You are a young university student and hang out with a somewhat immature crowd. During one of your drunken gambling games you lost and thus you earn the responsibility to host a big party (thankfully, others will pitch in for the beer costs and bring food).
You decide to host the party near a farmhouse run by your relatives in the British Columbian mountains; you have a lot of outdoor activities planned out and there will be food in plentiful. Since your relatives are visiting Seattle, the farmhouse and all facilities are yours to use. You are super excited about the party and so is the rest of the class. You decide to host the party outdoors and set the tables up outside so there is a nice scenic view.
You tell everyone that they are to dress casually.
However, a girl named Felicié (who doesn’t normally hang around your crowd but somehow was invited) shows up dressed in super expensive high fashion brand clothes with her red hair done perfectly as if for a prom; she wears copious amounts of expensive make up and she wears a red ruby gem necklace that looks extremely pricy. This sort of clothing is not very practical for an outdoors party but Felicié really wants to make an impression.
She spends most of the day making subtle jabs at how poorly dressed everyone else is all the while remaining incredibly energetic. She also makes a number of slightly politically incorrect jokes but because the crowd is mostly made up of males who don’t want to potentially lose out, they laugh along. She does not participate in the events, saying that she doesn’t want her Ralph Lauren sleeveless top stained. She volunteers to be the party photographer and spends most of the day taking photos from the distance.
You’re honestly getting a bit annoyed at her as the day drags on but you do and say nothing, wanting to keep the activities going. Despite this somewhat unfriendly attitude, at any point in the day, no less then four people are trying to talk to her.
In the late afternoon, after things die down a bit, you stand around having a special chat with your romantic date. At length you wander into a part of the outdoor farmhouse close to where there is a partially sealed off large mud pit (the pigs themselves are not there because they’ve been moved to another place beforehand).
Felicié wanders by and casually asks to take a picture of you standing next to your date. You aren’t too comfortable with this idea but your date says it sounds “sweet” and agrees.
Felicié takes out her camera and struggles with the angle. Taking far longer than anticipated, she suddenly asks that you step back a little. You take a few steps back and suddenly find yourself with one foot inside the mud pit! Your sneakers and a large part of your pants (almost knee-deep) are completely soaked in the filthy disgusting mud; you let out a shocked cry as you hurriedly step out.
Meanwhile, Felicié is dying of laughter and unsympathetically starts to take pictures of you with your ruined shoe and pants, her trick on you having worked to perfection.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!” you yell at her angrily.
Felicié tells you it was only a small prank and that you should relax. She also makes a number of comments about your intelligence (“How can you NOT know the pit was right behind you? It’s your own farm COME ON!”) To your annoyance, your date seems to find this absolutely hilarious too and joins Felicié in laughing at you. The crowd of the entire party approaches, having heard the shouting; they are very curious. “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH” many in the crowd cry out at the sight of your mess as if they’ve just discovered some new form of fire. “YOU GOT OWNED DUDE!”” Felicié rapidly recaps what happened, making sure to remind the crowd that you “weren’t very smart” because you stepped into a mud pit inside “your own” farm. The crowd is very amused.
The crowd shouts out some insults at you and you struggle to find the right words. Then you suddenly notice that Felicié has travelled to the other side where there is an elevated hill top about five meters high above the mud pit.
“Hold him still so that I can take better pictures!” she yells at the crowd, wanting to get a better angle for the pictures of your misfortune. “This is a highlight!”
To your absolute outrage, your “friends” turn on you, they block your escape and you are basically forced to turn around so she can take the pictures of you from the hilltop. You are extremely angry and find none of this amusing at all.
Felicié takes a few pictures of you. Then she notices that there is a long wooden plank extending out from the hill she is standing on, firmly nailed to the hill and about 10 inches wide.
“I’m going to get a better angle,” she shouted out as she approached the plank.
“Hey careful Felicié” some dude grabbing you shouts out at her. “That thing might be unstable!” (“YEAH!” echo chamber cries, “Be careful!”)
She tests the stability of the wooden plank with one foot; it doesn’t move even in the slightest and is extremely firm. She decides to step unto it. As she does so, the entire crowd starts to clap, whistle and cheer at her bravery. Now completely on the board, Felicié proceeds to endlessly snap pictures of you in your unfortunate state. Seeing an opportunity to show off her fine clothes and her beauty, Felicié proceeds to do a little dance on the wooden plank; exhibiting a very fine practiced technique, making a few twirls before gracefully lifting her tailored skirt slightly and bowing.
You are absolutely disgusted but at the same time relieved because the crowd is no longer grabbing you. You are no longer the center of attention as every eye is on her and everyone is cheering and clapping enthusiastically; all of the males in the audience seem particularly impressed with her.
As Felicié turns to leave, an act of God happens. The camera in her hand slips a little… she suddenly loses her balance, tries to stay on the plank, but trips over sideways and falls… shrieking at the top of her voice… she falls straight into the mud pit below, making a massive splash.
The entire crowd falls silent; this is punctuated by many gasp of horror.
The poor girl is completely soaked in mud, her entire outfit and her face and hair are 100% ruined and she cries out in denial; this includes the Ralph Lauren top, the tailored skirt, her gem necklace, and fine shoes. “OH MY GAWWWWWWWWD!” she cries out. “NO! NO! NOOOOO!” As she walks out of the pit, one of her shoes gets stuck in the mud and she has to pull it out, shooting a large spray of mud out. To her further embarrassment, she trips over a few more times. The camera is not retrieved since it is lost in the mud; there will be no pictures of you from her.
Instantly the predatory crowd turns against her and there is laughter, snickering and jeering everywhere; many people use their hands and faces to do imitations of her movements as she danced and fell. Felicié throws the crowd a poisonous look before storming off with some tears, seemingly really hurt.
The party resumes as everyone goes back to the food and games. During this time, you understandably break up with your date because they betrayed you in a time of need. You walk into a barn where you switch to a new pair of pants and sneakers; you made preparations since you anticipated things might get messy outdoors (though obviously not this messy).
You are surprised when Felicié approaches you in the middle of the party about 5 minutes later, still looking like a mess and covered in mud. She ignores the looks from the other party members. She coldly tells you she wants to go home now and get cleaned. You tell her truthfully that the parking lot for the cars is a 20 minute hike away from the farm; the path is clearly marked out.
Still the talk of the party, someone else yells some insults at her. “NICE ONE FELICIE!” someone else adds.
“STOP IT!” she screams back at them before turning back to you.
In desperation she asks to use the showering facilities inside the house (technically your absent relatives’ home) to clean up before going. The way that she asks is:
“Okay then, can I please use the showering facilities in the house then? … Cause you can’t expect me to walk to my car and drive home looking like THIS?! (points at her clothes*) RIGHT?! It wouldn’t be safe … …I need a shower… WELL?! CAN I?!”
…
So the natural discussion questions that stem from this is:
1. What do you say to Felicié and what do you do next? Why? Do you help or not? How do you proceed? (the question is not, how SHOULD you respond, its how WOULD you respond?) Justify your decision.
2. To what extent do you believe there is a duty of Forgiveness?