On the Top Shelf

That morning you opened the fridge and saw a tomato sitting on the top shelf, at the front.

Something brushed across your mind about that tomato. But you shook it off, and bent down to get the almond milk.

Two more times that morning that tomato was there, right in front of you, and you felt troubled. But only for a moment.

Then, towards noon, you found yourself checking the clock regularly.

When you saw that the time had passed 12, you were sitting cross-legged on the couch in the living room and you realized there was something you had to do. "Just after I finish this important email," you told yourself. But you found your body standing up by itself. "Ok, I guess this is happening."

As you walked to the kitchen, your brain let you remember what I whispered in your ear last night, in bed, when you were deep in trance: That at noon, you would be compelled to go to the fridge and eat an entire raw tomato.

Knowing this, you tried to stop your body. You tried to turn around. But you were in the grip of a compulsion. You could feel how helpless you were compared to its power, like a giant powerful hand was moving your limbs.

You opened the fridge again and took out the tomato. Your heart was pounding. The first bite was the worst. Cold and squishy. But every other bite was also the worst.

"He didn't make me like raw tomatoes," you thought. "He didn't make it taste like something else." Instead, there was your arm, your jaw, your tongue, your swallowing muscles, all of them under my remote hypnotic control, forcing you to keep eating that tomato.

When did you start crying? Was it when you realized you were only halfway through, and there was so many more bites left?

Or was it when you thought you were finished - it was gone - but the compulsion riding in your head, that I put there, made you look at your fingers, see the pulp and seeds left on them, and lick them off.

Then it was over. Your muscles were back under your control.

You were a mess. You still had the taste in your mouth, even after rinsing it with water.

You messaged me on Whatsapp. You told me how much it sucked, and how wet it made you.

And I got a boner at work.