Anyone for Tennis?

Maria crouched at the net as I prepared to serve. I bounced the ball at my left toe once then again and then tossed it high in the air, swinging my racket through a wide arch tightening my grip on the racket and connecting with a satisfying thwack. The serve was good, not an ace but enough to push our opposition into a defensive formation, the return just out of reach of Maria's attempted volley but easy for me to return to the offside of the court deep and wide; Maria pounced on the backhand return with a crisp, clean volley to win the point and throw her arms in the air to celebrate not just winning the game and the match but the league championship.

I ran to her, hot and sweaty and hugged her tightly; she clung to me; then to remain sporting we reluctantly detached ourselves and turned to shake the hands of our opponents accepting their praise on a great match. It had been a great match, close, tense and competitive and as the pressure had built Maria had played her role to perfection without nerves and finishing with clinical precision at any opportunity, what a transition; but perhaps I should explain.

I am a keen tennis player and over the years have been involved in many clubs around the country, but I was especially proud of this one having been involved from the very start, finding the spare parish land agreeing on the change of use, finding the funding to build the courts and adding all of the facilities such as floodlights and a club house needed to attract over 2000 members. Over the years of hard work it had become a thriving community hub with coaching, competitions and a rising reputation as a tough competitor to other local clubs. My own standard of play was quite high, but as I moved into my 50's I favoured playing doubles and had come to especially enjoy mixed doubles partly because with skill I could still control the pace of the game but perhaps more so because of the opportunity to mix with the younger female members during matches away from the family and community events.

This season I had scanned the membership list for a partner to play in the county mixed doubles tournaments and was excited to see an old name return to the list; Maria Jackson. Maria had been one of our first members as a young teenager attending coaching and then with her family taking the first tentative steps into club events and tournaments before disappearing for quite some years, I guess to go to University. Maria had a great deal of promise as a young player, she was fit and fast around the court had a good eye and understood the tactics of the game, however in competition she always buckled under pressure even from a young age and so tended not to win too often. However we had often played together at club events where I would take a fatherly role as coach and try to ease her through the pressures and so win. Maria clearly looked up to me and it was always fun, but it had been some years since we had played together so I was very glad to see her name on the members roster.

A few weeks before the start of the season's competitions I had still not found a partner when by chance I ran into Maria at the club one evening. I had walked to the club house to post some notices, part of my role as treasurer; as I approached the club I saw that the floodlights were on. I could not hear a game being played but just the occasional solo strike of the ball and as the courts came into view I saw Maria practising on her own. She had certainly grown up, standing about 5' 5" with her blond hair in a pigtail, well muscled slim legs and a pert backside, small breasts held tightly by a sports bra; she was concentrating her blue green eyes hard on the ball taking a full back swing as she hit serve after serve into the opposite side of the court.

She did not hear me coming until I was quite close, but when she turned and saw me her face lit up with obvious pleasure and I must confess my heart skipped a beat as she still looked very fresh and innocent and I mentally reflected that she was young enough to be my daughter; her look now was all adult. I smiled back, waved and opened the gate to the court and walking in to the lights found myself being hugged by this lovely young woman.

"Oh I hoped you would come, I have so wanted to see you, how are things with you?" The words tumbled out, and I was quite surprised to see the intensity and pleasure that Maria was showing.

"Well things are much better now I've seen you, in fact when I saw that you had re-joined the club I was going to give you a call to see if you had a partner yet for the mixed doubles league, and also for a match on Saturday, would you like to be my partner?"

A cloud passed across her face and she looked down seemingly distressed.

"I wanted to speak to you about that, you see I have had a few problems with my tennis and I am not sure what to do about it, do you have a few minutes so that we can talk about it now?"

"Maria, you don't need to worry of course I have time for you, why don't we collect the practice balls as we talk, I would offer you a game but I left my racket at home!"

Maria looked up and smiled and then started to tell me about the problem. It seemed that she had gone to University to study Languages and had enjoyed an active life joining clubs and societies one of which was the University tennis society.

"At first it went really well, all the advice you gave me helped and I was pretty competitive, I began to win matches on my own, until I met Paul." She paused and looked at me;

"Carry on." I said.

"Well, Paul was in a post graduate psychology programme and was a good tennis player, so we teamed up for some competitions; I don't know how it came up but I told Paul about my nerves when under pressure and he said he could help me by using some techniques he was studying using hypnosis; I agreed to let him hypnotise me and place the suggestion that I would not get nerves in tight competitions and would remain focused on key parts of my game; It was great we won a whole range of matches and I was really happy until Cardiff." I looked at Maria, she was now sitting next to me on the court bench, but gazing at her feet, and I could see that she was blushing.

"So what happened in Cardiff?" I asked.

"Paul was a nice guy and all that, but not really my type, to be blunt just a bit immature and, sort of silly sometimes; We went with the team to a match against Cardiff, the games went well and we had a drink afterwards and then, well then I can't remember anything at all until I woke up in my room; I was alone but I wasn't wearing any clothes and felt a bit dirty; when I got out of bed there were stains and marks on my sheets and my clothes were all over the floor." Maria continued to look at her feet, a deep crimson blush on rising up her neck.

"Go on Maria" I said quietly, now quite concerned.

"It's not like I'm a virgin or anything so I knew that the stains were from a man's, you know what, and I could feel that I had had sex, I just could not remember who with or what went on, and I'd only had a couple of beers so I hadn't been drunk; I didn't know what to do so I did nothing, but when I went to tennis the next week Paul seemed really distant and a bit guilty; I can put two and two together and so confronted him; He was quite nasty and when I threatened to go to the Police he just smiled and then he simply said out right to me that I was no good in bed anyway, that I had no evidence and that my tennis would be really bad from here on!" She went on. "What makes it worse is that I don't have any evidence, nobody else was around and to cap it all my tennis game really has fallen apart; I really don't know what to do about any of this."

A few tears had run down Maria's cheeks as she spoke and with this final admission she burst into sobs from the heart, tears streaming down her face. I put my arms around her and pulled her unresisting towards me and she sobbed on my shoulder for some time whilst I fumed inside wanting to do unspeakable things to Paul and wanting to comfort and make good my young friends problems.

We sat for some time not speaking, Maria's sobs began to die down, and I stroked her hair and her back in a fatherly way so that she stayed snuggled close. Her hair smelt really nice. I had to shake myself from that path, having been single for many years after my wife's departure I had all the normal urges of a red blooded male but Maria was very vulnerable so it was time to show self restraint. After a couple of minutes I broke the silence.

"Look Maria, you are very upset right now and I want to think about what you have told me, there are some things about this that I don't understand and I want to find out more. But I can also see that you are still fit and healthy, so there is no reason why we can't solve these problems together if you want my help; Would you like me to help you?"

Maria looked up and with a bogey filled sniff nodded "Yes please, I would like that." She said.

We agreed to meet again the following evening at 7.00pm and I marked a booking for court 1 on the notice board.

"We'll be able to find out more if we hit some tennis balls so come ready to play some tennis young lady." I said in a jocular way, although inside I was still angry and concerned. Maria leant into me and placing her arm on my shoulder made to kiss me on the cheek, I of course turned to meet the kiss and it was a shock to both of us when she kissed me full on the lips, very chaste, no tongues but enough to make me blush a little. Maria smiled quietly and turned to leave;

"See you tomorrow, and thanks, you really are my hero!"

With that she turned and walked away, head held high and did not look back.

The following morning I was into a book shop early, running my eye along the shelves I found what I was looking for a short and I hoped useful book on hypnosis and hypnotherapy. I had always had a mild interest in hypnosis but wanted to understand better what I might be dealing with when Maria and I met that evening. Once home I scanned the paged eagerly and created a summary in my own mind; under hypnosis the subject would be open to suggestions and strongly motivated by these but would be unlikely to do things wildly out of character and so suggestions would need to be carefully developed; these suggestions would quite likely reduce in power over time unless reinforced periodically; that whilst under hypnosis the subject would have extremely accurate and detailed recollections if asked; finally that some subjects would be far more susceptible than others.

I was quite nervous as the evening approached, and when I heard rain starting to fall on the skylights in the hall realised that the chance of playing tennis that night was gone. As if on cue the phone on my desk rang and I picked it up;

"Hello."

"Oh hi, it's me Maria, I just noticed the rain, but is it OK if we meet up all the same?"

"Sure, no problem, why don't you come round to my house, actually if you aren't busy why not come round now?"

After a brief hesitation Maria said "OK, give me ten minutes and I'll be with you, bye." The line went dead before I could answer. I glanced at my watch, 6.30pm, time to set the scene.

I quickly tidied the main living room, plumping up the cushions on the large corner couch, putting the magazines and papers into a tidy pile on the coffee table and turning on a few lights to give the room a little mood and also to highlight some of my better paintings; I had barely finished this when the door bell rang, Maria had been very prompt.

Opening the door I was surprised to see that Maria was dressed for tennis, pink cardigan over her white shirt and a short white tennis dress, tennis shoes and short white ankle socks, with her hair in the customary pigtail she looked pretty as a picture.

"Hi there, come on in." I greeted her and we exchanged the customary British kiss on greeting, just brushing cheeks; In the cool early evening air I could feel heat from her as our cheeks touched for the briefest moment, but I sensed a little more. Maria looked me in the eyes and smiled;

"Thanks for seeing me like this, I really want to try and get to the bottom of what went on, and there aren't all that many people that I trust as much as you."

"You're very kind, come through and let's sit down to talk." I lead her through to the living room, Maria admired the pictures as I had hoped she would and sat down on the deep couch, half turned towards me with her knees together and her hands resting on them. Time to start I thought.

"Maria, I have been thinking about what you have told me about Paul and I think the most likely explanation is that he placed some kind of suggestion in your mind whilst you were hypnotised and has in some way exploited the situation to take advantage of you. Now it may be that we can find out more together by my using hypnosis to help you remember what happened, but I would understand fully if you weren't happy with this after what has happened." I stopped and looked at Maria, she was looking at me, studying my face and clearly had considered her response.

"Look, I have thought about it too, and it seems to be the only explanation, and probably the only solution is to do what you suggest; I am only able to be here to talk about it with you because I trust you and know that you would not cause me any harm; Being really frank with you there is also just a little part of me that is quite excited at what we might find, so I am ready to be your subject; shall we try now?"

I was quite taken aback, not least by the statement of trust but also the ambiguity of the final comment, excited? How? Lurid thoughts crowded into my mind, not for the first time, but pushing them back into place decided that we would proceed slowly; trust as Maria had so well put it was at the top of the agenda and I would not abuse that.

"OK Maria, let me get a couple of things ready, while I do that I want you to sit quietly and breathe deeply and steadily to prepare yourself." I stood up first dimming all of the lights in the room except for a spotlight behind where I would sit, then going to the hall I opened the dark oak bible box on the hall table and removed a small pendant; an opal set in silver on a silver chain. Turning the phone to silent I then went into the kitchen and poured two glasses of water, carrying them back to the living room.

Contrary to my instruction to relax, Maria was looking at a framed photograph in the corner of the room. "Is this your wife?" she asked.

"Yes it is; it was taken before she became ill. I miss her."

Maria looked up at me "I am sorry, I shouldn't be nosey like that I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course I can. Now young lady I thought I had asked you to relax, so let's get started!" I smiled as I spoke, the tension evaporated and Maria sat back down in the same prim pose as before. I put down the water on the table and then taking the pendant from my pocket I began to speak in a gentle tone, all the time looking Maria in the eye.

"Maria, I want you to breathe deeply; in and out; in and out." I let the opal pendant hang on its chain in front of her eyes, swinging gently on the chain. "You will concentrate on the opal, look at the light, the reflections and the colours, put other thoughts out of your mind; you will hear my voice at all times and as I count backwards from ten to zero your eyelids will get heavy, very heavy, until you cannot keep them open, when your eyes close you will be in a trance and will hear only my voice until I wake you; ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero."

As I spoke Maria concentrated on the small jewel as it moved on the chain, then on my count her eyes closed, and at zero her head slumped to her chest. In my wildest dreams I had not expected Maria to be so susceptible, but here she was in a deep trance!

"Now Maria I want us to explore your trance together, so as I speak to you, you will go into a deeper and deeper sleep, deeper than ever before; it will feel really relaxing to you, you will feel safe and you will feel complete trust in me and can tell me anything that you want to; your normal inhibitions will fall away. I want you to nod to show you understand." Maria nodded, but her head remained slumped on her chest.

"To help understand what has happened in the past I may need to put you into a trance again so I am going to place some trigger words in your subconscious, when I and only I say 'anyone for tennis' you will immediately return to this deep trance. When I next say the word 'jungle' you will return to normal, you will feel refreshed and happy and will remember what we have done together."

"Now, we are going to explore what happened with Paul, are you feeling OK?" Maria nodded but did not raise her head.

"Maria, I am going to wake you but you will remain hypnotised and answer my questions, when I say 'wake up' you will act as normal. 'Wake up'." Maria immediately raised her head, looked at me and smiled, "How did I do?" she asked.

"Very well, I think we are now ready to explore what went on, so I want you to tell me about the first time that Paul hypnotised you; you will remember everything about what happened, even if Paul has suggested you would not remember, and you will tell me about those things and also how you felt about them at the time." Maria started to talk immediately.

"Paul only hypnotised me twice, the first time was in the Psychology department at University when we talked about my tennis problem. He put me under by using a small torch, and it happened very fast. Paul gave me the suggestion that if I became nervous during a tennis match that I would focus my fear onto a particular skill needed at that point, serving, returning the ball and so on. He also set a trigger word with me, 'helpful' which would put me back under if he said it to me. This first time I was only hypnotised for a few minutes, and Paul was careful to make sure I felt OK about it." Maria stopped for a moment reflecting.

"Paul did ask me to forget the trigger word and also he asked me how I felt and to talk about that freely without being embarrassed. I told him that being under made me feel quite aroused and that my pussy was wet and my nipples very sensitive. That made his cock go very hard I could see the outline clearly in his jeans and that made me feel quite powerful. I did not fancy Paul at all, not like I fancy you, but he seemed like a decent person and I did not want him to be upset, so I told him that I would probably masturbate later on my own and think about the relaxed feelings which were really nice."

Maria paused again; I was struggling to deal with the revelation of Maria's stated feelings for me and also with the matter of fact tone of voice she was using which was very erotic in its innocence. As Maria had been speaking she had relaxed into the cushions leaning back and I could not help notice that with her short skirt and legs slightly parted I could see her white knickers clearly; was it my imagination or was there a darker tinge of moisture on the gusset?

"After that first time we did really well as a team, and in Cardiff won a really hard match. On the coach on the way home Paul used the trigger word to put me under again, only this time he told me that I would not remember being hypnotised or anything about what happened unless he asked me about it. We were sitting at the back of the bus, and I know that Paul had had quite a few pints, he seemed to be sweating a lot and his speech was not very clear. He told me where he lived, and gave me a key and he told me to go to his room as soon as we got back home and to wait for him there. He was very clear that I should not speak to anybody."

Maria took a sip of her water and continued.

"When the bus stopped I did as I was told and left with my kit and walked to the halls where Paul lived, the key opened the door and I went in. For a mature student Paul was not very organised, his room was pretty messy with dirty clothes all over the floor, so I stood by the door and waited. After about 20 minutes Paul knocked on the door and so I let him in. He asked me if I was feeling aroused, and I said yes, he then told me that I would find him very attractive and would want to have sex with him; when he said the trigger word I would be unable to keep my hands off him."