Masquerade Murder

My spousal unit and I decided to go out on a date night tonight. It was our first date since…well…I guess since about three years ago. Our community was doing a murder mystery / dinner masquerade for couples, and we signed up. I’d been very much looking forward to it. I’d spent weeks planning my outfit and trying to find the perfect mask, and my spousal unit had even bought a new dress (mostly because I insisted that she couldn’t go in her usual black pants). My mom came up to watch Troy for us, and off we went.

We chose a table with only one other couple, two lovely lesbian women named Sasha and Sarah, who ended up being a lot of fun. The event itself was not managed very well, as they tried to do the dinner simultaneously with the murder mystery. So, we found ourselves trying to scarf down food, while also running around and gathering clues. I also realized that you have to have a certain sort of outgoing personality to walk up to complete strangers and question them like suspects. It also doesn’t help if the people are dry and not forthcoming with information. Sasha was selected to play one of the suspects, the vengeful maid…, and I was selected as one of the bachelors.

Essentially, three bachelors were chosen to either get rich, marry a celebrity, or die. It was a game of Russian Roulette, except the decision wasn’t by chance…it was entirely in the hands of our fellow banquet goers. Each man was given a chance to explain what they’d do with the money if they were chosen to get rich. The first said he’d buy a house for his family, noble but not aligned to the hearts of the greedy, selfish crowd with his fate in their hands. The second said he’d buy a boat, better but still not big enough. I said I’d buy my own private island, which was met with cheers and applause. This was more like it! Ultimately, I was voted almost unanimously to get rich, but my glory was short-lived as the host of the party was murdered instead of one of the bachelors. And this is how the murder mystery started.

In the end, we didn’t successfully solve the mystery, but neither did anyone else. We did win the award for Best Detectives of the Night for asking the most and best questions. Although that was entirely because of Sasha and my spousal unit. I was tripped up by not knowing that I could ask more than one question at a time, so I never really learned anything useful. It was also extremely chaotic with the number of people and the frequent interruptions by the “detective.” But we had a good time, and it was good to get away and do something for just the two of us.