Tom was going through the daily mail when he spotted the invitation.
"Hmm," he said to himself. "What's this?" He opened the envelope and read the invitation before letting out a low whistle of appreciation.
"Mary! You need to see this! It's a party invitation from Debra."
"That's nice," Mary replied from the other room. "When is it?"
"Two weeks, on a Saturday night."
There was a short pause while Mary checked her memory. "That should work."
"Yeah, but you really need to see this."
Mary walked into the room and held out her hand. "Really, what's up?" Tom handed her the letter and she scanned it.
"Cordially invited... Dinner at 7:00... Entertainment afterwards.... What's this? A hypnotist?"
"Keep reading," Tom encouraged.
Mary read the invitation out loud: "The entertainment for the night will be provided by Madam X, a professional hypnotist who specializes in uncovering secrets. After dinner, we'll all draw lots to see who goes under Madam X's spell. She will dig deep and reveal that person's deepest, darkest sexual secret. So only accept the invitation if you dare!"
Mary reread the invitation silently before remarking, "That's Debra all right, always coming up with something crazy like this."
"Crazy?" Tom asked.
"Yes, crazy dangerous. Just imagine if Gina found out that Greg liked some kind of nasty porn, or that, I don't know, Terry found out Lilian was doing another man. That kind of stuff could break up a marriage."
Tom mulled it over. "Hmm, I hadn't thought about that. Do you want to go?"
"Shit, Debra's really set a trap this time. If we don't go, everyone will assume we have something to hide. If we do go, well, one of us may end up revealing our dirty underwear before our friends."
"Dirty laundry?" Tom asked with a wry smile. "I think my laundry's pretty clean." He looked Mary in the eyes, challenging her. "How about you?"
"I'm pretty clean except for that wild weekend with Chris Hemsworth."
"Chris Hemsworth, huh? Oh yeah, I was busy with Margot Robbie that weekend."
Mary thought some more before deciding. "We should be good then. The worst that could happen is that we find out something really troubling about one of our friends. That would happen with us or without us. Let's do it."
Tom gave her a quick kiss. "You always were the smart one. That's why I love you."
Two weeks later, Debra looked around the dinner table with satisfaction. Not every invitee had accepted, but four couples had. Dinner had been fairly quiet. All anyone wanted to talk about was the hypnotist but nobody was brave enough to bring up the subject. The doorbell rang just as everyone was settling down to coffee.
"That would be Madam X," Debra announced. "If you'll excuse me."
Debra made the introductions, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room, "Madam X, we're all delighted that you're here."
She pointed around the table as she introduced each couple, "This is my husband Edward and these lovely people are Brian and Rachel, Mike and Martha, Tom and Mary, and to your right are Chris and Greg. Everybody meet Madam X, hypnotist and tonight's agent provocateur. "
"Hi, Madam X," everyone chorused cheerily.
"Can you please tell us a little about yourself? I have to admit, we're all a little nervous," Debra asked.
"First of all, I want to thank Mrs. Hall for inviting me. It's a real pleasure to be here in this lovely house with you lovely people. I am Madam X and I'm a professional hypnotist. I usually help people with behavior problems like smoking or overeating."
Madam X went on to describe her professional history and the way she ended up being a therapist. Once that was done, she went on to say, "Regarding tonight, I've never done anything like this before. You all know why I'm here tonight, to hypnotize one of you and dig into your sexual secrets?"
She looked around the table and scanned their faces. Everyone nodded and affirmed their consent. She continued, "And you all understand that there's some risk in this? You all look like happy couples. Could this be the night that upsets your relationship?"
There was a long pause while everyone considered the possibilities. Ultimately, they all turned to their hostess Debra. She smiled back at them and held her upturned hands toward them, "I know what's going through your heads right now. I feel it too: a twinge of fear. Will I be the one tonight? Will Roger? Is there something I have to hide? Even worse, does Roger have something to hide?
"So yes, this scares me a little, but it thrills me, too. I'm too old to be jumping out of airplanes or diving off cliffs. This feeling, though, it's like that. I don't know how it's going to end but I want to make the leap and see what happens and I'm asking you to leap with me. So come on, can we do this? Together?"
Debra beckoned with her hands. Slowly at first, then faster, the guests agreed. They were in. Debra's smile broadened until she was beaming. She stood and held up a cloth bag.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun," she said. "This bag has marbles inside. There are nine blue marbles and one red marble. Take a marble from the bag but don't reveal it until I say."
Debra walked around the table and each guest took a marble. When her circuit was complete, Debra retrieved the last one from the bag.
"Ok everybody," she said, "reveal."
Everyone opened their hands to see what was inside. Nine people found blue marbles and quickly checked their spouses' boxes. Eight people looked around to see Martha staring at her hand with the most curious expression on her face. They sighed, a little disappointed in the choice.
Of all the people in the group, Martha was probably the most uptight. She was the kind of woman who'd worn a turtleneck to her senior prom. She did her best to radiate competence and professionalism and heaped scorn on women who 'got by on their looks.' This wasn't really a promising pick.
"We have a winner," Debra crowed. "Please, everyone move to the living room."
Madam X led Martha to the living room where there were two chairs in the center. They sat facing each other and Madam X began.
"Martha, you are so brave to be sitting in that chair tonight. Doesn't everyone think so? Please, let her know how much you appreciate Martha."
Madam X clapped her hands softly in a golf clap. The guests all joined in.
"I know you're nervous Martha, but you're among friends and you're safe here. But I'm going to take you to a place that's even safer. I want you to close your eyes and imagine the place where you feel safest of all. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes, I can do that," Martha acknowledged.
"Can you tell me where that is?"