"Oh, look Red! Lizzie exclaimed. "It's a hypnotist, let's go in and watch." She pulled a clearly reluctant Red behind her.
He tried to tug her back, but she held on to his hand tighter and pulled him along. "This is all just a scam, Lizzie. There are people planted in the audience they pick to 'hypnotize'."
He turned to look at her and the pure joy on her face at the prospect of watching this show was his undoing. He gave up any resistance then, anything to make her happy.
They no sooner had found their seats and the show was starting, since Red had absolutely no interest in watching this charlatan play with the audience, he concentrated on Lizzie. She was enraptured with the scene playing out before her. Her lips were parted and her beautiful blue eyes wide. He could watch her forever.
Red was vaguely aware of the man sifting through the crowd looking for his planted mark, when the man was suddenly in front of him and said loudly for the crowd. "You sir, would you care to put yourself in my capable hands?"
Red looked up with a haughty air, his intention to get rid of him, only to have Lizzie squeal with delight next to him. With a heavy sigh he acquiesced, the things he did for her.
The hypnotist led Red up to the front of the room and had him sit facing the audience."Your name sir?"
"Bob." He was impatient to get this over with so he could go back and sit with Lizzie.
"Now sir, look at my finger, concentrate on my finger, nothing else, just my finger." He held his finger in front of Red's face for a minute until he was sure he was entirely focused.
"Your eyes are getting heavy now, don't resist, just let them fall closed." His voice was soft and almost singsong in cadence.
"Ok, relax all of your muscles, breathe deeply," He picked up Red's arm and shook his wrist, then let it drop. It fell like a wet rag, Red was completely under hypnosis.
"Where is the woman he was here with?" He held his hand over his eye to see into the audience and saw Liz raise her hand. "Since you came here with him, would you like to pick out a random word or phrase you want him to say when prompted?"
Liz was beyond excited imagining all the ways she could embarrass Red, a sudden thought causing a burst of giggles. "How about, You are beautiful Lizzie?"
The hypnotist laughed, loving how into this she seemed. "Are you Lizzie?" At her nod, he asked. "Would you also like to choose the trigger word?"
She was almost too excited to think. It had to be something not said often so that he wasn't saying it when she wasn't there. "Peaches and cream."
The hypnotist gave the instructions to the unconscious 'Bob' and then told him to wake up with a snap of his fingers. "How are you feeling Bob?"
Red looked around perplexed for a moment before he recovered. "Fine, are we going to do this?"
The hypnotist laughed with the audience. "We are done sir, you are free to go back to your seat." As Red got up, the man said, "Peaches and cream,"
Red automatically said, "You are beautiful Lizzie." Unaware that he had just said anything, he went and sat next to Lizzie. "See, I told you it was all fake."
Liz was doing her best to stifle her laughter throughout the rest of the show. The hypnotist would say 'Peaches and cream' every once in a while and Red would dutifully say his line to the uproarious laughter of the audience. She was definitely going to buy a recording of the show.