Chapter 11

“So, thank you for having me,” Sal told Claire, her eyes dancing with real mischief as she noticed how tense and awkward Mrs. Dunphy was.

“Yes, well, it’s high time that we made peace, right? You’re close to Mitch and Cam, so that should matter, right?” Claire answered, her hands shaking with her latest cigarette craving.

Why hadn’t anyone, in all of these hypnotic sessions, bothered to rid her of her nicotine addiction? What could be done about that? Maybe it was the wrong people to do the hypnosis. Maybe she should let someone like Mitch or Cam do it. Maybe. Or maybe Manny again. He seemed cool enough. Or maybe Lily. Yes, yes, what to do about this?

“Speak of the Devil, here they are,” Phil announced as Mitch and Cam indeed showed up with Lily, their adopted daughter, in tow.

“Well, well, well ... look who the cat dragged in!” Cam teased Sal, hugging her like an old girlfriend.

“Yeah, like you want any of this pussycat!” Sal winked at Cam, fake-flirting with him.

“Um, yeah, sorry, but I’m strictly a wiener dog guy!” Cam chuckled, making Mitch roll his eyes a bit there.

Most ladies wouldn’t bother flirting with a flamboyantly gay man like Cam, but Sal did it for laughs as always. Mitch was more of the fussy kind of homosexual, anal-retentive to a fault, very much a gay male Claire in some respects. It was anyone’s guess who was Top or bottom, nah, who were they kidding ... Cam was far too lazy to ever Top. Mitch was far too much the control freak to ever bottom, either.

That was when Jay and Gloria showed up, not to mention Manny, who Luke gave the side eye even now for the whole placebo pills incident. Maybe the “don’t blame Manny” deal never quite took with him. The rest of them treated Manny just as usual, of course, except maybe with a little more respect and an active resistance to blaming him for anything. Lucky Manny could probably get away with murder, if so inclined, except where it came to Luke.

“So, are we ready to begin? To what do we owe this pleasure, anyway?” Mitch dared to ask now.

“Well, it was kinda our idea,” Alex spoke up now.

“Yeah, Alex’s and mine. And maybe Luke’s a little bit,” Hailey agreed, putting Luke on the spot, too.

Luke scowled at them, thinking, if I’m not getting the fun here, don’t drag me into more of your games. He love the chores, panties, etc., but he wished to have more of a role in things. A little more say in things like who he could spank and who could spank him, that sort of thing. Maybe even get a blowjob out of that, or at least a handjob, right?

“Anyway, it occurred to us that this ... hypnosis business is a bit ... selfishly done of late. So we want to fix it and make it work for the greater good,” Alex fibbed a bit, not mentioning that her own idea of the greater good might amuse her a bit.

Well, Hailey had conditioned her to be more like her, hadn’t she? It wasn’t Alex’s fault that her personality had become a bit more vain and narcissistic, was it? Now if Alex could just ... tweak a few more things, the whole family would dance to her tune, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately for Alex, while she thought, someone else acted.

“Yes, maybe the best choice for that would be my brother, Mitch, or his husband, my favorite brother-in-law, Cam,” Claire buttered her brother and his hubby up a bit, not keen to trust whatever Alex and Hailey did ... they had abused their power far too much, she could sense without proof.

After all, she STILL wanted to smoke.

“Okay, what’s all this about hypnosis? Do tell, girlfriend!” Sal licked her lips at the thought.

“Yeah, well, maybe the problem is that it’s been the wrong people in control. Maybe someone who’s never done the hypnosis before, and not Mitch or me. Mitch, you don’t need that extra stress and you know it. This could relieve you of that. And as for me, well, you know what a goofy, silly queen I can be at times. What about Lily? How about it? I think that we can trust Lily? Let’s write down our notes, our requests, and then Lily, would you do that for us? Before or after supper?” Cam asked.

“Sure, Daddy, but let’s eat first. I don’t get so busy that I end up with a growling stomach from spending so much time helping others,” Lily smiled innocently, hiding her glee at the idea, “besides, that will give you time to write down all of your requests.”

The truth was that Lily wanted to use that time while eating to devise her plans for the whole family, one that she would entirely control by the end of it. She would have them all doing what she liked, even Daddy and Dad. Yes, yes, she could have so much fun with this, especially now as a teenager.

The supper was enjoyable, even with Claire’s obsession with healthy and wholesome food. There was plenty of company and Alex and Hailey were able to use their powers in subtle ways to be allowed the use of wine to drink with dinner. They even helped win points with Luke by getting Mom and Dad to let him drink, which led to Gloria insisting that Manny should be able to drink wine as well.

“Well, that is very European, very sophisticated,” Phil noted, sucking up to Gloria for some reason, probably due to their repressed mutual attraction.

“I quite agree, though I’d never let Sammy drink at his age, of course,” Sal lied ... she had in fact let Sammy drink a couple of times, but just a little whiskey with his juice or milk to calm him down.

It was amazing how helpful a single-malt Scotch could be toward that end, particularly a twelve-year old import such as Sal favored of late. Hell, it calmed her down now that she was back off the wagon. She had naturally lied a bit to Claire about cutting back. She was back at the drinking, but so far still hadn’t failed her maternal duties, of course.

Then came time for the hypnosis, with Claire really hoping that she had put her fate in the hands of the right person for once. Alex and Hailey couldn’t be trusted, not even Manny, let alone Luke. It was down to Lily ... Why were they giving so much power to the youngsters, anyway? Maybe it was because they were somehow too young and dumb to do as much harm? That could be it, right?