“Wonder if I can do that before I roast at the school fair?” Natasha asked, licking her lips. “Sounds fun! In fact…” she pondered for a moment. “Do you think that could be my job at the party? Supervising the tenderising? I never know what to do with myself at these big family gatherings and it’s always more fun if I have something specific to do.”

“You just want to encourage people to whip me harder!” Selena teased, stepping away from the pole and flexing her fingers and she stretched out her arms, hoping to restore the circulation.

“Like you’d complain!” Natasha stuck out her tongue and both girls giggled.

“That actually sounds like a really good idea!” Mollie smiled. “We’ve got plenty of spare costumes, you’d be more than welcome to use one. In fact,” she smiled, “if everyone’s done here, we could go take a look at the costumes. I got them out ready.” Excitedly, the mostly naked group followed her back in through the kitchen and down the corridor to the store room where nobody seemed to be working for the moment.

Off the side of the main warehouse were a couple of smaller room and walk-in storage cupboards. Mollie opened one and led them inside. The room was about the size of a typical school classroom and had the typical musty smell associated with old clothes. There were long racks of costumes from different eras and genres as well as garage-style shelving with boxes and loose items stacked with only a passing attempt at logic. On the table in the middle of the room, Mollie had set out pith helmets, grass skirts, flower lays and other accessories she felt fitted the bill.

“I’ll be wearing one of these.” she picked up the raffia grass skirt and held it out. “And one of these as a top.” She quickly lifted and dropped one of the lays. “The boys will be dressed the same but I expect they’ll want to keep their underpants on underneath.” She rolled her eyes. “You know how boys can be!” All the females in the room giggled and Carl grinned sheepishly. “There’s a set for you too if you want them.” Mollie smiled at Natasha. “You can wear a bikini underneath if you’re more comfortable, although that will have to come off when you go in the pot of course!”

“Do I look like a nun to you or something?” Natasha giggled. “I may not be roasting at this party but I’m still a proud meat-girl and intend to make sure everyone knows it!”

“That’s the spirit!” Mollie grinned. “Now as for you,” she turned to the little cousins, “I thought you’d both look super cute in these!” She dropped the child-sized pith helmets onto their heads and they giggled. “And I think some big boots like these and some long socks would complete the look!” she declared. “This one’s for you.” She passed a larger one to Carl. “And I’m going to get you a monocle! We can maybe hang a pair of binoculars round your neck too, what do you think?” Carl’s delighted grin showed that he thought it was an excellent idea. “Now for you,” she turned to Selena, “there’s two ways we could go, really. You can either be a captured explorer like the others or we can say you’re a member of the tribe being offered as a sacrifice. Natasha and I will be getting in the pot to flavour it after all so it’s not unreasonable that they might include one of their own in the feast. Thinking about it,” she looked over at Lydia, “if the two of you would be okay with it, I think that would be a nice angle to go with. You can wear these around your wrists and ankles,” she held up smaller, elasticated versions of the lays, “and we have some edible body-paint we can use too.

“Sounds really cool!” Selena exclaimed as Lydia nodded, both feeling that they would rather go to their deaths looking beautiful rather than comical. “Do you think I could do a dance?” Selena suggested. “Before you tie me to the pole? If I’m playing a willing sacrifice then it would make sense to have a sort of ritual.”

“Sounds very good.” Mollie nodded and looked to Sheila for confirmation but noticed that she was looking a little nervously at the younger girls as if worried they might be about to protest at the older girl getting more attention. “Then after that,” Mollie turned to them, thinking quickly, “we can do a special game with you two. We have these foam spears and things, see?” She held one up and slammed her palm into the tip to show that it was soft and harmless. “We can have you escape and get the other children there and anyone else who wants to chase you down and bring you back for the pot. What do you say?”

“Awesome!” Tara grinned.

“Yeah! That definitely sounds fun!” Poppy agreed. With nothing left to show or arrange, Mollie led the group back to the inspection room where everyone who needed to got dressed again with varying levels of reluctance and Mollie gave Sheila the waiver forms to get signed for the family members who would be cooking, as well as a release form for Natasha confirming her intent to partially cook and agreeing not to hold the company liable if anything should occur which resulted in her unintentional death. Carl was to come to the headquarters early on the day of the party so that they could sort out his facial hair and skewer his sausage before transporting him to the venue and of course Lydia would be coming with the rest of the team but they would be meeting everyone else there.

After checking with Lydia and Doug that they were still available to assist with the Megan roast the next day, Mollie returned to the office and dealt with some more emails then turned off her computer and headed home, ready for another early start the next day.


To be continued...