Beyond the Western
The Fantasy Box
Scott A. Gese


He ordered a bucket of ice and several bottles of champagne. Image source: Alex Holyoake/Unsplash

As the night progressed, Anslo allowed the young woman to bind his wrists with his necktie and then tie him to the bed.


Beyond the Western

Anslo was at the airport and about to check his bag when he realized he had absentmindedly slipped his pocket knife back into his pants pocket.

“Shit,” he thought. “Now what?”

He was running late and there was no time to deal with the hassle of mailing it to himself. He loved this knife. It was a cherished gift from a close friend. He didn’t want to lose it.

On the slim chance it might be overlooked, he dropped it into the main compartment of his bag and checked it in.

After the flight he caught an Uber to the dock where he boarded a cruise ship to the Bahamas.

Later that afternoon, when he unpacked his bag, he breathed a sigh of relief when he found the knife was still there.

He set it on the dresser with plans to mail it home.

That evening at dinner, his table was being entertained by a man who called himself The Great Fantasy Granter.

His game was to have each person at the table write a word or two on a card. All the cards were then fed into a slot on the top of a special box he held.

A “Fantasy or Dream Card” would be ejected from the box and returned to each player.

Their job would be to make their dream or fantasy come true before the end of the cruise.

They all played along and fed their cards to the box.

“I must tell you something,” stated the Granter after the cards had been handed out. “Of all the times this game has been played, there has yet to be even one disappointed player.”

As he was speaking, the box spit out another card. “What is this? Did someone at the table not get a card?”

Everyone at the table was playing the game.

He looked at the card and gasped “Oh my. This is terrible. Something has gone wrong.

Maybe we should try this again.”

“Again? No no, read the card,” they all insisted.

“OK, I’ll read the card, but I hope this doesn’t come true.” He held the card out and read,

One fantasy will be fraught with danger. Proceed with caution.”

They all had a good laugh as they thought about the dream or fantasy they had gotten and hoped the danger element would not be for them.

After dinner and drinks, Anslo found himself in the company of a beautiful young woman.

As the evening moved on, he ordered a bucket of ice and several bottles of champagne. They took the bottles and headed back to Anslo’s berth where they proceeded to finish off two of them.

As the night progressed, Anslo allowed the young woman to bind his wrists with his necktie and tie him to the bed.

It was her fantasy, not his. It was against his better judgment, but his better judgement had disappeared along with the second bottle of champagne, so he played along. After all, it was part of the game they had played at the dinner table that evening.

After Anslo was tied, the woman played out her fantasy, she popped the cork on the third bottle and poured herself a tall glass as Anslo looked on.

“Is this part of your fantasy? To drink a glass of champagne while I’m tied to the bed?”

“Yup. I plan to enjoy every sip of it too,” she replied.

Anslo asked to be untied.

She finished off the glass and stumbled toward the bed.

The young woman worked at the knots but the champagne had gone to her head and was keeping her from focusing her attention. She couldn’t get them undone.

“I know what I can do,” she said. She fell off the bed and staggered over to the dresser.

“I saw this knife up here when I came in. I’ll take it and just slice those knots right off your wrists.”

She opened the knife and staggered back to the bed.

© Copyright 2019 by Scott A. Gese All Rights Reserved.