The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [45]
Joe had seen hypnotism acts on the stage, and knew that part of the routine was to repeat a few words over and over again. He did not expect it to have any effect on Nora, although she was eminently suggestible.
The room was very quiet. A log shifted in the rustling flames. Virginia was leaning forward on the divan at Joe’s side. He could hear her breathing, and faintly trace her perfume.
‘Nora,’ he said, ‘Nora. You are asleep. Do what I tell you. Raise your right hand.’ Nora raised it too quickly. ‘Stand up.’ She stood up, tightening her lips against a smile. ‘Bark like a dog.’ Nora’s yaps trembled with suppressed giggles.
Joe ordered her to do a few simple things, and then told her to sing You Do Something To Me. It was the first song he thought of. It had been running in his head all day.
‘I can’t.’ Nora opened her other eye and put her hands on her hips. ‘I don’t know the words.’
Joe lowered the key and laughed, shaking his head to relieve the strain of staring.
‘Oh, you silly thing,’ Virginia said. ‘You weren’t hypnotized at all. You were pretending.’
‘No, no, I wasn’t. Honestly I wasn’t.’ Nora was determined to have been hypnotized. ‘I wasn’t trying to do what he said. I just had to. It was the funniest feeling. I feel funny all over. Feel me. I’m trembling.’ She put out her hand to Joe. ‘Honestly, darling, you are. Fancy you being able to do that. You’ve got powers. I’d be afraid to be in a dark room with you.’
Joe did not take her up on that. He turned to Virginia. ‘Let me try it with you; I might have more luck. Nora’s too jittery. She won’t concentrate.’
‘But I did! How can you say that? I was hypnotized. I really was. It wasn’t my fault I didn’t know the song. Try me again, Joey. I’ll bet you could make me do anything.’
‘No.’ He took Virginia’s hand, and put her in the chair. ‘Jinny’s turn.’
‘I’m going to get myself a drink then. I feel funny. My nerves need steadying.’ Nora went to the table at the other end of the room, and made a great deal of noise with the bottle and glasses, angry at being pushed from the centre of the stage.
‘Shut up over there,’ Joe said. ‘I must have quiet. Close your eye, Jinny. The left one. Now look at me. Look through the key. Do you see my eye? Look at my eye.’
Virginia sat upright and still, staring at him without a sound. ‘Look at me,’ Joe said. He was enjoying himself. He felt masterful. ‘Look at me, and you will go to sleep. You are going to sleep … to sleep … You can’t do anything but look at me. You can’t do anything but go to sleep. You are going to sleep.… You will do exactly what I tell you. Can you hear me? Can you hear what I am telling you?’
Virginia did not answer.
‘Raise your right hand.’
Virginia remained perfectly still, only her chest moving gently up and down.
‘She’s not trying,’ Derek grumbled. ‘Don’t spoil it, Jinny.’
‘Ssh!’ Joe waved a hand at him. ‘She’s going to sleep. You are going to sleep, Virginia. To sleep …’ Through the key, his eye saw her eye, brown pupil and green iris, broken by a triangle of light from the fire.
Something had happened. The other eye was open, and both were staring at him, and through him. He lowered the key, and her eyes did not move. She still sat upright, and yet her body was relaxed. Her hands lay limply in her lap. Her ankles were no longer crossed, but turned loosely, with one foot on its side.
God, did he really possess hypnotic powers after all? Joe was thrilled and afraid at the same time. He waved his hands in front of Virginia’s frozen face. She did not move.
*
Virginia was walking down a long, dark passage. At the end of it was a small circle of light, like the hole in a key. It grew larger, and the light brightened. As she drew near to it, she saw that the hole was a little door within a larger door. She stepped over the sill, and was in the garden, in sunshine.
It was evening. The sun was low, shining directly in front of her. She was in a kitchen