Busman's Holiday

a work in progress

iv

I emerged from the elevators at the lobby level just before six and came face to face with myself. Someone had been very busy, it seemed - the wall opposite the elevators held a life size cardboard cutout of me in my performance tux. Behind me was a crowd of people slumped into chairs, a cleverly made compilation of the volunteers from both shows so far. Above our heads floated words:

JACK TRANCER, Master Hypnotist

Last Show This Season, TONIGHT

"Isn't that cool?"

A short, stocky man in Bermuda shorts was making his way toward me with an excited look on his face. It took me a moment to recognize him. "Marv?"

"Damn straight, old buddy," he confirmed, pumping my hand with the enthusiasm of an overzealous salesman. "You didn't think I'd miss your grand finale, did you? You should hear some of the things people are saying, Jack. They love you!"

I shrugged. "It's nice to be appreciated."

Levy chortled and smacked me on the shoulder. "That's a good one," he said. "From what I hear, you're getting lots of appreciation from a couple of very hot little groupies." I started to object, but he cut me off. "Don't sweat it, Jack; we didn't ask you to sign a contract so there's no hands-off-the-guests clause. Wouldn't be one for you anyway, being a partner and all. You just gotta watch your ass, if you know what I mean."

I didn't - not fully, anyway - so I opted to change subjects. "I take it this was your idea?" I said, motioning to the cardboard cutout and the pictures.

"You got it. Nothing's too good for the guy who bailed me out." He glanced at his watch. "Look, Jack, I need to go do some stuff, but I gotta thank you for this. You really saved my ass."

The look on his face was so sincere that it moved me. "You're welcome, Marv. It's been a fun week."

He grinned. "Glad to hear it, buddy. Don't leave the island tomorrow without talking to me first, okay? Break a leg!"

The lobby was thick with people waiting to get into the dining room. Every table in the place was occupied. As I wove my way through the crowd I could see house staff hastily arranging chairs along the walls and setting up folding tables where they could find room.

Claire and Monica were already in place at our table, but as I drew closer I noticed that my seat was also occupied. From a distance all I could make out was a pair of beautifully shaped and tanned shoulders and a mass of flowing honey-colored hair. What the hell was she doing there?

Monica spotted me first just as I got within earshot. All three women turned and waved to me. "Can you believe this crowd?" Claire said, waving her hand at the room.

"It's impressive," I allowed. There were only three chairs at the table, so I stood in the space between Claire's seat and Monica's. "Good evening," I said to Ann. Her answering smile had a smug quality to it that made me just a little uneasy.

"We rescued Mistress Ann from the throng in the lobby," Monica explained. "Since you two know each other, we thought you wouldn't mind."

At that moment a hostess appeared with a fourth chair for me. I thanked her and sat down. "Not a bit," I confirmed. "I didn't realize you all knew each other."

"We didn't," Claire offered. "Not until this afternoon at the pool, anyway. But we're making up for lost time, aren't we?" The other two women concurred, and now all three had that knowing look on their faces.

So be it. I decided to ignore the look and see if the secret would surface on its own. The women dominated the conversation throughout dinner but kept the topics constrained to innocent things. In the end I had to leave the table no wiser than when I'd first sat down. Pushing the mystery to the back of my mind, I excused myself and headed for the green room.

One of Redman's techies spotted me as soon as I slipped through the first doorway. "Stu needs to talk to you, like, now," he said, pointing down the hall toward Redman's office.

That didn't sound good. I found Redman's office just in time to encounter Regan, the camera girl, and two other techs I didn't know filing it out. She acknowledged me with a bashful nod.

"Houston," Redman said wryly as he waved me in, "we have a problem."

I sat down and waited for him to explain.

"The biggest problem with this place," he began, "is that it's got enough space in the house to seat 500 people comfortably for a show but usually has closer to a thousand people actually staying here on any given night. Tonight there's about 1200 people in residence and two thirds of them at least are trying to get seats for the show."

"A nice problem to have, in some ways," I noted.

"Yeah," he agreed, "but most times it's a pain in the ass. Tonight I have to pull out all the stops. The food service crew is folding back leaves to make the tables smaller so they can cram more into the space and lining the walls with extra chairs. When they've packed every body they can into the room the staff is going to take room service orders for everyone else and send them back upstairs. My crew will have to pipe the show into the closed-circuit system so those people can watch it on TV."

I was starting to understand. "That changes things a bit."

"Yeah, I thought it might. I know you tend to talk to the stage people specifically and the audience specifically, so you'd better know there's going to be a third group of people who might be under as well."

I thought about my hypnotic spiral and induction patter getting piped into rooms all over the hotel. The user imagined people staring into the TV, relaxing, letting go . and enjoyed that image a little too much.

"Let's give the spiral a rest tonight," I suggested. "I'll do a different kind of induction."

Redman looked surprised. "Okay. What do you need?"

"Nothing. Just make sure there's enough walking room for people to get to and from the stage steps safely."

"Done."

Rudi was waiting for me in the green room with my lavaliere and hand mic. As usual, I lifted my shirt while she taped the wire to my skin. Partway through that process I heard the door open, followed by a lilting female voice. "I knew security in this place was tough, but nobody said anything about a strip search!"

The speaker was a young brunette with sparkling blue eyes and a slightly goofy expression. She wore a red sequined gown that clung tightly enough to her curves that I doubted she could hide anything under it. The overall look was classy, though. "It's a new policy," I deadpanned. "All performers are now wired with these remote electro shock systems. If you make an off-color joke, the stage manager presses a button and you get 5000 volts of immediate feedback."

She looked crestfallen. "There goes my whole act, then. I guess I'll just stand on stage having convulsions for fifteen minutes."

"In that dress," I retorted with a wink, "you'd still get great reviews."

"Well aren't you sweet?" she replied, her face expressing innocent pleasure. "I mean, in a lecherous sort of way."

I was starting to like this lady. "You humble me with your extravagant praise," I said with a mock bow. Then I offered my hand. "I'm Jack Torrance."

She took my hand a little doubtfully. "Janey Matullo. I'm opening for you. You're not going to break down my door with a hatchet later, are you?"

Another joke, so I replied in kind. "Wasn't planning on it. But it's early yet; the ghosts don't usually start speaking to me until after the show."

"That's all right, then." Before she could get out another line, Rudi handed her a cordless mic and pointed to the clock. "I have to go," Janey said. "But it was really nice bantering with you, Jack."

"Same here," I replied with a wink. "See you on stage."

I listened to most of Janey Matullo's act from the left wing. She was very good. Her voice had an innocent, sing-song quality to it that almost, but not quite, masked the humor in her words. People would hear her, then realize that what she'd said was not quite normal, and burst out laughing.

"There's a yellow light flashing at me from back there," she said, pointing to the light booth at the rear of the house. "That means I'm almost out of time. Either that, or something very large is about to turn left."

She let the laughter subside, then continued. "If you can read English, you already know that the main act tonight is that hypnotist fellow. Hypnotists are very interesting people. I dated a hypnotist once. At least, I think I only dated him once. There are a lot of nights after that I don't remember too well." She paused for the audience to quiet down again. "I met Jack backstage before the show tonight, so I can tell you truthfully that he's a very nice guy. He introduced himself, and we shook hands, and then I gave him my wallet, my hotel key, and my unlisted home phone number."

Janey stood stock still while the audience cheered and laughed. On the backstage monitor I could see that she was staring into the crowd. She let them fall silent and stared for another beat or two, her face showing total confusion. "Why was that funny?"

That sent them off again with an even louder roar. Janey broke into a sweet smile and giggled a little herself. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jack Trancer!"

The applause drowned out Rudi's transition music. I broke into a trot to catch Janey before she retreated so I'd have a chance to applaud her myself. She took her bow then waved at the crowd as she left the stage.

I could tell this crowd was ready to have fun, so I shortened my opening to just a few quick jokes and launched into my usual caveats about volunteering. "Having said all that," I concluded, "by show of hands, how many think they would like to be part of the show tonight?"

Hands shot up all over the room from a good two thirds of the audience. "Wow," I told them, "that's amazing. I'm humbled that so many of you want to participate tonight. As you can see behind me, though, I only have about eighteen chairs. So rather than have a mad dash for the few chairs I have to offer, let's have everyone try a little exercise first. I'd like to ask everyone right now, whether you intend to come up here tonight or not, to participate in this. Yes, even you skeptics. If we all do it together, then nobody looks more foolish than anybody else." I let them chuckle and shift for a moment.

"Now I'd like everyone to please put both of your hands straight out in front of you like this." I extended my arms to show them. "Turn your left hand so that the palm faces up and your right hand so the palm faces down. Now everyone close your eyes and take a nice, deep, slow breath. Breathe in all the way. That's it. Hold it. And now breathe out, easily and slowly, and feel how your body relaxes a little as you do. That's great.

"Now I want you to imagine that with your left hand you are holding the handle of an empty bucket. Feel the texture of the handle in your hand. Notice the size of the bucket, the weight of the empty bucket, maybe what the bucket is made of. And as you focus your attention completely on that bucket, imagine that I dump into the bucket a big handful of lead fishing weights, enough weights to cover the bottom of the bucket and make it suddenly feel heavier in your hand. Now I drop another big handful of lead weights into your bucket, making it heavier.

"And as you feel the weight increasing in the bucket, I'd like you to turn your attention to your right hand. Imagine that I'm placing a loop of string around your right hand, and that the string is tied to a big, bright, round, helium balloon. This balloon is huge; at least a foot or two in diameter, and it's in your favorite color. The helium in the balloon makes it tug at your hand because it wants to float up and fly away. Feel it pulling and lifting, the string firmly looped around your hand, holding it."

The house lights came up a little bit to let me see more clearly. Almost everyone was showing at least a little bit of sag in their left hands and rise in their right. A good number of them were responding well, with a couple of inches of change. Over the next minute or so I added more balloons to the right side and more weights to the left, encouraging them to feel the weight, feel the pulling and tugging and lifting, imagine it fully. As I talked to them, I saw arms rising into the air and sinking down to the floor. Soon I had at least fifty people with their arms pointing almost straight up and down -- including, I was amused to note, all three of the women at my table.

"All right, everyone, now I'd like you to open your eyes and see how powerful your minds really are." There was a pause as people looked around at each other, then a slowly building wave of applause. Still a good number of hands remained in the air. "If your hands feel like they're still holding the bucket and balloons, it's okay to just let go. The bucket will fall away and the balloon string will slide right off your hand right now." All hands went down and there was another round of applause.

"That was a very well-known test of hypnotic ability," I explained. "Notice that I said 'ability,' not 'susceptibility.' Going into hypnosis is a skill that you have, something that your mind can do, not something that I do to you. If you're willing and open to the experience, we can have a lot of fun together exploring what your mind can do. If you're not, you can still have fun watching those who do come up and that's perfectly fine, too.

"I noticed that at the end of that exercise a lot of you had your arms like this." I put one arm straight up and the other straight down to demonstrate. "You are the people that truly make this show work, and you are the kind of people I need up here. So now I'm going to ask those of you who responded well to the first test -- those whose arms were separated by at least a foot --" again I demonstrated "-- to try a second exercise.

"This one you can do with your eyes open. I'd like you to extend your arms in front of you again like this, with your palms facing each other about a foot apart. Watch your hands closely. Focus on the sensations you're feeling in your palms right now. Imagine that right now, you can feel a sort of suction forming in the space between your palms. Feel that suction pulling at your palms, pulling your hands together. Imagine that suction drawing your hands together, getting stronger and stronger, pulling, stronger and stronger, your hands getting closer and closer together. As your hands get closer together the suction gets stronger and stronger. Stronger and stronger, closer and closer, until suddenly the pulling is so powerful that your hands just come together right now."

A good sixty or seventy people were now sitting in the audience with their hands clasped together, many of them looking very surprised. "And now imagine that the powerful suction locks your hands together. Locks them together so tightly that it is impossible to pull them apart. No matter how hard you try to pull your hands apart they stay locked together, stuck together. The harder you try to pull them apart the more they are locked together. Try now to pull them apart and feel them lock together even more tightly." All over the room I saw shoulders and elbows twitching as people tried unsuccessfully to separate their hands. "Stop trying now. Stop trying and let your hands stay locked together."

I had plenty of excellent prospects to work with. "Now," I announced, "I'm going to need two guys with good reflexes and strong arms. Preferably from near the front so you can get up here quickly. Do I have any volunteers?" A bunch of hands went up, some singly and some clasped in pairs. I selected two guys whose hands were clasped together and asked them to join me on stage. After separating their hands, I learned that their names were Gary and Steve.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Gary and Steve are going to help me select volunteers. Right now, if your hands are still locked together; if you're okay with participating in nudity and adult content; if you're sober and have a good sense of humor; if you have an open mind and want to participate in the show tonight, then please make your way carefully and safely to the stairs on this side of the stage."

While the line formed, I muted the lavaliere and gave Gary and Steve their instructions. "For this to work best, I want people whose hands are really solidly locked together. Go ahead and test them; take their forearms gently and try to push their hands apart. If they budge a little and then resist, or if they separate, thank the person for coming up and tell them to go back to their seat. If their arms don't move, bring them up to me. I'll do an instant induction and drop them into a deep trance. You might have to catch them, so be ready. Once you have them, guide them to a chair and make sure they're seated safely, then go back to the line and test the next person. Fill the back row first, then the front row. Got it?" Both men nodded their assent.

Gary brought me my first volunteer, a pretty brunette in a low-cut black sheath dress. "Look right here," I ordered, pointing to my eyes. My right hand I lifted her clasped hands high while my left took a ready position near her elbow. "Let your eyes become heavy, droopy, drowsy. Heavier and heavier." She began to blink heavily and lose focus. "When I count to three your hands will separate and drop to your sides. One, two, three -- sleep!" At three I pulled her sharply forward and down with my right hand. She tipped forward and went limp as I caught her.

"That's great," I said, "Relaxing completely. Able to stand straight and tall, straight and tall, while your mind goes deeper and deeper." I stood her up and she managed to stay that way. "Now in a moment you're going to feel my assistant Gary take your right arm. When he touches your arm I want you to open your eyes and let Gary lead you to a chair. Once you sit in the chair your eyes can close and you can go a thousand times deeper." I gestured to Gary. He came forward and shepherded the woman to a seat.

Steve brought up the next prospect, a bookish-looking guy in a Hawaiian shirt. I repeated the process on him and sent him with Steve. Things went smoothly as we filled the seats, until Gary brought up volunteer number fifteen. I froze for a second when I came face to face with Monica.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, suddenly nervous.

Her eyes captured mine. "I'm sure. Go ahead."

There really wasn't time to discuss it. Putting my nerves aside, I dropped Monica the same way as the others and finished the rest of the inductions.

"For all of the people on stage now," I said after dismissing the rest of the line. "I'm going to talk to the audience for a few minutes. As I do that, I want you to just let yourselves relax and drift. Let your minds wander and let any thoughts that come into your minds just slip right out again. Each breath you take relaxes you more and more and sends you deeper into hypnosis. When you hear the audience applaud you will know they are applauding for you, and that knowledge will send you even deeper.

"Now for all of you in the audience who still have your hands stuck together, in a moment I'm going to count to three. When I reach the count of three your hands will separate all by themselves and become completely normal again. You can then give a round of applause for our volunteers on stage, and for Gary and Steve for helping us get them there. One, two, three."

I let the crowd applaud while I looked over my volunteers. As my eyes fell over the slumping figure of Monica in the front row, I knew this was going to be a challenging show in more ways than one.

*** Work in Progress ***

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4