What Does A Roman Wear Under His Toga?
Spring, 1970
Late Sunday Evening
University of Virginia
Kappa Sorority House
Home sweet home. Amanda looked up at the huge Victorian house she’d been calling home for the past two years. Lights illuminated the wrap-around porch. Sounds of laughter filtered out into the night from the open windows.
She yawned. All she wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. As she made her way through the house to the stairway leading to the bedrooms, her sisters greeted her.
Once inside her bedroom she quickly unpacked. She’d changed into her nightgown, and then cracked open the window, before she crawled into bed. Just as she reached to turn off the light her door burst open.
“Amanda, you’ll never guess what happened last night.” Crystal rushed in and plopped down on the bed next to her.
Crystal always had some type of tale to tell about the wild shenanigans that happened on campus that she’d missed. Stories about parties at fraternities and sororities, who had been the victim of a panty raid, who had their mascot stolen or who was in love with whom. So she missed some of the crazy happenings of college life, she participated in plenty of other school functions.
Amanda enjoyed the independence of living on campus during the week and she was one of the lucky ones who lived close enough to have the luxury of driving home for the weekends. Of course, she didn’t go home every weekend. At least twice a month she tried to visit her mother.
Now she had another reason to go home more often, a romantic one. About a month ago she’d met a law student at Georgetown University and they’d gone out on a couple of dates. She liked him and they seemed to have a lot in common. The thought of getting to know Joe King better made her smile.
“Come on guess.” Crystal bounced on the bed in excitement.
“Sam asked you out?” Amanda knew her friend had a serious crush on their class vice-president. Why, she had no idea. He always seemed a little wishy-washy to her.
“No. I wish.”
“I give up then.” Amanda propped her pillow against the headboard and sat up.
“You’re no fun.” Crystal pouted. “But I’ll tell you anyway. We had a small party here last night and Jason said he knew this one guy in another fraternity who bragged he could break into anything, anywhere at any time. No lock could keep him out.”
“You want to tell me about a crook?”
“No.” Crystal frowned. “I don’t think so anyway. He’s new on campus and I guess he’s been around. You know picked up things. Jason said this guy claimed he broke into the Delta Nu Sorority after curfew.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
Amanda blew out a breath making her bangs flutter. “Why would he break into the sorority house?”
“To see a girl, of course.” Crystal shrugged her shoulders.
“Figures. Then what happened?”
“A bunch of us didn’t believe Jason and he said he could prove it. He called him. Well this guy, Lee is his name, said he would come over, but we’d have to make it worth his while. He told Jason he had a $100 and if we matched it, he’d prove he could open any locked door.”
“You didn’t?” Amanda stared at her friend.
“We all chipped in.” Crystal looked down at the bed then up again with a sheepish grin. “Well we were drunk.”
“Did he show up?”
“Yeah, Lee tapped on the kitchen window when he arrived to let us know he was there. We stood in the kitchen and waited. I swear Amanda,” Crystal crossed her heart, “he was inside our house within ten seconds flat, holding a funny file thingy in his hand and grinning devilishly. Oh, did I tell you, he has these sexy dimples. He’s really cute.”
Amanda knew her friend. She’d go on and on about how cute this or that guy was, how she loved his hair, his eyes, his walk, the way he filled out his jeans or the way he winked. Amanda didn’t want or need a description of this guy who could break and enter. He’d probably end up in jail someday or have his picture on one of those wanted posters the FBI posted at the Post Office. He sounded like trouble with a capital T. “Did he take the money?”
“Yeah, but not until after he partied with us for the rest of the evening. He’s a lot of fun.” Crystal jumped off the bed. “Oh, and we’re hosting a toga party here tomorrow night.”
“We’re what?” The door to her room had already closed. A party. She’d think about that tomorrow. Right now all she wanted and needed was sleep.
Monday Evening
On Mondays Amanda had an easy schedule, only three classes. Receiving an A+ on a paper gave her incentive to celebrate and she found herself in the mood to party.
Upon returning home from class, she helped her sorority sisters with the food preparation and decorations. They’d have the usual chips, dips, crackers and nuts. Along with trays of olives, figs, chunks of cold meats and cheese cubes.
Sally came home with several cases of grapes that she’d finagled someone into donating to the house. They dumped the grapes into a huge metal tub and later that evening they’d have a grape stomping contest.
After several barrels of beer had been delivered, Amanda went upstairs to get ready. In the large community bathroom the girls helped each other wrap sheets in a variety of styles around themselves and safety pinned them in place.
In her bedroom, Amanda completed her toga with a gold chain as a belt, a gold armband she clasped around her upper arm, and sandals. An ivy wreath adorned her head. She admired herself in the mirror. Not bad.
Music filtered up to the second floor. Sounded like the party had begun. Along with several of her sorority sisters she descended the staircase into the mass of toga-clad partiers.
Amanda danced to the music of the Doors, Led Zepplin, Chicago and the Beatles. She nibbled on the food as she drank glasses of beer.
The music stopped as someone turned off the stereo. Dancers complained. Then a loud voice exclaimed. “It’s grape stomping time. Who wants to go first?”
Amanda took a gulp of her beer and placed the glass down on a table. Suddenly she felt adventurous. “I will.”
She stepped into the vat. Grapes squished under her weight. She hiked her toga up so it wouldn’t become stained. As she stomped, a few of the grape stems pricked her toes and stuck between them. She laughed as the grapes mashed and she did a little dance like the one Lucy did on the show where they all went to Italy.
“My turn.” One of the guys grabbed Amanda by the waist and lifted her out and she almost slipped when her feet hit the hardwood floor.
“Catch.” Crystal tossed her a towel.
Amanda sat down on a chair and began to wipe her now reddish-purple feet. Liquid dripped from her toes, puddling on the floor. She leaned over to wipe it up.
“What did it feel like?” Sally asked.
“Strange. Squishy.” She looked down at her stained feet and hoped it didn’t take a week to get the color off.
Amanda continued to watch the antics of the grape stomping from her seat. Two girls and two guys got into the vat to stomp, they barely had room to move around. The guys ended up falling out and the girls fell in the vat. When they managed to stand back up their togas were dyed purple.
Those stains would probably never come out of the sheets. Amanda rose and joined the group dancing. You really didn’t need a partner everyone just danced in the middle of the room.
Amanda had worked up a thirst and went over to the beer keg to draw herself a glass. The bitter brew slid down her throat smoothly.
A man in a toga pushed past her, bumping her arm. Beer sloshed in her glass. He didn’t even turn to say he was sorry. How rude. He just kept moving quickly through the crowd, his toga flying open giving her a glimpse of a dimpled butt. She’d always wondered what Romans wore under their togas. Now she knew the answer. Nothing.
Crystal grabbed Amanda’s arm. “That was him.”
“Who?”
“The guy who broke into our house last night. Lee.” She pointed to a man opening the front door.
His toga must not have been secured properly, because now she had a fantastic view of one taut dimpled butt cheek. “Nice ass.”
The End
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King and its characters belong to WB and Shoot the Moon Productions. No infringement is intended. This is written for entertainment purposes only. Please do not redistribute or reproduce this story without my permission.
Thanks: To Jan who gave me the title as a joke and I just had to go with it and to Sue for giving this a once over to catch my boo boos.
Note: This story is part of my series of five second meetings.
Thanks: To Jan who gave me the title as a joke and I just had to go with it and to Sue for giving this a once over to catch my boo boos.
Note: This story is part of my series of five second meetings.