The Binding Potion

"Modification?"

"Yeah, it's kind of creepy when you think of it. I suspect hypnotism. But then I don't think that it would really work. But for me there's just sitting in the room on that lounge chair and listening to tapes. At first Dr. Fung would talk to me and ask questions. Mostly I fall asleep."

"Yeah, me too, but I do feel really well rested. I think it helps when I study, because I can stay awake longer."

"Have you talked about it to Brent?"

"Him? No, I haven't been out with him for a while. Not since I got that Valentine's day card from you. Thanks again."

She loved the way he blushed when she complimented him. He must have been ribbed a lot in the army for being such an innocent looking boy, but she knew he got some medals. He must have been different there, and now he just doesn't know how to act, and he thinks that scar is ugly. It isn't.

"I've seen him at the snack bar in the Student Union, hanging around a lot when you're working t here."

"I know, I think he scares some of the students away by being there. Both guys and some of the girls too."

"You should say something to the manager."

"I might, but he only spends a half hour every day there, and I get him to buy food or a drink as soon as he finishes what he's got before, so he spends money." She laughed at that.

"Yeah, I've had to spend a lot of time with him at the lab. I think he's in the study as well, but his 'lounge chair' time must be when I'm not there."

"I miss working the same shift as you there. I don't know why they switched us around."

"I guess Dr. Walters thought I was making mistakes when you were around."

"Or me, when you were around," she countered, then blushed.

They were both silent for a while. Frank kept thinking about the mess he made of her sheet when he slept on the couch last time. And how much of a psycho he must have appeared to be.

"I got a night job at a bar." He said.

"I heard Dr. Walters say you quit cage fighting. He said he made a lot of money betting on you. What are you doing now."

"I'm a bouncer on weeknights, ten 'till closing. Doesn't pay as much but it's a lot easier. Mostly I just tell the kids with fake ID's that they can't come in. They usually seem more disappointed that they wasted their money on a fake ID than not being able to come in."

"When you say 'bar', what do you mean."

"It's a strip club that serves drinks."

"I thought so. I envy those women."

He just stared at her with his mouth open.

"No, really, that they can take off their clothing like that. I wish I could."

"Most aren't what you'd like to be, and most of what they make goes to a 'manager'. There are a couple of college girls, but It's hard work what with putting up with the men. They do make good money though."

"I hear that they have an amateur night every month."

"Don't try it. Anyway, the dancing that they do doesn't seem very sexy to me. They all look disinterested, the moves are all fake, there's no passion. I mostly watch the customers to make sure they don't touch. Those guys are the losers."

"It must be so freeing to be naked with other people, I wish I could do that, even just once. I think that would get me out of my mother Hubbard fixation about clothes."

"But what would anyone think, wouldn't you be embarrassed?"

"I would love it, to be able to do that, and I don't care what anyone thought. Even if Brent saw me like that it would be so freeing."

He didn't know what to think. She didn't seem to think about how he would react to seeing her naked. His first thought was to ask her to strip for him, it was on the tip of his tongue.

"You uh, could, you know ... um. Well," his tongue wouldn't form the words.

"You are so sweet Frank, and I would love to, but I just can't, not now. If we were ...." She stopped this time, and she went as red as he usually did. He on the other hand was suddenly pale, he started to get tunnel vision, but it passed and an awkward silence continued for a few minutes before she smiled at him.

"Well, anyway. Not tonight I guess," she said.

Having exhausted that topic they both seemed at a loss for words. Frank finally cleared his throat.

"Um, I was wondering, if you didn't have plans for Saturday night, if you might want to..." he stalled again at that point, his face red.

Nora just smiled slightly and a detached part of her brain wondered how long it would take him to stop blushing all the time around her. Her heard beat faster. She really did wish she could tell him all about herself, but she had made a decision when she first saw him, and she didn't want to break it. Anyway this was probably better, and fun.

"Um, do you want me to dance naked for you then, you might like it better than a movie." She said grinning ear to ear. If anything he got more red.

"Uh, uh,"

"Oh silly, I didn't mean that. At least for now." She was having fun, then she continued. "If you want me to go out with you, then yes. I will. I would love to. What did you have in mind."

It took long enough she thought.

"Well, dinner, or a movie, both. Or even a play, the drama department is putting something on."

His heart was pounding. He didn't think he got this worked up when he triggered an ambush. Well maybe when they ambushed his squad. Maybe.

"I would love a play, and then dinner. Or, I could go to the store and get some things, and I could make something here."

"I could, um, pay, maybe we could go and get stuff together?"

"That would be fun. Some steaks? Salad? Wine?"

"Yeah, um yeah. Friday afternoon, I could pick you up, say three thirty? Here?"

"Yes."

ooooOOOOoooo

TELLLING HIS MOM

"Yeah Mom, things are looking up. Classes are OK, I'm going to graduate this Semester, I go in to talk to my adviser tomorrow and go over my credits and make sure."

He held the cell phone to his ear as he moved around his apartment, trying to find one last sock, hoping that he just missed getting it into his laundry basket and that's why he is one short after finishing his weekly trip to the Laundromat.

"Well, yes, I did meet someone, it's that girl I mentioned in my email, Nora Carson."

"No, I don't think I've ever met her before, but I did think she looked familiar when I first saw her, maybe that's why I noticed her. Are you laughing?"

"No, I'm sure I never met her before."

"What are you laughing at, is there someone else there?"

"Mrs. Thomson, who, oh, Kent's mother. She moved back in town, that's great, say hello to her."

"Yes I remember her, Oh yes, her daughter, Alice, Kent's kid sister. I remember her, always trying to tag along."

His mom talked some more.

"You know those Christmas and Birthday cards that Mrs Thomson sent that you forwarded to me when I was in the Army, that little Alice kid always added a hello to me on them after her mom signed them."

"Yes, just like she did when I lived at home after they moved. Kent said she had a crush on me, go figure. It must have been sort of a joke with her to keep signing them all those years."

"Yeah I remember what she looked like, a little blond girl, and her friend, that Indian kid, the one who's Dad was the Doctor at the clinic, yes, they were always playing in the Thompson's front yard."

"Huh, well, yes, I guess she would have grown up. Ask Mrs Thompson how she's doing. Tell her to say hello for me, and thank her for the cards when I was in the Army, mail was always great to get then."

"What is so funny, if you're going to just laugh at me ...."

"Well OK, what was the joke that Mrs. T told, I always like a good one."

"Women stuff huh. Well I'm better off not knowing."

"When are you leaving for your cruise?"

"OK. No, I think I'll stick around here. Maybe go home for a day or two, if it's OK with you and Dad."

"OK, I love you too, be careful on the drive to the airport. And don't fall overboard when you get to the ship."

"Oh, very funny, OK, have fun. Tell Dad hello."

"Bye, bye."

ooooOOOOoooo

A WEEK BEFORE FINALS

Frank was finishing up putting the cryptic notes from Dr. Walters into the computer. It was part of his job in the lab since the scientist didn't like to type. His time for the day was done, and he watched as Brent came in from whatever errand Dr. Fung had sent him out on. He was quick to get his time card approved and leave.

Final exams were next week and then they would all head home for the summer and begin the next phase of his life. He wasn't sure what he would do, His parents were going on a cruise along the coast up from Seattle to Alaska. He really didn't want to go 'home' to an empty house, but didn't know for sure what he wanted to do. He'd probably go home for a few days, his Mom said she would leave some home cooked meals in the freezer for him.

He had been going out with Nora regularly, they were definitely a 'thing' and neither had the remotest intention of seeing anyone else. Not that it had been smooth sailing. Nora still dressed the same. But in his car, or more often hers because she still felt better to be the one driving, they would kiss, make out. He had got far enough to feel her breasts through several layers of clothing.

And his dreams were getting more and more erotic. Always with Nora, sometimes downright kinky. Usually he came in bed just before or as he was waking up. Something that hadn't happened since he was in his early teens.

Seven more times Dr. Walters had given him bulging envelopes of money. Each time Frank took them to his bank and put them in his safe deposit box. He would also note in a journal each deposit with a pic taken with his cell of the envelope. He got nervous about how much money he had been given. He never mentioned it to anyone.

He still didn't know what the study he enrolled in was about, and as much as he tried he was never able to stay awake through his sessions. Nora had stopped discussing her sessions, but several times he had seen her totally relaxed in the room, earphones on her head. Neither of the scientists would answer him when he asked about her.

After Brent had left Frank went to Dr. Walters where he was standing discussing something with Dr. Fung. Dr. Walters had a weird hat in his hand and he was working on some wires that ran around the inside. It was a ladies hat that looked sort of like a bowl, or the top part of an old ten-gallon had with the brim removed. He had seen that type of hat on pictures of women in the twenties and thirties. This one had feathers attached to the side. It looked like a thin wire, perhaps an antenna was disguised by the feathers.

The scientists stopped talking when he approached and the hat was given to Dr. Fung who put in a large box.

"Dr. Walters, could I talk to you for a minute."

"Certainly Frank, certainly." He looked expectantly at Frank.

"Alone sir?"

"Nonsense Frank, Dr. Fung is privy to everything here, you can say anything you want with her here."

Neither of them moved, Dr. Fung was silent, but smiled ever so slightly.

"I've been worrying about he study, I'm having, um, well, strange dreams. A few months ago I nearly broke down, well I did. Break down that is. I cried and nearly passed out. And later, I had another of the dreams, they come several times a week, there's always this weird chanting, always the same girl. I get, I mean I ...."

He couldn't finish, but just stood there and nearly started crying again.

Dr. Walters escorted the young man into his private office, Dr. Fung followed.

"Now Frank, just tell us about it, all of it. Is there a general theme to the dreams? You mentioned chanting, go on son, go on."

Dr. Fung brought out a recorder and also a notebook, as did Dr. Walters.

"It's strange, soothing, and yet disturbing." Frank halted, he looked at the notebooks and the recorder, but pushed on.

"I, usually, well, there's a girl, a woman, always the same. I heard this chanting in a strange language, but at the same time it's always been familiar, ever since the first time."

"When did this start."

"Almost the same time I started here. Maybe the night after."

"You didn't start in the study for several days after you started working, was it before that?"

"I'm not sure sir."

"And the woman, a real person, someone you know?"

The scientists looked at each other knowingly.

"Yes."

"I would guess it's Miss Carson? Nora. Is it not?" Said Dr. Fung.

Frank looked embarrassed, but at least he didn't feel his face heat up with a blush.

"Yes ma'am." He hung his head.

"When did you meet her?"

"Here, outside your office, as I was coming in for my interview."

"You are sure you didn't know her before."

"Well, we're in a class together, and I saw her in the library. That's all, I never spoke to her."

"But you knew who she was? You, how is it said, you 'checked her out', before that?"

"No, well, yes, she looked familiar, and something about her, I don't know, something. I saw her on the way in to class the first time, she smiled, I smiled, she seemed nice. That's all."

"So, to sum up, you saw a girl you liked, then met her and realized you might be spending time with her. I believe you two are study partners in your Physics class?"

"Yes sir, well we talked about it, that day, outside the lab, when we met."

"Yes, now son, are you, shall we say, without other feminine companionship? No other girls, dates, no outlet as it where, when you were in the army, or the last few years here or at your previous School.?"

"Yes sir. Well, I've always been shy, and this scar here. Well, I didn't figure that would help. So I've kind of kept to myself, haven't gone out, just work and school. No, no one else."

"I think that it might be normal under those circumstances for a young man to have fantasies about a woman like this, don't you Dr. Fung?"

"I'm not so sure. This chanting. Are there any other similarities?"

"Well, the smell."

"A bad odor? That could mean some serious problems. Any outbreaks of violence?"

"No, no it's nice. And it's familiar as well. As much a taste as a smell. Sometimes in the dreams I drink something, tea, I think. Out of a cup. That's when the smell or taste is strongest."

"Do you see where the chanting is coming from?"

"A few times, yes, a couple of times it was a blue Indian goddess, lots of arms, other times it's been an Indian woman, sitting, chanting, moving her head side to side, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing. Once she seemed to be beside me, as if she was showing or presenting Nora. And, um."

He stopped for a bit, trying to work up the courage to talk about the archer. Dr. Fung encouraged him to continue so he went in with the rest.

"A couple of times there's been another man, or two men, sort of, one morphs into the other. It's strange. The first is also from India, dressed very richly. Once he was riding a multicolored bird. He has a bow, and arrows, and once he shot me."

"What happened?"

"It was totally strange, The Indian goddess, the blue one with lots of arms, just like in one of those Sindbad type movies from the fifties or thirties, she pointed me out. And the archer shot an arrow at me. At the same time he started fading out, and changing. The arrow got misty, and it was in slow motion, and it hit me in the heart."

"And where was Nora?"

"She was there, smiling at me. But she changed too. All of them changed, the archer changed into a sort of Greek statue type guy, naked, with a bow, and he smiled, but by then he was sort of ghost like. He had wings coming out of his back, like an angel."

"And how did Nora change?"

"She got smaller, and was dressed like a little girl, the blue goddess changed into another little girl, and Indian girl, and Nora was offering me a cup of tea."

Dr. Fung had been typing into her tablet and turned it around showing a picture to Frank.

"Is this the archer?"

"Yes, sort of, but, well, yes, close anyway."

She flipped her hand on the screen and showed him another.

"Yes, that's what he turned in to."

"Well the first one is Kama-diva, the Hindu god of love and eroticism. The Greek one is Eros, the Romans called him Cupid."

"Cupid? He was fat and short."

"Not originally, he was just as you described when he was a Greek god, and in early Roman art."

"What is happening to me? Am I going crazy?"

Both of the scientists were quiet, then Dr. Walters cleared his throat.

"If we were living in the middle ages I would say that somebody put a hex on you, a love spell of some kind. But we're not. In the middle ages that is."

"Today," Dr. Fung spoke quietly, "Today we would say that you've been under a lot of pressure and that you have a very active imagination. In addition you seem to have developed a fixation on Ms. Carson from the moment you saw her. I don't think that there is truly anything wrong with you. Certainly not from the tests we ran on you when you started."

"OK, well I have a counselor at the VA, I know if I tell him all this he'll put me on drugs, or into some kind of nut house."

"Do you feel violent impulses? Self destructive impulses, or have you lost your temper?"

"No ma'am."

"Well, then I would say you have a very healthy sex drive and a very fit body, and you are, or your subconscious is, in love. You must have read about these figures in your dreams, or seen a film -- I know there are at least two Hollywood films of the era you mention that have the blue lady with all the arms. All these are influencing a very vivid imagination."

"You should still see your counselor at the VA though, report any violent or self destructive feelings, or any depression. And since the regular blood and urine samples we take as part of the study indicate you don't use drugs I would agree with Dr. Fung." Added Dr. Walters.

"What about Nora? Dr. Walters mentioned programming and she looks so totally out of it when she's in the treatment room. And me too, I can never stay awake in there. What are you doing to us, is that part of my problem, and is she being altered in any way?"

Dr. Walters looked at Dr. Fung, lifted and eyebrow and indicated Frank. Dr. Fung nodded.

"Frank, the study is virtually over. In fact, it is, as far as you and the other subjects are concerned. We have scheduled a few more sessions with some of them more as a way to gain individual insights, but the data collection is done. Now comes the hard part."

"What Dr. Walters is saying, in his long drawn out way is, that we're done with your part of the study and we feel we can tell you a few things. But they must remain confidential."

"Humph, yes. The first is that you are in the control group. Nothing was happening to you."

"But I fell asleep, all the questions, the talking in my head phones."

"Well, you see, in the coffee, with all subjects, there was a slight sedative. And you, with your night work, well, you took a nap. The talking was mostly taped, and after you nodded off we played recorded music programs."

"Oh, so they aren't causing the dreams, you're sure??"

"Well, you could be going looney." Said Dr. Walters with a grin.

"Or, more likely, you have some deep tie to that young woman, your mind has recognized her as your ideal woman and you've fixated on her," said Dr. Fung.

"You know Astrid, one day we'll have to do a study on the biochemistry of attraction, see if we can actually MAKE one person fall for another?"

"You find the funding and we'll do it."

"Do you think this young man could actually be the victim of a love spell?"

Dr. Fung just looked at Dr. Walters with a raised eyebrow.

"Really?" In her most sarcastic voice.

"Well, something put a spell on him, if it's hormones or if it's Cupid or some Hindu love goddess, he's got a case."

"Yes, but what do I do?" Asked Frank.

"Well, you could use, um, self massage, techniques before going to sleep, or, consummate your relationship with the young lady."