Christine shuffled along Main Street. She was dressed in a light pink, long-sleeved leotard, white, woolly pantyhose and red sneakers, and she was part of a convoy of girls who were dressed more or less the same.
On the side-walks, the people of the little village had gathered to pay the girls their last respects, as they had done with the boys who had gone before them a few minutes earlier. She knew her parents were there somewhere, but she couldn’t see them.
”Maybe just as well!” she thought, “If I had, I probably would have started crying, making a right fool of myself in front of the trainers and the other girls!”
She wished she could adjust the thick, tight-fitting heavy iron collar around her neck, but that was impossible; her wrists were also cuffed together, and fastened to the chain locked around her waist. She also had cuffs on her ankles, with a small piece of heavy chain between them.
To make absolutely certain, neither she nor any of the other girls in the line was going to run away, they were all connected to the girl in front by a length of chain. She knew the boys had been linked together the same way.
“Come on! Get moving, girls! We haven’t got all day, you know!” The male instructor walking beside the line growled. Some of them moaned, but the line did pick up speed.
A few minutes later, they reached the truck. They walked up a steep, make-shift ramp, and were told to sit on the floor. The collars were disconnected from each other, but the chain was instead locked to a ring in the floor in front of each girl.
The instructor, who had growled at them before, stood at the back of the truck, looking at them with a disgusted look in his eyes.
“You’re a pathetic bunch, you know that? Huh?” he said, with even greater disgust in his voice. “I really hope they can sort at least some of you out, but I seriously doubt it! I know from past experience that most of you girls won’t make it past the first week. Hell, the first day, even! But reflect on what will happen, when you fail! You will be considered young, immature girls for the rest of your lives. So I hope, for your sake, you will make it!” He jumped out, closed and locked the doors.
The truck drove long bumpy roads for hours, before coming to a sudden stop and Christine, who had managed to fall into a light, uneasy slumber, was woken with a jolt. The man opened the doors, climbed in, and closed them behind him before reconnecting the girls’ collars in pairs and telling them to get up and get out. When Christine and Laura, to whom she was connected, got out she saw they were in the middle of a forest.
They were lined up outside and the man, after once again having told them they were pathetic, told them to start walking. Although being in the forest the ground was relatively smooth, without any big hurdles to negotiate, so they reached the camp without too much trouble.
The camp consisted of a ring of small two-man tents, and each pair was assigned one. The tents were so low the girls had to crawl on their hands and knees to get inside.
The girls’ first task, once they had their hands freed from the chain around their waists (they were still cuffed together, though) was to gather wood for, and light, the fire in the middle of the camp.
“I hope we won’t have to do this every day. My back is KILLING me!” Laura complained.
“I’m sure they will!” Christine said. “After all, were here to learn how to be real housewives; aren’t we? And as such, we have to be able to walk around and gather firewood, among other things, even though our wrists and ankles are cuffed together. After all, from now on, they will be. If we make here, that is. I’ll bet you anything, that you’ll think this is the easy part, in a couple of days’ time.”
That night they slept, if you could call it that, like babies. The thing was, that the tent was so small they had to sleep sitting up, a task made easier by the fact the chains to their collars were locked to a ring cemented to the floor in the middle of the tent.
At roll-call the next day, there were only half the girls remaining. The rest had mysteriously disappeared during the night, never to be seen again.
“I told you so! Didn’t I?” the instructor said, in a spiteful voice. “In a few days’ time, all you cry-babies will be gone, even those who still think they can take it all the way; you mark my words! Only those made of the right stuff will remain.
Right; today will be a repeat performance of yesterday; first you gather wood, and cook you breakfast, then we have a long list of chores you will have to do, both before and after lunch. Don’t forget; the fires have to be burning all day, so you have to tend to those as well, not just doing the chores!
Well; why are you standing around here for? Off you go!”
All the girls hurried as fast as their cuffed ankles allowed, out into the forest to gather as much wood as they could.
About halfway through, Laura said she just had to sit down for a while. As they sat there, the ground started shaking, and there was a loud thunder.
“What’s happening?” Christine yelled...
and woke up in her own bed.
“Phew!” she thought. “It was only a nightmare! But it sure was a vivid one. I’m glad the real camp is nothing like that!”
She reached up and put a finger between the soft, plush collar and her neck, just to check it was still loose enough, and then did the same with the soft leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles.
At that moment, her husband came in and released the belt around her waist, which had prevented her from getting out of bed during the night.
“Good morning, love.” he said. “I’ll help you get dressed, shall I?” When he had helped her get into an ankle-long cream, satin dress with many petticoats, they went into the kitchen, where he had prepared their breakfast.