The Dropping (part 1)

The dropping would start at 8 pm, and Susie had to take a twenty-five minute walk into account. Remembering Katarina's advice, Susie wanted to take her time to consider what she would wear, so at 7 pm she started to get dressed. "When in doubt, err towards warmer clothes," Katarina had said. "You can always take something off, but you can't summon another jacket if you need it!" Susie saw the truth in those words, so she made sure to wear enough layers. First she put on thick socks, leggings and a jogging hose. Now she needed a warm sweatshirt. She found her two warmest hooded sweatshirts and debated for a moment which one she was going to wear. She decided to play it safe and put both on. Then she put her jacket on: a trendy black down jacket which usually kept her warm enough in the winter.

To keep her legs warm, she had thought of a good idea: down pants. Again, this was based on what Katarina had said: "Down clothes are the best of all. They always keep you warm, and they weigh almost nothing." However, Susie didn't own any down pants. But her niece Yolanda often went trekking to arctic regions, so Susie had visited her the day before, and asked if she could borrow hers. That hadn't been a problem, and Yolanda had even offered her the matching coat as well. Susie had refused, saying it wasn't necessary, but Yolanda gave them anyway, "just in case". After all, she wasn't going to need it any time soon.

Soon enough, Susie had slipped into the down pants. Wow, she thought, those really are warm. Her legs weren't going to be cold in those! She put her feet in dark blue Moonboots. They weren't the most practical garments to be walking around in, but she definitely wouldn't get cold feet, and that was important. She looked in the mirror. Her appearance had changed a lot. Her black coat wasn't thin at all, but compared to her now enormous, shiny light blue legs, her upper body now seemed underdressed, despite the three hoods bunching up behind her. Maybe she should wear Yolanda's coat after all. It would make the complete outfit more balanced...

She took the big down jacket, put it on, and zipped it up to her breasts. It was light blue as well, matching the pants. Yes, this looked better. If she was too warm she could always unzip the jacket. But with all this, she was running out of time. She grabbed her mittens and left in a hurry.

After a few minutes she already noticed she was getting hot, and she unzipped the expedition jacket. Oh well, at least she wouldn't get cold tonight. But by the time she reached the meeting point, she thought she might have exaggerated a bit. None of the others was dressed remotely like her, and she felt a bit ridiculous. This was the first time she participated in one of these droppings, and she was very unsure if she had been right to follow Katarina's advice.

But then she saw Katarina and she calmed down again. She was wearing black down pants and a matching black down jacket. They weren't as thick as her set (of course, hers were suitable for an arctic expedition) but that wasn't all. On top of those she was wearing a really striking piece: a very thick, bright pink, nearly ankle-length down jacket. She had left it completely open, revealing the black lining. Unlike Susie's, Katarina's black down jacket underneath didn't have a hood, but Susie thought the pink hood would do fine by itself: it was a massive pile of down that stood up behind her head by itself. A red woolen scarf, draped in large circles around her neck, completed Katarina's outfit.

If Katarina was dressed like this, she felt justified in her own choice of clothing. After all, Katarina was very experienced in these droppings. Susie was grateful she had so kindly helped her out. After all, this dropping wasn't just an ordinary one - it was an exclusive game, organized by some rich guy, and a nice amount of cash was on the line. Susie didn't know any of the organizers or participants, but she had gotten a special invite, being a local athletics champion. So despite her inexperience, she could be a very real candidate here.

There were sixteen participants; they would be brought to their starting points in little closed vans. Each van would take two of the players. Katarina and Susie stepped into one of them together and soon they were on their way. The vans were empty inside; they sat on the floor facing each other.

They talked about various things at first, but after about twenty minutes Katarina said: "It's time we prepare ourselves for the start." Susie didn't know what she meant though. "Well, you know, make sure we're ready to go. Like, do up our clothes properly. Wait, I'll help you." Katarina stood up and came over to where Susie was sitting.

"I see you've taken my advice about the clothes, that's good. First, let's put your sweatshirt hoods up." She unzipped Susie's black down jacket, then put the first sweatshirt hood up and tied it firmly. She repeated this with the second sweatshirt hood. "Do they really need to be tied so tight?" Susie asked. "Of course. If you start running and your hoods just fall off all the time, you'll lose a lot of time." Katarina zipped up the black jacket again and put the hood up. She tied this one tightly as well. Susie thought her head was covered pretty thoroughly now.

Katarina now zipped up Susie's larger light blue jacket. "I wasn't going to zip that up," Susie protested, "it's too warm like that." "Nonsense," Katarina said, zipping the collar over the girl's mouth, "in the woods it'll be a lot colder. And if you leave it open it's just going to flap around and hinder you. Here, put your mittens on."

Susie put her warm black mittens on. Meanwhile Katarina took off her pink coat. "Why are you taking it off? Shouldn't you get ready for the start too?" Susie asked. But Katarina just shrugged and held the jacket up: "I'm not going to wear this. Can you stand up a moment?" Confused, Susie stood up.

Katarina took her left arm and pulled the sleeve of the pink coat over it. "I brought this for you, not for me," she said, while she turned behind Susies back and quickly helped her into the other sleeve as well. "What! But I don't need - I already have - I'll be too hot!" Susie stammered. The collar, wich was zipped tightly over the three hoods she was wearing, muffled her speech a bit, further weakening her protests.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be wearing so much already, to be honest," Katarina said, while she calmly zipped the long coat up. Because Susie wasn't as tall as Katarina, the bottom of the coat just touched the tips of her Moonboots. Katarina continued: "I thought you were going to neglect my advice, like most beginners do, so I brought this just for you. I guess it's not exactly necessary now, but since it's here now, you'll just have to wear it. And anyway, as I said, it's better to have a layer too many than to have one too few. You can always take it off if it's too hot."

Stunned, Susie looked down at the enormous coat she was wearing now. She looked like a fluffy pink pillar with arms. And behind her triple-hooded head she could feel the two large down hoods standing up. Katarina had arranged the light blue hood so that it more or less fit into the pink hood. She tried to find the right words to protest; this was just too excessive. But before she got anywhere, Katarina exclaimed: "Oh! I nearly forgot!" From the pockets of the pink coat she dug up two mittens. They were easily twice as long as Susies hands, and probably twenty times as thick. Katarina took one of Susies already mittened hands and started pulling the larger mitten over it. She then pulled the drawstring around the wrist as tight as she could and knotted it. She then took Susies other hand - Susies tried to pull away, muttering incoherent excuses, but Katarina grabbed it easily - and repeated the process.

"There you are," Katarina said, stepping back admiring her handiwork with a broad smile, "I'm sure you won't get cold in that." Susie helplessly tried to tug at her mittens, but it was to no avail. Her hands were almost useless. "I can't get these mittens off," she complained. Katarina came up to her again. "I'll help you with those in a minute," she said, "but I just want to see you wear this nice blue hood for a moment." While she said that she pulled the hood of the arctic down coat over Susies head and fastened the Velcro flaps. They covered her entire lower face. In the opening of the hood one could only see Susies eyes, the two sweatshirt hoods just above them, and a large part of the black down hood. Katarina pulled the drawstrings of the hood until all the hoods underneath were hidden as well, and only a small hole for her eyes was left.

"Please let me out of this. I'm really way too hot like this Katarina. Please help me out of these mittens." "I've had enough of your complaints." Katarina took her red scarf and wrapped it over the big blue down hood where Susies mouth was. She wrapped it tightly around the girl's face, again and again, before knotting the ends.

Susie could now only manage a faint "Mmmph! Mmph!" while her hands tried to grope the scarf. But there was really no way those thick mittens could get any grip on the tight folds of the scarf. Katarina calmly pushed the pink hood over the rest, and zipped the coat up the rest of the way, brushing aside Susies useless hands. Because the coat was way too large on Susie, she managed to zip it to the top even over all the hoods and the scarf, but it wasn't easy. She also did up the button flap of the pink coat and tied the hood as tight as she could, leaving Susie just a miniscule slit to see through. Finally she did up a drawstring at the bottom of the coat, doing it up so tight that she almost tied Susie's ankles together.

Katarina sat down again and watched in amusement as the pink figure in front of her struggled with her clothes, trying desperately to take off a mitten or a hood, but there was nothing she could do. Two sweatshirt hoods and three down hoods, all tied tight. She must be getting pretty hot in there, Katarina thought. And I guess she'll have to stay like that for quite a while.

After a while Katarina thought of something. She got up saying: "Okay that's enough. I'll help you out." She took one of Susie's hands as though she was going to undo the drawstring. But instead she pushed the hand in one of the pink coat's deep pockets. She tied the mitten's drawstring to the zipper of the pocket, and closed the zipper as far as it went. She then grabbed Susie's other hand, despite the girl trying to pull away now, and without much trouble she repeated the process on the other side. This way Susie wouldn't be able to attract anyone's attention easily. With both her hands and her mouth disabled, it would be very hard to make it clear to someone that she wanted to be helped out of her clothes.

Eventually the van stopped. The driver opened the rear door and said: "One of you can leave from here." "You can go first, Susie," Katarina said kindly. She took the girl's arm and led her out of the van. Then she gave her some mockery of a kiss, putting her lips against what she knew were many, thick layers envelopping Susie's head, and wished her good luck. Katarina stepped back in the van and the driver closed the door and set off to Katarina's starting point.



-- on to part 2 --







Overview