4. The Pre-Game Party

I guess I spoiled the surprise Caroline and her husband had planned for me at the pre-Game party. In fact, I'm pretty sure the surprise was on them.

 

They were there before Tina and me, along with their friends Seth and Kelly, and Lianne, who was supposed to be my surprise.

 

Seth and Kelly are about the same age as Caroline and her husband. Seth is a tall, thin guy with curly black hair, Kelly could be a movie star, with her long wavy blonde hair, creamy skin, and dynamite figure. Kelly could be a movie star, but it turns out she's a lawyer. And a damn good one, as I'd soon find out.

 

Lianne is a stunning woman, and a stage hypnotist. Also around Caroline's age, or maybe a little younger, she's a good four inches taller. You notice her legs first: long and shapely. Then, you see the rest of her figure: fit and firm and busty. Then, you see her face, with a rather large mouth, a gently sloping nose, and deep piercing blue eyes. Finally, you see her long wavy brown hair. She wears it up for the show, but most of the time, it's in a pony tail that reaches down nearly to her waist.

 

She's also a very good hypnotist. Some stage hypnotists are kind of mean-spirited. They get people to do dumb things so other folks can laugh at them. Lianne's act is different. She gets people to do really amazing things, so that afterwards their friends keep asking them, "How'd you do that?"

 

Caroline saw her act about a month before the Game. Caroline was hypnotized, and discovered that she can do a really seductive belly dance, much to John's amusement. She managed to get Lianne's attention after the show. The two talked about everything and nothing. They became good friends.

 

The planning for the Game came up in conversation, and Lianne was really interested. As it turned out, she was between venues when the Game was scheduled. (That's "temporarily unemployed" to those of us not in show business.) Caroline thought it would be cool to have her surprise everyone at the pre-Game party, and a plan was made.

 

They didn't know that Lianne and I were old friends.

 

So anyway, at the Gamma Gamma Sigma house, the Sigmas were all dressed in the same outfit: bare feet, blue jeans, and identical red bikini tops.

 

Lianne, Caroline, and Kelly had chosen their own theme, however. They were all dressed almost entirely in black: Kelly's long straight blonde hair falling on a black poet's blouse and knee-length skirt, Caroline's auburn hair falling on a black tube top and slacks, and Lianne's ponytail falling back onto a black tea-length dress whose neckline plunged just enough to draw the eye (and Tina's elbow when it drew mine).

 

When Tina and I showed up. Lianne shouted "Tommy!" and ran over, hugging me in a way usually not reserved for total strangers.

 

Tina was not a particularly happy camper, but that would end with a little personal history.

 

Lianne used to live in the same apartment building as I did when I was about ten years old. She was just starting to put her act together back then, and working as a waitress to pay the bills. I would stay with Lianne after school until my folks came home from work, and we would sometimes work out bits of the act. I had a big crush on her (who wouldn't?), but it was always just something in my mind. Lianne saw me pretty much as a little kid.

 

Now, while Lianne and I were sharing our story with Tina and Caroline, Seth and John were trying to figure out how to get back some of the attention. It must have been rough: being in a room full of lovely ladies and to have them all talk to the only other guy in the room.

 

Seth solved the problem by walking up to Kelly, tapping her on the shoulder and saying, "Pardon me, darling. May I knock you out you now?"

 

Kelly looked over her shoulder at her husband. "Oh," she said. "OK, I guess. How are you going to do it?"

 

Now, this was about the strangest conversation that I had ever heard, and it did stop my reminiscing.

 

"Like this," said Seth. He produced a small throw pillow he'd taken from the couch and bopped Kelly over the head with it.

 

Kelly seems to know a comic moment when she sees one. She dropped to her knees and swayed there a minute, her eyes rolling all around in their sockets.

 

Seth stepped beside Kelly, and bopped her on the head again.

 

Kelly turned to look at him. "Gee, what pretty music!" she said. "Sounds kind of like wittle birdies..."

 

She tipped forward onto the floor, her behind stuck way up in the air, her eyes closed but a goofy smile on her face.

 

Caroline stood beside her prone friend. "Oh, please do me too," she said.

 

Seth, after a quick look to John, bopped Caroline on the head with the pillow. She let loose a little "Oh!" about two octaves higher than her normal speech, and then she fell to her knees just as Kelly had done, swaying and rolling her eyes.

 

He hit her again. She said, in a little girl's sing-song voice, "Must be time for my little nappy..." and tipped forward, butt in the air, mirroring Kelly's final pose perfectly. Caroline's face bore her own goofy grin.

You couldn't really see Kelly's then, since Caroline's hair now covered her friend's face. Kelly didn't move, though, even to giggle.

 

I saw this whole thing with my jaw on the floor. Tina was giggling like a schoolgirl, along with most of the other sorority girls.

​

I saw a little smile pass over Lianne's lips, then she turned her face to a scowl. She stomped over to Seth.

 

"Give me that!" she shouted, grabbing the pillow from Seth's hand.

 

Then, she walked over next to the comically limp Caroline and her comically limp friend.

 

"If you want something done right..." she began, and then pounded the pillow against her own head.

 

"Wisten to the birdies," she said in her own little-girl's voice. "They sound so pwetty!"

 

Lianne dropped straight down to her knees, her eyes crossed and her tongue stuck out. Then she toppled onto her face, her rear end in the air like her precedents, her ponytail across Caroline's chin, a goofy smile on her face as well. The pillow flew across the floor and under a chair.

​

I regained his composure and got out my phone. I began to walk around the little tableau, recording this display of posterior for posterity.

​

Most of the other girls were nearly doubled over with laughter. Tina was fishing under the chair for the magic pillow (presumably to add her own comic knockout), but before she could get it, Lianne started giggling as well, and soon the moment had passed.

 

When everything had settled down a bit, Melanie asked Lianne, "You're a hypnotist, right? Can anyone be hypnotized?"

 

"I haven't tried with everyone," she said.

 

I winked at Lianne, then stepped behind Stephanie Washington, the little redhead with the curly hair. Lianne walked over to Stephanie and asked, "Have you ever been hypnotized, sweety?"

 

"Uhh, no," said Stephanie. Behind her, I very gently nodded my head.

 

Lianne put her other hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "You're sure?" she asked.

 

"I guess so," said Stephanie. "I mean, I don't remember..."

 

"Sleep," Lianne said, interrupting her.

 

Instantly, Stephanie's head fell to her chest, and her knees began to buckle. I caught her from behind.

 

"OK, OK," said Lianne. "Wake up now."

 

Stephanie's head bobbed up, though her knees were still bent and her weight was still in my arms.

 

"Whoa," she said. "What the hell happened?"

 

"You were hypnotized, my dear one," said Lianne. "How do you feel?"

 

"Fine," said Stephanie, a little warily. "You didn't make me cluck like a chicken or anything, did you?"

 

"No, of course not," said Lianne, a smile on her lips. "I just put you under, and then woke you right back up." Lianne turned to the others in the room. "Right, everyone?"

 

There was general assent and reassurance for Stephanie, who still looked a little flustered.

 

Caroline then said, "Oh, Lianne, don't think you have to work tonight!"

 

Lianne stepped over to her. "Oh, it's not work, Caroline," she said. "Work is with hot lights and hecklers and doing the same thing three shows a night."

 

Lianne placed one hand behind Caroline's ear, and the other on her elbow. "This isn't work at all."

 

She stepped away from Caroline, but Caroline just stood where she was, frozen to the spot, staring off into space.

 

Lianne walked back over to Melanie. "Was there anything else you wanted to know, young lady?"

 

They talked for a minute about how long Lianne had been a hypnotist, and where she was from, and all kinds of little things, until Tammy realized that Caroline hadn't moved.

 

"What happened to Caroline?" she asked. Caroline stood where she was, staring off into space. Tammy waved a hand in front of her face and got no reaction.

 

"Kelly, too," said Seth, a little alarmed. Kelly was standing next to Seth, her head down, her blonde hair covering her face.

 

"Alert," said Lianne, and Caroline and Kelly snapped to.

 

"Did it work?" asked Kelly. Seth's jaw fell open.

 

"Like a charm," said Lianne. Then, she addressed the room, "I'd set this up with my friends Caroline and Kelly as a little demonstration."

 

"Show me how to do that," Seth said. "Sometimes, I'd like the quiet."

 

Kelly shot him a look. But there was a little smile in there, too.

 

"Later," Lianne said. She caught my eye again. "How'd you like to see one of these guys out for a change?" she asked.

 

The room erupted in applause from the women, while Seth and John exchanged frightened looks. I knew what was coming, however, and it's a testament to my trust in Lianne and Tina and the others that I didn't just bolt for the door.

 

During all the applause, Lianne said "Lobster Hobbits," and I fell like a rag doll to the floor.

 

It was my old trigger word, from when I was a kid and Lianne was learning her craft. I don't remember anything until I heard her tell me to awaken.

 

Tina said, "Aw, but he looks so adorable!"

 

Then I noticed that I was chilly.

 

Then I noticed that I wasn't wearing a shirt.

 

Then I opened my eyes.

 

Then I made sure that I was still wearing pants.

 

"Nice nap?" Lianne asked me, a smile on her lips that sent the ten-year-old me to heaven.

 

"Yes," I said. "What did I miss, besides my shirt?"

 

"Oh, we auctioned off your shirt for the battered women's shelter," said Caroline.

 

"Who won?" I asked.

 

Melanie was red as a beet. "Would you like some beer?" she asked.

 

I let it drop. "Sure," I said, and got to my feet.

 

After I got myself a beer, I sought out Lianne again, to catch up on old times. She was talking with John and Caroline. After a bit of chat, I told Caroline there was something about The Book of the Game that had me curious.

​

"Why did you go by the name 'Eva?' " I asked

 

She acted a bit embarrassed, and seemed to avoid my eyes. Finally, her husband spoke up.

 

"Caroline used to be really embarrassed by the Game," he said. He paused a moment. "No, not embarrassed. Ashamed is a better word, isn't it darling?"

​

"I suppose," she said, looking at her shoes. "It was a long time ago."

 

"She used to feel that her talent and interest in playing dead said something terrible about her," John continued. "She wondered if she wasn't, somehow, maybe subconsciously... ummm..." He searched for the phrase.

 

Caroline supplied it. "... less than the strong, capable, self-sufficient woman I'd always wanted to be."

 

She looked me in the face now. "I didn't want to be some Barbie doll. I didn't want to be the kind of woman who just rolls over and 'plays dead' when things get tough. I didn't want to be Sleeping Beauty, waiting for some guy's kiss to make me whole. And yet, there I was, lying limply on the floor waiting for the Charon to undress me. And I loved it."

 

Caroline took a breath. We had attracted a few others to the conversation: Tina, Tammy, Melanie, and Sarah, who stood by, listening.

 

Caroline continued, "So, I decided that the woman who loved pretending to die was not the woman who worked late nights in the library, worked out at the gym, worked 20 hours a week at the deli to pay the bills, and tried very hard to stay on top of things day in and day out. The woman on the floor was a different woman, I thought. She even had a different name. 'Eva' was the name of a dog I once knew who loved to play dead."

 

Her husband put his arm around her waist and drew her to him. "And then," he said, "she met a man who feared that he was a potential murderer or rapist because he enjoyed the game so much. And after a very long night just before graduation, when they were both tired enough to take some chances, they confessed their other selves, and discovered that they weren't the people they feared they were."

 

Tina swallowed hard, then said gently, "I just about quit this year."

 

Melanie said "Me too" to the floor.

 

Tammy added, quietly, "When I saw what Tina went through with her old boyfriend, when I saw how he used to hit her and drag her around like his personal toy, I hated what I was. I was afraid that the way I play the Game made her think it was OK."

 

Tina put an arm around Tammy. "You know that's not true," she said. "I don't understand it, but the Game made it better, somehow. What we did to that man was a lot like the Game, and it showed me that all of you were with me, even, well... I don't know how to say it."

 

Caroline tossed her head back and gave a little laugh. "I'd like someone to say, 'Caroline, would you like another beer?'"

 

The rest of the night was enough to last a guy his whole life. I mean, how many times does a fellow get to be the center of attention at a party filled with lovely women? The ladies pumped me for information about what I liked and didn't like in a death scene, in women's clothes, in colors, in hair styles, in makeup, in things I never even thought about (like toenail polish). All this with my girlfriend standing right there.

They all wanted inside information to a better score, and none of them wanted anyone else to hear anything they didn't. It's somewhat competitive, this Game.

 

The Game itself hadn't even started, and I was already having the best weekend ever.

 

It only got better.

Interlude

"Smallman says that Walters is really looking forward to something over at Slut Central this weekend."

​

"All weekend?"

 

"Yeah. Some kind of big party, or maybe some kind of game."

 

"Meet me here at about 10. It's time that Tina babe remembers what a great catch I am."

 

"Yes, sir."

​

Continue The Game (5. The Opening Ceremonies)

 

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