Jack and Jessie have been friends with Roger and Sue for several years. They met when both couples were looking to buy a new home in a development southwest of Greensboro, North Carolina. They were both in a display house at the same time, examining the layout, workmanship, appliances and taking notes.
Somehow, Jessie and Sue began to compare notes and discuss the pros and cons of the building. The conversation continued into the parking area and the couples went to lunch together to continue talking. That was the beginning of a relationship that has lasted to this day.
Neither couple bought a house in the development that they met in but they continued to investigate other communities together since their values and tastes seemed to coincide. Sue discovered a new development just to the west of the city and the couples decided to go together to evaluate the properties.
The women agreed that the new development was consistent with their wants and desires. Jack and Roger agreed and both couples signed contracts to build homes on lots next to each other.
Five months later, both couples had new homes, mortgages and were moving in. They had stretched their budgets to buy the homes, so, each couple was doing their own moving. They both used rented UΒHaul trucks and helped each other move and arrange furniture. Jessie and Sue went shopping together for the new home necessities while the men bought and installed closet shelving, drapery rods and Venetian blinds for both homes.
The couples ate their first meals in their new homes together and continued to get together on the weekends just to share dinners and play cards. This camaraderie has been going on for over six years. Their weekend dinners and games occur every weekend unless interrupted by other important commitments like family and vacations.
Last summer, the couples vacationed together, taking an eight day Caribbean cruise together where they played cards in the ship's lounge in the evenings after dinner.
The following Friday, they were home and playing cards after dinner as usual. The games they played varied from time to time. This weekend they were playing Hearts where players gained one point for every heart and thirteen points for the Queen of spades they held at the end of each hand. The game ended when one player accumulated one hundred points and the winner was the person with the lowest score.
After the first game, Sue offered an observation. "You know, after the experiences on the cruise, including the card games in the evening, this game seems pretty tame."
"What are you suggesting?" asked Jessie.
"I think we need to change the game a little to make it more competitive. Maybe there should be some other penalty for taking hearts or the Queen of spades rather than just keeping score," Sue suggested.
"We could play for something to win at the end of the game," suggested Roger. "Maybe, if we each put up a dollar at the beginning of a game the winner would get the four dollars."
"I don't know if a dollar is incentive enough to increase the competitiveness and anything more than a dollar could be detrimental since we'd be playing for the money and not the pleasure of the game," observed Sue.
Jessie dropped a bomb. "How about clothing?"
The other three were speechless for a moment. "You're serious?" asked her husband, Jack.
"It would certainly make the game competitive," defended Jessie. "And I think losing clothing would actually bring us closer as friends since we wouldn't actually be losing anything of value."
"Except our dignity," said Sue.
"Come on," said Jessie. "We've seen each other in bathing suits on the cruise and, if I remember correctly, neither you nor I were hiding much in the two-piece suits we were wearing."
"Jessie has a point," spoke up Roger. "Losing clothing on each hand would make the game more interesting."
"You have an ulterior motive," suggested Sue. "I know you like to see me naked and I suppose you'd also like to see Jessie naked."
"True," agreed Roger. "But I'd put money on you and Jessie wouldn't mind seeing me or Jack naked either."
"Touche," admitted Sue. "But there are twenty-six points to lose in Hearts each hand. How much clothing are we wearing? We could all be naked after one hand and certainly whoever gets the Queen would be."
"Okay," conceded Roger. "How about just the Queen?"
"Thirteen points?" asked Sue. "The loser of the first hand would have to strip completely."
"That's too fast," added Jessie. "The beauty of losing clothing is that it occurs slowly and randomly among the players. That slowness only enhances the enjoyment."
"I agree," said Roger. "How about just the Queen and just one point?"
"Too slow," opined Jessie. "How much clothing are we wearing? Between six and eight items each. If we play at all it would be forever before anyone gets naked. I'd like to go home before Saturday afternoon."
"Is the purpose of the game to get someone naked rather than just tantalize?" asked Sue.
"What other reason would we play for?" asked Jessie. Taking off clothing one item at a time is tantalizing but real winning is having someone else naked."
"This conversation is insane," said Sue.
"True," agreed Jessie. "But no one has complained so far. If we did this, would any of you complain or refuse to play?"
Roger put up his hand. "I'd play," he said.
Sue was the last one to put up her hand.
"How about we also play for another card in addition to the Queen of spades?" suggested Roger. "Maybe the Ace of hearts. That would double the speed."
"That's still only two items of clothing," said Jessie. "By my calculation, we're wearing thirty items total. We'd need to play fifteen games for us all to lose and, maybe, seven or eight for one of us to lose unless someone's extremely unlucky and loses two items in one game for four games in a row."
Jessie looked at Jack. "You've been awfully quiet. Do you have any suggestions?"
"I think we should scrap the idea of using Hearts as the game of choice," Jack contributed. "I suggest we just shuffle the deck and draw cards from the stack one at a time in sequence. If you draw a queen, any queen, you have to remove an item of clothing."
"That would have us lose four items for each pass through the deck," Jessie calculated. "How long would that take?"
"I don't know," answered Jack. "It would depend on how quickly we drew cards and removed clothing."
"I like that," said Sue. "It adds tension to each draw and procrastination to the idea of drawing next."
"I'm good with that but I think we should add Kings as another losing card," suggested Jessie. "If a woman draws a Queen they remove something and if a man draws a King they remove something."
"That has a quality of fairness about it," considered Jessie. "It keeps the number of loses equal for the men and the women."
"I think we're close," said Jack. "What if a woman draws a King?"
"That's interesting," said Jessie. "I don't think nothing should happen. How about if a woman draws a King, one of the men removes something?
"Which man?" asked Sue.