Chapter 1

"When I count to 3 you'll wake up and remember nothing of what happened here today. Do you understand?"

"Yes," came the dreamy reply.

"1. 2. 3."

The older lady sitting in front of me opened her eyes and looked around, as if to reorient herself.

"Was I really hypnotized?" she asked.

"Yes, you were."

"Was anything accomplished?" she asked.

"I'll know more when we meet for our next appointment, which will be," I checked my appointment book sitting in front of me, "in 2 weeks."

"Am I to do anything special until then?"

"No. Just go about your daily life. I've planted some triggers in your mind, but it doesn't necessarily mean any of them will be used. Have no fear though. Nothing will happen that will embarrass you at all."

"You're sure of that?"

"Very sure. Now go on home and relax. By the time you get there you should be quite relaxed and ready for something to eat. Do what you would do during the day. Go to bed at your usual time, get up and go about your day and just enjoy life. Take it one day at a time and I'll see you in 2 weeks." I got up from the chair behind my desk and went around to give her a hug, as I always do for all my patients.

She looked at me, questionly, almost like she had something else to say but thought better of it. She got her coat off the hook by the door, put it on, opened the door and exited my office. I wouldn't see her again until her next appointment, but I'd hear about the two weeks to come from the next person to enter my office, coming in from the side office, where the mirror was two- way and he could see everthing that had transpired.

"So," I began, "Do you think it all went well?"

"I'll wait to see how the next two weeks go before I answer that question," he answered, as he sat down in the chair previously occupied by my last appointment, Mrs. Samantha Wilson. Sam, as she always wanted me to call her, is one of the wealthiest women in Henderson County, having inherited her wealth from her daddy when he passed away almost 30 years ago. She'd never married and lived a spartan life in a small 2 bedroom home she'd owned all her adult life. She has no family, being an only child. All the relatives she one had have long since passed away, expanding her wealth with each death. I've known her for almost 25 years and I still have no idea just how much she's worth and, quite frankly, I'm not at all interested in knowing.

James Beech sat and crossed his legs and withdrew a pack of Pall Mall cigerettes from his shirt pocket and I reminded him that there was no smoking in my office, or in the building where my office is for that matter. He put the pack back into his pocket and instead reached into a pocket in his pants and pulled out a pack of DoubleMint gum.

"Do you mind if I chew?" he asked.

"Not at all," I replied.

James is an older gentleman himself. At the age of 72 he still looks like he could be on the college football team he once led to the state championships 50 years ago. He stands just over 6' tall and I'd guess weighs in at around 280 pounds. He's also as black as the Ace of Spades and talkes like the educated man he is.

"Are your sure all your triggers will work?" he asks, smacking his DoubleMint.

"They always have, so I'm quite sure that they will this time, as well. All you have to do is remember what they are and the rest is then up to you."

"Do you know what the most amazing this is to me?" he asks.

I had an idea, but asked the question he wanted me to anyway.

"And what would that be?"

"It's the fact she's still a virgin! A virgin at 75! That's got to be some sort of record, don't you think?"

"I'm pretty sure it is," I replied.

Reaching into his back pocked he pulled out his billfold and began to pull out the large denomination bills, counting as each one

was removed. By the time he finished, he'd counted out over $5,000.

"That's our agreed price," he stated, as he got up from his seat and reached out and handed me the money.

I knew that if I recounted it in front of him he'd be offended, so I contained myselfand didn't. Instead I opened my center drawer and deposited the cash there.

I stood up, reached across the desk, and we shook hands, having concluded our business. Now all I could do was wait for the next 2 weeks to end and for Sam to make her next visit to my office.