#66 – The Tale of Jemma: The Amazing Hypnotist – Part 2 of 2

In case you missed it, you can read Part 1 by clicking here!

Following the predictable groans from the students, Rose came to the front of the class and took her seat. Jemma repeated her speech, and Rose agreed to be hypnotised. Jemma unravelled the chain to her grandfather’s stopwatch and started telling Rose that she was getting very sleepy. “When I count backwards from ten,” Jemma said, “You are going to become a puppy.” The class could hardly contain their excitement as Jemma explained to Rose the conditions of clapping her hands three times. Rose nodded slowly in agreement. “Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… you are now a puppy.”  The class watched on in anticipation to see if anything would happen to Rose, however, she sat just as still now as she had the whole time.

“B-gark!” The noise from the audience made the students suddenly turn their heads away from Rose and Jemma. “B-gark! B-gark!” To everyone’s surprise, Daniel was walking around the classroom with his hands under arms, perfectly emulating a chicken. “B-gark! B-gark! B-gark!” The students could not contain their delight, and, just when they thought their excitement had reached its peak, a loud, “Woof!” was heard from the front of the classroom. The students, many of them now standing and laughing, quickly turned their heads in time to see Rose sniffing the blackboard and then turning to the class with another loud, “Woof!”

The ecstatic laughing continued for several seconds until someone noticed that Rose the Puppy had spotted Daniel the Chicken and was staring at him the way puppies do when they are about to chase something of interest. One by one, the students fell silent as the tension in the classroom grew.

The puppy made the first move, chasing the chicken anti-clockwise behind the students’ desks and around the edges of the classrooms. After one lap through the middle row of desks, the puppy chased the chicken right out of the classroom door and on to the school oval. Jemma sprinted after them trying to clap her hands, but they couldn’t hear her amongst all of the excitement. Following several energetic laps across, over and through the play equipment on the oval, the puppy finally trapped the chicken in the corner of the oval and Jemma was able to get close enough for her claps to be heard. Just as the puppy went to pounce on the defenceless chicken, Jemma clapped her hands loudly three times.

Rose and Daniel stopped suddenly and came out of their daze. They looked up at Jemma and asked her if they were OK. “You guys were great,” she responded with a smile on her face. While walking back towards the classroom, the three students could hear the students clapping and laughing. Even Mrs Cranston’s smile was impossible to ignore. They went back into the classroom and Mrs Cranston calmed the students before announcing that it was Daniel’s turn for his presentation and to get his volcano ready as quickly as possible.

Just before dinner, Jemma, Rose and Daniel met up at the park just outside Rose’s house just as they done every evening over the past three months. Jemma had brought her grandfather along and the four of them sat and laughed as they recounted the events of the day. “We would have made you so proud, Grandad.”

“I am extremely proud of you, young Jemma. It was a pleasure teaching the three of you the dying art and science of hypnosis.”

THE END

My name is Gregg Savage and, every night when the house is quiet, I write and publish a free children’s story at dailytales.com.au for you to share and enjoy.

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