In the summer of 1977, I spent three weeks at my Aunt Jean's house. My cousins Donna (13), Shirley (11) and George (7) had spent the previous week at my home, and when my Uncle Steve, came to pick them up on Saturday, I simply rode back with them.
When we arrived at my Aunt Jean's, the neighborhood kids (and our partners in bondage) Becca (14), her brother Jim (12), and Karen (13), each welcomed me back. I had to admit that I was very apprehensive when I met Becca again. After playing a bondage game with my cousins and some kids from my neighborhood, I had made a stupid comment to the effect that Becca was a female Darth Vader (the reason being was that Becca always played our bondage games with such fierce enthusiasm and fiery vigor--especially when she was the captor--that she earned a reputation of being a real spitfire). Donna swore she would tell Becca about what I said, and it was a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I figured I would be safe from any reprisals today, because it was Saturday, and we never played bondage games when all of the adults were home.
Or so I thought....
Once I had settled in, my Aunt Jean made an early supper for all of us. I finally got to meet my oldest cousin Keith's (16) steady girlfriend, a sixteen year old who we'll call Lori. Lori didn't make a very good impression on me. Throughout dinner, she kept calling me Jim, and referred to Jim as "Doug". When corrected of this mistake for the 50th time, Lori whined, "It's not my fault, they look so much alike!" (the only trait Jim and I shared was our age, 12 years--and, at that time, we were similarly dressed in jeans and T-shirts and were both barefoot; however, apart from that, we could never have been mistaken for brothers).
After dinner, Jim and I sat on the back porch steps and got caught up on what was happening. Then Becca strolled over. Barefoot, she was clad in cut-off denim shorts with a short-sleeved blouse. Her shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back into a single pony tail. She bent over us and said, in her best Lori-impression: "Let's see, which one of you is Doug?" Pointing at her brother, she added, "Are YOU Doug?"
Taking about as much as he could stand, Jim curtly excused himself and rejoined the others inside the house. Becca, never missing a beat, shook my hand and calmly said, "So, you must be Doug. Hello. Remember me? Becca? You know, the female Darth Vader?"
My smile faded as my stomach shrunk into a icy little knot. Despite the heat and humidity, I felt a cold wave of fear slide up my back, making the hair on the nape of my neck stand up. Becca tightened her grip on my hand and pulled me up to my feet. "We're going for a walk," she whispered into my ear. "Don't try anything funny, understand?"
As we strode past the opened screen door, with Becca's hands tightly gripping my shoulders, I could hear George say, "Oh gawd! She's grabbing him RIGHT NOW!!!"
This was followed by a harsh "Shhhhh!"--then I saw Donna press her face up against the insect screen. "Becca," she said with a giggle, "you are really sick...."
"Love you too, dear," Becca cheerfully replied, as she escorted me to her house, which was just a few doors away. I soon realized that abducting me wasn't such a crazy idea, since both of Becca's parents were now over at my Aunt Jean's, thus giving us the run of her house.
Once inside, she brought me downstairs, to a basement storage room. Retrieving a "bondage bag" from behind some boxes, Becca pulled out a length of rope and proceeded to bind my wrists together behind my back. "Y'know," I said, "I was only joking, Becca." I tried to sound casual, but that was hard to do when your hands were being bound behind your back. "I didn't really mean it. It was just a joke."
Becca spun me around so that we faced each other, then she laughed in an overly exaggerated manner--sounding like a cartoon-like guffaw--right in my face. "See? I'm just joking too, sweetie!" Becca said in an overly cheerful manner that scared the hell out of me. Grabbing my shoulders with both hands, she added, "Now, SIT DOWN!"
Becca made me sit in a cross-legged position on the floor. Once there, I watched with interest as she knelt down in an isle between two free-standing storage shelves, which held boxes and other odds and ends. Becca and Jim's father was a carpenter who was always working on their house. These shelves were his latest project, which he built over the winter. They were made entirely from wood, supported by eight exterior beams--four on each side.
Becca busied herself with tying a strand of rope around one of the wooden beams that supported the shelf unit. When this was tied to her satisfaction, I was brought over and made to sit on the floor, with my back facing the wooden beam she had tied the rope around. Becca then secured my already bound hands to the beam. She had to lay halfway under the shelf to bind me to the beam, and--at that point--I got to admire her long, lovely bare legs, which were already tanned from the summer sun.
I swore to myself then that I had to tie her up sometime within the next three weeks, and not just once. I also swore vengeance against Donna, and just about everybody else--hey, it was a new summer of fun at Aunt Jean's; I had a lot of catching up to do.
I sat with my legs stretched out, the soles of my bare feet just touching the support beam of the opposite shelf unit. Once she securely fastened my hands to the beam, Becca then tied my ankles together, then fastened them to the support beam of the shelf unit opposite of me. My ankles were secured with another strand of rope that was tied vertically over my original ankle bonds.
I had to admit, I wasn't going anywhere. I tried to move my legs--just a simple bend of my knees--until I discovered that there was no slack on my ankle bonds. The only movement I had with my legs was wiggling my bound bare feet back and forth, as if pushing a pair of invisible pedals. I even tried feeling for the knot which fastened my wrists to the beam behind me, but that was a lost cause. You would think that, since it was my first bondage game with her this summer, Becca would have gone easy on me.
Satisfied that I wasn't going anywhere, Becca sat down across from me, with her back against a box. She stretched her legs out across the isle and folded her arms over her chest. Staring right at me, she gave a weary sigh and said, "So, I'm a female Darth Vader, huh?"
Once again I swore up and down that she wasn't a female Darth Vader; I babbled that the whole thing was just a stupid, stupid comment which I never should have made. I was completely tied and at her mercy, did you think I would say anything otherwise?
Then, without warning, Becca cupped her hands over her mouth and flawlessly imitated Darth Vader's heavy breathing. This cracked me up to no end. Becca then knelt over me and solemnly said, "We shall now discuss the location of the hidden Rebel base."
She raised her hands over my bound body in a dramatic fashion, then proceeded to tickle my stomach and bare feet mercilessly, which sent me into wild fits of hysterical giggles. At one point, I tried to tell her that the Rebel base was on Yavin (hey, I'm no hero), but thanks to her endless tickling, all I could get out was "YAV! YAK! YAH!" I had been laughing so hard, tears were streaming down my face.
Becca abruptly stopped tickling me and sat up with an attentive look on her face, as if she had just heard something. I was still giggling until she hand gagged me and placed a finger over her lips. She reached into her bondage bag and gagged me with several strips of tape.
Assured that I would not say anything, Becca ran over to the opposite end of the room, where she switched off the lights and hid behind the opened door.
We were no longer alone in the house. I could hear a rapid, high-pitched conversation in the hallway outside. It was along the lines of "I'm not going in there, YOU go in there!";
"Come with me!"; "HELL no!" and so on.
Finally, one courageous soul appeared in the doorway, alone. It was the fair Karen who braved the dark and risked capture to seek me out in the shadows. Karen the lion-hearted, who was barefoot, clad in shorts and a short-sleeved blouse. She was, quite simply, doomed.....
She took a few tentative steps into the room, her bare feet silent against the tiled floor.
"Doug?" she called in a meek little voice. "Are you here?"
In response, Becca slammed the door shut, throwing all of us into darkness. Karen screamed, Becca screamed, the gang outside the room screamed, and I wished I could have been able to cover my aching ears!
Becca flipped the light switch on, and I saw Karen crouching in the center of the floor, waving her hands above her head as if warding off a bat attack. She let out a loud yelp when Becca came up from behind her and gave Karen a jolly bear hug. Karen, seeing me, broke away and ran over to me--as if I were in any shape to protect her!
Becca grabbed Karen again from behind and hand-gagged her. She gently went "Shhh!" into Karen's ear as she grabbed another strand of rope and started binding Karen's hands behind her back. To do this, Becca had to release her hand gag, and once she did, Karen glanced at me with concern and said, "Are you all right?"
I nodded. I couldn't help but be mesmerized at the sight of Karen kneeling before me, getting her hands bound behind her back by Becca. Karen let out a dramatic little grunt as Becca cinched off the knot which bound her wrists together. Karen always brought a vivid imagination to our bondage games and would play-act her role (be it captive or captor) to the hilt. She even shook her head and let out a whimper as Becca taped her mouth.
Caught up in Karen's enthusiasm, I also leapt into the part of a frustrated captive who made another desperate attempt to free myself--but to no avail. Karen and I were both trapped in this madwoman's basement and completely at her mercy!
Becca the "madwoman" was whistling a merry little tune as she bound Karen's ankles together. This nearly caused me to burst into laughter again, but I restrained myself. Once Karen's ankles were securely tied, Becca helped her to sit with her back up against the shelf unit opposite from me. It became obvious that Becca was going to bind Karen's wrists and ankles to the shelf units just like I was.
However, Jim poked his head into the room and announced to Becca that their parents have been sighted walking down the street.
Becca knelt back and let out a curse. Make no mistake, while she usually acted aristocratic and haughty, whenever she didn't get her way (which was rare), Becca would not just curse like a sailor, she would out-curse the saltiest of sea dogs under the table.
She got to her feet and conferred with Jim about the possibility of continuing this game even with both parents home. Jim thought this was a bad idea.
While Becca may have bound her hand and foot, Karen wasn't tied to the shelf unit like I was, so she used this diversion to try and wiggle and writhe her way over to me. I wasn't sure what she was going to do once she reached me, but I must confess, I enjoyed watching her make the attempt. She flailed around on the floor like a fish out of water, grunting and groaning all the while. If Oscars were given out for Best Performance as a Captive during a Bondage Game, Karen would have won hands down. She had my vote. Becca finally came to the realization that having both of her parents present in the house would throw a major monkey wrench into this game. She reluctantly came over and officially called it quits.
Karen was so wrapped up in her own little role-playing game that she ignored Becca and kept right on writhing and squirming around on the floor--until Becca stepped right over her bound body and said, "Excuse me, Pauline, but the game is over."
Karen abruptly ceased her struggles, releasing a muffled "hmmm-humm" from under her gag.
Needless to say, the game ended there. My cousins joined us as Karen and I were untied. They announced that Becca and Jim's parents had entered the building. Now free, I got up from the floor, grateful to finally be able to move.
Karen, who still sat on the floor, raised her hands up to me and asked, "Doug, could you help me up?"
I helped Karen to her feet. Oddly enough, she wouldn't release my hand right away. When I frowned at her, Karen started shaking my hand profusely, as if to say thanks, before finally releasing it. It was getting a little cramped standing there in-between the shelf units; Karen stood very close to me, staring at me intensely. Whenever I glanced at her, she would look away quickly.
We went upstairs--but not before Becca told Karen and me that we were still her captives and that this game will continue in force the first chance we got. I figured it would be most likely Monday, when most of the adults were away at work, that we would resume the game. But, something funny happened just before then. I'll tell you about that in the next installment. As always, thanks for reading.