Double Trouble

Double Trouble

Steve Elliott

Copyright Steve Elliott 2012.

All rights reserved

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Chapter 1.

The sun was shinning, as it often did during the day – not so much at
night
though – and Kim and I were strolling along, quite content with our lot in life. Of course,
that
wouldn’t last. It never did. Our lives seemed to be television sitcoms of one adventure after another, almost none of it
our
fault……well,
almost
none of it my fault anyway. Kim, on the other hand, had a propensity of falling into adventures on a regular basis, most of which were
definitely
her fault.

- Hey! Stop
slandering
me!

- What slander? It’s the plain, unvarnished
truth
.

- No, it isn’t.

- Yes, it is.

- Okay, we’ll flip a coin. Heads I’m right, tails you’re wrong.

- Ho, ho. You think you’re so funny.

- Of course I am. I’m also gorgeous, talented, and athletic and …..
um
…..

- Humble?

- Yeah,
that’s
it! I’m
humble
.

- Saints preserve us!

Anyway, we were strolling along, as already mentioned, minding our own business, when suddenly……
nothing
happened!

-
What
?!

- I heard that on the Monty Python Show once.

- And you thought it was
funny
then, did you?

- No, not funny as
such
. More
clever
than funny, really.

- Well, it’s
neither
. Get back to the story.

- Very well, sir.

Actually, nothing
did
happen. All the excitement occurred sometime later back at our house where Kim was holding what she referred to as a ‘
hen’s
party’. Apparently she was comparing herself and her friends to domestic fowl.

-
Idiot
!

- Hey, I was just making an observation.

Neither of us had many friends, so we tended to savour the rare ones that we
did
have by keeping in close contact with them. Seated around the dining room table were three of
hers
: Maureen, Janice and Stephanie. I didn’t know their last names because I never bothered to find out. I think Kim told me once but I forgot it as soon as she stopped talking. They were certainly a
diverse
group of women. Kim was of medium height, with short blonde hair and very pretty; Maureen was overweight and plain looking with longish, dark hair; Janice had medium, multi-dyed tresses and was quite tall, while Stephanie seemed average in every way but one – she possessed the most piercing set of dazzling green
eyes
I’d ever seen. They seemed to look right through you and out the other side. But one thing they all had in common was
giggling
. That’s
all
I ever heard when they got together. I had no idea what was talked about, and I’m not sure I
wanted
to know, but whatever the subject,
laughter
invariably followed. Of course, the two or three bottles of
wine
they consumed each time may have had a small bearing on the situation, but maybe I’m just being mean.

Anyway, on
this
particular occasion, after the last of the wine had been consumed and the atmosphere was, shall we say, a little
convivial
, Stephanie suggested a round of ‘
dares’
. I was in the kitchen, making myself a sandwich. I could see through to the dining room and could hear everything that was going on. Not that I was eavesdropping, mind you. Normally, I blocked
out
their chatter, but they were rather….
loud
, and it was hard not to overhear. I could see the others staring at Stephanie, mystified.

“It’s easy,” she explained. “We all
pick
a dare for one of the others to complete. The one who completes the dare wins a prize.”

“What’s the
prize
?” Kim wanted to know.

“What’s the dare for
me
?” asked Janice.

“Can I go
first
?” Maureen begged.

“
Whoa
! One at a time,” Stephanie ordered. “Okay, this is my game, so
I’ll
set the rules.
Three
of us pick a dare for the fourth and it has to be completed inside a
month
. The prize is that the three who picked the dare have to do
anything
the winner says for a whole
week
. Maureen goes first, then Kim, Janice and then me. You can refuse to do the dare but that means you have to pay a
forfeit
, the nature of which is still to be decided. Any objections?”

They all looked around at each other but no one disagreed. I believe the
wine
may have had something to do with that because I think, on sober reflection, they may have raised some serious questions about the whole scheme, especially the part where they had to do ‘anything’ the winner suggested.

“If everyone agrees, then we’ll start,” Stephanie began. “Okay, what do we want
Maureen
to do?” Frowns of concentration immediately appeared on all of their faces.

“
Skip
around the block?” Janice suggested.

“No, skip
naked
around the block,” giggled Stephanie.

“
That
one’s out,” Maureen immediately demanded.

“Go to the mall and ask the first handsome guy we see out on a
date
,” Kim said.

“Not bad,” Stephanie applauded. “Keep trying.”

“Wait a minute,” Kim objected. “If we all finish our dares,
who
decides the winner? It can’t be one of
us
. There’d be too much bias.”

“Ah,
ha
, I’ve
thought
of that,” Stephanie smiled triumphantly, trying to tap her nose, but missing and nearly poking herself in the eye, “we’ll let
Paul
decide the winner.”

Inside the kitchen, I nearly choked on the mouthful of sandwich I’d been swallowing.

“Yeah,” Kim agreed, “
he’ll
be impartial.”

“No, he
won’t
,” Janice objected. “He’s your
brother
.”

“Are you
kidding
me?” Kim said. “If anything, he’d want to see me
fail
! You know what
brothers
are like.”

This elicited sage nods of agreement from those of the group who
had
male siblings.

“Back to Maureen,” Stephanie ordered. “What’s
her
dare?”

Various impossible tasks were suggested, but finally a consensus was reached – Maureen had to lose seven kilograms of
weight
in the month.

“I guess I could live with that,” Maureen mused. “I
do
need to lose some weight after all and this might give me a bit of an incentive. Very well, I
accept
the dare!”

This pronouncement was greeted with cheers and whistles around the table.

After the initial precedent was set, the
other
dares followed in quick succession. All of them ended up as personal goals: Stephanie had to overcome her
spider
phobia by letting a tarantula crawl up her arm;
Janice’s
dare was to do a parachute jump and Kim had to promise not to lose her
temper
for the month.

“A piece of
cake
!” Kim boasted. “The prize is as good as
mine
.”

The others smirked knowingly. “Yes, Kim dear,” Stephanie consoled, patting Kim’s hand in a condescending manner. “A piece of
cake
? I’ll lay odds that you won’t last a single
day
.”

“What do you
mean
?” Kim instantly flared, and then slammed her hand over her mouth. “
Oops
! I mean
what
, pray tell, is the
meaning
behind that offhand remark?”

The rest of the group fell about laughing. “Luckily for you the dares don’t start until
tomorrow
,” Stephanie remarked, with a mischievous grin. “Kim, sweetie, I love you like a sister, but you haven’t a
prayer
of finishing your dare. Hey, that
rhymes
!”

“I have
too
got a prayer!” Kim declared stoutly. “
You’re
the one who’s going to fail, Stef. Just
looking
at spiders makes you faint. You’ll
never
be able to let one crawl up your arm. Come on, admit defeat
now
and save yourself the humiliation of losing later on.”

“
You’ll
see, O Doubting One,” Stephanie affirmed. “I
will
let one of those ugly, hairy, multi-legged things…. horrible,
icky
……oh
god
, I think I’m going to pass
out
!” Kim grabbed Stephanie’s arms as she slumped in her chair and prevented her from falling sideways.

“You
okay
, Stef?” Kim asked anxiously, as she held her friend upright.

“I’m fine now,” Stephanie gulped, white-faced. “But for just a moment there I felt a little
dizzy
.”

“You see,” Kim chided, “you’ll
never
do it. You can’t even
talk
about spiders without falling over.”

“I can
so
do it,” Stephanie replied stubbornly. “You just want to win by
default
.”

“I don’t want to see you
hurt
yourself, honey,” Kim answered, seriously.

“I won’t,” Stephanie stated confidently. “This was a minor setback, that’s all. I’ll
win
, you’ll see.”

“No, I will,” Janice interjected.

“
You
?” Maureen chortled. “
Face
it, Jan, you can’t even get up on a
chair
without panicking. Even high heel
shoes
terrify you.”

“
Hah
! That’s how much
you
know!” Janice affirmed. “I’ll show you
all
!”

“Well, this sounds like a whole lot of
fun
,” Stephanie said, rubbing her hands together excitedly. “We’ll meet at Jan’s place next week to see how everyone is going. The only problem will be
Kim
. We won’t be able to keep an eye on her all the time to confirm when she breaks her dare. She’ll have to be on the
honour
system.”

“
If
, Stef.
If
I break my dare, not ‘
when
’,” Kim firmly reminded Stephanie.

“
Sorry
, my darling,” Stephanie apologised, insincerely. “Of course I meant ‘
if
’. A mere slip of the tongue.
Umm
, you don’t want to place a
money
bet on it do you, by any chance?”

“You don’t think I can
do
this, do you?” Kim asked, bluntly. Her gaze swept around the group. “In fact,
none
of you do, isn’t that right?” They all looked away from Kim’s accusing glare.

“To be
fair
, sweetie,” Stephanie finally answered, “you don’t believe that any of
us
can do
our
dares either.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Kim grudgingly admitted. “All right then, no more
doubts
. Let the
best
girl win!”

At that, they all stood up and, raising their glasses, drank a toast to future victories.