'How much?!' he asked, Heineken dribbling down his chin.
'One million euro and five hundred thousand euro. On completion of course,' replied Harry.
Smiths scratched his chin, his eyes gleaming at the thought of that amount of money.
'And what would I have to do?' he asked again.
Harry pointed over the table to the wall. A small white wooden trellis ran along the wall underneath the window sill, covering the radiators.
'Lie in there for a year.'
'You're lying,' sad Jog, his eyes sparkling.
'That's one thing I'm not doing,' replied Harry and took a merry swig from his glass of wine. 'I told you I wanted to spend my money in interesting ways and I find this to be a most interesting way.'
Smiths and Harry were sitting upstairs in the small cosy function-room of a bar in city centre Dublin. It was their friend Egan's 21st birthday party and they sat a little away from the main group of people, hatching their little plan. The room was small enough, with a dark wine and olive carpet. The furniture was old but in good shape and the lighting came from dim lamps dotted about the place. The trellis Smiths pointed to was definitely large enough to allow someone lie down inside it and stretched from wall to wall.
'So all I have to do is lie in there for a year? What about the owners of the bar?' asked Smiths.
'Already got that covered man,' replied Harry licking the stem of his wine glass.
'Money?'
'Yep.'
Smiths got up and walked over to inspect the trellis. It was immaculately clean - bright white with a lovely design, broken up into tiny squares. Harry joined him. 'Your friends will know you're here, but not people who rent out the function room. It's important that you don't let them know either, or you'll suffer a penalty.'
'Like what?'
'I haven't worked that stuff out yet. Something like putting a gone off yogurt in there with you or something, I don't know.'
They both gazed at the trellis.
Harry put his arm around Smiths's shoulders. 'I have it all figured out. The people who work in the bar usually get in around ten and they'll bring you your breakfast. We'll cut a little portion out there and put hinges on it so we can hand you in food and water. We'll turn that TV around up there so you can see it and give you a remote control. You won't be able to have your phone, but mates can come in and chat to you. We'll have to rig something up to take your pee and poo but I reckon maybe some piping in the floor should sort that out. What do you think?'
Smiths couldn't believe his luck. Granted, lying here for a year would be incredibly boring, but after it he would have one and a half million euro. He'd have to try at least.
'I'm sure I will have more questions, but I think I'm going to do it. Definitely, yeah!'
Both friends smiled.
'This is going to be insane!' said Harry excitedly.
'Madness!' said Smiths and they walked back over to the main group of people.


This story is ongoing and will feature different events which take place during the time of Smiths's stay in the trellis.