I was getting ready for the party, just a small gathering I had been told by Clive & Vanessa, the friends that invited us. “What shall I wear?” Kay asked.
“You know what” I replied a little testily. “Vanessa told you to wear the galabeya with buttons all the way down the front - and stockings & suspenders underneath.”
“OK if you insist”, she sighed. I looked out the invitation to re read the directions, I flipped over the sheet and looked at the map. The party seemed to be in a cottage that looked like it was miles from anywhere.
Finally she was ready and we got into the car. She did look lovely. “What’s this party in aid of anyway?”
“Just a party as far as I know”, I lied. I knew very well that it was something of a decidedly “adult” nature by the way Clive would only make “nudge nudge wink wink” kind of comments whenever I asked him about it. The cottage was about forty miles away from our home in an area I didn’t know at all so it took about an hour to get there. It was dark when we arrived.
We got to the place and I knocked on the door. I was beginning to think I must have the wrong place, as there was no sound coming from the house and there were only two cars in the drive.. The door opened and I heard music waft out. A well built man stood at the door and smiled. “Welcome, we have been waiting for you” he beamed as he took our coats. I ushered Kay in and followed behind her. As we got inside I guessed that there were about twenty people there. Someone gave us some drinks and we found ourselves engaged in conversation with a couple of men in the lounge. Kay was chatting away to one of them about cars or something and obviously had at least two more drinks by the way she was smiling and laughing. I looked around. I noticed that there were only four women there including my wife.
I detected a movement of people out of the room. As the group went through a door I realised that they were headed into a cellar. We followed and progressed down the steps, not sure of why or what would happen next.
We reached the bottom of the steps and we were in quite a large room with three rows of chairs arranged in a semi-circle around a large stage, about two feet high. On the stage there were three sets of old fashioned but very solid looking stocks and a bed, about the size of a large single. We were almost the last down the stairs and there were only two seats left, in the centre front. I caught a glimpse of one or two people I vaguely knew. They winked at me. I smiled and nodded.
“Welcome to our quiz night”, a bright sounding voice announced, “We have a super prize for the winners”, he paused and the audience in unison called “Oooooo”, “and the usual forfeit for the losers”, at which the crowd roared “hoooooooooraaay”. I looked along our row of seats and realised that there were three other couples besides us in the front row.
The guy that had welcomed us stood on the podium, next to a scoreboard. There were four sets of initials on the board, including JK for Kay and myself. I couldn’t help thinking that if only eight people were in the quiz then it was going to be a pretty boring evening for the fifteen or so blokes that were sat in the semi circle around the stage. The first question was read out and I knew the answer, none of the others did so we went ahead. As further questions were read out we did not do too well and we were in third place. The fourth placed couple were sat on my left so I whispered to the guy next to me asking him what the prize was, as we seemed certain not to win it. He seemed surprised by the question and just whispered that the prize was not to pay the forfeit, he seemed a bit tense and I asked him what he meant, but just then a gong sounded. The question master then announced that the first round had ended and it was time to eliminate the first couple. The guy sat next to me was ushered up to the stage and placed in the first set of stocks. They shut with a positive “clunk” I could tell that they were serious devices and that there was no chance of escape once locked into them.
After about four more questions we had managed to get up to second place and “bong” another of the men was secured into the stocks. Kay nudged me, “what happens if you end up in the stocks?” she giggled.
“I don’t know, I hissed back”, but after three more questions I knew we would soon find out as I was next. The winners looked really pleased with themselves and I saw them making their way up the steps out of the cellar to much applause.
Now there were three of us in the stocks and our wives, well I assumed the others were wives, sat in the front row. The question master spoke up. “Now the three finalists are John and Kay, David and Angela and Andrew and Michelle” There was loud applause. “Now it’s the elimination round” He re-arranged the scoreboard. The initials were now M, A and K.
At the end of three questions Kay was second, Michelle was last and Angela was winning. David was released from his stocks and he and Angela darted for the stairs. I was starting to feel slightly uneasy. “Now the final question that decides the loser and the forfeit” the room went completely silent. Kay and the one other remaining woman were sat next to one another and I noticed that the six empty seats in the front row had been filled by men from the audience. They were surrounded.
