Chapter 14

"Well?" Charles asked as they sat themselves down in the reading area of the school library. "What did you think?"

"I'm impressed," Connie said in reply, gazing intently into Charles' face. "I'm not happy with making Amy prance around half naked, but I have to admit that the experiment showed results. The question is, are they permanent?"

"Yes," replied Charles with confidence. "If a girl was to walk topless through the school in the near or distant future, everyone would now react just like they did a few minutes ago. In fact, if a girl went topless outside the school then every person here today who saw her, would react accordingly. The change is behaviour specific not site specific, if you understand what I mean"

"So what did you do?" Connie asked, ignoring Charles last statement.

"I reprogrammed them!" Charles replied bluntly.

"You reprogrammed them?" Connie asked, her face reflecting her surprise.

"Yeah," Charles grinned in response. "Yesterday I went for a walk after you had left and I reflected on what Clyde had done, and what we had achieved. Somehow, the image of a computer being rebooted in 'safe mode' came to mind. I thought to myself that everyone was like a computer. We had rebooted them but it was missing operating instructions. So I did some experiments on some women in a neighbourhood park and after some trials, I concluded we could reprogram people to react to specific situations."

"Really," Connie muttered, nodding her head as she listened. "Tell me about these experiments."

So for the next fifteen minutes Charles sat across from Connie and told her about what he had done at the park. He did however leave out any mention about how people responded to him even after being reprogrammed. At the moment, Charles felt Connie didn't need to worry about it, although he knew that they would be talking about it soon.

"Okay," Connie said thoughtfully as Charles came to the end of his tale, "and you used these findings to reprogram Jennifer and Anna Taylor?"

"Yes," Charles said with a nod, "along with my parents, sister, and Mrs. Taylor."

"Wow!" declared Connie aloud, her face reflecting both her amazement and her disbelief. That look lasted but for a moment, then as suddenly as it had appeared, it faded away. A second later Connie was sitting back in her seat, and staring blankly into space. Her face clouded over for a moment and tears started to run down her cheeks.

Charles reached out and held her hand again.

"Sorry," Connie said in apology after a couple of minutes, brushing her tears away as she spoke, "what you've done is marvellous. It's the best thing that I've heard since this horrible thing started, and it certainly offers us some hope. We might not be able to break the slave / master relationship but maybe with some work, we can give people back their lives."

"I never asked how things went last night," Charles inquired softly. "Is everything okay?"

"Things are as well as they can be considering how fucked up things are." Connie stated with a sniffle. "I contacted the police and they came and took Bert's body away. They didn't even ask me what had happened. The weird thing was that my mother spent the day cleaning the house and not once did she try to move his body. She just ignored it. Even after we commanded everyone to go back to their life, freeing them from Clyde's commands, she ignored Bert's body. I found her folding laundry naked."

"I'm sorry," Charles said sympathetically, squeezing her hand gently as he spoke.

"Don't be..." Connie replied, forcing herself to smile at Charles. "What happened yesterday happened and it wasn't your fault. Besides, what you've done with your experiments has given me hope. Maybe, one day, my mother will realize that Bert is dead and she will grieve for him."

"Hopefully, that day will come soon," Charles said, pursing his lips as a thought came to him.

"What is it?" Connie asked upon seeing Charles' face.

"Just a thought," Charles said in an off hand manner, "something that I'd like to confirm. You see so far, I've done my experiments by myself or with me holding your hand. You've never done one by yourself. I'd like you to try and I have a specific test in mind. You see, I'm concerned that if I make a change that whatever I've done will prevent you from doing any future changes and the same with me if you do some reprogramming."

"Okay," Connie said slowly, her face showing a touch of confusion, "and who do you have in mind to test this on?"

"Well, Ms. Reed, the librarian is a lesbian," Charles said, glancing towards the woman who was currently restocking the shelves with books that had been returned. "However, I'd bet you a million dollars that if I walked over to her right now and groped her, she wouldn't even blink an eye. So, I want you to reprogram her for me. I want you to make her remember that she's a lesbian and that she prefers sex with women only. In fact, I remember overhearing a couple of teachers last year saying that she was rabid about things like bisexual females. They said she couldn't stand bisexual women at all. She actually considered them traitors."

"Okay, so you want me to turn her into a hard core dyke then," Connie asked, raising an eyebrow as she asked her question. It was obvious that she wasn't happy with the idea.

"Well, she was a lesbian before and quite open about it," Charles reminded Connie, "so you'd only be returning her to her true nature. However, you don't have to make her rabid. If you want to make her bisexual then so be it. What is important is three things: one is that she is gay and very gay at that, two is that public displays of affection at school are not cool, and three, regardless of whether you make her hard core or bisexual, I want you to program her not to allow me to touch her sexually. That is sexual harassment and abuse, both legally and morally wrong. Do you understand?"

"Sure," Connie replied, giving Charles a look, 'although I think you're going a little overboard. Do you want to hold my hand again?"

"No," answered Charles, drawing his hands away from Connie's. "I want you to do this without me being in the loop. Besides, you're only manipulating one person so the pain should be slight."

"Alright then, here goes!" Connie said. She gave Charles a quick smile and then turned and faced Ms. Reed. As she did, she closed her eyes and started to think. She stayed that way for about three to four minutes. After that, she opened her eyes and smiled.

"Done," Connie declared firmly, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," replied Charles with a grin. "I barely felt it. Now, let's move on with the experiment."

Charles took a moment and looked around the library. Fortunately, there was another female teacher in the library. The woman was Mrs. Hawke. While Ms. Reed was tall, athletic, and blonde with an inclination towards slacks and blouses, Mrs. Hawke was shorter, fuller in shape, slightly older, and Afro-American. Charles smiled upon seeing her.

Silently, he reached over and took hold of Connie's hand once more.

"Watch this!" Charles said before turning his attention back towards Mrs. Hawke.

One minute Mrs. Elizabeth Hawke was sitting reading a magazine and the next she was up out of her seat. Silently, she looked about the library. She ignored Charles and Connie, acting as if they weren't there. Then spotting Ms. Reed bent over a trolley of books, she approached her. Then when she was standing behind Ms. Reed, Mrs. Hawke reached out and ran her hand across the other woman's ass.