Dumbfounded, I followed her into a side room, where I discovered several other naked women of various shapes and sizes, and before them were men of varying stages of undress. As each man would take off a piece of clothing, the ladies would neatly fold it and place it on a tidy pile. When he was as naked as she, the woman handed the man a folded towel, who turned around and opened it, removed a small cloth mask and the woman helped him to put it on. Once the mask was in place, the man picked up his towel and went through another door farther on.
The woman who had greeted me at the door said, "Please remove your clothes, sir." I hesitated, and she continued, "It's alright. It's just part of the process."
Rather reluctantly, I started to take my clothes off. Each time I removed something, she reached out and took it from me, to fold it and place it on a pile. "You'll get them all back at the end of the night. Don't worry." As I undressed, I glanced around the room a little. I recognized two of the ladies as women in my office. I wondered if I would ever look at them the same again. When I thought I was done, the woman said, "The watch, too. Time means nothing here." I gave up my watch, feeling more naked than ever, but then was presented with my towel.
After watching the other men in the room, I turned around and placed the folded towel on the little table behind me, then opened it up. Inside, there was the little cloth mask, sort of like a Lone Ranger style mask, it only covered the area around the eyes. Something I hadn't noticed on the other men's masks, since I hadn't been close enough, was the fact that there was a number embroidered on the front side of the mask. I wondered what this was for, but the same number was embroidered on the towel. My number was 124. Standing up straight, I placed the mask over my eyes and let my assistant tie it onto my head. When this was all done, she said, "Now, sir, if you would just step into the room over there..." she indicated a doorway, a different one than the one I'd seen all the other men go through.