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How I Got Into It This story is a work of fiction, all characters and plot lines are fictional. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. 5– Payoff time Instead of three boys, now there were six of them laying there staked out and gagged: Kevin, Theo and Peter were now trussed up exactly like their three prisoners!“Now what’s that all about?” I asked Julian. “Oh, it’s just payoff.” Julian replied. “Payoff? What payoff?” “From the draw. Hold on, I just gotta help Leo with the fire.” I knew no more now than I had before, but while Julian and Leo started the fire, Stefan joined me. “Oh yes, I promised to explain to you what’s going on here. But before that we decided to invite you to share our barbecue, as a little compensation for what we did to you – and to spend the night with us if you want.” “Hogtied or staked out?” I asked, having begun to figure out what this gang’s hobby was. “No, no!” Stefan laughed. “You will not be tied up again – I promise. At least not tonight.” “Well, I’d like very much to accept, but I should go home. My parents want me to be back for supper.” “Why not call them and ask them if you can sleep over at – whoever.” “Call them? How? I haven’t brought my cell phone.” “No problem.” he replied, went to the hut and came back with a cell phone and a blanket in his hand. “By the way, you should know that it is strictly forbidden to bring cell phones here. Only one of us may bring his, for emergencies. And this is an emergency, isn’t it? So go ahead!” he said and handed the phone to me. I had decided to “invent” a puncture on my bike as an excuse for being late anyhow, but that proved to be unnecessary as my parents had decided to go out to eat tonight, and so they didn’t object. “Time for the explanation at last, isn’t it?” he asked when I told him it was OK with my parents. “Go get yourself a drink and let’s make ourselves comfortable.” While I went for another bottle, Stefan spread the blanket he had brought on the ground and lay down on it, his hands behind his head, leaving enough space for me to lay down by his side. “Well, to start with,” he begun, “the gang you met today is the Recreation and Outdoor Physical Exercise Club, or shortly, the ROPE Club.” “That’s more like it.” I grinned. “You can say that again.” He replied, laughing. “And you stumbled – or rather were tricked – into a game of Convict Search. That is, one team – the “convicts” – had to hide in the area between the railway, the roads and Mill Creek, and to avoid being found and captured, and the other team – us – had to find them and bring them here. To make it a bit more difficult for the convicts, they have to wear red shorts so that they can be spotted a bit easier. If more then half of the “convicts” are captured, the Hunters win; if they capture less then half of them, they lose. Today we captured exactly half of them, so it was a draw.” “Yes – but I still don’t understand why those three were tied up. Julian said something about a payoff, but I’ve got no idea what he was talking about.” “Oh, that’s simple! If a game is a draw, the prisoners of both teams stay tied up for one hour after the game’s end. In what we call “asymmetric games”, that is, games where only one team can be captured, members of the “hunters’ team” equal to the number prisoners captured are tied up for an hour.” “If, however, there is a winning team, in “symmetric” games like Capture the Flag, the losers must release their prisoners immediately – or if they can’t, for reasons you might guess now,” he smiled, “they have to reveal the places where they left them. The winners, however, may keep their prisoners tied up for as long as they like. Additionally, those of the losers who haven’t been captured have to draw a card each. A red card means that they get away; if they draw a black card, however, they share the fate of their tied up teammates.” “And how long do the losers usually stay tied up?” “We draw a card for that. A Two means one hour, a three or four one hour and a half, and so on. An ace, however, means they’ll stay tied up all night. Of course, they are not told how long they are going to stay tied up.” “All night? Wow!” I was fascinated rather than shocked. “Of course those who are tied in stress positions are retied a bit more comfortably.” Stefan added. “But now about you. You don’t really hate being tied up, do you?” I blushed. He rolled over and rubbed my chest. “Hey, hey!” he said in a soothing voice, “No need to be ashamed! You’re not the only one. Leo and Silvio, for example, like it too. Maybe not like that,” he pointed at Silvio, “but generally, they do. And I must admit: so do I.” “But the reason why I asked” he continued, “is that I wonder if you wouldn’t like to join the ROPE Club. Of course you’d have to pass the initiation, but after the way you reacted to what happened to you this afternoon I believe you’ll have no real problems with that.” “Initiation? What Initiation?” I asked. “You must understand by now that we don’t want crybabies who run to Mommy as soon as a rope is wrapped around their wrists. So, before someone is accepted as a full member, he has to undergo some kind of, well er, test. Whaddya think? Can you join us for the weekend?” “Hope so.” In fact, I didn’t just hope; I knew – even if that would mean lying, cheating und using every kind of trick to get my parents’ permission – I was there for the weekend. Meanwhile the other boys had prepared the barbecue Stefan had mentioned, and the smell of juicy steaks filled the air. “Ready?” Stefan shouted over to them. “Not yet!” came the reply. “Not for a while yet!” “You’re not cold, are you? Stefan turned to me again. I definitely wasn’t – although it was now dark the air was hardly cooler than it had been during the day. I noticed that in spite of the darkness, none of the boys had bothered to put on a shirt. All right, seven of them couldn’t have anyhow, but the others hadn’t either. “You don’t like shirts around here, do you?” I asked Stefan. “Not really.” was the reply. “In the beginning, we used to play Cowboys & Indians, that is, ‘shirts versus skins’, but that proved not to be a good idea; in almost every game, one or two of the Cowboys were captured because they were grabbed by their shirts. We considered that to be an unfair advantage for the Indians – not to mention the trouble at home for dirty or even torn shirts – so we soon decided to play ‘Sioux versus Apaches’, or ‘black belts versus brown belts’, or, in ‘hunters & prey’ games, ‘cutoffs versus PE shorts’. To make it a bit more difficult for the prey, we decided their PE shorts had to be red to make spotting them somewhat easier for the hunters. Meanwhile we did away with that Indian stuff, but this” he pointed along himself, “has become some kind of unofficial ‘club uniform’. We do have sweatshirts and the like stored in the hut just in case it really gets a bit cool, but we haven’t needed them so far.” “And what about shoes? I noticed most of you are barefoot.” “Well, wearing shoes is an advantage when you run, but we hardly ever do – if you run you make so much noise that you might as well wave a flag and yell ‘I’m heeere! Capture me!’. Our games are usually decided by sneaking, stalking and ambushing, and for that, being barefoot proved to be better: if you feel where you put your foot you can avoid making noises much better. And some of us just like to be barefoot. But that’s not mandatory – everyone decides himself whether to wear shoes or not to, except those who are “prey”; they’re not allowed to wear shoes. But they’re untying the prisoners, so dinner must be ready at last. Come on!” Indeed Julian, Leo and Mark were untying the staked out prisoners. Of course they started with their ex-teammates. While Leo untied Bobby he said: “Sorry for not helping you! I tried but I almost run into Kevin. I was lucky that he was looking in the other direction, otherwise I would have spent the afternoon like you.” “I knew you couldn’t help me.” Bobby replied, rubbing his wrists. “As a matter of fact, they did notice you, but obviously you managed to sneak away.” “Yeah, but it was really close. You’ll be hungry. Go help yourself!” “Thanks, but I think we all need a dip first.” he said, and off they dashed into the lake. The three ex-hunters went to the hut to change into PE shorts too and followed them. Meanwhile we had arrived at the Barbecue. I was surprised to see different kinds of sauces, and salads, and all the stuff that’s needed for a perfect barbecue. We each took a knife, a fork and a dish (OK, I must admit: cardboard dishes and plastic forks & knives. The ecologists will kill us for that, but as long as it isn’t them who do the dishwashing afterwards …) “Well, what does the chef recommend today?” Stefan asked Phil. “Oh, we have delicious T-bone-steaks today, sir. Take your choice!” We did. On our way back to our blanket I noticed that Silvio was still tied up, so I asked Stefan: “What about him?” “Oh, don’t worry about him!” Stefan replied, raising his voice a bit so that Silvio could hear him. “He’ll be untied right on time for breakfast tomorrow.” © Copyright Dominik 2007
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