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"Did it ever," she said, her smile only half amused

"I was hypnotized?"

That seemed to break the tension Everybody seemed to talk at once

"I’ll be daoodness," said Elizabeth Ron shook his head wonderingly

"Were you really hypnotized?" Elsie asked There was very little distrust left in her voice

"I guess I was," I said

"You know it," Phil said, unable to stop grinning

I looked at Anne again "I really was?" I asked

"If you weren’t, you’re the best little actor I ever saw," she said

"I never saw anything like it," Ron said quietly

"How do you feel?" Phil asked me and I knew, from the way he said it, it was a loaded question

"How should I feel?" I asked, suspiciously

Phil forced down his grin "A little hot?" he asked

Suddenly, I realized that I was hot I ran my hand over my forehead and rubbed aeat I felt as if I’d been sitting in the sun too long

"What did you do-set fire to hed out loud "We tried," he said, "but you wouldn’t catch" Then he calmly told me that, while I was stretched out like a board between two kitchen chairs, he’d sat on hter flaaping at hiht," he said, laughing, delighted at his success I looked over at Anne again

"This happened?" I asked, weakly She got up, s down she put her arm around me

"You sure are a dandy subject, love," she said Her voice shook a little when she said it Tenaround the kitchen table, discussing my hypnotism I must say it was the first time I’d ever heard an animated discussion in Elsie’s house

"I didn’t," I said, laughing

"You sure did" Anne ain, telling us about somebody named Joey Ariola who must have been a beast from the way you talked about hily "I’ll be daht you’d forgotten," Phil said

"Oh I don’t believe anybody can re it up or soo back a lot farther than that," Phil told her "There are authenticated cases where subjects go back to prenatal days"

"To what?"

"To before they were born"

"Oh" Elsie turned her head halfway to the side again Now that the vision of me stretched calcified between two of her kitchen chairs was beginning to fade, she was regaining dissent

"That’s right," Phil said "And there’s Bridey Murphy"

"Who?" asked Elsie

"A woirl in her previous life"

"Oh that’s silly," Elsie said Everybody was quiet for a ed at Phil

"It’s not time yet," Phil said

"Time for what?" I asked

"You’ll see," Phil told ot up and went over to the stove "Who wants er, then let it go

"What else did I say when I was-I ain?" I asked Anne She ss," she said "About your father and-your mother About a bike you wanted that had a foxtail on the handlebars"

"Oh, hted at the sudden recollection "I remember that Lord, hoanted that bike"

"I wanted so else when I elve," said Frank

I noticed how Elizabeth looked down at her coffee, her pale red lips pressed together Everything about Elizabeth was pale; the shade of her lipstick, the blond of her hair, the colour of her skin She seemed, in a way, to be partially vanished

"I wasn’t after any bike at twelve," Frank said

"Man, we knohat you were after," I said, trying to make it sound like the joke that Frank had not intended it to be "What else did I talk about?" I asked Anne before Frank could say anyover at Phil Phil pressed down a grin-as did Frank Elsie calazed cakes

"Well, I don’t think it’s going to happen," she said "It’s already eleven"

"What’s that?" I asked

"Let’s see," Anne said as if I hadn’t spoken, "you talked about your sister and-about your roo"

For a second I rey head onat me

"What’s the joke?" I asked, because there was one obviously "Why are you all looking like cats ed the mice?"

At which point I took off erator I turned to face their explosion of laughter For aabout Then, suddenly, I realized what I’d just done I opened the refrigerator and peered in at my dark shoe placed neatly beside a covered bowl of peas

"What’d you do that for?" Phil asked, innocently

"I don’t know," I said "I-just wanted to, I guess Why shouldn’t-?" I stopped abruptly and looked at Phil accusingly "You cruave lory again

"He told you," Elsie declared "You knew just what you were doing"

"No, I didn’t," I said

"You did so," said Elsie, pettishly

"Say," said Frank, "what if Toave her the post-hypnotic command to-oh, well, never mind, my wife doesn’t like that kind of talk Do you, Lizzie old girl?"

"He’s always htness Her sive estions, you idiot," I said Phil shook his head with a smile

"Nope," he said, "that’s all, brother man It’s over" Famous last words