Jax’s father swallowed hard. “Was she the one who hypnotized the Borglums into carving Teddy Roosevelt onto Mount Rushmore instead of Alexander Hamilton?”
“That was all hundreds of years ago!” Mrs. Opus tried to reason. “That has nothing to do with you now.”
“My own parents!” he lamented. “It that recent enough for you? Do you know what it was like to grow up never knowing if you eat broccoli because you like it, or if your mother hypnotized you into thinking you like it?”
“Ashton, you love broccoli!”
“Do I? We’re never going to know, are we?”
“Stop it!” Jax exclaimed. “Who cares about broccoli?”
“It’s not about the broccoli,” his father tried to explain. “It’s about free will, and never knowing if you really have it. I used to be afraid of heights. Did I overcome that fear, or did I have help? Your grandfather ran a coffee shop. He had loyal customers. Or maybe they weren’t so loyal until he made them that way.” He faced his son. “Jax, I’m so sorry! I thought this curse would skip you because it skipped me. I guess I was wrong about that.”
Dr. Mako nodded sympathetically. “I can see why you call it a curse, but it’s not, you know. It’s a glorious gift. And at Sentia, we believe it will have a profound effect on the future. Your son is going to be a part of all that.”
“It’s a little bit scary,” Mrs. Opus put in, “but it’s also really exciting when you think about it.”
“Will you join us, Jackson?” Dr. Mako invited. “Will you become one of my hypnos?”
“What do I do?” Jax asked. “I mean, you say I’m this big hypnotist, but I don’t know how to hypnotize anybody.”
“We’ll teach you,” the director promised. “We’ll nurture and develop your gift in every way. And together we’ll change the world.”
Learning you had mesmeric powers was one thing. Actually using them turned out to be quite another.
Dr. Mako put Jax to work first thing Saturday morning in a room called Lab 2. The director sat him down at a small table opposite a lady he introduced as “Mrs. Park — not her real name.” She was an institute volunteer, he explained, with no hypnotic powers of her own.
In Jax’s opinion, she didn’t need any. Mrs. Park was a bear of a woman, with a gridiron of wrinkles on her forehead and a large irregularly shaped mole directly above the bridge of her nose. It was against this formidable opponent that he began his career as a mind-bender.
“What do I do?” he asked.
“When the moment is upon you, you’ll know,” Dr. Mako assured him. “Remember, your eyes are the instrument.”
So he stared — and Mrs. Park stared right back at him. She might not have been hypnotic, but she was plenty scary, glaring as if she was angry at him for wasting her time. He knew his focus should be her eyes, but his attention kept wandering to the mole, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the state of Texas lying on its side. Twenty minutes later, he had experienced not even the slightest hint of the visions Dr. Mako assured him were evidence of a mesmeric connection.
The director sat a short distance away, his expression impassive. If he was losing patience with his newest pupil, he gave no indication.
For the umpteenth time, Jax shifted his gaze off Texas and onto the black circles of Mrs. Park’s pupils. Who was he kidding? He was no mind-bender! This was all a mistake! Just because Dr. Mako hung out with celebrities didn’t mean he couldn’t be wrong about a guy!
Jax had to face an indisputable fact: Whatever the reasons for his strange visions, hypnotism wasn’t one of them.
At last, he could bear it no longer. He broke away from Mrs. Park and turned to the director, begging to be released.
“Perhaps it’s time for a short break,” Dr. Mako conceded.
Jax fled. Before he left Lab 2, he distinctly heard Mrs. Park’s grating voice. “I still get paid, don’t I?”
Failure. Total failure. Just when it looked like there was an explanation for all the weirdness in his life, he was right back to square one. He staggered into the bathroom. The sight of himself in the fluorescent-lit mirror was shocking. His complexion was deathly pale and glistening with sweat, and his eyes were the color of eggplant.
“I can’t do this!” he exclaimed aloud, splashing water on his face.
“Oh, well I could have told you that.” A stall door opened, and out stepped Wilson, his grin full of malice.
Jax was so shattered that he didn’t even bother to defend himself. There was no defense. Wilson was an idiot, but he was right.
“It’s not your fault,” the brawny hypno went on with false generosity. “Every random dork with a set of peepers has Mako running up the flag and declaring the next big thing. First time I saw you, I knew you were a zero.”
Jax had already figured out that he was a zero, but hearing it from Wilson threw him into a rage. “I’m onto you,” he shot back. “You’re scared to death that, when the next big thing does come along, you’ll be out on the street! Well, maybe it’s not me, but that kid will be here sooner or later. You’re on borrowed time, same as I am!”
Wilson advanced a menacing step, his fists coming up. Jax stuck out his jaw in defiance. Part of him knew that he had as much chance of winning a fight against Wilson as he did of levitating. But the disaster in Lab 2 had given him the feeling that he had nothing to lose. It had made him reckless and brave. He would take a pounding in this brawl, but he was determined to put a few marks on Wilson before it was over.
And then the door opened, and Dr. Mako was standing between them. He towered over Jax, and was taller than Wilson, too. The confrontation was instantly defused.
“It isn’t what it looks like,” Wilson mumbled.
“Excellent,” the director approved. “Because what it looks like is very, very bad. Now, I’m sure your many talents are required somewhere.”
Wilson beat a hasty retreat.
“I’m sorry,” Jax told the director. “I tried with that lady in there. I really did. But it’s no use.”
Dr. Mako smiled thinly. “How odd that you know more after less than an hour than I do after twenty years.”
“I know when someone’s not hypnotized,” Jax reasoned. “And she just isn’t.”
“This is not like chopping down a tree, where a little more muscle will give you a better, faster result. You can’t force this.”
Jax was growing desperate. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
The director was calm. “When you hypnotized accidentally, it was completely without effort. It simply happened. You have to let this happen, too.”
Jax must have seemed defeated, because Dr. Mako relented. “Take a walk. Get some air. Empty your mind.”
“Mrs. Park —” Jax began.
“Will wait for you. Take fifteen minutes. We’ll meet back in Lab 2.”
Out on East Sixty-Fifth Street, his hands jammed in his pockets, Jax tried a few deep breaths. His lungs wouldn’t fill, and his mind wouldn’t empty. His every inclination was to walk away and keep on walking — to the subway, followed by home. Whatever was going on at Sentia had nothing to do with him. He had pressing issues in his life — his hallucinations, and the erratic behavior of the people around him. To obsess over this non-thing wasn’t just crazy; it was wasting time that should be spent solving real problems.
He flopped down on a bench and tried to think of one good reason to return to Lab 2.
“Hey, kid, got any spare change?”
Jax glanced up at the man who stood before him. He was unshaven and roughly dressed in a red-and-black lumber jacket, although he didn’t seem threatening. Still, Jax’s instincts as a city kid told him not to engage this stranger.
He turned away. “Sorry, mister.”
“Come on, well-heeled kid like you — help me out.”
It was the crowning glory of a really lousy morning. Failure at Sentia, and now he was going to have to abandon his bench to avoid this panhandler. He got up to leave, his
eyes locking with the man’s as he rose.
It was almost instantaneous. One minute he was glaring at the person who had interrupted his solitude. The next, he was looking back at himself.
A vision! According to Dr. Mako, this was a sign of hypnotism! If only there was some way to be sure….
“Your nose is itchy,” Jax said tentatively.
He watched in amazement as the panhandler scrubbed madly under his nostrils.
“It’s better now.”
The scratching ceased.
“Sit down for a while. You’re tired.”
The man took a seat on the bench.
Jax felt a surge of excitement. He’d done it! He was a hypnotist! His one thought was to tell Dr. Mako. He started back to the building, and then hesitated. Amid the thrill of success, something didn’t sit well. This panhandler was still in his power. Jax was a newbie at this. Who knew what signals he might be unknowingly giving off? The poor guy could step out into traffic and get himself killed!
“I’m going to count to three, and then you’ll wake up, okay?” That made no sense. The panhandler wasn’t even asleep. “I mean, you’ll stop being hypnotized. You’ll feel great. Really. And you’ll remember to look after yourself, and not do anything stupid. The city can be a tough place, you know….” He had a sense that he was rambling — something the other hypnos didn’t do. The mesmeric commands he’d overheard from them had been simple and to the point. “Well, good luck, mister. One, two, three.”
And when he was certain that his first true subject had come out of his trance and was relaxing happily on the bench, Jax raced across the street and back into Sentia.
“Dr. Mako!” His feet barely touched the floor as he made his way down the corridor, floating on air.
Kira Kendall poked her head out of the break room to see what was going on.
Jax grasped her shoulders. “I hypnotized somebody!”
She shook herself loose. “That’s the general idea around here,” she said with a tolerant smile.
Jax spotted the director outside Lab 2, and moved on from Kira. “Dr. Mako! You’re not going to believe it! Some homeless guy hit me up for change, and I hypnotized him! I let it happen, just like you said!”
The director nodded. “Are you ready to take this confidence into the lab?”
Jax’s exhilaration faded somewhat at the thought of staring down Mrs. Park and Texas. But at this point, he was willing to follow Dr. Mako anywhere. “Let’s do it!”
She was still intimidating, and the Lone Star State was a definite distraction. He ignored the mole and focused on the eyes, trying to recapture his mind-set outside on the bench. He hadn’t been trying to hypnotize: quite the opposite. He’d been conceding defeat, thinking about chucking the whole thing and going home. All he’d really wanted was to be left alone — by the panhandler, by Dr. Mako, and especially by all the gobbledygook his mind was serving up these days.
And through his distracted thinking, there it was — a picture of himself in Lab 2, as seen through the eyes of Mrs. Park.
He had her. He was a mind-bender after all. Victory, as sweet as any game-winning three-point shot.
Most satisfying of all was the praise from the great man himself. “Excellent work, Jackson — although I should tell you that I’m not surprised. You have the gift, like generations of Opuses before you. Congratulations.”
Jax beamed. “Thanks, Dr. Mako.”
“However,” the director went on, his expression solemn, “your developing talent belongs not only to you, but to all humanity. You must never use it for personal gain, to exact revenge, or to take advantage of another.”
“I’d never do anything like that —”
Dr. Mako cut him off. “The temptations will be great. Even if you think your actions are harmless, you must not resort to hypnotism for frivolous or recreational purposes. This is our number-one rule at Sentia, and it applies to all of us, myself included. This is a zero-tolerance policy. Violators will be expelled from the institute, no exceptions.”
“I understand.” It was a sobering lecture, but nothing could have spoiled Jax’s good mood. He had spent many days at the office on East Sixty-Fifth Street, yet this was the first time he felt as if he truly belonged.
He was on his way out, waiting for the elevator, when he came upon a sight that gave him even more to think about than his recent triumphs. Ms. Samuels’s office door was open a crack, and he could see someone in the visitor’s chair, someone counting a handful of bills.
Someone in a red-and-black lumber jacket.
Tommy thought it was all a joke. “What are you going to do? Turn me into a frog?”
“It’s not magic,” Jax explained patiently. “It’s hypnotism. It’s a totally real thing. It’s been running in my father’s family forever.”
Even though Jax believed it 100 percent, he had to admit that it sounded like baloney. Especially to Tommy, who was kind of noncreative and only trusted what he could see — in black and white — with his own eyes.
They shuffled forward in the cafeteria line. Tommy took two trays from the rack and handed one to Jax. “Just because your dad had a lot of wacko relatives doesn’t make you the sorcerer’s apprentice. Every family has a few ding-dongs. You wouldn’t believe what some of the Cicerellis were up to back in the old country.”
“There’s no way everything that’s been happening to me is a coincidence,” Jax insisted. “All the visions, the weird things people are doing around me. You said yourself how lucky I am. I don’t think I’m lucky. I think I’m bending people without even knowing I’m doing it.”
“Bending?”
“Hypnotizing,” Jax supplied. “They sometimes call us mind-benders.”
“Fine,” Tommy all but growled. “Show me. Bend my mind.”
“What, here?”
“Why not?” Tommy challenged. “You’re so powerful — it should be easy.”
“All right, but I’m not that good yet.” He turned and peered directly into Tommy’s eyes, not sure what to do beyond staring. He was still enough of a novice that if the mesmeric link didn’t start on its own, he was lost. Even Dr. Mako conceded that there was no mental switch that could be flipped to start hypnotizing — at least none that Sentia had been able to identify so far.
“Ooooh!” Tommy intoned in an eerie voice. “I feel my mind bending! My mind is very crooked. What should I do, master? Eat lunch? Rob a bank? Flush myself down the nearest toilet?”
“Do you want to do this or not?” Jax demanded. He stared at his friend with an increased degree of concentration. There was no vision of himself through Tommy’s gaze. At the institute, Dr. Mako had told him exactly what to look for. It was almost like a picture-in-picture image on a TV. There was no sign of it here. “It’s not working,” he admitted. “It might be because you’re color-blind.”
“I was color-blind for that Ramolo guy, too,” Tommy reminded him, “and he still got me to go all poultry.”
“Every hypno’s eyes find a different entry into the subject’s mind,” Jax lectured, quoting Dr. Mako. “Mine are all about color. Ramolo’s must work in some other way.”
Tommy placed a chocolate-milk container on his tray. “Well, do somebody else, then.” He indicated a tall, slender brunette two places ahead of them in the line. “How about Lisa Sweeney? Can’t hurt to have an eighth-grade cheerleader in your power.”
Dr. Mako’s lecture replayed itself in Jax’s mind, especially terms like zero tolerance and expelled from the institute. But this wouldn’t be for frivolous or recreational purposes. Jax had to convince his best friend that all this was real. After Mom and Dad, Tommy was the most important person in his life. They always told each other everything. Besides, it was impossible to blow off a dare from Tommy Cicerelli. He’d nag you until you saw it through.
Jax focused his attention on the tall girl’s pretty profile. It was a little hard at first, since Lisa was looking at the salad bar, not at him. Slowly but surely, he work
ed her gaze over in his direction. He had her!
She glared at him. “Go stalk somebody else, dweeb.”
Tommy laughed in his face. “You did it, man! You hypnotized her into insulting you!”
Jax was bewildered. He was feeling a connection, could even see the PIP image of himself from another point of view. But it couldn’t be Lisa….
All at once, Tommy squeezed his arm. “Look!”
As the cheerleader picked up her tray and moved on, they could both see the lunch lady on the other side of the salad bar, unmoving, her eyes fixed on Jax. If anyone had ever been in a hypnotic trance, it was her.
“Dude!” Tommy hissed. “You zonked out the lunch lady!”
Jax couldn’t contain a goofy grin. Okay, she wasn’t exactly the subject he’d been aiming for. But he’d done it! Not by accident, not in a lab situation, but right out here in the real world. Well, the cafeteria …
“Okay.” Tommy rubbed his hands together. “What are we going to make her do?”
“Nothing. I’m not supposed to use hypnotism for frivolous purposes.”
“This isn’t frivolous!” Tommy insisted. “It’s awesome! Make her bark like a dog!”
“Forget it, Tommy. She works here. How would you feel if she got fired because she wasn’t doing her job?”
“So make her do something that’s part of her job,” Tommy wheedled. “She never puts enough gravy on the Salisbury steak. She holds on to the stuff like it’s her own blood. Make her give me a decent amount. And on the mashed potatoes, too. That’s not frivolous. That’s customer satisfaction.”
Jax looked his friend in the eye. “Just gravy.”
“And maybe a free chocolate-chip cookie.”
“No chance. You get what you paid for, and nothing more.”
This was definitely not what Dr. Mako had in mind. But as long as his command never went beyond serving lunch, it should be okay. Besides, this might be the first time that an innocent bystander had been bent by a mesmeric attempt that missed its target. So this counted as real research.
When he reached the salad bar, he leaned over the sneeze guard into the lunch lady’s face and murmured, “My friend here likes a lot of gravy. Make sure you give him as much as you can. When the next bell rings, you’ll remember nothing of this conversation.” He got his own lunch and carried it to an empty table.