Vincent

Stephen Lundz had worked at General Harbor Ltd.'s accounting department for 23 years. He absolutely hated his job, but he stayed for one reason: Benjamin Rappeli. Benjamin had started working in the same office a year and a half after Stephen had started. As a matter of fact, Stephen was on his way to resign when he passed by Benjamin who politely introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm the new guy. Benjamin," he had said.

"Hey, Venjamin. Nice to meet you," said Stephen as he continued walking to the boss's office.

Stephen was about to knock when his confusion registered.

Venjamin? That's not a name, he thought. He turned to apologize when a thought occurred to him. The letter "V" has a very similar sound to a "B". I wonder if he noticed...

It was now almost 22 years later and now Benjamin had become "Vincent" to Stephen. This is how he did it:

Over the course of all these years, Stephen slightly adjusted the way he would pronounce Benjamin's name. Turning the B into a V was easy, that part had been done upfront on accident. The E to the I was also simple, as some parts of the country do this naturally. "Vinjamin." The N remained, of course, but the essential transformation was the second syllable. "Jam" had to become "Cent" and Stephen couldn't figure out how to continue for several years.

Eventually, the answer came to him. The simplest way to explain this trick is to say that it was a combination of things: facial exercises, generous use of diphthongs, and plenty of eye contact. Also, Stephen had filled up an empty jelly jar with pennies and given it to Benjamin for use as a paperweight. This went a long way in the psychological replacement of "jam" and "cent". In the end, however, it was a slow process but it was completely worth every moment to Stephen as he strolled in to the office and greeted "Vincentin" with complete confidence.

As for the third syllable that was mysterious dropped in Benjamin's 14th year, Stephen had a stroke of luck when an assistant Megan asked that everyone start referring to her as "Meg". He simply started doing this for everyone. Unfortunately, Meg mistook his gesture and began referring to Stephen as "Steve"; he fired her soon after.

So, Benjamin had become "Vincent" with complete success. For some reason that Stephen couldn't figure out, Benjamin didn't seem to even notice. If Stephen had remained Benjamin's superior perhaps he could have blamed general ass-kissing, but Benjamin was now Stephen's boss and didn't seem to like him very much. It was something deeper and Stephen became to realize that he had hypnotized this man.

Still Stephen wasn't satisfied. He began to realize that his job was more frustrating than ever. But he was working on a new challenge. He had given himself 6 more years to change "Vincent" into "Vanessa".