The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Auntie’s Island

Chapter Eight – Initiation of a Baby Factory

WENDY (continued):

Dr. Fielding looked down at me for a moment, then went to the mantle over the fireplace and opened a mahogany box. He froze for a moment and looked over his shoulder at the other girls. “This is where you leave us, ladies,” he said.

They all smiled and nodded. Willie gave me a reassuring little wave. Dee winked at me. “You’re going to LOVE this,” Brenda said softly. And they all turned and left the room. As soon as the door had closed behind them, the Prof lifted his hand from the box, holding a small gold pocket watch at the end of a strong but delicate gold chain.

“You’re going to use that to hypnotize me,” I said.

“Yes. It has an enormously profound effect on the other girls. That’s why they couldn’t stay.” His voice was deep, strong and certain. I took a breath. Oh boy, I was nervous. What was I getting myself into? Never be free again—— the words were stuck in the back of my mind. He pulled up a chair in front of the easy chair I had settled into, and sat facing me. He held the watch loosely in his hands, his forearms resting on his knees, as he leaned slightly forward toward me.

“What’s going to happen to me?” I asked, unable to keep the quaver out of my voice.

“You’re going to go to sleep. You will follow my voice as I put you into a trance. Then, you will continue to follow my voice as you go much, much deeper than ordinary hypnosis. You will enjoy it. In fact, you will enjoy it so much that you will not want to awaken. You will only be able to do so because you will continue to follow my voice, even then. Obedience will come naturally to you while you are hypnotized. And, because of the depth of your trance, you will find submission and obedience a part of your nature even after you wake up. You will slip easily into emotional slavery. It will be natural for you.”

“Natural,” I repeated.

“Are you afraid?”

“Yes.”

He was moving the watch in his hands, fiddling with it, shifting it with his fingers. “I will give you one last chance to call this off,” he said gently. “Once you’ve surrendered to me and gone into your trance, there will be no turning back.”

“Will I be like Brenda when I wake up?”

“Yes and no. Brenda has … certain talents with people. So do Dee and Willie. They tell me you have your own talents … so you will most definitely be different in that respect. But Brenda is my slave. She and Willie and Dee are my willing, obedient slaves. Emotionally; physically. When I decide to hypnotize them, they cannot resist me. When I want them … sexually … they cannot refuse me. They have given themselves to me. Completely. Totally. That is what will happen to you, if you surrender.”

“Will you … um … have sex with me when I wake up?”

“I will be able to do whatever I please with you. You will belong to me. I must admit, you are very pretty, and quite desirable.”

I blushed. The watch was catching the light and reflecting it back into my eyes.

“It’s time to tell me …” he intoned quietly, “one last time … just to make sure. What is your decision?”

“I … I’d LOVE to be like Brenda; like Willie and Dee. I … I DO want it. Please? Use the watch for me, please? Swing it for me. Make my mind go away.”

He paused as if surprised. I couldn’t really notice that, I suppose, since I didn’t seem to be able to take my eyes off the watch in his hands.

“Is that what you want?” he queried. “For me to make all your thoughts go away?”

“Yes.”

“Then let them go. You’ll find that it’s very easy. Relax your arms and hands for me. Do that now, and think of nothing at all, just like you want. Relax your whole body … just let it slump … so relaxed. Yes, that’s it. That’s exactly the way to let it happen … so relaxed … and no thoughts at all … because your arms and hands are so relaxed … so heavy … that you can’t even move them. You can think about that, if you want …about how heavy your arms are … your feet … your breasts are heavy on your chest … even your head is hard to hold up … so relaxed and heavy.”

I was aware. I was aware of his words, of my heaviness, of my inability of move. I should have been concerned about that, but I had no thoughts … none at all. My decision had been made, and there was no longer any reason to think about that … no reason to think about ANYTHING … except how tired and heavy I was. It wasn’t really a thought, anyway; it was now a reality. I was about to become his slave. He found me desirable. When I woke up, he could take me, if he wanted to. Oh, why didn’t he swing the watch for me?

“The girls told me that you used to hear voices. I’ll bet they kept you awake all the time. That’s probably why you are SO sleepy now … so very sleepy … with heavy arms … legs … breasts … heavy eyes … because you’re so sleepy … oh, so sleepy. Follow my voice, if you want sleep. Follow my voice down … and down … because comfortable, wonderful sleep … is what you want.”

“Please” I begged him in a hoarse whisper.

“Surrender now … and sleep.”

I opened my eyes and laughed at Mommy. “That doesn’t make any sense, silly!” she chided, tickling me in the ribs. I squealed with laughter and twisted away from her fingers, then tried to tickle her, and finally snuggled against her on the couch and took a breath.

“Knock knock,” I shrieked.

“No more silly jokes,” she chided. “It’s time for your nap. It’s time to go to sleep.”

“I don’t WANT to go to bed!”

“Well, just lean against me here, then. Put your head here.” She pulled me to her and I settled my head on her breast. She was soft and comfortable and much better than my stupid bed. “That’s it darling. Just relax and go to sleep. Go to sleep.”

And I open my eyes. I’m on the long intermediate course on Steamboat … the one I liked so much on our vacation four years ago. Well, this is weird. I was just dreaming about when I was little … just me and Mommy. But now I’m awake again and back at Steamboat. This is such a LONG run … and I’m just starting it, so this is going to be FUN! But … why are my nipples so hard? OH NO! I’m … I’m … NAKED! It must have happened when I skied over into the woods and took off my ski suit to pee. I forgot to put it on again! How could I have been so stupid?! I stop and look back, but I can’t even SEE the woods anymore.

But I DO see a guy that has been hounding me for most of the day. Not very smart or original, either. I mean, “Hey baby, do you wanna fuck?” is not much of a come-on line, if you ask me! And here he is barreling down the mountain after me. How am I going to avoid him and his one-track mind when I don’t have a stitch of clothes on? So I turn and start skiing down the slope! But … Oh, MY! What is that incredible feeling? It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before in my life! It wasn’t there when I was stopped … only when I’m moving … moving down the hill … moving down. Slowly, it begins to dawn on me. Somebody has hypnotized me! I’m skiing down this hill, and I’m naked, and there’s this prick of a guy after me … but I’m hypnotized! And as I ski down … down … I’m going deeper into my hypnotic trance! And … all I have to do is stop, and then I won’t go deeper anymore. But … then that guy will catch me! I look back over my shoulder. He’s getting closer! So I point my tips … and my tits … downhill, and now I’m REALLY moving! But … oh … I’m going deeper faster, now. Really deep. Deeper all the time. And … it feels … it feels … wonderful!

And the guy is skiing fast now, too! And the wind is making my nipples SO hard! And people on both sides of me are stopping … staring …pointing at me … the girl with no clothes! And I hear him behind me now, closer! And I dodge a few moguls and pick up both tips and swivel them straight down the hill! And I’ve NEVER skied so fast! And I’m going SO DEEP into my trance! But the end of the run is coming up! I see trees … and a vertical rock cliff face extending straight up out of the woods. And I hear a dismayed shout behind me … and I peer over my shoulder … and the guy has wiped out! His skis are flying! He hits hard on his back … bounces … does a header into a snow bank … and I’m laughing and laughing. I reach the end of the run, but I’m going too fast to stop! I’m in the woods now … and the rock wall is coming up fast! But there … right in front of me … there’s a cave! It’s my only chance! And in I go.

I was in the cave then. I looked down, and I saw that the skis and boots had disappeared. This must be a dream … some sort of wild, fantastic dream. And I thought: I’m in a hypnotic trance, of course. And I can’t POSSIBLY go any deeper than this. I looked around me. The entrance to the cave was gone, and the whole place was illuminated by some sort of eerie light, just bright enough to let me see. I walked forward, and there in front of me were four doors with writing on them. I could read it if I got a little closer. Each door bore a name: Brenda. Dee. Willie. And … Wendy! Under each name, the words “Submit and Obey” were etched deeply into the wood of the door … well … on each door except mine. The “Submit and Obey” was only painted on under my name. Ah, I thought, Professor Fielding! HE had brought me here. HE had taken me this deep into a hypnotic trance! And now, I was about to join his other girls in slavery and servitude. I shivered. OH, YES! Oh, please! I WANTED this! I NEEDED it! I reached for the doorknob. Locked!

I felt immense sadness and disappointment. How could I get into my room? There HAD to be a way! It HAD to have something to do with the words themselves: Submit and Obey. Could it be one of those “If you believe in fairies, clap your hands” sort of things? Maybe I had to convince the DOOR that I believed … truly believed … what was written there. I closed my eyes and said out loud: “I believe the words. I really, really do. I’ll do it forever, I promise! I’ll Submit and Obey forev ….” I heard a loud click and looked up. The door was open a crack, and for a moment, the words were obscured by smoke; and when it cleared, they were burned into my door. I breathed a deep sigh, and then I opened the door and went in.

And … that’s all I remember. I know that there was a really comfortable bed in there … and I know that I was still naked … but that’s about all. I know that I lay down on it and I heard someone talking … Dr. Fielding, obviously … it couldn’t have been anybody else. I think I went … somewhere else in the room … I don’t know … just a feeling, I guess. It doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s just the way it always was, and the way it always will be. And I heard the voice tell me to wake up. And of course, I obeyed.

I yawned and stretched like a cat just waking up from a nap. I felt … great! Wonderful! I looked up at him and blushed, because he was looking at my breasts, which I had just been pushing out at him while I yawned, and I said: “Dr. Fielding, I ….”

“Please, call me Fred.” He was smiling at me.

“Fred,” I said, loving the sound of it. “I belong to you now. I’m your slave now.”

“Yes.”

“Are you … going to … going to have sex with me now? You can, if you want. I mean … I think … I think that maybe I’d really like that.”

His smile broadened, making me blush even more, and he stood up. “No,” he said simply. I felt a wave of disappointment. He was dismissing my idea the way he might dismiss a telemarketer. “I need to talk to the others, Wendy … and I have to make a phone call. Please, stay here for me.”

“I’ll do ANYTHING for you,” I told him quietly, earnestly. And he walked out the door, leaving me all alone in the room. I sighed and looked around. I was surprised to find that outside the window, it was dark. How long had he kept me in my trance? I glanced around the room, which I had hardly noticed before, when I had come in. It was lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. There were easily a thousand volumes in this room. I got up to look at a few, but my eyes were irresistibly drawn to a photograph in one of the blank spaces on a shelf by his desk. It showed Fred and another man, each holding a fishing pole in one hand and a stringer of fish in the other, smiling at the camera. Oddly, it wasn’t Fred that held my attention. The other guy was shorter by a couple inches, had thick, dark, curly hair, and a smile that was … well, it was really, really nice. Everything about him was nice. He exuded strength and honesty and trust … and those eyes! Oh gosh, I think I could just fall into those eyes! I couldn’t stop staring at him.

The door opened behind me, and I turned to Fred as he came back in the room. I pointed over my shoulder. “Fred, who is that …?”

“Sorry, Wendy. No time now. We have to go.” He held the door open for me. I nodded to my Master and walked past him and down the hallway. Brenda and Dee and Willie were waiting by the front door, smiling at me. I just stood, looking at them, enjoying the vague, wonderful link that I had with them. I realized suddenly, surprisingly, that I loved them … I loved them all! We were … sisters. Slave sisters. I hugged them each in turn while Fred stood with the front door open, waiting for me to finish this silent ritual, and then, without another word, I walked out and let him lead me to his car … which was a really nice-looking Mercedes.

“Where are we going?” I asked, after he had turned onto the highway.

“It doesn’t concern you,” he said seriously. But then he cracked a little smile and cast a sidelong look at me. “Okay, it DOES concern you … but I’m still not going to tell you.” He reached into his pocket for something, couldn’t quite get it, and had to release his seatbelt to finally work it out. The watch! He draped the chain over the rearview mirror and let it dangle there. I heard him refastening his seatbelt, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the watch. My body suddenly felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds. I could hardly hold my head up.

“You’re going to do it again. And, I’m going to be a slave forever,” I said with an effort.

“Yes,” he said simply. “Now, look at the watch. Say the words that will let you back into your special room.”

“Submit and Obey,” I mumbled. I couldn’t decide if I was already asleep or not. “Submit and Obey. Submit and Obey.”

“Surrender and sleep,” he ordered. And I was back … back in my wonderful room, naked and submissive and obedient and happy. The bed seemed to jostle a bit this time … because I was actually in the car, of course … but that didn’t matter. My Master talked and talked, and I listened and answered question … but, of course, I can’t remember a thing we said … until he said: “Wake up now, Wendy.”

The car had stopped outside of a house in a subdivision … I had no idea where. He got out and came around, and I let him open my door for me. We didn’t say another word as I let him lead me to the entrance. He rang the doorbell. I heard movement inside. And there he was.

My breath caught. My head swam a little. It was the man in the photo! I had fallen in love with somebody in a picture … and now … here he was! Fred was talking … and HE was talking, but it took me several seconds to get my mind back in gear. What had he said his name was? Oh my gosh! I hadn’t been listening! Now, he was standing to one side, and I let Fred lead me past him and into the house. We walked through a living room and into a kitchen, where the man got Fred a beer out of the refrigerator. The two of them were talking. Ben! Fred was calling him Ben! I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at the kitchen table. They were speaking in hushed tones. Ben kept casting little looks my way. Eventually, they excused themselves and went into the next room to talk. I looked around. Typical bachelor kitchen. It needed a lot more organizing. I found myself doing it in my mind, moving this here and that there. Of course, I was just trying to keep from screaming. I had NO idea what had happened in my life … or what I was doing … or what I wanted!

Fred came back into the room alone. He held out his hand to me and I got up immediately, facing him. “You are my slave,” he said sternly. I nodded solemnly. “And now, whether you want it or not, Wendy … I release you. You have no Master. You are alone. But somehow … I think things will work themselves out.”

I stood, flabbergasted, as he leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. And he turned and left. I could only stare in utter disbelief. Alone?! I heard the front door closed. I stifled an urge to cry out for him. He couldn’t leave me alone! I CAN’T be alone! I’m a Natural!

And then, HE walked back in. I stood, shaking slightly, staring at him. He smiled and motioned for me to sit back down, then pulled out a chair and sat opposite me. “Well, Wendy. Fred tells me that you’ve been having problems. Tell me all about them; then I’ll drive you back to the campus. You should know first that I’m a medical doctor, a clinical psychiatrist, and that anything you tell me will be held in strictest confidence. You are my patient, and I hope you will tell me everything, truthfully, leaving nothing out. You can trust me. Now, tell me all about it.”

I gawked at him for a long moment. “I … um … I think that … um … everything is alright now. I … I hear voices … but Willie told me how to control them.”

“Willie? The Willie who is Fred’s nanny?”

I blinked at him. “I … I don’t know WHAT she does for him, but she and Brenda and Dee … they help people. The helped ME. I can control the voices now.”

He cleared his throat. “Alright, let’s start at the beginning. What do these voices tell you to do?”

I exhaled something that might have been a sob. Why did they ALL ask that!? I took another shuddering breath. “They … they don’t TELL me anything! I didn’t really realize what they WERE until the girls helped me. The voices are other people’s thoughts. But now … now Willie showed me how to control them … to focus them. Now, I can just look into one person’s thoughts, and that’s all I can hear.”

He smiled patronizingly. “So you can hear my thoughts right now?”

“I … I … Willie showed me how to turn it off. I’ve got it turned off.”

He nodded at me like I was a three-year-old girl explaining to adults why the sun comes up in the morning. “Aright then, turn it on again for me.” He leaned back a little and pasted on a very pleasant smile.

I had never done this before! Willie told me how, but I hadn’t tried it yet. I took a few ragged breaths, closed my eyes, and concentrated on letting go of the soda straw in my mind.

“Oh!” I gasped, as the feeling hit me. I opened my eyes and stared steadily into his for a moment, shuddered violently, put the palm of my right hand against the lower part of my belly, and turned to look into the living room at the couch. The couch! “OH GOD!” I gasped. I started to shake uncontrollably. “You’re so DEEP!” I groaned loudly and pressed my other hand to my breast. “Bent over the couch!” I almost screamed. “Hand on my breast! Pinching my nipple! Thrusting! Inside! Me! OH! So DEEP!”

I collapsed forward, putting my hands on the table as the feeling suddenly stopped. I was breathing hard, gasping for air. I swallowed and tried with all my might to stop wheezing. “I … I … I don’t know what that means,” I stuttered between breaths.

“Don’tdon’t knowknow whatwhat WhatWhat meansmeans?” he echoed, inside and outside my head.

“Pathophysiological Amenorrhoea,” I stammered. I paused, finally getting my breathing under control. “Leukoencephalopathy,” I said, repeating his thoughts. “Hypermagnesemia.”

“Turn it off! Turn it off!” he echoed. And I pinched the tube in my mind. Silence.

His eyes were wide, and he stared at me in openmouthed disbelief. He ran the fingers of his right hand through his hair. Holy cow, he has nice hair! “Uh … Ms. Colliers,” he stuttered, “I … uh …”

“Oh, good Lord!” I said. “If you get all formal on me after THAT …!” I pointed almost savagely at the couch in the living room.

“Wendy,” he corrected nervously. “Uh … look … I’m really, really sorry. I had no IDEA …. I mean, you can’t really blame me if I thought ….” He sighed deeply again. Shook his head and shrugged. He was suddenly smiling. “Okay, I obviously DON’T have an excuse for thinking the things I was. I mean, you’re a very, very pretty girl, and I … uh ….” He shrugged again.

“You think I’m pretty?” I asked, a little shocked.

He barked a laugh, shook his head and ignored what he obviously thought was a silly question. “Wendy, the implications of this are …. Are you alright?”

I had put a shaking hand to my forehead. “You’re not going to believe me if I tell you.”

“Right now, I’d believe ANYTHING you told me.”

“I’m hungry,” I said, smiling wanly. “I haven’t had anything to eat other than a granola bar this morning.”

And so, my most memorable day turned into my most memorable night. He ushered me immediately out the door and drove me to a Bar & Grill a few blocks away. He talked and I talked. He was single, had just finished his residency and had joined the staff of the biggest hospital in town. He spoke of new patients, teaching a few courses on campus, and fishing. And, he confessed that he had made himself a bit of a pest by asking Willie for a date about half a dozen times, before he finally, finally took the hint and figured that she just wasn’t interested in him. I, for my part, told him everything … about the voices, about how I got to Fred’s house, what the girls did to me, what Fred did to me … everything. I even told him about the picture. And what Fred had told me just before he had left.

“Let me get this straight,” he whispered urgently after I had finished. “You are telling me that my good buddy Fred is keeping those three girls as sex slaves?”

“I don’t know how much sex has to do with it,” I answered thoughtfully. “Quite a lot, I would imagine … but we really didn’t get into that. They ARE slaves, though, emotionally and physically.

“I can’t speak for them, Ben … but I can tell you truthfully what has happened to ME. I won’t say a word if you take me back to my dorm tonight and never want to see me again. I imagine you probably have half the girls in the Psych Department drooling over you, anyway. I’ll respect your wishes, whatever they are. I’m a big girl. I can fend for myself … at least until I can find another Master. But I WILL have a Master, sooner or later. I HAVE to have a Master. I cannot live long without one. And if you want me … even if you just want to use me and discard me … well … I’m already yours.”

He sat back in his seat and regarded me, smiling, shaking his head slightly. He leaned forward then and reached across the table to me. I automatically took his hand. I heaved a deep sigh and couldn’t stop the tears as they started. Here it comes, I thought. I just know that he’s going to be gallant and let me down as gently as he can.

“Wendy … to tell you the truth ….” He paused again and tried to put his thoughts in order. “To tell you the truth, I am INCREDIBLY attracted to you. You’re obviously very intelligent, VERY pretty … and now, you are offering yourself to me as my personal slave? I think I’d be monumentally stupid to refuse your kind offer. But, what do you say we at least get through our first date before I make any commitments?”

I held onto his hand, perhaps a little too tightly, and smiled. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t just dumped me!

“When do you graduate?” he asked me. “The end of this semester. I hadn’t planned on going any further than the Master’s. Nutrition.”

He laughed out loud. “You’re eating a cheeseburger and fries!”

“I happen to LIKE cheeseburgers and fries! And anyway, I’m always looking for new ways to fix things. I’m going to be a chef!”

He pasted on a huge smile. “My mother is going to love you.” My heart skipped a beat.

“Tell me,” he urged, leaning close to me. “That couple over there, the guy with the gorgeous redhead … tell me what he’s thinking. If it really pleases you, you can take that as a direct order.”

I couldn’t help smiling broadly. “Yes, Master.” I looked where he had indicated and concentrated. “He’s thinking about baseball,” I said, and Ben laughed so hard that people turned and stared.

“Alright,” he continued, after he had corralled his funny bone, “how about that guy over to your left? He’s been staring at you all evening. Don’t look at him. Just tell me what he’s thinking.”

I snuck a peek to see who he was talking about, then looked forward at Ben again. I tried to focus. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “He’s thinking about ME! He’s thinking about … about DOING it with me! Holy cow!”

“And can you feel it?” Ben queried.

I blinked. I paused. I thought. “No,” I said at last. “He’s thinking the same sort of things that you were, back at your house. He’s thinking them … but I can’t feel anything.” I cocked my head a little and stared across the table at him. “Why could I feel YOU so … um … so forcefully, but I can’t feel anybody else?”

He got up and walked around the booth’s table, motioned to me to slide over, and sat down beside me. “And CAN you feel me?” he asked. I took a breath and turned my concentration to him.

“Ben!” I whispered urgently. “Ben, stop that!” I shuddered. Both of his hands were on his drink, which was sitting on the table in front of him. He was smiling a pleasant smile and looking up at the baseball game on the big-screen TV. I shivered again and put both of my hands on his upper arm, holding it. “Ben!” I said in an urgent, hoarse, soft voice. “What … what are you DOING? You can’t just touch me like … um … this! Oh gosh, Ben!”

Is that the way you like it? he thought, knowing that I was the only one who heard him. Do you like me to stroke you up and down like this? Or firmer … like this?

“Ben … if you keep doing that, I think I might … um ….”

Or like this? he reflected, and the fingertip that wasn’t really there began rubbing tight little circles around my clitoris.

“Oh, Ben! That … yes … that … it … Ben! I’m going to cum. What am I going to do?!”

Hold on for dear life and try not to make too much noise, his thoughts ordered firmly. He was still looking at the TV. I clamped my lips together, held on to his arm like a vice, and started to shake uncontrollably. A few whimpers escaped my throat.

Do you think you can walk? his inner voice asked, after the trembling abated.

Weakly, I let him help me up and walk me out to the car.

As soon as we were back inside his house, he scooped me into his arms and crushed me to him. The kiss was better than I could have possibly imagined. I let my weak knees collapse, knowing that he would support me … support me in this … support me for the rest of my life. His hands were roaming my body, stroking, petting. And when he began taking my clothes off, I knew how I would feel being naked before him, because in my mind, I had already been that way once for him. I tried to help him take his own clothes off, but my hands were shaking so badly that he laughed at me, making me blush. And when he bent me over the arm of the couch, I knew exactly what it was going to feel like, and how I was going to react. And react I did! I shook and I screamed, just as I had done before. And when he came inside me … deep, deep inside me … I could feel my very soul dissolve into his, and my world exploded around us.

I lay on my side on the couch, facing a cold fireplace, and his arms were around me, and the whole of his body was pressed into my back and butt and thighs and legs. His left hand gently massaged my right breast. I floated in his embrace.

“I love this room,” I told him dreamily. “I hope you keep this couch forever.” He said nothing, and I floated. I looked at the mantelpiece in front of us. “That’s a beautiful candle stick,” I muttered.

“That’s a menorah,” he said, sleepily.

“Oh,” I said louder. “You’re Jewish.”

“My name is Benjamin Weizenbaum,” he muttered. “What did you expect.”

“I didn’t know, and I didn’t expect, and I don’t care,” I told him, snuggling back into him. “Is it very hard to convert?”

He chuckled. “Oh, yes, Mother is going to LOVE you!”

I hope that you more conservative readers aren’t too affected by my lack of religious assertiveness, but you see, I HAVE no assertiveness anymore. And I was never too religious, anyway. We have found a beit din and I’ve started kabbalat hamitzvot.

His mother DOES love me, especially once she found out that I have a dozen Jewish cookbooks in my collection. On the other hand, she has no IDEA that her new daughter-in-law is a mind-reading hypnotic sex slave (he hypnotizes me almost every day).

The wedding was two weeks ago. Brenda agreed to be my maid of honor, and Dee and Willie were bridesmaids. Fred’s wedding gift was a gold pocket watch.

And yes. I’m pregnant.