Alternate chapter – Thomas’ Idea

Her son handed her the folded t-shirt Camilla placed it across her eyes and tied it around the back of her head. Helen walked over, took her mother’s arm and led her across the living room, positioning her in front of the large window facing the street.

Camilla breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves. The breathing had little effect, and eventually she gave a small shake of her head and blurted out “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

Helen gave a short laugh, “you don’t have much choice, you lost the bet!”

“And this will resolve that? Forever?”

“Absolutely,” Thomas said. “I promise.”

Finally Camilla nodded. “Then let’s get this over with.”

She heard the curtains on the window being pulled back. Once the noise stopped, she untied the belt on her robe and let it fall off her shoulders, down to her feet.

“Timer starts now,” Thomas said.

She couldn’t hear anything to indicate that he’d started the stopwatch on his phone, but felt that she could trust him. “This is going to be the longest five minutes of my life.”

Helen laughed again, “I’m sure it will be!”

Camilla stood still in front of the window without a stitch of clothing on aside from the makeshift blindfold. Her unease ramped up considerably, now knowing that her firm C-cup breasts and trimmed pubic hair was on full display. It was late, shortly past eleven at night. The chances of anyone going by was minimal, but far from impossible. Almost subconsciously her hands started to move in front of her body.

“No covering,” Helen reminded her.

Camilla placed her hands over her stomach and interwove her fingers. She felt this would comply with the rule of the bet and subside her fidgetiness as she could clench her fingers at times. Neither of her children objected to this.

Camilla couldn’t see anything through the blindfold and had no idea if anyone could see her standing there, completely nude. She couldn’t hear anything, and felt she likely would hear any cars coming by, but she wasn’t certain. As far as she could knew, there could be a whole convoy of cars and parade of people walking by right this moment.

“One minute down,” Thomas eventually said.

Camilla continued to breathe deeply, focusing on what she could hear at one moment then trying to ignore it the next. If someone did pass by, she didn’t know if she really wanted to know or not. Squeezing her fingers together, she did her best to just let time pass and not think too much.

Another hour seemed to pass before Thomas said “Two minutes.”

“Has anyone gone by?” Camilla asked without thinking.

“Tons of people,” Helen said.

“There’s no one,” her son answered.

“A news crew is setting up cameras.”

“Somewhere in between, I dunno.”

Despite her anxiety Camilla almost let out a small, short laugh. Maybe her offspring knew that she didn’t really want to know. Maybe they just enjoyed teasing her with this.

She took another deep breath. Her ears started to pick up a noise from the direction of the window, and she felt it had to be an engine. Part of her wanted to drop and grab her robe, but she knew she’d have to start the five minutes over if she did. That had already been discussed. She focused on her hearing and couldn’t tell exactly where it was. The noise didn’t seem to be getting louder, but not quieter. She clamped her fingers together tightly, her fingernails starting to press hard into the back of her hands, and waited for the sound to pass. Eventually it started to fade and then she heard nothing again. It didn’t sound like someone had driven by exactly, but she felt she couldn’t rule it out either.

“Three minutes.”

“Maybe we should have her turn around?” Helen asked.

“Sure,” Thomas answered. “Mom, go ahead and-“

“I heard,” Camilla calmly answered.

She turned in place what she felt was a full 180 degrees, now facing away from the window. Part of her felt slightly easier now, knowing anyone out there could only see her wide hips and round butt. Another part of her knew this was only an “improvement” in her mind and it would only really be better when the time was up.

Standing still once again, Camilla only waited to hear Thomas all out that another minute had passed. She could hear nothing from the direction of the window. She felt relieved by this, even though it was far from foolproof knowledge. Someone walking by wouldn’t make any noise that she could hear. Eventually she decided that she would be best off just not thinking about it.

“Four minutes.”

Camilla nodded. Another deep breath. Straining to hear anything, then ignoring sound. She bounced back and forth like a tennis ball. Squeezed her fingers together. Relaxed them. It felt like an hour passed before she finally heard her son say “Time’s up.”

Immediately she squatted low, hopefully out of view of the window, and fumbled blindly for her robe. She heard the curtains closing again and stood up, feeling her way into getting one arm through a sleeve.

“Let me get your blindfold,” Helen said.

She felt Helen working the knot at the back of her head while she tried to get her arm into another sleeve. Soon the t-shirt came off her eyes and she could see once again. She was able to get the robe on, over her shoulders and wrapped around her. She began working with the belt, her fingers shaking and making knot tying an exercise in itself.

“Did anyone pass by,” she asked once the robe’s belt was re-secured.

“Sort of,” Thomas answered.

“Not really,” Helen answered, just as vaguely.

“Don’t worry about it. The bet’s paid in full.”

Camilla nodded again and without another word she started walking to her bedroom. She felt herself slowly trembling less and less. She figured that a hot shower and deep breaths, and she’d feel better. She knew she’d rather know for sure that no one saw her, but if someone did, her not knowing… Well she was okay with that as well.