Musical Trousers

The players pace around the circle, eyeing each other and their quarry. They all know the cost of failure, just as they know that one of them must fail. The music plays, an anthem to the brutal competition taking place, a competition that in the end can have only one victor.

And then the music stops.

Time stands still for a moment, as realization sets in, and then all hell breaks loose. Frantically, the players grab at the pile of garments in the center of the circle, desperately fumbling with zippers and buttons, occasionally chasing and snatching from other players. Cloth tears, bodies tumble and fall as they precariously balance on one foot and then the other, or else attempt the difficult but time-saving "jumping entry." When the dust settles, everyone is wearing trousers--some clutching over-large tent-like trousers around their waists, others with too-small pairs pulled up to their knees, but one poor soul has no trousers, and must now sit on the sidelines and wait, shivering, in his underwear.

A pair of trousers is removed from the pile, and the music starts again...