When I was in college, a fraternity on campus held an annual raffle to benefit two local charities. The year before my freshman year, they raised $25,000 selling $5 tickets. The hook was that each ticket entered you into a lottery for a grand prize of $5,000! That was a huge amount of money to a student like me. Needless to say, I scraped together the $5 for a ticket freshman year. Frankly, I needed the money badly.
About a week before the drawing, my girlfriends and I were talking at lunch when the raffle came up. We all said what we'd do with the money, and how badly we needed it. When we finished lunch, my girlfriends got up to go to class but I stayed at the table to do some work since I didn't have class until later.
I was reading when Rosa from the cafeteria caught my attention by clanking her mop on my chair. I smiled and said hello. Rosa did the same. After a little chit-chat Rosa said she could tell me something about the raffle if I swore to keep it secret. I agreed naturally.
So she told me the secret: the raffle was fixed! The money went to charity as promised, she told me, but the student prize was decided in advance! I asked how, but she said she was not at liberty to say. Then she said something about how I would "qualify" and to talk to Carla, last year's winner who was sitting with some friends three tables away. I asked Rosa for more details, but she said that was all she knew.
After Rosa walked away, I took a few minutes to think about what she'd said. Eventually I decided it couldn't hurt to find out more. I mean, $5,000 was a lot of money! I walked over to Carla's table. I knew one girl sitting with her, so I figured I could start there and then get to Carla. I pretended to be walking by and saw my friend at the table. I made up some reason to sit down and talk, and then found a way to talk to Carla. We talked a little and then when everyone got up to go to class, I said I had some business in Carla's direction. The other girls went in the other direction.
That's when I brought up the contest and what Rosa had said. Carla was reluctant at first, but her expression changed when I mentioned Rosa. Finding a private place to talk, she told me much of what Rosa had already said and more. The fraternity held a contest the night before the drawing announcement. Several girls competed and the fraternity chose a winner, who was then announced as the random drawing winner the next day! I couldn't believe it. I pressed her for details, but she would only say you had to be sexually open-minded and competitive to participate. I told myself I definitely qualified!
I told Carla I wanted to do it. She made me repeat it three times. Then she warned me that if I told anyone, they would say it was just a practical joke on me. Again, I promised I wanted to participate. Assured, Carla told me when and where to meet, what to bring, and what to wear. Carla would meet me there. She said she was going to be the hostess of the "show." I asked her what she meant by "show." Carla looked embarrassed, as if she had said more than she was supposed to. She asked me again if I wanted the money. I insisted yes.
"Then I'll see you at the time I gave you!" Carla smiled and walked away. As she was about to turn a corner, she yelled back to me. "Good luck! You'll have fun with the money if you win!"
After a week of anxious anticipation, the day finally came. I met Carla at the designated spot at the designated time early in the afternoon. As I was told to do, I was wearing a tight dress and heels. My hair was up in a braid too. I had my ticket, some food in a paper bag and my bikini with me, also as instructed. Carla and I arrived at the exact same moment. She had told me not to arrive early and to leave after 10 minutes if she did not show up, which would have meant I was not in the contest. I was relieved to see her.
We walked to the fraternity and entered through a back entrance. She walked me through to a room upstairs. A few of the boys walked by but mostly ignored me, even though I looked at each of them with an eager-to-please smile. I figured I might need their vote or help or something later on, but when they barely noticed me I figured this would be an uphill battle. Carla took me into a small room and closed the door.
"I'll be back for you in four hours. Do NOT leave the room or you'll be out of the contest. Eat your food if you get hungry. The t.v. works and I left you a diet coke on the table over there."
I barely had time to thank her before she disappeared and the door closed. With each hour that passed, I grew more and more nervous. I could hear the frat boys being, well, frat boys. There was a constant rumble of boys coming and going, throwing stuff (or each other?) around, etc. It grew louder at times, then would die down, and then get loud again.
The rumble started getting much louder in the last hour before Carla was supposed to arrive. That's when I turned on the t.v. to block out the sound. I started getting really nervous. So nervous that I was pacing when Carla walked back in right at the 4 hour mark.
Carla didn't show a lot of sympathy for my nervous state.
"Look, if you're going to be chicken shit about this, you should leave right now!"
"No, no, please Carla, I'm fine. Just a little nervous."
"If you're nervous you should go then..."
"NO! Carla, I didn't mean nervous, I just mean excited!"
"You better not be lying!"
"I'm not, Carla, really. I'm here to win!"
Just saying the words calmed me down.
"Ok then. Put on your bikini, and keep the heels on."
I guess I expected Carla to leave the room while I changed. When I realized she wasn't going to leave, I nervously jumped up to start changing. Carla rolled her eyes, not fooled by my faux coolness with having her watch me get naked.
When I finished, Carla went into a closet in the room and produced a plush bathrobe. Holding it up to me to for size, she nodded slightly and told me to put it on. I was more than happy to do so, since it was too cold in that room for just a bikini. The bathrobe fit me nicely, reaching all the way down to my ankles. It felt like a little hug when I wrapped it around me and tied it in the front.
"What name will you use tonight?" she asked.
That was not a question I was expecting. I stammered so she decided for me.
"You look like a 'Heather.' Yup, that's it. You're Heather tonight."
"Ok." I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing what to think.
Carla went back to the closet. She came back with something in her hands.
"I'm going to blindfold you now. Sit on this chair!"
I didn't want to be blindfolded, but I didn't want to make the mistake of looking prudish like before so I sat in the chair and played it cool. Carla took my head in her hands.
"This is your last chance, Heather. Are you going to be a tiger out there or are you a scared little girl who shouldn't be here?"
This time I was ready for the challenge.
"I'm going to be a tiger, Carla. I'll do whatever it takes to win!"
And that's when Carla put two eye patches up to my eyes and told me to hold them there. She tied some kind of scarf around my head to hold them in place and I pulled my hands away. She walked around in front of me and adjusted the patches. She then stepped back behind me and tied the scarf tightly. That apparently wasn't enough. She wrapped another scarf-like thing around me. I could feel this one go from the end of my nose up to my forehead. It was pitch black underneath all that.
"Don't worry, hottie. They can still see your blond hair. You'll get points for that!"
I didn't know what to say.
"Heather, I'm going to walk you to your waiting place. You'll be there for about 30 minutes. You will not move or make a peep, do you understand?"
"Yes, Carla."
"If you move or make a sound, you will be disqualified. If, at any point in the evening, the blindfold comes off, you will be out of here. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Carla."
"I'm going to take you to your spot now. I will position you on a stool. Consider yourself mute from the moment we walk out of this room. Do NOT screw up, Heather!"
"I won't, Carla!"
Carla took me by the hands and told me to stand up. I did as I was told. She opened the door and walked me out into the hallway. She led me by the hands and I trailed behind, walking gingerly for fear of tripping. I felt strangely turned on by this. She said nothing, even when we got to a staircase. She just slowed down, took one hand and put it on the railing, and then pulled me slowly by the other hand. Eventually, I heard us walk into a room. It sounded big. Our shoes clicked as we walked along on what was surely a hardwood floor.
Carla stopped walking. She began pushing me back. I hesitated and then began stepping back lightly. On the third step, my ankle bumped into the stool. Carla grabbed me by the hips and pushed me to the seat. I sat up on the stool. It was just tall enough that I had to do a little hop to get on, and it had little bars where I could rest my feet. I pulled my legs close together to keep my robe from opening up. I felt her finger push up to my lips as if to say "shhhh." Then I heard her walk away.
