Mrs. Wong's Finishing School, Part 5

MRS. WONG'S FINISHING SCHOOL
by uciboy

BEGIN PART V

"How long did it take you before you started smoking," Jenny asked Caroline
as she flipped through a fashion magazine on the bed.

"Oh my God," she replied as she moved the cigarette away from her lips, "I
was hooked by the first session.  Mrs. Wong helped me to remember how
wonderful that first cigarette was that I had years ago with my Mom."
Caroline took a slow puff on her Max that lasted for 4 seconds and breathed
the smoke deep into her body, holding it there as her lungs were enriched
with the power of the nicotine.  She closed her eyes and said with wisps of
vapor escaping from her mouth, "I had no idea that I had repressed the urge
to smoke."  She opened her eyes and said whimsically, "After that, everything
else just fell into place.  It was like for the first time I knew where I
belonged."

Jenny pulled a Capri out of her cigarette case and gently tapped it on the
silver cover.  "What amazed me was how beautiful I looked smoking."  She put
the cigarette between her lips and lit it, gently drawing on its power before
removing the 120 and snapping back a ball of smoke.  She stood up and faced
the dresser mirror in her room, holding the cigarette high at the level of
her face as she slowly exhaled a smokey stream towards the reflection.  "God,
I look good."  She watched the reflection of the smoke curl upwards from the
thin cigarette and brought it up to her mouth for another puff, loving how
the freshly lit tip would change color with even the most gentle draw.

Caroline got up off the bed and came up behind Jenny who remained mesmerized
by the sight of herself smoking.  "We're smokers now," she said softly,
watching her own reflection as she drew the cigarette near to her lips.

"I like it," Jenny replied.

Caroline turned back towards the bed and gave her Max a tap over the ashtray.
"I hope that Lilly joins us soon."

Jenny couldn't take her eyes off of her reflection and replied softly, "Mrs.
Wong is amazingly persuasive."


*****************************************************************

As Lilly slowly opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a plush reclining
chair with a light shining directly above her in the darkened room.  Though
still groggy from the sleeping drug her mother gave her, she could make out
the silhouette of a woman standing in front of her and smoking a long
cigarette.  The whole scene reminded Lilly of something she had viewed in an
art film once – a bright light behind the shadowy figure illuminating the
outline of a body and a cigarette held at shoulder height, the white smoke
reflecting off of the light.  Rather than frightened, she felt incredibly
comfortable in the chair as the grogginess continued to linger.  “Who’s
there?” she asked.

"My name is Mrs. Wong, dear,” a voice answered sweetly.  “How are you
feeling?”

“Well,” Lilly said as she moved her hands up to rub her eyes, “considering
my own Mother just drugged and kidnapped me, I guess I'm okay.”

"Yes," the voice replied, "well, I am sorry about that.  Usually the remedy
is given here upon the arrival of the pupil, but I ship a bottle to the
parents just in case there is any trouble."

Lilly watched the cigarette disappear slowly into the shadow of the woman’s
silhouette, its orange tip momentarily brighten, and then a wall of white
smoke ascend upwards from the darkness before the 120 returned once again to
its illuminated position at shoulder height.

"Is that what you used to brainwash Caroline and Jenny into the perfect
debutantes," Lilly asked as she unsuccessfully tried to raise herself out of
the chair, "your little 'remedy?'"

"Brainwashing?" Mrs. Wong giggled.  “Is that what you think has happened to
your friends?”  Another orange glow in the shadow and the rise of smoke
upwards.  "It's simply a muscle relaxant, dear.  Your mother gave you a
little more than usual so that she could bring you here without a fuss.  I
can assure you that I'm not going to harm you.  Do I look like a mad
scientist to you?”

Lilly, straining to get a better view of the shadow, replied with irritation,
“I can't see what you look like as long as you stand in the dark.”

The shadow moved closer to Lilly, revealing a beautiful tall and thin Asian
American woman in her 40s.  “Is that better, dear?”

Lilly was surprised.  When her Mom first told her she was going to finishing
school, she had expected to find a 70-year-old woman who longed for the days
of the rule of the aristocracy.  She never imagined finding such a young and
attractive woman standing before her.

“I can assure you, Lilly, that I didn't do anything to your friends except
to build up their self-confidence and self-esteem.  The choices they made
after that they made on their own.”

“Jenny and Caroline would never have ‘chosen’ to smoke," Lilly replied
defiantly.  "They never would have chosen NOT to go to college unless you
convinced them not to go.”

“You think you know your friends, Lilly,” Mrs. Wong said sympathetically as
she sat in a chair close to her, “but you barely even know yourself.”  She
tapped her cigarette over a crystal ashtray on a nearby table where Lilly
noticed also rested an opened cigarette case filled with Virginia Slims - the
same brand as her Mom's.  "Over the next two weeks," Mrs. Wong said, "I'm
going to help you realize where your place is in society.  But first I need
to ask you a few questions."

"Save your breath," Lilly replied disdainfully.  She had already decided that
if she had to stay here for two weeks, then she was going to be as
uncooperative as possible.  Perhaps if Caroline and Jenny had known what this
school was really about, they would have fought back, too.  "I'm not going to
answer any of your questions."

Mrs. Wong placed her cigarette in the ashtray and said softly in almost a
monotone voice, "Yes, you do look very tired to me.  Very tired indeed.  Your
body feels so comfortable from the muscle relaxant.  And this is a very soft
chair.  Why, I believe that you could fall asleep right in it, listening to
the sound of my voice."

Lilly could feel her eyes growing heavy.  "Yes," she thought to herself, I do
feel very tired.  And if I fall asleep, I don't have to answer her
questions."

"So tired, my dear.  Your body feels so heavy.  You can barely keep your eyes
open...."

Lilly's mind began to cloud over as sleep quickly approached.
"I...don't...have...to...cooperate...."

Within a minute, Lilly had closed her eyes and fallen into a trance.

"Very good, Lilly," Mrs. Wong said with satisfaction.  "On occasions you and
I will need to converse with one another in this way.  Whenever you hear me
say the words, 'Rest Now,' you will fall asleep.  Do you understand?"

"Yes," the sleeping girl replied.

"Good.  Let's talk about smoking, Lilly.  When you see a smoker, what do
think of?"


"Dirty...unhealthy...smelly."

"I want you to think back now to when you were a little girl in grade school.
Picture in your mind a moment when you watched your mother smoke with her
friends.  Tell me what they are doing."

"They are sitting at my Mom's kitchen table.  They're laughing.  They're
talking.  They're having fun."

"And what were your feelings about smoking then?"

"It was cool," Lilly replied slowly.  "Smoking looked fun.  I liked watching
them blow smoke out of their mouths - like dragons in a storybook."

"Very good, my dear," Mrs. Wong said, pleased with the information she was
gathering.  "Did you want to try smoking, Lilly?"

Lilly paused for a moment, as if the conscious and subconscious were
momentarily engaged in battle.  "Yes," she replied, her subconscious
victorious, "very much.  I wanted to be like my Mom."

"Lilly, I want you now to see yourself as that little girl.  I want you to
watch yourself walk over to the kitchen table and take a puff from your Mom's
cigarette.  Everyone at the table is smiling as they watch you.  They are
very proud that you want to smoke and that you have decided to join them.
Watch the tip of the long cigarette glow orange as you take a puff.  Watch
yourself blow the smoke into the air like a dragon."

Mrs. Wong noticed that a smile had appeared on Lilly's sleeping face.  "How
do you feel, Lilly?"

"I like it."

"Watch yourself take another puff, my dear.  They want you to be happy.  You
blow the smoke up towards the light over the table.  You're a dragon."

Still asleep, Lilly's lips formed a small oval as she began to exhale a
stream of air.

"Very good, Lilly.  I want you to picture yourself now as 17.  You are
standing in a bright room with a wall mirror in front of you.  Do you see
your reflection?"

"Yes," Lilly replied, still in a trance.


"There is a freshly lit long white cigarette in your hand, the same kind you
watched yourself smoke a moment ago.  Watch in the mirror how the smoke rises
from the tip, as if it were an extension of your fingers.  Admire how sexy
and sophisticated you look holding that cigarette.  You are a beautiful young
woman.  The cigarette enhances that beauty."  Mrs. Wong paused to give Lilly
a moment to soak in the trance-induced image.  "Bring the wonderful cigarette
up to your lips, my dear.  Make the tip glow brightly.  As you breath in the
smoke, you feel a cool sensation in your chest that makes you feel light and
free.  Blow the smoke towards your reflection.  Watch it engulf the mirror.
You look beautiful, Lilly.  You are a beautiful smoker."

Mrs. Wong was very pleased at the progress that Lilly was making.  She knew
that the only way Lilly would become a smoker was if she could tap into some
repressed desire to smoke from her childhood.  Unlike Caroline and Jenny,
however, Lilly, through her defiance, was going to be a challenge - but one
she felt she could confidently meet.  The first step would be to make Lilly
psychologically addicted.  The physical addiction would follow in its own
course over the next two weeks once she actually got her smoking.

"Lilly, when I count to three, you are going to fall into a deep sleep.  When
you awake in the morning, these images will be fresh in your mind as a dream.
One...Two...Three."

Mrs. Wong heard Lilly lightly snoring as she called in her butler to move the
girl into a bedroom.

END PART V

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