A Step Off the Path

A Joke Too Far

"Great idea."

"Sounds terrific."

The man motioned for Zola to lean down and speak with him. "Don't you dare, Zola," was my immediate thought.

Whisperings, grins, head nods, then Zola straightened up with, "Okay, Uncle Horace, I'll put it to them."

Chapter 3: trapped

Back up in our 'dressing room' - a large upstairs bedroom - and Zola explained, "Louise is Uncle Horace's daughter. He is the richest one in the family so you can be sure that the party will be an even more elaborate affair."

"Zola, we're finished, it's over," I declared a little too loudly.

"Calm down, Kylie. Don't get you're knickers in a twist. I've not made any commitments, but it's only fair that I put his proposal to all of you."

I sighed.

"For you guys to do the same act at Louise's party, Uncle will pay each of you two thousand dollars."

"What!!!!"

Then, "Come on, let's do it"

"You bet."

"Two thousand bucks!"

Now, myself and one of the other girls, Styne, were in comfortable circumstances, so the money was nice, but not too big a deal. However, for the other three, it was.

"You can get someone else to take my place," I stated flatly.

"Oh, Kylie, no."

"Please."

Styne was a sensible girl. She looked at me with a small smile, "Kylie, you're the star, the centrepiece. We can't replace you."

"Please, Kylie," the other three girls were pleading.

Trapped again. Zola was just grinning at me. If I ever survived this nightmare, I was going to strangle that girl.

Chapter 4: Uncle Horace, aka bastard!

We had to keep practising to ensure that we didn't lose our form. I accepted my fate and tried to relax. I suppose it was sorta fun. The girls were . . . well, great really, and that helped a lot.

As predicted by Zola, Louise's party was a very fancy affair; held in the grounds of this bloody great mansion. We all got dressed at Zola's house and then went to the party in this luxurious stretched limo (hired by Uncle Horace).

Again we impressed the partygoers, and again they couldn't pick the non-girl. This was getting ridiculous.

This time Uncle Horace got us to circulate among the guests. Thank God Styne stayed with me and helped me survive.

Yep, I survived. Still no one picked me out. There were lots of wild guesses of course, but the only consensus was that we were all girls. Zola was having to defend her veracity.

"I swear to you that one of them is a boy," she was yelling.

Then Uncle Horace had a new idea. "I heard a lot of you saying that if Aunt Wesley was here, she would know immediately. Now unfortunately, Aunt couldn't come because of the state of her health, but what about I send the girls to visit her."

"Yeah, she'll be able to tell."

"Go for it."

No bloody way. I was now including this Uncle Horace in my murder plot.

Zola was grinning at me again, "I have to tell them, Kylie."

We were back at her place and I was glowering at her.