Hypnotized and Humiliated - Chapter 2 Part 1 of 2

Hypnotized and Humiliated

By Karen Singer

Chapter 2 Part 1 of 2

Marian was a few minutes later getting to work than she intended to be the next morning.  She was usually among the first to arrive, and more often than not, the very first.  But that morning, even though she was trying to hurry because of her worry over Phillip, it seemed that everything was against her.  The coffee shop she stopped at was packed and slowed her down, and without a doubt, all the slow drivers and all the traffic lights seemed to be against her.  By the time she got to the office, not only was Phillip there already, but so was half of her office staff.  She didn’t know if she should be surprised or not to see that Phillip was still sucking his thumb.  On the one hand, the tiny bit of hypnotism that she had done with him yesterday should have worn off by now.  But on the other hand, she had noticed how quickly and deeply he had gone into his trance yesterday, which would only make the compulsions that much deeper and last that much longer. 

Setting her purse down on her desk, she headed straight for Phillip.  She had to fix him back to normal – now!

“Marian,” Vivian said, seeing her heading for Phillip and fearing what she was most likely going to do, “can I talk to you for a second?”

“Can it wait a minute,” Marian asked.  “I need to fix… something.”

“No!” Vivian insisted as she got up from her seat.  “We need to talk right now!”  Not waiting for a reply, she headed straight for the little break room where they could speak more privately. 

Rolling her eyes at the interruption, Marian followed.  “What’s the problem?” she asked the moment the door was closed.

“Are you thinking of putting Phillip back to normal again?”

“Absolutely!” Marian replied.  “I meant to do it last night but he was gone before I got back.”

Vivian shook her head.  “Don’t!  Leave him like that!   The sap deserves it and a whole lot more… and every one of us is loving the heck out of it.”

“It’s not right,” Marian said softly.  “I’ve got to set him back to normal.”

Before Vivian could argue, the door opened again and Felicia came in.  “He’s still sucking his thumb!” she said with a giggle.  “I can’t believe it!”

“I’m just about to put a stop to that!” Marian replied.

“No!  Don’t!” Felecia exclaimed.  “I’m loving seeing him doing it.  And I know the others are too.  And all I can think about every time I watch him now is that the jerk deserves it!  To tell the truth, I wish you’d do something to him to make things even worse for him.”

“I’ll second that!” Vivian replied.  “Please leave him!  We all want him left that way!”

Marian looked back and forth between the two women.  And once again she caved to their wishes.  “Well… maybe just for today again.  He’s not getting a whole lot of work done now, but I guess we can still manage.”  She didn’t know if she should be surprised or not at the looks of delight she got from the two women in front of her.  Five minutes later, she had no doubt that the emails were probably flying between all her employees… her female employees anyway.  Poor Phillip just looked miserable – with his thumb firmly stuck in his mouth.  Oh well.  She checked the jobs that had been emailed to their department overnight and distributed them to her workers where she thought they needed to go.  Then she picked up a file folder from the pile on her desk and got to work.

Phillip was miserable.  More than miserable.  Not only because he couldn’t stop sucking his thumb, and not only because he had been forced by circumstances to do it now in all too many places, but now because his mouth was so incredibly tired from the constant sucking.  His mouth was basically exhausted.  But the moment he took his thumb out of his mouth for any reason at all, the horrible anxiety nearly drove him mad… forcing him to put his thumb back into his mouth again and suck on it – hard!  It was the only relief he could get from the anxiety.  If he didn’t figure out how to stop it soon, he was determined to call himself a doctor today.  Somebody good who could really help him.  And he figured that if anyone needed help… it was him!

He had another problem looming now as well, his girlfriend Sandy would be back in town soon.  He had to get himself cured before she came back!

Morning break came and Marian found herself in the small break area with Vivian, Felecia, Courtney, and Ashley.  And no surprise, the big topic of the day was Phillip and the fact that he was still sucking his thumb. 

“I still think you should make him do something else humiliating along with his thumb,” Felicia said as they sat around the table with their coffee.

“I couldn’t agree more!” Vivian added. 

“It’s not right!” Marian insisted.  “I should never have done that to him in the first place!”

“I for one am glad you did,” Vivian replied.  “And I’d like to see him saddled with something even worse too.  Something even more humiliating.”

“Like what?” Courtney asked.

“I don’t know.  Just something… really humiliating I guess.  I can’t help but think he deserves it.”

“I stopped by Leanne’s house last night,” Ashley told them, “and she not only wasn’t home again, but now her house is up for sale.  I haven’t seen or heard from her since she left.”

“I’ve been trying to check on Terry too,” Courtney added, “and she hasn’t been around either.”

“What did he do to them to make things that bad?” Vivian asked angrily.  “Leanne and Terry were the best of us.  Even Gwen went to them looking for answers!”

Marian remembered that Gwen was the woman who held her supervisor position before she did.  The woman’s husband had landed a job out in Hawaii, and no surprise, she had gone with him.  Lucky girl!  Thinking about Hawaii though, almost made her miss the question that Vivian was now asking.

“If we come up with something good to do to him, will you do it?” Vivian asked.

Marian blinked in astonishment before she replied.  “I don’t…”

“Please!” Felecia pleaded.

“Pretty please!” Courtney echoed.

Marian shook her head.  “Probably not!” she replied.

But that gave Vivian room to pounce.  “You said probably!  So if we come up with something really interesting, maybe you will do it?”

Marian could only stare back at her in shock.  Shaking her head she got up from her seat.  “I’ve got to get back to work,” she said before she walked out.  She hadn’t caved again, had she?  No, she hadn’t!

“What’s some good ideas?” Felecia asked the moment Marian was gone and the door was closed.

Together, the women all looked out the glass window at Phillip – still sucking his thumb.  “He looks like such a baby doing that,” Ashley noted.

“A big baby!” Courtney agreed.

“We need to come up with something even worse for him,” Courtney suggested.

Vivian turned toward the women.  “No!  We need to come up with something that will go right along with what he’s doing now!”

Just the thought of having to make the long trek through the hallways down to the men’s room made Phillip put that little problem off as long as he could.  But there was no way he could put it off forever – unfortunately.  The need to head in that direction had been building in him all morning, and he hadn’t even gotten his usual cup of coffee at break time.  With little choice… and his thumb stuck firmly in his mouth, he got up from his desk.  He knew all the women were watching him.  He absolutely hated that!  But they had all seen him sucking his thumb so it would be nothing new to them. 

He walked determinedly to the door and out into the hallway… and increased his speed to about as fast as he was capable of walking.  He got lucky, he only saw one other person along the way and he did his best to ignore the wide eyed looks the guy was giving him as he hurried past… straight into the men’s room… and straight into one of the stalls where he wouldn’t be seen.  Whew!  Taking care of business there took much longer than usual, but not long enough since he was now forced to face the long trek back to his desk.  Having little choice, he left the stall.  The sight of the sinks in front of him made him want to wash his hands, but the thought of removing his thumb from his mouth made him skip that little exercise.  Fortunately, he passed nobody on the way back to his office, but the minute he turned into the room, every eye was on him.  Just great!  But what else could he expect? 

Maybe he could take a few minutes during lunch to look up the name of a good doctor.  But he had to wonder if he would be able to get his thumb out of his mouth long enough to actually talk to anyone!

When lunchtime came, Marian noted that Phillip seemed to be once again staying at his desk.  “Want me to bring you something?” she asked, stopping momentarily to talk with him.

With his thumb still stuck in his mouth, he shook his head.  He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a plastic zip-lock bag that held two sandwiches.  “I’m good,” he tried to say – with his thumb still in his mouth.

Marian nodded and left him.  At least the poor guy had made arrangements.  But later today, she was definitely removing the compulsions she had put into him!

Phillip pulled his sandwiches out of the bag.  It seemed like the only time he could keep his thumb out of his mouth for any length of time was when he had something else in it… particularly food!  So his lunch became somewhat of a pleasure.  But the minute he ran out of food, the compulsion was back stronger than ever and there was no way he could avoid sucking his thumb again. 

Disgusted with his situation, he started researching local doctors.  What kind of doctor dealt with not being able to remove your thumb from your mouth?  Probably a good psychiatrist.  He finally decided on a psychiatric office that wasn’t too far from where he worked.  Could he get in tonight?  He called the number and waited until someone answered.  He quickly removed the thumb from his mouth.  “Hello,” he started to say as panic slammed into him because his thumb wasn’t in his mouth.  “I need….”  But the need to suck his thumb was too strong and seemingly of its own will, his thumb was right back his mouth again.  He did his best to try to tell the woman on the other end what his problem was.

“What?” the woman asked.  “I’m sorry, I think we have a bad connection.  I can’t understand a word you’re saying.  Please call back and maybe we’ll get a better line.”

Like it or not, Phillip was forced to hang up his phone… because the woman he was talking to had already hung up her phone.  She hadn’t been able to understand him at all.  It seemed that making a doctor appointment over the phone was going to be pretty much out of the question.  As far as he could see, his only other option just then was to show up in person.  He didn’t know where he was going to go with his problem, but he was going to find a doctor somewhere – right after work today!

“Where’s Vivian?” Marian asked as they got to the restaurant.

“Shopping for something,” Ashley replied.

Since it was a very common occurrence for all of them, nobody, especially Marian, thought any more about it.  Especially since Marian had discovered that Vivian seemed to do a lot of shopping. 

The subject didn’t even cross her mind again until she got back to the office… and Vivian practically tackled her and dragged her into the break room.  Before she could ask what was going on, both Felecia and Ashley barged into the room as well.

“Did you get it?” Ashley asked excitedly.

As her reply, Vivian just held up a large bag that had been sitting on the table.

“I want to see it!” Felicia said excitedly.

Vivian opened the bag and pulled out a fairly large doll.  For its size, Marian was surprised to note that the thing was almost entirely made of cloth.  The doll had long red braided hair with a large top knot of frilly yarn curls… all tied up in a large blue checkered bow.  The face on the doll was created from stitching and just a tiny bit of paint… the smile ending at two very rosy cheeks.  The blue blouse on the doll matched the blue checkered bow in its hair, and the red and white flowered skirt was the perfect accent to it all.  The dolls legs were made to look as if it was wearing white leggings with red stripes that ended in black cloth Mary Jane shoes at the feet. 

“Oh, it’s adorable!” Ashley squealed.

“I love it!” Felicia agreed.  “It will be perfect for him!”

“What’s… that for?” Marian asked suspiciously, knowing that the doll had to cost a small fortune.

Vivian’s grin was from ear to ear.  “For Phillip to hold.”

Marian shook her head.  “I told you, I’m not going to do it!” she replied, still staring at the doll.

“Please!  Please!” Felicia begged.

“You have to!” Vivian urged.

“Yeah, you have to!” Ashley agreed.  “We all want to see it.”

“But…” Marian started to say as her fingers seemed to reach out to touch the doll.  “It really is adorable, isn’t it.”

“It’s perfect!” Felecia replied.

“It’s fantastic,” Ashley agreed.

“You’ve got to,” Vivian urged again.  “You’ve just got to!”

Marian looked back and forth between all of them and shook her head.  “I just don’t know,” she said.  “It’s not right.”  But even as she said it, she now realized that she wasn’t all that concerned with that particular argument anymore.  She reached out again and felt the soft fabric of the doll.  “It’s soft,” she noted.

“Hold it!” Vivian suggested, picking the doll up and offering it to her in hopes that it would help to change her mind. 

Marian held the doll to her breast and hugged it.  For an overly large cloth doll it was wonderfully soft… not to mention cuddly.  “It feels heavenly,” she told them.

“Please do it!” Vivian begged.  “Please!”

Again Marian looked back and forth between the women.  She was caving in again and she knew it.  “I need to think about this first,” she told them.

“Please!” Felicia begged again.

“Let me think about it,” she said.  Then she smiled.  “Something like this has to be done just right, and I’ve got to figure it all out first.  You can’t just walk in there with it and tell him to hold it.  You have to give him a reason to do it.”  She wasn’t prepared to be hugged by Felecia for what she had just said.  And before long, all three women were hugging her.  Now what had she gotten herself into?  Poor Phillip!

She went back to her desk, but work was the furthest thing from her mind.  The doll really was adorable… despite its size.  But no doubt, with someone Phillip’s size holding it, it would only look more properly proportioned… as if it was a young child holding a normal sized doll.  With that in mind, she started making notes on what she would need to do.  Strangely, or not so strangely, she found herself getting more and more interested in… the project.  The ideas started to flow and come together.  They were somewhat cruel ideas, but with a little work on her part before she left tonight, Phillip would never remember it anyway.  So… why the hell not?  No longer worrying about the consequences… since she would fix it all anyway in a few hours, she decided to link the doll to everything that was happening in his mixed up brain already. 

It was over an hour before she felt she was ready and all her ideas were locked firmly in her mind.  Knowing how she wanted to proceed, she got up from her desk and went over to talk once again with Phillip.  The moment she got up, she noticed every woman in the office turning to watch.  Well, it was show time once again.  “Phillip,” she said as she reached his desk.  She waited while he turned in his seat to look at her, his thumb still stuck miserably in his mouth.  But before she could say anything, she was interrupted by Vivian. 

“Wait a second!” Vivian said urgently.  She quickly pulled her cell phone out and set it up.  “I want to video this!” she said at Marian’s questioning look.  She saw Marian starting to shake her head.  “Hey, I bought the thing!  I want to remember this!”

Rolling her eyes, Marian gave up and turned back to Phillip, who was now looking very questioningly all around.  “Phillip likes to suck his thumb,” she said to him… and his instant trance state was only what she expected to see.  Despite how deep she now realized he was going each time, she took a few minutes to work with him to make it even deeper.  Then after looking around at all the women who were now standing directly behind her, she turned back to him and began putting new things into his mind. 

“Phillip,” she said, “I’m glad to see that sucking your thumb is still helping your anxiety problem.  And it does help a lot, doesn’t it?”

Deep in his trance, Phillip nodded.  “Yeth,” he managed to say with his thumb still in his mouth. 

Marian heard a bit of laughing at that.

“He sounds like a baby,” Courtney noted softly.

Marian did her best to ignore the women behind her.  “Phillip,” she said, “I want you to note now that even though your thumb is in your mouth, the anxiety in you is starting to grow again.  Despite the help sucking your thumb is being, it’s still slowly mounting in you.  Sucking your thumb like that will definitely help the anxiety a lot, but now you need something more to help make you feel relaxed and comfortable again.  Are you feeling the anxiety again?” she asked.  “Are you feeling the horrible stress from it?”

Phillip, whose face was now contorted a bit from the unknown worry, only mouthed another, “Yeth,” around the thumb still stuck in his mouth.

Marian smiled.  “Good, Phillip.  Very good.  Concentrate on that stress and anxiety.  It’s a horrible feeling.  But now I’m going to give you something to make it all go away again.  Just like you did before with just sucking your thumb, this will make all the miserable feelings go away and make you feel comfortable again.  You still have to suck your thumb just like you’re doing now, but now you also need something more as well.”

She turned toward Vivian.  “Where’s the doll?” she asked quietly.

Vivian, who was still filming everything carefully, turned toward Felecia.  “The bag’s under my desk.”

A moment later, Marian was holding the large cloth doll in her hands once again.  She held it up for Phillip to see.  “See this?” she asked him.  “This is what you need now.  From now on, just sucking your thumb alone is not going to quench the anxiety in you.  From now on, you need to suck your thumb, and hold onto this doll as well.  However, while you’re working, you can let the doll sit in your lap with you so you can use your hands, but you must have it with you all the time.  If you get up from your desk, you must hold it or the anxiety will quickly become far more than you can bear.” 

The slight chuckling from one of the women directly behind her caused her to pause for a moment until it stopped.  Still holding the doll up so he could see it, she continued.  “Are you feeling the anxiety again like I said you would?”

“Yeth!” Phillip replied rather desperately, his eyes locked on the large cloth doll in her hands.

“Then let me introduce you to Dolly.  That is this dolls name.  Dolly!  And whenever you talk about it, you will never call it just a doll.   You will always call Dolly… a dolly.  Do you understand?  Dolly… is your dolly.  Got that?”

“Yeth!” Phillip replied, his hands now starting to reach out toward the doll.  The semi-stifled laughter from some of the women around him didn’t seem to faze him in the least.  His eyes were now totally focused on the doll in Marian’s hands that she had told him would relieve all the miserable anxiety that he was feeling once again.

“Take your dolly then,” Marian said as she held the doll where he could reach it now.  “And feel all the stress and worry once again drain right out of you.”  Just as the women behind her were all seeing as well, Marian watched as the stress and anxiety immediately left his face and he was once again seeming to feel relaxed and comfortable.  “Very good,” Marian continued.  “Holding your dolly will make you feel much better.  You need to love Dolly a lot, and you must always remember that just as you love Dolly, she loves you just as much… and she always will.  Dolly needs to be loved and hugged just like a real baby.  She’s your baby now.  She’s your baby dolly.  The more you love her, the happier you will feel.  Love her and suck your thumb and you will feel perfectly happy and content.”

She paused to look around her.  The show was about over, this part anyway.  There was just a few more bits of business to set in place.  “Phillip,” she said to the now happy man in front of her… sucking his thumb and hugging the doll to his chest, “remember, whenever you hear me say, ‘Phillip likes to suck his thumb,’ you will immediately go into a deep trance just like you are right now.  And when I wake you up again, you will remember nothing at all about ever being hypnotized.  Nothing!  You will only know that you now have to suck your thumb… and that you now have to hold your dolly as well.  You will never worry about where Dolly came from, she only appeared to make you feel good and happy again.  That’s all you need to worry about.” 

She was finished.  There was only one thing left to do.   She turned to the women behind her.  “Ladies, may I suggest you return to your desks.”  She watched as they all went, but while Vivian sat in her chair, she continued to video everything with her cell phone.  Finally she turned back to Phillip.  “I’m going to count down from three to one again, and when I get to one, you will come completely awake.  As I said a few minutes ago, you will not remember being hypnotized at all.  You will only know that somehow Dolly found you and that you have to love her now or your anxiety will return.”  She paused for just a moment.  “Here we go now.  Three… two… one!”  And with that, she quickly walked off, leaving Phillip to wake up, sitting in his chair sucking his thumb, and now holding a large doll to his chest.  Once she got back to her desk, she was glad to see that Vivian was no longer videoing anything, but no surprise, Phillip was now closely examining the doll he had suddenly become very attached to.

Phillip never once wondered where the dolly in his hands came from.  But he did know other things about it.  He knew that her name was Dolly and that she had appeared to help him feel good and not full of the horrible anxiety anymore.  He ran his hands over the red yarn braids, down the blue checkered shirt, and pulled a bit on the red and white flowered skirt that Dolly was wearing.  This was more than just a simple dolly.  This dolly was special.  This dolly loved him enough to come to him and take all his troubles away… but only if he loved it in return… something he found that he was more than willing to do. 

With one of his thumbs still firmly in his mouth, he hugged the doll with his other arm and arranged it so that it appeared to be sitting in his lap.  With that, he turned to face his computer to try to do some work again.  Since he couldn’t remove his thumb from his mouth without the panic returning, whatever typing he did, he still did one-handed, and much more slowly than when he had been able to use two hands.  He glanced down frequently at Dolly.  Yes, he loved Dolly… and he knew that she loved him back.