The flyers were posted just about everywhere that freshmen boys tended to hang out. Vaguely worded but sufficiently descriptive to be enticing, the flyers offered the possibility of amusement, and more importantly, quick cash, for freshmen interested in taking part in a senior psychology thesis study. After being posted for only an hour or so, the flyers were already getting the attention of the more adventuresome as well as perpetually broke incoming boys.

Herbie worked with Vic in distributing the flyers to select potential subjects throughout the quad. "What about him?", Vic asked, pointing out a lone freshman, battling with a pile of new textbooks he was trying to keep from dropping all over the sidewalk.

"No", Herbie said flatly. "Not him."

"Why not? He's obviously a frosh. Check out the confused look, the whole lost puppy thing he's got goin' on." The boy in question kept darting his eyes about, searching in vain for some more experienced student to come to his aid as he fought to manage his book load. "Looks like he'd be plenty susceptible to suggestion."

Herbie looked at the boy again. He was cute, in a bookish, nerdy sort of way. Tall, if a bit gangly. Dark hair, glasses, sweater vest. But no. Not this one.

"He's not what I'm looking for."

Vic raised an eyebrow. "You mean he's not what we're looking for."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Sure. We. We're in this together, right."

Vic was bothered by what sounded to him to be more than a mere slip of the tongue on Herbie's part, but he let it pass. "Why is he not what we're looking for?"

"Loner. I'm looking for couples."

"Couples? I thought you said you wanted to keep this strictly boys at the outset. Are we recruiting girls now, too?"

Herbie quickly shook his head. "Not that kind of couples. Buddies. Pals. I've got this whole best friend interaction thing worked out that I think will really help the experiment."

Vic felt that unease creep back in on him. "Why didn't you ever tell me about this? You never mentioned doing this in pairs befor--"

"It just came to me last night", Herbie cut him off. "Didn't think I needed to call you up since I'd be seeing you today anyway." Vic started to speak again, dissatisfied with Herbie's cavalier attitude about keeping him in the dark about this new development, but Herbie stopped him before he could begin, nudging Vic in the arm. "There. By the big tree."

Vic looked to where Herbie was pointing and saw a couple young college boys leaning against the large shade tree on the lawn. One was blond, with a strong chin and honest eyes. He had a small camcorder slung over his shoulder and a well-worn paperback text on Film Noir. The other was a bit taller, with sandy-brown hair. He had the face of an angel and a few folders marked with an angel's work. Student Help Line guidelines, Community Center activity planner, and Students Against Drunk Driving pamphlets. The two boys were clearly good friends, as they joked and laughed together openly. The blond film student was holding out his palm and fingering some loose change, shaking his head at the dismal total. His angelic friend held a thin leather wallet in his free hand, and playfully upended it to reveal how empty it was.

"Bingo", Herbie said, his voice a soft purr of anticipation. Before Vic could say anything, Herbie was already halfway across the grass toward the shade tree. He trotted along behind him.

Herbie planted one palm upon the tree trunk and leaned into the two boys' personal space as if it were the most natural thing in the world to him. "Gentlemen", he said, sounding both official and deliberately corny. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Herbie, and this is my associate, Vic."

Vic rushed up to stand beside his partner in arms. "Hey."

The two boys exchanged puzzled looks. "Um, hey. I'm Jamie", the blond film buff said. "This is Acker." The dreamboat tossed off a quick wave in greeting. "And actually, we were just leaving", Jamie said, beginning to back away.

"Looks like you two guys are a bit strapped for cash", Herbie said casually. The boys stopped at that, turning to face Herbie again. Herbie handed them a flyer. "But I could help you with that." Jamie raised an eyebrow and Acker shrugged. What was the harm in hearing him out?

"What would we have to do?", Jamie asked.

Herbie gave his pitch, and Vic stood beside him looking official and supportive.

Not twenty minutes later, Herbie and Vic were lingering outside one of the more popular frat houses. Vic was staring off toward a nearby park when Herbie poked him in the ribs to get his attention. Herbie jerked his head toward a small gathering of young freshmen departing the fraternity. Vic realized their next targets would be impressionable and eager-to-please hopeful frat pledges.

"Which ones?", Vic asked.

Herbie pointed at a couple of guys who had broken off from the rest of the crowd. "Them."

The twosome were walking together, caught up in a lively debate about a bright yellow sheet of paper one of them was waving around encouragingly while the other eyed it with disdain. The one showing signs of trepidation was half a head shorter than his companion. A boyish face, with a thick bush of brown hair. His smiling pal had a more aquiline face that gave him a slightly older appearance, but his bright smile and beautiful eyes projected youth and vibrancy.

"Problem, fellas?"

The duo looked up to realize they were about to walk smack-dab into Herbie, not realizing that he'd deliberately placed himself directly in their path. "Oh, sorry, man. Didn't see you", said the shorter one.

"Too busy spewing out groundless arguments", the tall kid remarked.

Vic had sneaked up behind the tall kid and plucked the yellow paper from his hands. "Heeey. Frat party. This weekend. You guys invited to consider pledging? I thought rush week was long over."

"It is", the tall guy said. "I'm trying to get Rickie here to join my frat. We got an opening when one of the guys had to move."

"Party's a great way to meet the brothers", Vic said, handing back the party announcement.

"See, that's what I keep telling him!", the tall guy heartily agreed. "I only just pledged this year, but it has been awesome! I keep telling him!"

Rickie added his two cents. "Carson, I'm not into the frat setup. That's your thing, fine, okay. But I'd rather be involved in something--I dunno, more important. Something scholastic, that will have some lasting effect--"

"Funny you should mention that", Herbie said, sticking one of his flyers in Rickie's face. Rickie took it, reading it over curiously. He began to nod slowly.

Carson edged in beside his friend. "What? What is it?" Rickie showed Carson the flyer, and flashed his buddy a winning smile. Carson crooked his head to one side, and began to nod.

It was well after lunch when Herbie and Vic came upon the final two applicants to their hypnotic six-pack. Vic was sufficiently tired at that point that he almost walked right past them, but a book one of them held caught his eye.

The two boys, both exceptionally handsome, sat on the steps of the science building. One with magazine model features and brown wavy hair, the other with a corn-fed farmboy face and short golden tresses. They were flipping through an old, worn and foxied paperback book and having a good laugh at its contents.

Vic was quick to dart over to a nearby park bench where Herbie was having little luck persuading a couple of jocks to read his flyer. Vic grabbed him by the arm and jerked him away from the aspiring athletes with a curt, "'Scuze us."

The boys on the steps continued to laugh. "And get this part here", the brown-haired one said. "I love this part. 'And thus the extensive studies show us that more study is indeed called for in this field.' How hilarious is that?"

The farmboyish one scoffed. "What, that's it? That's all it says?"

"The conclusions are inconclusive. I other words, they take 126 pages to say they know dick-all about the subject."

Farmboy reached for the book, fiddling around to find the opening pages. "When was this thing written, anyway?"

"'55, I think." The wavy-haired boy flipped to the start of the book. "'52. Even worse." A shadow fell over the pages and the two boys looked up to see Vic and a somewhat irritated Herbie blocking their light. The wavy-haired boy squinted up at them. "Um, you guys need to get by?"

Herbie was about to say no, when Vic pointed to the book they were holding. The paperback had a cream-colored cover, with sun-faded pink swirls circling its face, surrounding an illustration of a floating eye. The title was written in boldfaced, black block letter. HYPNOTISM. Ace paperbacks. 12 cents. Herbie grinned. Vic raised his eyebrows and craned his neck toward his friend as if to say, "See?"

Herbie smiled and pointed to his chest. "Herbie. My associate." he gestured to Vic, who held up a hand.

"Vic."

The boys on the steps looked at each other, pondering this odd and sudden introduction. Then, the brown-haired boy said. "I'm Kaufman. Everyone calls me Coffee."

The farmboy added, "Bryce. Bry."

Herbie nodded toward the old paperback. "So. You guys are interested in hypnotism?"

Vic returned to Herbie waving a small notebook. "Got 'em. They'll be there along with--", and he flipped back one page, "--Jamie and Acker, and Carson and Rickie. Looks like we're set." Vic noticed that Herbie, who'd begun pulling down some of the flyers now that he'd met his initial quota, had just shooed away another student. He looked familiar. "Who was that?"

"Another would-be participant. I got rid of him."

"Howcum? If he's interested, we could always--"

"He's one kid. I want couples." Herbie quickly rephrased, saying, "I mean, for what I want to do, an even number is best. We're good to go. Let's not get greedy."

Vic watched as the tow-headed lad walked away. He looked back longingly at Vic, waved a solemn goodbye, and tossed the flyer he had into a nearby trash bin. Vic was about to suggest Herbie double-check with the kid to see if he had a friend who could join him and then sign them both up, but the nagging familiarity of the boy's face distracted him. "I swear to God I know that kid."

"You should. You obviously haven't noticed that he tends to follow you around everywhere. Has for the past year now."

"He has?", Vic was genuinely surprised. "He's not a senior, too? He's kinda small."

"Sophomore. And I'm serious, that kid is sportin' wood for you, Victor." Herbie added the flyer he just took from the central announcement board to his stack of retrievals. "Harry, I think his name is."

The light bulb came on over Vic's head. "No, it's Henry! I remember him now. He sat next to me in Survey of World Lit. Total spaz. Isn't he majoring in industrial engineering or like that?"

"Like it matters." Herbie shuffled his stack of leftover flyers. "C'mon. We got about ten more of these things to round up so we're not overbooked for our big event."

"I'll take the East end of campus", Vic suggested. "We can meet at the cafeteria."

Before departing, Vic looked down the quad again and saw that Henry was gone. He considered going to look for him. He let it go.