, and stretched out the lethargy that had developed since the lunch. “So what do you wanna do, Mama? You wanna ditch this place? I think there might be some stores we can check out downtown, that you might like. Should I ask for the bill?”

But Sasha pretended to not hear her question. “So you think this bullcrap is real? I mean I’ve seen it on television, but I’m curious if it works. I mean it could be just done with assistants, you know planted in the audience.” Sasha looked her daughter for a semblance of any answer. “You know a lot of hippies and New Agers, any truth to this? Or is just some quackery, like those healers I keep reading about, in Calcutta?”

“Well, I don’t know too much”, Inga again was trying to choose her words carefully, not sure what exactly to tell her mother, “all I know is that I watched it once, by a woman saying she could do something like hypnosis, but it was more like yoga. I didn’t get hypnotized, obviously, but I could see it as a form of meditation, I guess.” Inga looked diplomatically at her mother, hoping that she wouldn’t ask too many silly questions, in hopes that she wouldn’t have to answer.

Inga remembered the event quite vividly, because at the time, she was hoping it would be an eye opening new experience. She was hanging out at a club one night, and the meditation woman, did try to do all the group that was assembled there, in the upstairs room, used by the staff and VIP’s. She remembered it focused on breathing, and what would amount to tantric meditation, and it had varying results, with some people passing out, or shaking violently in the throes of obvious pleasure. Some people like herself, found it a silly experience, which other than the calmness that she left with, it felt like no more than a yoga session, that she had mixed results with, in the past. She didn’t want to talk much about it though, because, at the time, she was hanging with quite a tough crowd, and was drinking a lot and taking certain things she didn’t want her Mom to have to know about.

Sasha seemed to nod her head in understanding, although Inga wasn’t sure what it was that Sasha was really driving at. Inga was sure that the way the girl on stage handled herself, she would not be able to do any type of meditative trances in any of the audience. Still, to Inga it was a seemingly intriguing notion, and it seemed like it might just kill the Sunday afternoon, after all.

“Ok, ok, let’s stop funning around... I’m gonna need some volunteers, and let’s hopefully get this done in time for my other gig, at Hooters. I’m not performing, just mopping the floors. Because I don’t have big enough tits... to like... serve there. Ok?” The crowd seemed to be animated at the prospect, and Inga sighed in disgust, like there was any possibility, that the lame stand up comic, would be able to do anything. Looking more closely at Zoely, she noticed some sort of semblance to a celebrity, that Inga knew. After pondering for what seemed like ages, a funny thought came across, and she felt that her mother had to see what a fool, the so-called hypnotist was.

“God, Mom, now I know who she reminds me of?”

“Hmm, you know her dear?”

“No, haven’t seen her before in my life, but I think she looks like someone from TV. Remember Roseanne?” Inga chuckled to herself, as the thought seemed funny.

“Not, really. I don’t think I watched that much.”

“C’mon, she looks like Sara Gilbert, you know, Becky from Roseanne?” Inga laughed at the idea of the actress being a hypnotist, and although she wasn’t a carbon copy of the actress, she did resemble somewhat like her. “Maybe that’s why the crowd finds her funny. They see, the resemblance too”, she thought.

“Hush, don’t be mean, Inga. I’m sure the poor girl can’t get anything much else in line of show work. I mean look at her. Such a poor demeanor, and her voice would peel wallpaper.” Sasha laughed at her own observation. “This is so silly, yet here we are, trying to see what she can actually do? I guess we can leave if you want to.”

Since Sasha finally fielded the question, Inga thought about if it was maybe good idea to go, after all. She hadn’t planned anything else with Sasha. And other than some Sunday shopping, or going out for more drinks, or hanging out at her apartment, which she knew they both didn’t want to do, there was not much in lieu of anything else. So what could this hurt, but other than kill an hour. But she wondered if her mother would be willing to volunteer, for the show. “Now that, I would like to see.” Inga thought about the prospect of seeing her mother acting like a ditz. “If she actually went up to try her luck, I would take her for a braver woman, than I give her credit for.”

“So? Do you want to go, and catch the stores before they close, Inga?”

“Naw, we could stay, if you want to, I mean?”

“I find this so silly, but I just have to see what she does, just to tell Francine, when I get back. I can’t not know now.”

“Well, ok, if you want. I bet it gets stupid, though.”

“What do you expect, dear. That she will hypnotize us to dance as strippers.” Inga put her hand on her mouth, at the mere thought, and Sasha merely smiled, at for once, actually shocking her own daughter.

“Ok, I will need at least 12 people, c’mon Moms. Come up with your daughters and trust your luck to the worst hypnotist in the world.” Zoely paced up and down the stage area, as the audience laughed, and then Inga could hear the movement of chairs, as some brave women moved towards Zoely.

There were a few couples of young women with their obviously older moms, and Inga had fun trying to guess, who was related to who. But after a few groups of women made it to the stage chairs, they still hadn’t filled up all of them. Inga wondered if although the crowd seemed to think this was funny, would they be brave enough to make possible fools of themselves in front of an audience.

Zoely shook hands with the women that had come, but then turned her attention to the rest of the tables. “Oh great, I wanted at least twelve, and I still only got like ten. Twelve wasn’t the most I could take, it was just a minimum. C’mon, am I that bad looking, that you the audience are afraid of me. I had an ex-boyfriend who told me I looked like a dog, but I promise I won’t turn you into one.” The audience laughed uproariously at Zoely, and Inga in the pit of her stomach realized that maybe, she would start picking people at random then. “Look, simple fact of the matter, hypnosis, is a natural state of mind, in fact most coach potatoes experience it every night when they watch American Idol. Ever watch TV and then zone out, it’s just like that. Why do you think people listen to those god awful brats at all? Cause they are hypnotized to not know any better. See, don’t worry, you can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to. In fact if I could, ma’am I would force you to make a fashion reassignment, those lime green slacks suck. So please try it out people, I promise, pretty please promise, I won’t hypnotize you to sleep, just bore you, kay?”

The audience seemed still pleased with the lame jokes, but not everybody was so eager to jump up just yet. Inga was never a girl to back down, and since it seemed that most of the crowd wasn’t biting, she always prided herself on going against the grade, and doing whatever she wanted. She wasn’t afraid of losing her free will, because from an early age till now, she never backed down from anything, and did it exactly how she wanted it to happen. She doubted the powers of Zoely to turn her into a zombie, and although she knew of people lurking in the shadows, taking advantage of unsuspecting people, all too well knew firsthand since she hung around with quite the creepy crowd, that deep down, Zoely wasn’t that kind of person. The only thing was, what would Sasha think of her, going up there, since she didn’t think she would go herself.

As Inga rose up to answer the challenge of Zoely, to her amazement, Sasha rose too, and looking into each others eyes, the mother and daughter knew the other was willing to give this, no matter how zanny, a chance.

“Are you going to go, Inga?” Her mother’s eyes bore into hers with a mild curiosity and bewildered amusement.

“Yeah, we should get a rise out of this.”

Inga set her hat on the table, and Sasha set her scarf on her chair, and as the two women, slightly embarrassed, walked towards the hypnotist, the others at the tables, cheered at the two new volunteers.

“Ah, fresh victims.” Zoely laughed at the two approaching women, and made a motion of a fly rubbing it’s hands. “Anyone else, no? Ok, let’s get started. First, I don’t think everyone up here will be able to be hypnotized. In fact, some people just are not the hypnotizing kind, and well I will give them three, count three, tests to determine if we can have a funny show. So, ladies don’t get too comfortable, this is Hypno Idol, and some of you might not make the cut.”

Inga slightly quivered when she heard the silly comedienne up close, as her whiny monotone voice was annoying in person as well as afar. But she tried not to think about her looking like a fool, since most of the audience was appreciative that her and her mother took the chance. She was used to performing on stage, and having sometimes, the audience fucked up, would do the most obscene things, so this, she imagined would be a walk in the park.

Sasha and Inga took two seats together and sat next to a sandy blonde woman, and her much younger, and prettier daughter. Looking around before, Inga had noticed the blonde girl, as out of all the participants she stood out the most, with her obviously fake boobs, and her tight clothing, with a form fitting top that was hiked up to her midriff and her JLO wannabe pants that scrunched her booty ass, her fake bake tan, the huge glossy puffed up lips, she looked just like a raunchy porn star. Inga already felt out of place, when she dressed as conservatively as possible that morning, but she still had her Goth style in place. Most of the women there, dressed like her mother, in a business casual sort of manner. But sitting beside the blonde, she felt even more like eyes were placed in her general direction.

The blonde seemed polite enough, as she and her mother flanked both Sasha and Inga who were in the middle seats, she put out her hand to introduce herself. “Tori”, she said, “and this is my Mom, Stella. Nice to meet you.” Stella and Sasha shook hands too, and Inga realized for all her fakeness, the blonde had a nice demeanor and if she didn’t have the awful makeup and lip job, she would be very pretty indeed.

“The name’s Inga, nice to meet you too.”

Tori smiled and replied, “Are you thinking this is some crazy shit too?” as Inga inwardly laughed at Tori’s bluntness.

“Yeah, we’ll see how it goes, I guess.” Inga leaned back, as already the excitement of the day seemed to make her drowsy, and she hoped at the very least it wouldn’t be stressful to be part of the show. She glanced sideways at her Mom, who was being very calm, despite the silliness of the situation, so Inga felt that if she could stay cool, then she would too.

“Ok, first off, we are going to do Test Numero Uno. All I want you to do ladies, is just imagine, if you will, you are in a band. You have an instrument, that you know how to play very well, it doesn’t matter which one, just whatever comes to mind. And because I’m such the great hypnotist, when I snap my fingers, you will visualize the instrument in your hands, and you will play it perfectly. Ok, pretty simple huh.”

Zoely was pacing back and forth in her manic style, but this time, Inga noticed she was more calmer than before, in fact for the first time in awhile, Inga realized that Zoely was taking a chill pill, and being more direct. Inga thought it was good now, that she was being less uptight. Before, Zoely was acting like such a moron, that Inga didn’t care for her at all, but now she was acting much more like a presentable human, and if she kept it up, maybe the show wouldn’t suck after all. Zoely also seemed much more friendlier, in fact she smiled as she paced by Inga, giving her a seemingly reassuring glance. Inga found that more comfortable, her uneasiness, seemed to reach Inga, but now her calmness, also made her feel cool too.

“Just remember, this isn’t hypnosis, just a test. Just to see how responsive you are, ok? Alright, my girl band, let’s wow the record producers and get that recording contract. When I snap my fingers play your instrument to your heart’s content. SNAP!”

She shouted the word and snapped her fingers simultaneously, and stood back to let the audience watch the band. Sure enough a few women, tried the instruments they knew of. Some mimed playing a piano, or some a guitar, some looked uneasy doing anything at all, but went along with the play acting anyways, because that’s what it all was, was pretending. Others seemed to really get into the flow of it, Inga noticed, as she did the one thing that came naturally to her, drumming. She just air drummed how she would, if she was doing a set with her band Gutterglitter, and she tried to recreate the look of her actually drumming, which to her seemed simple enough. She tried watching the others playing their instruments, who seemed to get the audience laughing, but it was too hard to “play” a drum, and watch others too, so she just kept up with the drumming. In fact she liked the idea of practicing on stage, and really poured her soul into it, like she really was performing with her band.

In her ears, she could hear the music of her band, and she decided that the song was the current one they had just rehearsed, just last night in fact. She went over the chords and the rhythm, of the song, aptly titled “I’m a Strung Out Whore, So What?”, and as she felt the crescendo rising of the rock piece, she suddenly heard someone shouting at her.

“Stop, stop. YOU CAN STOP NOW!” Inga quickly glanced around to the other women, and peered into the audience, that seemed to be very amused at their performance. Zoely was the one, she realized that was shouting at her, and getting carried away, she guessed that some of the others didn’t want to stop playing around and had made her lose her temper. Inga glanced around to Tori, and Sasha and gave them a puzzled look. But she didn’t get any answer, since Tori, seemed dumbfounded at what had actually happened, and Sasha, seemed slightly embarrassed, and just kept her head towards the audience.

“Ha, ha, well ladies, it looks like I got more than I bargained for. Once you tell these prima donnas to play, they just can’t stop.” She moved towards Tori and her, and with dread, Inga realized that she was coming to talk to her.

“You really ripped into your bongos man. Are you in a band Sticks?” Zoely had moved the microphone towards the dazed Inga in order to get an answer, and although Inga found being called man and Sticks annoying, she decided to politely go along with the show.

“Um, yeah. I play in a band, we play most nights.” She wasn’t sure what to answer beyond that.

“No kidding Sticks. You rock the house girl. What’s your name and where do you play, Sticks?”

“Um, it’s Inga... and I play in a Goth rock band, play a lot of heavy stuff, I’m the drummer for it, our band is called Gutterglitter, we play... we play at the Panty N’Bra Bar, Club Soul 180 sometimes, and... Ms Demeanor’s a lot too.” Inga winced at her honesty. The Bra Bar was a stripper bar where her girl band was sometimes welcome to play in, Soul 180 was a niteclub that sometimes did Goth theme nights, but Ms. Demeanor’s was a definite no no, since it was a well established dyke bar, that most people would know about. She didn’t mind if people she knew in general knew she played her gigs there, but in front of a strange audience, it made her a feel just a little bit vulnerable. Mostly since she didn’t really want to say that in front of her mother.

“Cool, well we have a rocker girl in the house, only problem is, instead of being like the Go-Go’s I wish the lot of ya, would have been like the Stop-Stop’s. I told them it wasn’t exactly hypnosis, but I guess they didn’t listen.” The audience laughed loudly, at Zoely’s lame comic act, and Zoely herself laughed it off, and began her manic pacing, and tugging of her tie, to show the audience that she wasn’t really mad at the participants.

Inga looked to her mother, and felt a bit sheepish, and then suddenly realized that from her Mom’s expression, she wasn’t the only one feeling embarrassed. Inga recalled seeing her Mom, playing her violin, that she used to take lessons for, as a child. Inga didn’t realize at the time, but Sasha like her, had gotten carried away, and Zoely had to break them out of their pretend spell. It was then that Inga fully realized, that the audience must have felt it was real funny to see these normally serious women, acting silly, playing instruments that weren’t there, and that was why they were laughing quite loud.

After sending a few people who didn’t seem to be too carried away with their instruments, Zoely thanked them and shook their hands, and the two women that went back to their seats were probably thankful that they didn’t have to embarrass themselves further. But Inga wondered with anticipation what the other test would be.

“Ok, Test Numero Dos, ladies. This is simple to do. All I want you to do ladies is do exactly what I tell you, and again this is not proper hypnosis per se, but we will see, if you girls, have the stuff to be hypnotized.”

Sasha shifted in her seat, and although she was comfortable, she still felt like she was on pins and needles. She was surprised on her lack of control, as she pretended to play an instrument she hadn’t played in years, yet she played it so convincingly, a silly stand up comic had to tell her to stop, without her realizing she was playing it for so long. As she turned to see how her daughter was doing, she noticed that the seating arrangement, was actually in line with the door that the singer Christine had come out of, and looking further across from Inga and Tori, saw that the door was in between two glass partitions, that sectioned off a part of the room. She could see what seemed to be another place to eat, with tables and chairs set up in the area, but huge potted palms obscured most of the view, although she could see that there were women in there, watching the show, like the others at the main dining tables. It was then, that Sasha realized that the private lounge area, had a perfect view of the participants, where one could watch a show with relative ease, but it had more privacy, than at the main dining area.

“First off, take a deep breath, and let it out, and I now want you ladies, to look above you, and stare directly at the lights hanging up there. Just do that, and relax your neck, don’t strain it, just look at the lights.”

The four women followed the others, and Tori, Inga, Sasha, and Stella leaned back in their plush high backed chairs, in order to see the florescent lighting fixture above them. Inga immediately realized that it wasn’t the most comfortable position, since it made her feel awkward and vulnerable, but to make matters worse, the bright light above her, that she was told to stare at, stung her teary eyes. She wondered if it was just her, or if the other participants, felt uncomfortable too.

“Ok, your eyes will probably water, so to help them, just close your eyes, and just remember this isn’t hypnosis yet. I’m not hypnotizing you yet, this is just a test, to see if you can be hypnotized.”

Inga as she closed her straining eyes, found that Zoely had calmed down more, and she seemed much more pleasant when she wasn’t trying to act assy, and crack bad jokes. Her monotone voice wasn’t as whiny, in fact it was much more soothing, and Inga hoped that this might be a better routine to act with, since she thought the closest think to meditation was comfort, instead of zany antics, and that maybe her show wouldn’t be full of stupid tricks throughout.

“Now since your eyes are closed, I want you to still stare upwards though, and you will now be able to concentrate better, since you don’t have to worry about your eyes being blinded by the harsh light. In fact you probably will like be seeing stars, y’know, those colors that you get when you stare at a light too long. I know when I was a girl, we couldn’t afford television, so my parents would notice me staring at light bulbs all day... you know like I was a stupid inbred.”

Inga grimaced as it seemed like Zoely was still being lame in her pathetic way, but for some reason ever since Inga closed her eyes, she felt much better at peace, and since she could hear the audience laugh madly again, at any joke that Zoely did, Inga decided to let it slide, and from now on not care what Zoely spoke about. To her it felt like a weight had dropped off her shoulders, and she felt the calmest she had felt since they had come for lunch.

“But hey, that was my entertainment as a kid, yep, bright shiny colors out of my burnt retinas, and years later in college, I would find drugs that would do the same trick too. But now I even have a even greater drug, hypnosis. Which by the way, I am not ladies, using yet. But if I was going to hypnotize you, I might tell you to relaaaax some more, and allowww your back to sssink into the chair to allowww, yourself to get more comfortable, and not to strain yourself, and allowww yourself to give your body the room it needs to get comfortable, as you allowww your head to lie back, and as you stare on a point up on the ceiling, any point on the ceiling, through your clooosed eyesss, through the lidsss of your straining eyesss, looking through to the light up there, that would make your eyesss very hard, verrry hard to keep open, because they would sting and tears would run, but you would feel better clooosing your eyessss, and your eyesss would be weary staring at those lights, but as you clooose them, you find you can stare much easily that way. And now lets try the experiment, ladies I want you now to try and ooopen your eyesss, and see if you can do so.”

Inga thought about this, and it seemed like a simple thing to do, and as she tried to open them, she found she couldn’t. She struggled with opening them, and wondered simply if she was just not trying hard enough, but to her distress she couldn’t.

“That’s it girls, try to open your eyes. Try, try to open them. You will find, that if you just lay back and try to open your eyes you will not be able to. Try harder, to open them, TRY, TRY!”

The audience chuckled, and Zoely smiled in triumph. It was a simple trick, not really hypnosis, if anyone leaned their head back and closed their eyes, as long as their head was still back, they would not be able to open them, but to the participants, some of them would be led to believe that it was a true hypnotic state. And Zoely would see if any of them were really susceptible to hypnosis or not.

Quickly running up to one of the women, Zoely touched her forehead, and yelled SLEEP, and the women hunched over, as if passed out. She did this to all the women in turn, some in varying states of being laid out, and one women actually opened her eyes after her forehead was touched as she moved forward, but when Zoely got to Sasha, and quickly touched her forehead and said SLEEP, Sasha’s head dropped into her lap, and stayed motionless. When Zoely touched Inga’s forehead and said SLEEP firmly, she dropped down from the position she had on the chair and lurched over her already passed out mother, and didn’t move at all from that spot. When Zoely moved to Tori, and touched her forehead and told her SLEEP, Tori sighed and totally deflated, with her legs and arms sprawled across the chair, and looked the most asleep than any of the other participants.

The audience cheered, but Zoely waved them to be quiet, and moving beside the chairs, began to speak loudly and firmly to the sprawled out women.

“You are now asleep. In a moment I will snap my fingers, and if YOU are definitely hypnotized, you will wake up, open your eyes, stand up, and raise your hand, because you were hypnotized. When I snap my fingers, if you are hypnotized, wake up, open your eyes, stand up, raise your hand. Now, SNAP”

Most of the women rushed to get up out of their seats, and some found it tricky since they may have been hunched over, or one of their companions had been on top of them, but when they got up, they stood firmly and raised their hand, although some raised their left and some their right. Sasha tried to get up immediately but it was difficult, with Inga on top of her, but Inga got up immediately and feeling like getting up since there was no point in pretending to be hypnotized she stood up and raised her hand, while her mother followed suit. Tori had a tougher time, since when she fell asleep for genuine real, she was sprawled out too much to the side, so when she was told to wake up, her body shifted and she fell out of her chair, and with her butt hitting the floor and her breasts bouncing up, the audience got a chuckle out of her predicament. But when she raised herself up, she too raised her hand, and didn’t know why though.

Inga was in shock and disbelief, and wondered why, she would just stand up and raise her hand. She didn’t feel hypnotized and she remembered everything that Zoely had told her, but she for some reason decided to do just that, do what Zoely told her. She was the first one to lower her arm, as the other women had just kept their arms up staring at Zoely and the audience for an answer. Inga grabbed Sasha’s arm down, and Sasha cleared her throat and pretended that nothing happened.

“See ladies, it was just a test, and some of you might just have the mind to be hypnotized, but we don’t totally know yet.” Looking at some women that were a bit hesitant of getting up, but all women stood up eventually to raise their hand, Zoely motioned to them that they could sit back down to their table. “I’m sorry, you didn’t make the cut on Hypno Idol, but I promise I will make monkey’s asses out of these fine women.”

Zoely was back to her annoying self, and she began to pace again and tug her tie in nervousness, but Inga had told herself that Zoely was just doing her job of being the entertainer, and wondered if this final and last test, she supposedly had for them would really be able to tell if they were hypnotizable. To Inga, she remembered everything that went on, and she didn’t seem to be out of her mind, so she reasoned if that was hypnosis, then maybe there wasn’t much to it. She looked to Sasha to see where her mind was at, to see if maybe she wanted to go sit back down, or if she doubted the carnyness of Zoely’s tricks. But she only just patted Inga’s shoulder, in a sign of support, and was strangely quiet, for most of all the proceedings that happened on stage. Inga reasoned that maybe it was a way she coped with a form of embarrassment, by just plowing through, and getting it over with.

“Alright, I know I’ve been something of a bitch to you guys, I admit I’m not a people person, but no more tricks, we are going to do real time hypnosis stuff here folks, and you may wonder how I can hypnotize for real, since up to now everything has been kiddie stuff, well I have the proof to show you.” Zoely starting fishing something out of her pocket, and when she pulled it out the audience could see something that resembled a medal, like an Olympic medal, with a silver medallion at the end of a ribbon that was red, white, and blue. “See this, this is my medal of honour. It says World’s Greatest Hypnotist Number One, and you know someday’s I feel like I am. You know I went to a big hypnotist convention and showed everybody my cheesy ass medal, and you know something, I don’t remember a damn thing else about the convention, because the next Monday, I woke up in the street with a dog collar around my neck and a cucumber up my ass.”

The audience on cue, laughed hard, but they pretty much had laughed at anything that Zoely had said the whole time of her act. She swung the medal around like it was a hypnotist’s watch, and got the crowd to laugh again. “But I kid, I kid. Actually I use to have one that said World’s Greatest Bikini Model, and I swear when I swung it in guys eyes, they would always buy me drinks. But now I think I will try out this hypnosis bit, but mind you, I probably will just fuck up, and it won’t work. So don’t trust fake medals ladies, they may just be true.” She turned around to face the remaining women, and motioned them to sit down. “Ok girls, this is the last test, and I promise if you can’t pass this one, then that’s it, I pack it in, and we all go home, none the wiser. But lets see how hypnotizable you are. Ladies I want you to sit down all in the front row, even if you have to squish each other I want you all front and center.”

Inga sighed that perhaps the last hurdle to cross, might be in sight, and her mother and her moved back to their seats, allowing the other women, to sit close beside them. They were slightly uncomfortable since there were only five seats in front, and all eight women had to be fit in to see Zoely directly standing in the middle of the stage. Zoely seemed to find this amusing that the women were scrambling like musical chairs to find a seat, and then had to settle with either sitting on each others laps, or squishing in-between each other. Sasha decided to just grin and bear it, as nothing so far seemed to resemble any of the hypnosis stuff she saw on TV, and it just might be a setup after all for a fake hypnosis comedy act. Or at least deep down, that’s what Sasha hoped.

When the women tried their best to get as comfortable as possible, Zoely began to pace again back and forth, but like she tried before, she was much more steady, and her voice was much softer, and not it’s whiny comedic tone.

“It’s usually customary to use a gold watch, but I can’t afford one so nice, so we will try this medal. But if you just watch it go back and forth, just keep your eyes on it. I promise you, we will see soon enough if you are able to be hypnotized.” She suddenly stopped, and stared directly at the huddled up women, and allowed the medal to swing freely of its own accord. “Just watch the medal, just watch it move back and forth, just listen to my words, and you will find, that you can easily just watch the medal go back and forth, back and forth, just listening to my words.”

Just watch it go back and forth

Listening intently to my words

as it goes back and forth

and if you listen to me you will find you cannot hear anything else

but my words, as the medal goes back and forth

keeping your eyes on it, trying to see if you can be hypnotized

the only way to find out is to just watch it back and forth

keeping your eyes focused on the medal, my words, and my voice

You want to know if you can be hypnotized, whether you are hypnotized, you want to know hypnosis, you want to be hypnotized, you are hypnotized, you are hypnotized

As you watch the medal move baaack and fooorth, your eyes are closing

closing down, as you listen to my words, my voice, only my voice

watch the medal, for I am the World’s Greatest Hypnotist

and you are hypnotized, and you watch the medal move back and forth

back and forth, back and forth

and your eyes are closing down, down, listening only to my voice

and now SNAP SLEEP

Inga’s and Sasha’s eyes had followed the medal very closely, listened to Zoely’s voice intently, and felt that they still weren’t being hypnotized, because Zoely was incapable of hypnotizing them, and they still felt themselves, still felt themselves, feeling drowsy because it was hard listening to Zoely’s droning boring monotone voice, and it made sense to close their eyes, because they didn’t feel like keeping them opened anymore. Anyways, the World’s Greatest Hypnotist had told them that they had to watch the medal and close their eyes, and Inga didn’t mind doing it, so she wasn’t hypnotized after all. As she decided to just do what the hypnotist had told her as she listened very intently, she smiled since she felt the calmest ever, that she had felt for the first time that day, and she knew that the test had failed and she was not hypnotized.

After the other women at the tables, realized with mock surprise, that Zoely had hypnotized, the women on stage, there was first a hushed silence, and then laughter and applause. Zoely put a finger on her lips, to motion for silence, and she began to pace back and forth in her regular, manic way. Zoely was quite content with the batch of women, that she had selected, because the group of mums and daughters seemed suggestible enough to use in a full blown hypno show. But she wondered just how suggestible, and the thought occurred to her, that this was part of her performance that would really be tested, not just the entertainment factor.

She looked up across to the Stage Left Exit, where the private dining room was enjoying the show, just like the main diners were at their tables. But Zoely knew that it was a selective audience, that peered out of the window, who in their special dining area, were critiquing every move that Zoely made. Unlike the regular audience sitting at their tables in the front hall of the restaurant, enjoying their Sunday afternoon, sipping on coffee that the waitresses brought, talking about their family business, and occasionally watching the action in the back, if it got interesting, and especially laughing at the always funny Zoely, who they found to their bewildered amusement to be the funniest comic, they ever witnessed. It was Zoely who with her manic behavior, and bad jokes, and her insistence that she was a hypnotist that couldn’t hypnotize, the daughters and mothers who watched the show, found it to be the most funniest thing they saw, and midway in conversation, would laugh if they felt something was to be funny, but mostly paid it not much mind otherwise.

Zoely felt alone on the stage with the hypnotized women, since having a break in the action, the women back at the tables, just talked amongst themselves, and the other women in the private area, made no move to make themselves noticed, but only observed with great interest. It was up to her to do a good job now, from here on in, or otherwise she may never get the chance to have the opportunity to do it again. Sighing, and taking in a deep breath, she picked up her microphone, to start the action once again.

She had calmly and quietly given the participants on stage several deepener suggestions, that she didn’t bother to do on the mic, since she felt it wasn’t necessary for the general audience to listen to her do all the hypnotic stuff, but now fully satisfied, that they were indeed under, she needed to add some flair again to the show.

“Ok, ladies, now lets get them really hypnotized, and I hope we can do some fun stuff, ok? Ok, girls on the chairs, in front of me, when I snap my fingers, you will get up and separate yourselves into two groups. One for mothers, and the other for daughters. Mothers will stay where they are in the chairs up front, and daughters will get up, and move to the back chairs. And daughters you will sit behind your mother, ok? So in a moment when I snap my fingers you will wake up feeling good, and separate yourselves into mothers and daughters. So, one, two, three, SNAP”

Instantly Inga opened her eyes, and found that Tori, the busty blonde, had been leaning on her asleep, which was something, that Inga was definitely not doing, she had just closed her eyes to go along with the show. But when Tori leaned into Inga, it made her lean into her mother, who seemed to be crammed into another woman sitting beside her. After Tori, opened her eyes, she seemed really sluggish, like she had been sleeping for days, which was certainly not what Inga felt at all. In fact she felt pretty good, and was glad she could rest her eyes for a bit because she felt the whole act so far was overwhelming and boring. Inga kind of nudged Tori off her, and Tori just got up and began to walk away behind the chairs, as the other women began to get off each other and some walked behind them, and some shifted in their seats, with the room now available to them. With Tori off her, she needed to get her weight off her mom, so Inga got up, and feeling like it was the perfectly natural thing to do, she stepped behind the front chairs, and sat down in the empty seat behind Sasha.

“Hey gals.” Zoely bellowed at the participants after they sat down in their respective seats. “Guess what! You passed the test with flying colors. Were you hypnotized? What do you think?” She moved the mic towards Sasha, and waited for a reply from the redhead.

“Ah, I guess I... did... for all I know, I was just you know, um...” Sasha for the first time in her life felt lost for words, she wasn’t sure what she should say in that situation, and with Inga not sitting beside her, she wasn’t sure who to ask for any suggestion.

“Ok, but do you know if you were? Did you pass the test?”

Sasha finally felt a bit less confused, having since just only moments ago opened her eyes, and formulated a rational answer to the question. “I think I might have passed, because to me I don’t think I felt hypnotized.” She looked towards the table where her green scarf and her daughter’s hat still remained where they left them. She felt that maybe it would be wise to just stop the charade and just go back to the table, and her and Inga would salvage the rest of the afternoon, since she knew it wasn’t hypnosis she experienced, but simply buffoonery. “Well, at least that’s my opinion. I don’t think I was anyways.” She wished she could just get up and move to the table, but Inga was nowhere to be seen, and she didn’t wish to look rude.

“Well, ok....”

“Sasha, it’s Sasha.”

“SNAP, SASHA, SLEEP.”

Sasha immediately closed her eyes, and her head dropped down to her chest. The audience laughed, and Inga who had been watching this intently to see what this was all about, was surprised by the sudden command that was followed. She was actually disappointed in her mother, because like her mother she didn’t feel hypnotized, so she probably wasn’t, but her mother being the good sport, was probably going along with it.

“Ok, listen to me Sasha, listen only to my voice, when my snap my fingers, you will not remember your name. SNAP. And now Sasha when I snap my fingers you will open your eyes and be wide awake. SNAP.”

Sasha opened her eyes, and nonchalantly looked around, as if nothing had happened.

“So do you think you passed the test? Ms...?”

“Ah, I guess so.”

“What is your name, ma’am?”

“It’s...” Sasha sat in confusion for a minute, and the audience, finding that a grown woman would forget her own name, ate it up, and howled with laughter. While Inga inwardly fumed, because she knew for sure, that her mom was just playing with Zoely.

Zoely had been back to pacing, up and down as she walked along the first row, giving the mothers suggestions, that she told the audience would help facilitate with a great show of hypnotic feats. She kept intoning the same thing over and over to the mothers, so they would now exactly how to be hypnotized.

“My words are the voice of your mind, my words are the voice of your mind.”

After awhile of intoning that she had the mothers repeat the same mantra, back to her.

Your words are the voice of our mind

Your words are the voice of our mind

All throughout Inga watched, with a sneering satisfaction. Finally her mother had been seemingly defeated in something, something her strong will was not going to be able to handle. Inga had been skeptical about her and her mother being hypnotized, but now seeing the evidence, in front of her, she could see that her mother has quite possibly very hypnotized, because as Zoely passed back and forth along the seats of the mothers, she could see her mother defenselessly intoning back whatever Zoely asked her too, and the real Sasha that Inga knew, would never do something so silly.

Inga noticed that the other young women, that were sitting with Inga in the back row, were being quite non-responsive themselves, and were watching their mothers, being induced by Zoely. She looked to her right, to see Tori herself again, headlong in what could possibly be a trance, zonked out, with her heavy lidded eyes, nearly closed. But Inga despite seeing all the others seemingly out of it, herself felt pretty good. Other than watching Zoely intently doing her hypnosis act, she didn’t feel not like herself in anyway.

Zoely stopped, seemingly satisfied she got the response she wanted from the older women in the front row, the mothers, and told them to go to sleep, SNAP, and not wake up until she told them to. She then moved quickly to the drooped over Tori, and SNAP waved her hands over her face and told her to sleep. Zoely then did something, that Inga hadn’t noticed before. While she faced the remaining daughters, who like Inga seemed to be alert and awake like normal, Zoely’s face turned, what to Inga, could only mean, a face of total satisfaction, way different from the nervous manic demeanor she had displayed, when she first took the microphone for the first time. Inga wondered what that expression meaned.

As Zoely stood up in front of the rest of the remaining women, she smiled a great smile, and to Inga she looked more animated and pleasant than she had ever seen her as.

“SNAP, SLEEP!”

Turning towards the rest of the audience who were cheerily enjoying their coffees, mindlessly oblivious to most of what went on, in the back of the restaurant, Zoely very calmly and forcefully spoke to rest of the tables.

SNAP

SLEEP

To Inga and Sasha, the afternoon did get very interesting, for all things considered. They didn’t feel hypnotized, but certainly there were the other women in the seats who did. First off Zoely had two mothers pretend they were boxers, and with that Inga heartily laughed, at their pathetic attempts to hit one another since, Zoely had told both women they wouldn’t be able to actually hit themselves. Zoely set up a bunch of various scenarios like that for them, and for the most part Sasha and Inga participated, but went along mostly to just feel in spirit of the event. They weren’t made to do much, as far as they recollected, because as far as they knew, it was the real suggestible women, who did most of the embarrassing stuff.

Like Tori. She was the star of the show. Zoely made her do no less than at least four different acts or tasks. First she had her impersonate Madonna, Ashlee Simpson, Paula Abdul, Pink, Britney Spears, whatever or whoever it was that the music played, Tori would have to dance and impersonate them, and from what Inga saw, she was quite good at that. The topper was when Zoely told her she was Jenna Jameson doing a strip show, is when Tori really hit her stride. She believed herself to be a lesbian pornstar doing a stripshow, and she really got into the heart of it. Inga was surprised when, Tori needed someone to do a lapdance on, she picked Inga, and first french kissed, the surprised, but content goth girl, and even did the full monty grind on her and everything. Inga didn’t ask for that, but she didn’t seem to care, and felt it was the best part of the show, by far. She didn’t care if her mother was in full view of the strip show, it seemed like Sasha had put her conservative views away for the day.

To end it all, Zoely had the mothers and daughters compete against each other in a tug o’ war contest. Believing that they had a rope between their fingers, with moms on one side, and daughters on the other, the two teams struggled to get the upper hand over the other side. Every time Zoely would point to one side, they would feel the rope begin to give, and they felt themselves being pulled to the other team’s side, and when she pointed to the other team, it was there turn to now feel the strength of the other team and feel being pulled to the middle. Inga knew as she was miming pulling a rope, that it was just pretend, but she participated anyways, feeling that since she actually got to have a sexy lap dance from Tori, being a ditz in front of strangers was somewhat worth it.

The two teams were deadlocked in struggle when Zoely decided to end the match once and for all. “Ok, gals, when I snap my fingers, the rope will break, and be cut into two, and you will fall over backwards, landing on your asses, but doing so safely, without hurting a teammate. And SNAP!”

That was pretty much the wrap up for the hypnotic show, and after falling on her ass, Inga felt that although the whole hypnosis thing, was nothing but a circus, it wasn’t such a bad way to spend the afternoon. The audience at the tables seemed to be enthusiastically happy with the results of the show, although Inga felt it was kind of hard to make them out, since ever since she had to endure the rest of the show, their faces kind of faded out, and seemed inconsequential.

Zoely thanked the audience for their meager applause, and everyone seemed happy overall for what seemed to be a good show. She announced to the remaining participants, that they would be able to wrap up for the day, she just had to clear the suggestions. After a very energetic show, the women, the mothers and the daughters, were grateful to be able to call it a day, and thankfully sat down on their chairs. Sasha as she sat down, winked at her daughter, and Inga for the first time felt that maybe her mom and her had experienced a very good day together, and she was grateful for that.

“Do you still want to see if we can catch some stores? I mean, you probably need some new clothes, right dear?” Sasha was always concerned for Inga, but now instead of just being impatient with the choices she made in life, Sasha felt that she could spend time with her daughter and not worry.

“Yeah, sure. After we ditch this place, we can go out, maybe do some shopping Mom. Maybe if you want we can hit a bar?”

“Sure, just after she gets done with her hypno nonsense, let’s get out of here. It’s almost all I can take.” Sasha sat down in her seat, and leaned back waiting for Zoely to finish the rest of her mumbo jumbo. Sasha wasn’t disappointed, in fact she felt validated. She didn’t know much about hypnosis till now, but had always figured that the participants went along with the hypnotist, and that’s what she had seen, she didn’t feel hypnotized, she just played the game, and now the game was over.

“Ok, girls, great show all. Now listen to me, and I will snap my fingers, and you will go to sleep, and then you wake up from the dream you have experienced, you will know how hypnosis is really like. Now SNAP, SLEEP!”

Zoely observed the participants, deeply asleep in their chairs. She cleared her throat, and looked out into the dining area, where a few people, not all of the lunch crowd, but some were soundly sleeping, resting their heads down on the place mats, completely oblivious to what was going on around them. The staff, had quickly locked the front door of the restaurant, and pulled down the blinds to the front windows. They didn’t expect much visitors, since it was a fast dwindling Sunday afternoon, but they made sure to make it known that the restaurant was closed for business.

She nodded to the women behind the glass in the private area, her mistresses, to signal that they could continue with their ritual. She noticed that the kitchen door, had been closed shut, and kitchen staff were either all dismissed, or a few of them were quickly tidying up in back, finishing the dishes, or preparing the food supplies for another day, but would not come out and disturb whatever happened outside in the dining area. This restaurant was a family business, and most of the men who were in the restaurant, took roles of cooks, dish washers, or custodians, while the women of the family took on the more “serious” of the tasks. Today was certainly a special day, and other than being just a day for honoring mothers, other families also had it earmarked for an event, where they too celebrated and honored mothers.

Zoely could see the girls come out of the side entrance to the dining area, and now for all her nervousness, this was happening now, and she had to be mentally prepared for it. They were the two hostesses Verona and Nathalia, the two waitresses Sicilia and Alexandra, and of course Christine Sierra, the blonde of the bunch. They were sisters all, and being that this was a special day for their family, the girls knew that much would be expected of them, and they wouldn’t want to disappoint their family.

They began to slowly dance to where Zoely stood, with Verona the oldest, with an incense burner began to spread the sweet smelling smoke, wafting it out to the whole dining room. Nathalia and Sicilia held on to vases of body oil mixed with pine as was the custom, while Alexandra played a melody on her pipes, and Christine ever the musician, followed on her lyre. They were dressed in nothing but thongs that covered their modesty, and a small see thru veil that loosely hung over their shoulders, that revealed their bodies, already glazed in oil, and left nothing to the imagination. On top of their heads, as was the custom for maenads, they wore crowns of ivy that completed the dress of a reveler.

As she watched them intently, Zoely, began to take off her suit, her tie, her shirt, her pants, her panties, until nothing was left to the imagination either on her body. After being out of the suit that was two sizes too big for her, Zoely, had a finely toned figure, and most people in the restaurant would have been surprised to know what lay beneath her suit. She was not to wear anything at all though, since it was the custom of the priestess who initiated, to be stark naked. The air conditioning in the restaurant blew across her body, and her nipples stiffened with anticipation.

As each girl moved passed Zoely, they in turn gave her an open faced kiss. Zoely would kiss one sister passionately as the other behind her would patiently wait her turn. When all five girls were present in front of Zoely, as was custom, Nathalia and Sicilia, began to rub oil from their vases into the skin of the presiding priestess of this ritual. When Zoely was satisfied, that the oil maenads had done their job, she thankfully but regrettably asked them to halt, and she turned her attention to the hypnotic participants.

They were five mothers, who gave birth to five daughters, and today was a special day for the ten of them. They would help celebrate the day of the mother of mothers, and they would serve her well. Speaking firmly to the participants, she had them wake up, but not wake up, because they were still in the domain of Lord Hypnos. They sat up, and at the word, the voice of their minds, the women, silently and blankly took off their shoes, then took off their tops, then took off their pants, then took off their underwear. Then they stood in uneasy anticipation, listening for any further instructions. Inga was displayed in all her natural pale body’s glory, with a few tattoos here and there on an otherwise flawless body. Tori was completely undone, her breast unbound, her mind open, and her body willing to move. Sasha despite being in her forties, was still in very good condition, her beautiful face blank like a painter’s canvas, her body only slightly mired from the ravages of time. As Zoely instructed them in their current state, when they did exactly what they were told to do, she decided to ask the question.

“Who is your voice?”, she asked.

“Our voice is your words that is our mind.”, they intoned back.

“Who do you praise with your voice?”

“We praise our mother.”

“You will love, and be loved back, you will kiss, and be kissed back.”

“We will kiss and we will love one another.”

Zoely looked towards the private area, in order to get the go ahead.

Catherine sighed, and picked up her glass of wine, that was made in her family’s vineyard, back at home. It seemed to be yet another successful Mother’s Day. It only needed to end with worship and reveling, that only befit a mother goddess. With all in agreement at the table, the various heads of the family, women of all sorts of shapes, ages, and sizes, it was agreed that the priestess could go on. Cath was surprised at Zoely, she didn’t expect very much from her, but no one really did. This year she was trusted to be head priestess of Cybele’s Day, the celebration her family celebrated ages and ages ago, even before memory of human history was known. She was a controversial choice, but Cath had stuck to her guns, and used her. She owned half the bars and restaurants in her family anyways, so she did have some clout. With a sip of her fine wine, she nodded her approval of the festivities.