Helen stared at the computer screen in disbelief at what Ruth had just
proposed.


>Hels, I think I found the answer to our cash problems...look at this:
>
>http://www.jeopardy-show.com/jointheaudience

Jeopardy!  Helen shook her head.  She enjoyed the show, and so did other
viewers...millions, tens of millions of other viewers.  But for Ruth to
actually want to take the money and sit in the live audience...what was she
thinking?

The phone rang, interupting her contemplation of Ruth's silliness. 

"Helen! It's Babs, how's things?"

Helen laughed: Barbara was eternally cheerful and very funny, but was a level
head in any argument, and Babs could do a far better job of shooting down Ruth's
proposal than Helen would.

"Same as usual over here...by the way, have you seen Ruth's mail?"

"Sure, sounds like a good idea, huh?  You're as poor as a church mouse, as are
both me and my parents, and even if we all got a job tomorrow we'll never have
enough saved by the time we have to go."

Helen breathed out in a low whistle, stung as always by Babs unthinking
reminder that Helen was an orphan. "Babs...you know what can happen on that
show...don't you?" Helen had just caught up on last nights show from the
website, and more than one image was still strong in her mind.

"Yes, babe, I know, but you know how many people are in that audience...The
chance of any of us getting picked is pretty low.  And you know they stopped
doing the pretty girls since less of them were showing up to be in the
audience."

Laughing despite herself, well, mathematically we're pretty safe, I
suppose, she thought.  Still, the thought of the spotlight shining down on her
relentlessly did not appeal.  "What about Ailsie?  I can't imagine her being up
for it, can you?  It's not like she needs the money anyway."

"She's here now, she thinks it's a great idea!  She says she'll split her
share with the rest of us for spending money."

Helen wondered if this was what rabbits felt like in the final few seconds
staring at the bright lights.  Not just Babs, but Ailsie as well...the whole
gang.  She knew if they were all set on it, she would go along too.

She read the webpage again.

      The Jeopardy crew are filming in Knox City all this week and next.
      We're looking for live audience members between 18 and 80, all fit,
      healthy, who enjoy watching the Jeopardy show.  As always, all members
      of the Jeopardy audience will be (extremely) well paid for their
      troubles, except of course the lucky few who get to star in the
      show ;)

      If you'd like to be part of the most exciting television and web show
      of all time, get yourself down to City Hall by 6.00pm, Monday to
      Saturday, this week or next.  Don't wear too much, as the studio lights
      are warm, and girls, you don't need any make-up, as all audience members
      are made-up by our specialist team for the cameras.  Please don't be
      disappointed if you are asked to come back later on in the week, as
      membership of the Jeopardy audience is extremely sought after!  Happy
      viewing, from the Jeopardy Team...we'll see you soon.

Helen shook her head again.  It seemed incredibly sadistic that audience
members chosen to participate went unpaid.  Of course, selling their story
subsequently often recompensed them, but still...

"Look, Babs, I just don't want to do it.  Just the idea...it's freaking me out.
 I won't do it."

"Woah, Hels, chill for a minute...nothing's decided yet.  What?"  Helen heard
Ailsie muttering.  "OK, that's an idea.  Do you want to meet up at the
coffeehouse this afternoon?  I think Ruth's free as well, she said she was
going to bunk off work today."

Helen reflected that if Ruth had worked all the hours she was marked down for
she would not have needed kooky ideas to finance their trip.  She nodded to
herself, quietly, thinking that she might have a better chance at persuading
them face to face.

--

Thanking the girl behind the counter, Ailsie walked over from the counter with a
tray of tall coffee mugs, and handed them out with a professional waitress's air
that came despite never having worked in her life.  Ailsie was a rich daddies
daughter, an only child but surprisingly well adjusted to having serious money
at her command. She made it clear early on in her friendships that she would not
spend more with her friends than they would, something that frustrated some, but
Helen, Ruth, and Barbara had long accepted it and had found it had made their
friendship stronger over the years. Ailsie wasn't the most attractive of the
group, but she had a poise and confidence that seemed to make her the most
interesting to men. Having dealt out the coffees like a hand of five card stud,
she flopped into a chair and looked at Helen.

"Well?"

"Well what?" asked Helen, knowing exactly what Ailsie meant.

"Are you coming?"

"No!  Look, the idea is just crazy...I know none of us are likely to be chosen,
but if we were..."  Her voice trailed off, as she thought of those images again.

Ruth looked at Ailsie, and Helen caught a glance between them that was fraught
with meaning.  What was going on?  She took a gulp of her coffee, suddenly
embarrassed at being the centre of attention.  Helen was attractive, perhaps
the most attractive of the group, but painfully shy, and her shyness had not
been improved as a young girl when lifes lottery had awarded her at puberty an
unusually large pair of breasts.  She was drawn to keeping out of the limelight
and disliked having to agree with her friends so strongly, particularly as she
knew her argument was not so strong.

Babs leaned over and took her arm as she sipped again at her coffee. 

"Hon, don't feel you have to...you know you don't have to come if you don't
want to, don't you?"  Helen looked at her silently, and put down her coffee
mug, which Ailsie seemed to be fascinated by.  Ruth studied Helen's face
intently.

"Yes...I know...but if you all went in there, you know I'd have to follow,
don't you?  And I really don't want to do it, I really don't."  Helen was
speaking softly, and Ruth realised her friend was almost on the verge of tears.
She shot a glance at Ailsie, who was still studying Helen intently.

The group went quiet, all locked in their own thoughts.  No-one seemed quite
sure what to say next, and they sat each with their own thoughts, occasionally
sipping coffee, Ruth looking at Ailsie with a worried face.

Helen stood up.  Ailsie jerked with surprise.

"I need to go for a walk, I think, it's so warm in here...are you guys coming?"

"Let me finish my coffee," said Ailsie, holding up a half full mug.  "I'm
enjoying this."

"I'm not," sid Helen, "This is the worst coffee I've ever had here."  She took
another sip, though, not wanting to walk away from her friends.

Ailsie said nothing, but Helen noticed that look flashing again between her and
Ruth.  Babs took a deep swallow of hers and wiped her lips.

"Don't know what you're on about, babe, this is fine.  You must be on drugs or
something."

A suspicion flashed across Helen's mind, and she caught Ailsie wincing at
Barbara's joke. She took another sip and felt the kernel of suspicion harden
and grow in her mind.  Her mind played images to her, webcasts,
spotlit faces, the chairs and the big stage with the encircling audience and
the fleeting stagecrew who seemed to lack no expertise called of them.  She
didn't even hear the mug smashing on the floor as she stumbled towards the
door, the girls boiling off the chairs and hounding her across the floor.  She
heard fragments of frantic dialogue:

"How much...should be OK...maybe fifteen minutes...oh God...Ailsie!..."

The door swung open unheeded and the girls flowed out the street, panicking as
they saw a patrol car, with a cop standing looking across the road speaking
into a cellphone, his partner munching on something in the drivers seat.
Ailsie headed Barbara off from them, and Barbara and Ruth laughed and chattered
gaily as if they had just been struck by the ancient Britney Spears record
that spilled out of the cafe next door to the coffeehouse.  They got halfway
down the street when Helen, who had seemed not to realise that her friends were
still with her turned suddenly to Ailsie and said bitterly,

"I would have gone with you, didn't you know that?"  Ailsie felt tears sting her
cheeks as she caught her friend who was swaying.  It had been Ruth's idea, and
Ailsie had known where to find something that would produce the right effect.
She hadn't been prepared to be caught before the drug took hold, though.
 

She held her friend tightly, holding her steady as Ruth and Barbara watched
anxiously.  Barbara had not been happy with the idea, but had only found out
when the practicalities had already been dealt with.  Turning away, she saw the
patrol car cruising slowly down the street, the driver catching her eye as he
slowly looked her up and down, his attention caught more by the length (or
perhaps lack of length) of Barbara's skirt and her legs than by any suspicions
about the scene.

Helen gave a sniff and stood up a little.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I over-reacted a bit there...what was that anyway?" she asked,
sounding a little tipsy.

Ailsie couldn't look at her as she explained the nature of the drug she had
slipped into Helen's coffee.  Helen rubbed her eyes a little and giggled like a
schoolgirl as Ailsie told her how she would feel a little light headed for a
while, but it would soon fade.  She would still remain receptive to suggestion
for a while after that, though.

"Cool!" laughed Helen giddily.  She looked around.  The car had come to rest a
little further up the street, and the driver was still looking at the four
girls.  An idea flashed into Helen's head.  Before her friends could stop her,
she strode off towards the car. 

"Oh shit," spat Ailsie as she saw Helen bearing down on the driver, whose eyes
were getting wider by the minute.  "Should we go over?"

No-one replied, as Helen bent down to the drivers door and said something.  The
driver turned and looked at his partner and back at Helen and said something to
her.  Taking a pen, she wrote something on the driver's hand, then looked
briefly at the group before saying something to the passenger, and nodding.  She
smiled at the driver then blew him a kiss, looking over her shoulder once or
twice as she sauntered back towards her friends who were trying to control their
staring at Helen's new-found breezy confidence.

"Girls..." said Helen, "I have...a cop's telephone number!"  She held out her
hand as Ruth let out a low whistle.  "I wonder if he'll spot me in the
audience?"  Helen paused.  "Are we going or are you guys just going to look at
me all evening?"

Ailsie shook her head as they all walked down the street together, Helen
leading the way and letting out the occasional whistle whenever she saw a guy
that took her fancy, and on one occasion a girl too.  It wasn't far to City
Hall, and they arrived early, but there was still a large queue gathered on the
front steps.  A camera, escorted by a boom mike and some sort of director,
cruised up and down the line, pausing for some time on the friends as they
arrived at the end of the slow moving queue.

--

"Sarah!" called Helen to a solitary girl a few places ahead of them.  The girl
turned and looked, and waved back, then  skipped out of her place to where
Helen stood at the head of the group.  "You too, girl?"

Known far and wide as a girl who would try anything once, Sarah had first shot
to her high school's attention by (reputedly) being the first of her year to
lose her virginity.  Although that was never proved for sure, there was no
doubt about her being caught performing fellatio on a math teacher some years
later.  Rumours circulated about her interests, sexual and otherwise, and
tongues had wagged when she was seen about town wearing a top that proclaimed
her need of a good spanking.  Certainly, there were no shortage of suitors, and
there were many boys who had been heard to observe that they wouldn't mind
giving Sarah's attractive bottom a god warming, and much else as well.

"Sure...this is going to be so cool!"  Barbara noticed with amusement that
today's top read 'need2btamed'.  "I've been waiting for this ever since I heard
Jeopardy was coming to Knox City!  Do you think I look alright?"

Ailsie blanched.

"Do you actually want to be chosen, Sarah?" she asked.

"Well...I know if I am I won't enjoy it at all, but I've watched it so much
recently, it makes me really imagine being part of it, and I think about it
so much and now I have a chance, I just know I wouldn't forgive myself if I let
the chance go."

"I so know what you mean, Sarah...I was scared stiff about coming, but these
guys are so cool...they made me want to come!" said Helen breathlessly.  The
line shuffled forward and the camera went by, pausing for a moment on Helen's
face, which was now shining with excitement.  "And it'll be so cool to see it
live and in person, it must make it so much more real."

They had reached the door, and inside each girl was handed a single slip of
paper.

"Hi girls, thanks for coming!  These are the disclaimers, which you can read
while the queue moves forward.  You don't have to sign them just yet, in fact
you can wait right up till you take your seats if you want."  The speaker was
young, male, and more than a little handsome.  Helen spoke to him.

"Do you have a pen?"

"Sure, miss, here you are.  But you don't need to -"  Helen placed the paper
against his chest and looked into his eyes as she signed the paper in a slow,
lazy series of loops.  She handed the paper back to him and walked on, as he
stared in disbelief.

The queue was moving a little more quickly now, a gentle shuffle forwards and
much bumping as people tried to decode legal formalisms and recall long
forgotten Latin phrases.  Ailsie managed to interpret the first paragraph, and
feeling that it was mostly in her favour, gave up on the rest.  Most people,
she noted, were doing the same.  They came to a series of channels, where the
qeue split into several files.  A large sign directed that if you wished to sit
with anyone, you should go throught the same channel.  The girls headed for the
one at the left which seemed to be moving a little more quickly, following
Sarah, who by unspoken agreement seemed to have become part of the group.

"Are you all together?" asked an attendant.  They all nodded and agreed in a
welter of voices which varied in confidence and happiness.  Barbara was looking
decidedly ill, and Ruth was sweating, feeling her armpits pinch as the
antiperspirant fought back.  The attendant opened the gate of the channel and
guided them all in together.  Beyond the gate, there were a series of desks,
with young, relaxed looking people at each one.  The young woman at the first
desk smiled.

"Who's first?" she asked, her voice seeming to suggest that this was nothing
more than a routine health test, perhaps a height and weight measurement.
Sarah and Helen started forward together.  After a little politeness was
exchanged, Helen sat down, and quickly answered a barrage of administritive
questions, firing off her date of birth, her social security number, her last
three addresses, her income, her preferred payment method, her health.  "Have
you taken any drugs or alcohol today?" asked the woman, in a final tone of
voice. Helen just laughed and shook her head slightly as Ailsie turned pink.
"OK, Helen, just head on up to the next desk where we'll just do a short
interview like we do for all audience members."

"Who's next?"  she asked sweetly as Helen sat and flicked her hair out of her
eyes.  Ailsie set her teeth and beat Sarah to the seat.  It was too late to
dissuade Helen without exposing what they had done, and although Ailsie was
feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute, she knew she couldn't
abandon her friend.  She answered the questions in a blur, spending most of her
time watching Helen tell the interviewer how she knew the odds of being picked
were so low, and she wasn't at all worried about it.  The camera desk was a
little quicker than the first, and so when Ailsie finished and got up to let
Sarah finally take her place she saw Helen sitting at a desk set a little
further away than the others were, where she couldn't quite hear what was being
discussed.  The camera operator, or interviewer, stood up to shake her hand,
and invited her to sit down.

"So," he said, "the big question...why do you want to be in the Jeopardy
audience?" 

Ailsie shrank under the camera's cold and unblinking gaze.  "I...ah...well, my
friends and, uh, me, well, we all go to uni next years and we're all going
different places, uh, and like we all want to have a big blowout somewhere
special, but, uh, we mostly haven't got jobs and most of us are strapped for
cash, so, um, we like thought we'd come down here, yeah?"  She swallowed and
tried to control her breathing which was shallow and fast.  The interviewer
smiled. 

"Yeah, that's not unusual.  Probably more than half of our audience just need,
or want, money.  You could sure have a good blowout on what you'll earn today,
huh?"

A weak smile.  "I guess".

"You seem pretty nervous, Ailsie...how do you think you'd feel if you were
chosen?

Her eyes closed, trying to screw them shut, trying to avoid the camera's
unfeeling probing.  "Shit.  I...uh...I can't even think about it".

"How will you feel when that spotlight is switched on, Ailsie?"

Ailsie felt a flash of anger at this lazy but tormenting line of questioning.
"I hope the bloody bulb burns out!" she spat at him.

The young man laughed.  "Well, it has happened before."  He reached out and
touched a button.  "That's it, Ailsie, thank you.  If I'm any judge, that
segment will probably get shown tonight." He looked pleased at the prospect, as
Ailsie got up and walked with fists clenched to the last desk, where a young
and efficient looking woman sat with several pieces of paper to hand.

The girls shuffled through the line, some confidant, some not.  Barbara was the
last to be processed, and after speaking to the young woman, who spelt out
clearly the terms and conditions of joining the Jeopardy audience, and exactly
what the chances of her and her friends being chosen were ("Don't worry, there
are hundreds in every audience"), handed over her signed disclaimer and received
a small piece of paper telling her where she would sit, and walked through the
door into the makeup room, where she found Helen, Sarah, and Ailsie fully made
up and Ruth just going through the process.  In what seemed like seconds, the
woman smiled at Ruth and turned to Barbara and said briskly,

"Just lift your chin, dear."  She whisked a foundation on, and speedily touched
it up around the eyes with a sort of mascara.  She pulled three lipsticks out
of her bag, and held them up.  "Pink, red, or gold, dear?"  Barbara stared,
rather shellshocked by the processing and the speed at which the makeup artist
worked.  "Red then, dear?  Very popular, and it suits you."  Most of the
sentence was spent in applying the lipstick, after which the group was directed
towards a stage door.  Ruth looked at Barbara, both feeling strangely naked and
vulnerable.  Barbara smiled and they turned and followed the rest of the group
into the main room of the City Hall.  All of them had been in here before, but
they gasped to see the Jeopardy stage set out.  It was huge, far larger than it
appeared on camera.  Ants seemed to wander about the stage, pulling about
technical equipment and cameras.  Sarah was the first to spot Anna, the host of
the show, fiddling with her outfit, which seemed to consist mostly of straps,
heels, and shine.  A stage hand directed them to their seats.  Already the
place was three quarters full, and as Sarah sat down at the end of their row of
seats, the audience was streaming in from doors placed all around the studio.
By the time Barbara had sat down next to Ruth at the far end, the stream had
already slowed and most of the audience had arrived, if not quite settled.
Ailsie studied the rest of the audience and tried to figure out how many people
there were, reflecting that the audience did not seem so numerous despite the
studio's size. 

Helen sat in the middle of the group of five, Ailsie in between Sarah and
Helen.  Helen could feel the high starting to wear off, but she knew she
wouldn't leave now.  The last of the audience took their seats, shepherded
quickly by mercury stage hands who dissolved as soon as the last member was
seated. Anna strode out onto the stage. She had presented the show since its
start some years ago, and she had fitted the role perfectly. As Jeopardy had
become more popular and more serious, her increasing maturity over the years
seemed to enhance her role. Now, perhaps in her forties but still beautifully
shaped and with a magnificent presence, she strode over to the camera at the
other end of the stage. 

"Welcome...to Jeopardy."

The words which sounded welcoming at home sounded like a whipcrack inside the
heads of the audience.  It was coolly speculative, able to command anything it
wished. 

"Welcome also to our audience.  Welcome, for example, to Sarah:  Sarah is one
of the special few who come to our audience desiring to be chosen.  Here she is
just now."

A screen came on, showing Sarah smiling into the camera, explaining how when
she was younger she had sneaked into the kitchen to watch Jeopardy, how she had
secretly videotaped shows and how she had always imagined that moment when you
finally realised...it was you.

"Best of luck, Sarah, let's hope all your wishes come true!" 

Sarah was not feeling so comfortable by now, and she suddenly reached out and
grasped Ailsie's hand, feeling it clammy and cold in hers.  Ailsie looked at
her in surprise.

Anna showed a few more clips of audience members, including a young man who
appeared utterly terrified at the prospect of being chosen.  There were a few
quiet giggles as he yelped at the camera.

Anna transferred her eyes from the screen to meet the eye of the camera, and
said,

"Well, viewers, I'm sure you're all familiar with what happens next.
Audience...I know you are."  She smiled, and her teeth were briefly revealed.
"Please, ladies and gentlemen, put your wrists in the curve you'll find on the
arms of your chair."

Ailsie didn't want to drop her hand from Sarah, and Helen had definitely worn
off the effects of the drug.  She knew she could still get up and run, but
suddenly felt embarrassed at the idea of doing so.  The words 'crowd
psychology' flashed through her mind and she looked at Ruth as she placed her
hands in the little rest.  Barbara was the last of the group to do it, and she
came very close to running.  But the same force held her and trembling, she
laid her wrists alongside Ruth's and shut her eyes. 

"Control room, restrain the audience, please."  Anna turned, surveying the
crowd.  This moment was the highest watched of the whole show: even many people
who didn't enjoy the show watched this moment out of fascination and perhaps
some sympathetic fear.

Barbara heard a slight hum and tensed as she felt a metal restraint curling
out of a hole in the arm of the chair around her wrist, and realised that she
was in for the ride.  The tension inside her melted; she was no longer in
control of her own destiny and that knowledge allowed her to relax.  At the
other end of the line, Sarah, too, had restored some poise, remembering a scene
from only a week or two ago where only one audience member, a middle aged woman,
had been chosen, and had spent the whole show under Anna's very close and
personal attention. 

Anna turned to the camera

"The audience has been restrained."  She smiled.  "Control room, the
spotlights, please."

Silently, each audience member was bathed in an individual spotlight.  Ruth bit
her lip, testing the restraint and looking at Helen, who had turned pale and
was trembling violently.  The stage couldn't be seen, although the other
spotlights and their transfixed victims could.

"Control room...show me who you have chosen..." 

Sarah realised something she had never realised before: the victims were
chosen, not randomly, but deliberately.  A cold finger of fear brushed her
heart again.  A spotlight opposite blinked out.  A few seconds passed, then
another.  Sarah remembered that sometimes the spots were taken away quickly,
occasionally instantly. Tonight, Ruth watched as a spot light winked out once
perhaps every ten seconds.  The interval seemed to vary.  Sometimes two would go
in a few seconds and then there would be a long wait for the next one.  None of
the group had lost their spotlight yet, and perhaps a third of the audience was
safe now. A choked sob of relief from behind Ailsie said that someone had been
reprieved, and Sarah looked around realising that several groups of seat next
to each other were still highlighted.  Without warning, a row of six was
switched off together.  Although they were a fair distance from Barbara, she
heard the gasp from the saved group, all men from the sound of it.  Slightly
more men than women were chosen from the Jeopardy audience, as a rule, because
the audience showed a slight bias towards men. 

Sarah's light winked out and she cried out.  Helen couldn't make out whether it
was gratitude or envy; perhaps it was both, she thought.  More lights went out,
and another row blinked off, one after the other in succession.  The rate now
slowed down, perhaps fifteen seconds before another light freed another soul
into the blackness.  Their's was the only group left.  A light in front of Ruth
blinked out as she realised with a grim certainty that they had all been
chosen; the lights were snuffed remorselessly, hunting down their prey.
Barbara realised every light on her side was out.  She knew too, and watched
the remained lights disappear with a soul crushing certainty.  Helen was
sobbing quietly, and never saw the last light go out, brilliantly isolating the
group of four friends who had been so confident about the odds.  A cameraman
worked his way into the row, and a quick viewer might have caught a glimpse of
Sarah's stricken face before the lens focused on Ailsie, who looked nauseous.
Unable to look at the camera, she stared sightlessly as she weaved in her cold
restraints.  The camera panned over and lingered on Helen sobbing bitterly,
realising finally what she had done.  She tried to turn her wrist so she could
scrape the phone number from her hand, humiliated, and not able even to do
that.  Ruth had had slightly longer and when the camera turned to her she spat
hard at the lens and stared viciously. The cameraman laughed and pulled out a
cloth and carefully wiped his lens clean before standing on Ruths foot,
putting his full weight on it as he focused on Barbara for a long shot,
listless, perhaps even unseeing, though her eyes were open.

The studio lights came back up, though the spotlights were not switched off,
and a weight seemed to lift from the audiences shoulders.  Sarah felt the
restraints curling back, but she heard a click from her left and as she turned
she saw Ailsie's chair move forward an inch: it was obviously on wheels and the
lock had been released.  She turned to Ailsie and grabbed her hand as Anna
began speaking again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, viewers at home, may I present, Ruth, Barbara, Ailsie,
and especially Helen!"

The audience thundered, roaring out their joy at their escape.  Sarah sat
silently, slumped and in tears as she held Ailsie's hand, still strapped by
that sinuous restraint.

Anna turned to the camera as the applause finally died down.

"We'll be back after this commercial break.  Don't go away."