05 - Bandages, Bedsheets and Other Oddities
Story index at the bottom
By Burke
Mon Jan 1 06:43:08 EST 1996
We thought Mom was going to have kittens. She was red-faced and yelling, and all Billy and I were doing, was sitting in the basement laundry room, ripping up a bedsheet. I guess we should have told her it was ours, and that we'd bought it for 35 cents at the local Goodwill store, but after she calmed down, we finally told her that we were tearing up the sheet for bandages, which we needed for a scout first aid class. Looking at the pile of eight-foot long strips, she made some comment that we had enough to wrap up a mummy, and, still red-faced, this time from embarrassment, she retreated upstairs to fix dinner.
Mom was right about one thing - we did have a lot of strips. We figured about two dozen, all about eight feet long, and ranging in width from two to four inches. Obviously, we had more than we needed.
We piled it all into a bag and carried it up to our room, where we folded them up, so they would look neat for the class. That's when Cathy came by, and stood in our doorway. "What are you doing with all those strips of linen?" she asked. Unknowingly, she had given our bandages a name - stripped linen - which was certainly less of a mouthful than "bedsheet bandages," which was what we called them at first.
A few days later, the class was over and the stripped linen forgotten - dumped into a bag, and tossed into that black hole we called a closet. (Ray told Mark and Jeff that we had tied him up and put him in the closet, and it took us five days to find him. He lied. It only took us two days.)
We came home late one afternoon, and found that Mom had braved the monsters that lurked within our closet, and cleaned it out. (We could actually see the floor.)
When we looked inside, we found several bags, each marked with the contents. There was "scout rope," "bandages," and another one marked with a question mark, which contained several small items recovered from the floor and from the pockets of our pants, which Mom did not want to run through the washing machine. One bag that was missing, was the one with our bandanas and neckerchiefs. Experience had taught us that they were either being washed, or waiting to be washed, and would be back in a day or so. Experience also taught us that this ritual cleaning happened about once every three months.
After dinner that night, Cathy, Ray, Billy, and I laid around watching TV. Mom and Dad had gone to a party, and were not expected back until 11, and possibly later. Like little (or, as in Ray's case, big) sisters do, Cathy started to get annoying. Personally, I thought she was deliberately provoking us, knowing full well what would happen. Sure enough, she said one thing too many. Billy and I were on her, and soon had her hands behind her back. She conceeded the point, and we took her up to our room, where Billy held her while I got the rope. The only problem, was that I didn't get the rope. I grabbed the bag of stripped linen by mistake.
I suppose I could have gone back and gotten the rope, but Ray began yelling "Tie her with the bedsheet! Tie her with the bedsheet!" Well, why not? I remembered a TV show from a month or so ago, where some nosy kid was snooping around the bad guys' hideout, and was tied with a torn bedsheet. If it was on TV, it was good enough for me.
I pulled out a strip about three inches wide, and quickly wrapped Cathy's wrists. Billy took another, and did her ankles, and since this was a "team effort," Ray applied the gag.
Ray took the widest piece he could find - about four and a half inches - and was able to wrap it four times around her head, and made sure that each wrap went between her teeth. He still had enough tail left over, to tie it snugly behind her head.
Since the sheet had torn so easily, we figured that Cathy would get out rather quickly, but the strips were surprisingly strong, and held her quite well. Her gag appeared bigger and thicker than any bandana or neckerchief. Cathy gave the obligatory "mmmmpff's," which weren't quite as loud as they had been before, and I remember thinking that we had stumbled on something pretty cool. My thoughts were interrupted when the doorbell rang, and I rushed to answer. It was Nancy.
"Hi, Burke. Where's Cathy?" she asked.
I couldn't resist: "She's a little tied up at the moment, but I'll take you up."
Nancy followed me upstairs to our room, and there was Cathy, still tied and gagged. Ray was behind her, picking at the knot that held her hands, and Ray was untying her ankles. They explained that a deal had been made. Cathy would be freed, if she promised not to give any of us any more static. Nancy said that she looked like a kidnap victim from a TV show, and hearing that, Ray said that the next time we played "kidnap," we should use the stripped linen to tie our "victim(s).
"Yeah, if we think about it or remember it." I said.
It was still early - around 8:30 - when we got Cathy loose. She and Nancy headed for Cathy's room and closed the door. There was little doubt in our minds that Cathy was plotting and scheming to get us, and was enlisting Nancy's help.
It went largely unsaid, but I think all three of us wanted to be tied with the stripped linen, just because it was new and different. It was not something we would say aloud, but I could almost swear that I heard Billy's voice in my head, saying that he wanted to find out what it was like.
Anyway, we thought Cathy wanted to get us, and that Nancy would help her. We also knew that they would never try and take us when the odds were 3:2 against them. We had to figure out a way to bring the odds to 2:1 in their favor.
Ray, Billy, and I went back downstairs, and parked ourselves in front of the boob tube. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the two girls in the upstairs hall, and just knew they were up to something. Meanwhile, the three of us watched TV, and suddenly, I had a plan that would allow Cathy her revenge, and would not be too obvious. I went down to the basement, and told Billy to call me, and ask what I was doing, and to ad lib it from there - but to be sure and tell me to go to our room.
In a minute or so, Billy called down, and asked what I was doing in the basement. I said I was looking for a list of stuff we needed for our next scout campout, and that I thought it was in my scout pants, which were in the laundry. Billy called back that he needed it too, and that when I found it, I should take it upstairs, and tape it to the closet door. (32)
I gave it a few seconds, then shouted up that I had found it. We yelled pretty loud, so we were sure the girls had heard us.
When I came up, Billy said that he had seen the girls go down the hall toward our room. I said that they were probably going to get me, but that I would get them right back, because they would probably break the "room rule."
The "Room rule" was that nobody went into anyone else's room without permission. The rule was mostly observed between us three boys, and Cathy. Billy and I, and Ray used to enter each other's rooms with regularity and impunity, but never Cathy's room. In turn, Cathy never entered either of our rooms unless we were there, and invited her in. To break this rule, was to invite the wrath of Mom, and punishment was swift and severe.
Sure enough, when I went into our room, I was knocked to the floor. Nancy clamped a hand over my mouth, and hissed "Quiet!" I nodded. Nancy then wrapped my wrists with a piece of the stripped linen, and Cathy tied my ankles. "You won't get away with this!" I whispered. Cathy whispered back, that if she wanted me to talk, she would tell me.
I fully expected to be gagged, but instead, Cathy told me to call Billy. I yelled down that I couldn't find the tape, to tape the list to the door, and that it wasn't where he said it was. Billy said that he's be right up, and when he came through the door, Cathy and Nancy nailed him.
After they got Billy tied, they got around to gagging me. But Billy was given the chore of calling for Ray, and there wasn't time to gag him in the few seconds it took for Ray to climb the stairs, and run down the hallway to our room.
Cathy and Nancy got Ray trussed up, then gagged Billy, and finally, Ray. Smiling at their handiwork, Cathy said "Let's hoigtie them!"
Since our hands and feet were already tied, there wasn't much we could do to prevent it. Billy and I were hogtied on our beds, and Ray got the floor between us. But the hogtie did not last long. We were able to find an edge, and rip the piece hogtying us, and get partially free. Getting the rest off would be a bit more difficult.
The stripped linen was tight, but did not "bite" into the skin, like rope. Still, it was no picnic getting it off, but we worked at it. Billy got himself into a sitting position on the edge of his bed, and was able to get on the floor with Ray, where they maneuvered themselves back-to-back, and searched with their fingers for the knots that held their hands. I offered encouragement as best I could, but all I could do, was nod or shake my head, and say "Mmmmmpfff." And not very loudly, either.
The girls had retreated to the living room, where they were entertained by the TV. I guess they figured that we'd be there for a while, and we were - about 15-20 minutes - before Billy finally picked the knot on Ray's hands, freeing him. He got us free, and we put the stripped linen away, and went down to join the girls.
We were anxious for some payback, but it was getting on towards 10, and Nancy had to go home. But before she bounced out the door, the three of us claimed penalties on them for entering our room without permission. Normally, a penalty claimed 20-30 minutes after the fact would be lost, but one fact was not lost on Cathy. She knew that if she claimed a time limit and refused the penalty, we could come back and say that she had better accept it, or we would tell Mom. Nancy would get away with it, but Cathy would be grounded for 7-10 days, and, given the option of being grounded, or allowing each of us to take a free tie on her, Cathy selected the latter. For her, it was a "no brainer."
We gave Nancy an ultimatum, too. If she did not accept the penalties, we'd tell Mom anyway. Not wanting to see her best friend get hammered with a 10-day grounding, she agreed - with the condition that they be allowed to take their penalties with the stripped lined, rather than rope. We agreed, and Nancy headed home.
Epilogue
Billy and I usually talked for about 15-30 minutes after "lights out," before drifting off to sleep. That night, we talked about how effective a gag the stripped linen was, compared with neckerchiefs and bandanas. We agreed that it might be a good idea to put a few pieces in with the neckerchiefs and bandanas when they came back from the wash, then said the hell with a few pieces, we'll take the whole bag.
We also decided that we should share our new found knowledge with others - like David, Chuck, Mark, and Jeff. (And anyone else who found his or her way into our games.) And we knew just how to do it!
END
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Burke's stories
- 01 - Hogtie the Rustler (m+/m+)
- 02 - Sister Act (f/m, m/m, m/f)
- 03 - The Camera Caper (mm/f)
- 04 - Penalties and Disguises (*/*)
- 05 - Bandages, Bedsheets and Other Oddities (mmm/f, ff/mmm)
- 06 - Nancy's "Screen Play" (ff/m+, m/ff, ff/m)
- 07 - The Eyes Don't Lie (m+f+/mmm)
- 08 - Grounded! (f/mm)
Index of all stories in the "Archive for Everyone" section