27 - Holiday Trip to Grandma's
Story index at the bottom
By Jennifer
One Last Story
Hi all, it has been a long time since I posted on this site. I somewhat disagree with the direction the site is taking. However, that hasn't prevented me from reading it regularly. I am quite busy now with my life and my interest have moved on. I still write somewhat regularly but I have moved onto some of my adult content. I don't feel that it's relevant or even appropriate for this board. So, I am not going to post it here. Neither am I going to provide access to where else I post it online. I am sure a few of you know who I am and where I post that, but please don't ask for a link because I am not going to provide one or even confirm my username on any other site.
I know I have some unfinished stories here and that is what they are going to remain. I am going to leave my site up until the host takes it down as well. I would suggest if you want any of my stories for your own keepings that you download and archive a copy for yourself. They mostly posted here and on Canucks original site, but there are others that are not. Comments and questions about this story are welcome and encouraged of course. However, the issues above I am not going to respond to.
Sorry about all that explanation, but I figured I needed to get that stuff out of the way before I started. I will also let most you know up front that this is going to be a rather long narrative. Not all of it is going to be about the tie ups and the action. I need to fill in some gaps and explain some other things that are going on in the background. So if I have a 4 to 5 page section that doesn't involve content relevant to this boards normal happenings, please bear with me. There is a lot to discuss about this story and I want to make sure I don't leave anything obtuse or unexplained. With that said, I appreciate everyone who reads me and I would like to thank you all for your kind feedback and support over the years. I never thought I was much of a writer, but it has been fun sharing my childhood with all of you. On with the story.
Part 1:
The alarm went off loudly in the background. It was an intermittent loud buzzing from the black box with the big LED numbers on the dresser across the room from me. I lifted my head slowly and looked over at it. It read 8:15 I knew it was AM because I was waking up. I pulled my pillow from under my head and threw it across the room at the stupid alarm clock. I missed by about 5 feet and slowly began to drag myself out of bed slowly. I sat up and yawned as the clock buzzed annoyingly in the background. Like it or not I needed to get up. We had a lot to do this morning and we needed to be on the road by 11:00. Everything was packed as was the custom save for anything we reaped from this morning’s bounty. Still, I wished I could sleep in some more. I was 14 at the time of this story and it was Christmas morning.
I sat up in bed and began to draw the covers off. A lot had changed since the previous year when my three year old sister had awoken me quite rudely with the call of presents. For one, I wasn't nearly as excited about it and secondly I wasn't strapped to the bed using my car vest as had been my custom about 8 months earlier. I had grown up quite a bit over the past year and it was starting to show.
My physical stature hadn't changed all that much I was an inch taller maybe an inch and a half, but my body was still very similar to how I was when I was 13. I looked more like a woman than a girl now, but my chest was still somewhat flatter than most girls my age and my height just didn't want to advance. To this day I am only 4 foot 11 inches and 135 pounds. (Yeah, I might be lying about my weight but you will never know.) I was physically on the smaller side and weighed some place between 95 and 105 pounds. I really don't remember the exact number. I wore my hair long and loose for sleeping.
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Over the past year, a lot had changed. I had grown up, not all that much physically, but quite a bit in emotions and thinking. I was getting up there in school and I decided that I was getting too old to wear my car vest on the school bus. I was more than large enough physically that a normal adult seatbelt would fit me properly in the car. Well, the one in my mother’s van was a little off center and still ran close to my neck. But she bought a little clip that adjusted it for a proper fit. My current vest has begun getting a little small and it was cheaper to buy a seat belt adjuster than another car vest.
I had changed the way I looked somewhat and quite dressing like a child too. I wore a jeans and t-shirts to school rather than overalls and dresses. I occasionally wore a dress or a skirt if I wanted to dress fancy, but for the most part I was becoming a teenager. My involvement in TUGs had decreased quite a bit as well. It wasn't that I had lost interest in the matter. It was that I didn't have as many people to participate in my games as I used to. My best friends thought it was childish and outgrew the games. My parents had little if anything to do with my games. They would untie me if I got stuck and asked for help. But the inverse was almost never true. My siblings were not as involved as they used to be either.
Sean was in the later part of his college. He no lived on the campus and had his own apartment. He came home maybe one weekend a month. I saw Mary with about twice the frequency of my eldest brother. However, those visits were generally put to other uses than getting tied up. My little sister Amy was quite interested in the subject. I tied her a few times, but never anything advanced. Usually her hand in front and maybe her legs. I didn't want to scare her. However, on the inverse it took me about 2 minutes to escape from her best efforts. That left me with Scott. Although we had shared a bed room for close to a decade I just wasn't as close with him as I was with Sean or Mary. He had lost interest in the game for most part. If I asked him he would bind me and do a really good job at it. But even those episodes were infrequent.
I experimented with tying myself but I never really got to the point I could get myself into something I couldn't get out of. So, being tied up became an infrequent hobby for me.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
One the other hand quite a few things had not changed over the previous year. I pulled back the covers. I was still sleeping in once piece fleece zip up pajamas with built in feet whenever the weather got cold. I had quite double layering with a second set of pajamas and sometimes slippers over the pj feet. But, I still liked to be comfortable while resting. I was still also sharing a room with my little sister. I threw the covers off and let the chill of the morning wrap around me. The sleep suit helped, but only so far. I climbed down and made my way across the room and shut the alarm clock off.
I turned around deciding that it was probably best to wake my little sister as well. We had to go through breakfast, getting dressed and opening the Christmas presents. However, her covers were already thrown back and her bed was empty. I turned without pausing and exited the room into the hallway. I began to make my way down towards my brother's door to see if he was up. A second alarm clock started buzzing quite loudly. He kept his 6 feet from his bed. I knew that he would be up and ready shortly.
I turned and started making my way towards the kitchen. I could already smell the pancakes frying over the griddle. This was probably the first Christmas morning that my parents have been up before me since I was old enough to get out of bed on my own. It was strange. I knew it was Christmas morning, but somehow the energy seemed to have been drained out of the house. There was no hurry to open presents. No huge excitement about the annual trip to spend a week at my grandparents'. It seemed just like any other morning.
(One of the reason I quit telling my childhood stories was I recently lost a good chunk of my dairy from when I was a kid. However, this story will never fade from my mind. It is the one time as a kid I will never forget. It's not because of the story itself. It's what happened shortly afterwards. But enough on that I am moving forward.)
My footy pajamas were light blue with a white snowflake print if anybody cares. My mother had ordered them from the Sears catalog that year and I was really happy to have them. My hands were in a pair of light weight pink fleece mittens. They didn't match the pajamas, but I really didn't care that much. My mother came over to the table and dropped a plate with some pancakes in front of my normal spot.
"Good morning honey, nice of you to join us. Is your brother up yet?" She asked me placing the plate on the table.
I decided to shed my mittens and sat them down on the chair next to me. I was going to comment about my brother's alarm but he rounded the corner before I could get any words out. Scott was dressed in some grey sweat pants and a green short sleeve t-shirt. He was barefoot. He nodded silently and took his normal seat at the table. My mother brought over a second plate of pancakes and put it down in front of him before pouring each of us a glass of juice. We exchanged a quick "good morning" and "Merry Christmas" to each other before digging into the plates in front of us.
By this point in my life I had mastered using my hands with mittens over them. But we were late to the table and it was easier to eat this type of a meal if I had use of my fingers. With both of us served breakfast my mother returned to the sink, and continued washing the dishes she had started before the two of us had come in. Apparently my little sister and her had already finished eating a while ago and she was only keeping the food warm for Scott and myself. My father rarely ate breakfast. Normally he just grabbed about a gallon of coffee and sometimes toast. Not with anything, just dry wheat toast and plenty of coffee.
Scott and I ate quietly focusing our mouths with consuming the meal rather than conversing. He finished before me, he was a rather quick eater when there wasn't a long family meal going on. When he was done, he handed my mother his plate and glass. He offered her a quick half hug and headed into the living room. I finished a couple of minutes later. And did a similar routine with my mother.
"Merry Christmas Mom, thanks for breakfast." I managed to squeeze in trying to one up Scott.
"Merry Christmas Jennifer. Let's go open presents shall we." She took the minute and a half to finish the dishes before we departed for the living room.
My little sister and my father were seated side by side on our large couch. The Christmas tree was up in the distance with a healthy quantity of wrapped packages beneath it. The lights were on and the whole room was decked out when my mother and I entered. My brother was leaning against the back of the sofa.
"Look Jenny, Santa came!" Amy spit out excitedly like any 4 year old would. "Mary came too!" My sister finished pointing to a small pile of gifts off to one side of the desk wrapped in a different wrapping paper.
I began to scan the room looking for her, but my eldest sister was absent despite my wishes otherwise. She had a new boyfriend and they were planning on spending the Christmas season together down south with his family. Sean would be absent from this gathering as well. He was still off at school working on a rather complex project over the winter break. I was sad that neither of them could be home for the holiday. I really wish Mary had decided to spend the holiday with us instead.
"Apparently she came early, before even I was up. She said hi to your little sister and dropped off a few gifts before departing." My mother explained.
"Really when was that?" I inquired.
"6:17" Amy answered.
My little sister had learned to tell time on a face clock and she was quite proud of that fact. She was always a smart girls even at a young age. Apparently my parents had risen a little after 7 but my sister had been the first up. She had gotten herself out of bed, come into the living room and switched the lights onto the tree all on her own. They she had simply sat there and stared at the pile of presents waiting for the rest of us to join the land of the living. She was a little handful and we were quite close. Amy was in footed jammies as well. The catalog had them in every size from 3t up to a size large enough to probably fit my brother. Not that he would have worn girl footed pajamas.
My mother had ordered each of us 3 sets in different patterns. Amy liked to look at what I was wearing to bed and dress to match me. It was a little annoying. But it was also a little cute at the same time. Sean had given up living at home. About 7 months earlier he had offered me his room and decided that he would simply sleep on the couch in the living room when he came home on the weekends. Naturally being 13 at the time I took it. It was about one and a half times the size of the room I shared with my little sister. Sean’s bed was a queen size and I was happy to finally have my own room. However, it didn't last.
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The first night I was in my room alone about 10:00 Amy came in and told me there was a monster under her bed. I came into her room and checked like any good big sister would. I showed her every place a monster down to the size of small gerbil could hide in the room and put her back to bed. I headed back down to my own room and went to sleep. When I got up for school the next morning I found her laying in a beanbag chair in my new room. She was curled up fast asleep under a blanket she had torn off from her own bed. I didn't think much of it. I laid a second blanket over her and departed to get ready for school.
However, this routine repeated itself twice more the following two night before my mother put a stop to it. She explained that I was going to have my own room now and she would have to be a big girl and sleep on her own. My sister said ok and that lasted all of one night. The following day my sister came and got me again to check for monsters.
"All right Amy I will go check, but you have to promise me if there are no monsters you will sleep in your own room in your own bed tonight." I explained.
"Ok I promise." She replied.
My little sister had some sort of an honor code. She never broke a promise if she could keep it and would seem really disappointed with herself is she had to.
"Ok, where is the monster hiding this time?" I asked her.
"Up here let me show you." My sister explained climbing up into the top bunk of the bunk beds.
I just shrugged. My mother was over letting Amy climb up there and besides I was there with her. I climbed up onto the top bunk and my sister made her way over to the headboard of the bed. She pointed down over the back of the headboard at the floor.
"It’s right down there, you can see it from here. Come and Look Jenny." She explained.
I crawled across the top bunk and made my way over to the edge and shined the flashlight I was carrying down. There was nothing there. Just the bare floor, there was nothing that could even be mistaken for a monster. I gave it a good long look wanting to satisfy my little sister’s phobia to the best of my ability. Then I suddenly saw Amy retreating towards the foot of the bed.
"Come here Amy, there is no monster over there. Stop being silly and . . ." I stopped mid-sentence and looked down.
Like I often had as a child I was wearing pajamas and a pair of mittens over my hands. I hadn't felt it until it was too late. Instinctively I reached for my little sister but she was already down starting down the ladder and I had the flashlight in my other hand. I pointed the light down at my other hand already knowing what had happened to me. There was a little metal thing around my wrist that my sister had locked on me while I had been hunting for the monster. Amy had handcuffed me to the side of the bed without me catching onto it.
"Now I go to sleep, and Jenny go to sleep too." She explained.
I gave the handcuffs a good tug, they were too tight for me to slip out of without the key. I looked over at the clock on the dresser. It was already past 10:30 and my parents had to get up in the morning. It was Friday night and I didn't have school in the morning. The bed was still made with my old blankets. I didn't want to wake my parents and get them mad at both me and my little sister. After all she was just scared of sleeping alone.
"Alright Amy you win, I'll stay, but can you please take off the handcuffs. I cannot sleep really good like this." I explained.
My hand was cuffed to the headboard and that would keep it above me for the whole night which would be uncomfortable to say the least.
"No, if I let you go you will just run away." My sister explained.
"I promise I won't run, you can even put the handcuffs on both of my hands so I cannot escape." I offered as a reasonable compromise.
I hadn't been tied up in a while and this whole situation was turning out rather funny in my mind. I figured there was no harm in it. My little sister made her way up the ladder she had a key in one hand but something else in the other. She had a second pair of handcuffs.
"First I put these on, then I let you go from bed." She explained.
"Alright," I replied putting my hands together in front of me.
"Behind the back." Amy demanded.
She was pushing her luck, but she was still out of my reach. I nodded and turned around. Amy came over and put the second set of hand cuffs on me behind my back. Once they were locked, she unlocked the other pair from the headboard and put them around my wrists too.
"There, now you cannot escape." With that she descended the ladder and left me sitting where I was.
My little sister deposited the key on top of the night stand and climbed into her own bed. My situation had improved, I was still tied up but at least I wasn't tied to something. Given my skills with this type of situation it took me about two minutes to work my legs through the handcuffs and get them in front of me. I looked down at the keys on the dresser. Freeing myself would have taken all of 2 more minutes at this point. However, I just pulled back the covers and tucked my feet underneath them. It was a nice night, I was in warm pajamas and I was handcuffed. A few minutes later I was asleep.
The following couple of days not much changed. My little sister didn't bother me the following two evening. However, on that Sunday, at about 1:00 in the morning I climbed out of the queen size bed in my new room and made my way over to the old one. When I woke up Monday morning for school my little sister was sleeping soundly beneath me. From then on I kept the arrangement the same.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Back in the present, my mother was beginning to pass out some packages. There wasn't as much as there had been in previous years. My brother and I only got a few presents each. However, we were older now and getting 50 bucks worth of cheap toys from k-mat didn't really excite up any more Amy had quite a bit. Mary had brought us one present each in addition to the stuff my parents and Santa had provided. We began going in a cycle opening gifts. Amy started out with some toy dishes. Scott got a cd player. I got a new nightgown and my parents got some mixed things. We decided after the first go around that we would do the stuff from Mary next. Well, Amy kind of made that decision for us passing over the gifts from Santa in favor of the one from her older sister.
She found a small tape player with headphones and a collection of tapes that Scott and I had probably drove or mother nuts listening too in the car as young children. At least she got Amy some had phones. My parents got clothes from my sister. Something sensible after all. Scott ended up with a new digital wrist watch. Finally there was my package. It was the biggest one in the whole pile. Unless you counted the fisher price plastic ride in car that my parents got Amy. It was a rectangular package about the size of a bread box wrapped up in snowflake print paper. I took a deep breath and began to tear away at the wrappings.
I began to test the weight of the box in my lap. For the size of it, the weight was only moderate. At least she didn't get me a sack of coal for Christmas. I pulled the wrapping paper away from the top quickly discarding it in several pieces onto the floor. Inside was a good size cardboard box that had an inkjet office printer pictured on the front of it. I knew almost instantly that it wasn't what the box said it was for two reasons. First, it wasn't that heavy and secondly I had already seen the printer in the room that served as my sister' home office. I removed the tape and drew the top of the box open so that I could examine its contents. The box contained multiple items.
On top there was this ugly cream colored wool sweater. I set the box down on the floor and pulled it out of the box and held it up. Sure enough it was a sweater. I unfolded it and gave it a quick look holding it up against my chest. It was sized for me alright. It looked warm and perhaps a little long as the bottom of the sweater came down a couple of inches past my waist. It had a turtle neck style collar. I decided to try the sweater on to see how it fit.
I opened the garment at the bottom and pulled it up and over top of my head. Then I slid my arms into the sleeves and began to work them down. As my right hand worked its way to the end of the sleeve I suddenly realized the sleeve didn't have an end to it. The actual sleeves on the sweater ended in a pair of attached mittens. I finished working my right hand into one and then worked my left hand into the other. It was a reasonably good fit after pulled the lower part of it down. I stood up and examined it as wells as showed it off to the rest of the family.
"That looks like it will keep you pretty warm for our trip down to Grandmas" My mother commented looking at me.
"Yeah this is pretty neat." I replied looking down at the sleeves and the built in mittens.
After turning my arm over I found a button on the inside of the wrists that had something around it. It turned out I could unbutton part of the sleeve and the mittens would fold back if I wanted to use my hands. I slipped the mittens back and sat back down. It was a different present. I had never been one much for sweaters growing up. I didn't like how they would get hot and itchy. However this one was nice and I didn't mind wearing it. The opening of presents continued in a circle.
Scott got a new alarm clock. My father got a brass plated pocket watch from my mother and my mother got her annual frying pan from my dad. Amy opened up another toy and then it circled back to me. We made another two passes and my parents were out of gifts. After another 2 rounds Scott and I had extinguished our piles as well leaving Amy with another half dozen packages to open. Four year old children are easy to make happy and they usually prefer quantity of quality of gifts. This was the case with my little sister who had been getting somewhat annoyed with having to wait her turn. Still she was having a good time. She took 5 turns in a row and opened the remainder of her presents. Amy didn't dwell on any single one of them for more than a few seconds before moving onto the next. There was far more than she could play with before we left for Pennsylvania anyways.
Not that I wasn't excited for my little sister. But somehow a plastic toy shopping cart didn't draw my attention at that age. I looked down again and examined the box that Mary's sweater had come in. I suddenly noticed that the box had been rather huge for the simple purpose of packing a sweater. After all it would have just been easier to fold it up and wrap it alone. That was what she had done with the bathrobe that she had given my mother after all. Also, it had sat high in the box and Mary wasn't going for the gag where you wrapped a small present; put it in a second box and wrapped it; then put it in a third box and so on. There was something else in the bottom of the box.
"Hold on Amy, I think I still have another present from Mary." I spoke to my little sister.
Amy was about a third of the way through unwrapping her final present. She paid my statement no mind and tore away the remainder of the wrapping paper before anybody could stop her. I don't remember what she got. It was probably another little toy. Upon examining the box I found there was a card in it along with another wrapped package that was underneath it. Cards were not a large part of our Christmas tradition but, I pulled it out and opened it anyways. It had a picture of Santa and his eight reindeer flying in front of the moon. I opened it and read it aloud.
"Season’s Greetings all,
By the time you are reading this I will probably be long gone. I have to hit the road early this morning, but I wanted to drop off some holiday cheer first. I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas. I hope my holiday gifts find you warm and safe.
Love Mary. "
I shed a little tear as I passed the card to my mother. I really was missing my big sister this holiday. Mary and I were not as close as I was with my other siblings because of the differences in our ages. But she was still family and I missed her. I missed Sean as well this holiday season. I reached down and lifted the second package out of the box. It was of medium weight and wrapped in the same paper as what the outer box had been covered with. I tore the wrappings away and was left holding Mary's gift. I knew what it was instantly. I was a little surprised to say the least, but it made sense with her.
It was another one of the vest harnesses that I used to wear in the car growing up. It was similar in construction to the ones I had always worn. In case you are not familiar with my stories I will give a brief description. The entire vest was made of webbing material of the same type and thickness of a normal car seat belt. It had a strap than went around the wearer at the waist. Attached to it there were two straps that went up over the wearer's shoulders forming a 4 point harness. There was also an additional strap that went around underneath the occupant at arm pit level to close it up for a more secure fit. All the straps came together in the back and would close with a zipper.
The vest could be expanded in the back using an insert that had zippers on both sides. There were two such inserts available. One was 2 inches wide and the second was 4 inches. You could also combine them to expand the harness up to six inches. The shoulder straps could be tightened for a snugger fit via some sliders on it. There were 4 d-rings on the vest. One was on each hip and one was on each shoulder. These 4 rings would attach to clips on a mount that wrapped around the back of a seat and secure the passenger to vehicle. Finally, the vest had one additional strap that would come up between the wearer's legs to keep them from sliding down in it. This would also keep the lowest strap snug on the hips. The crotch strap was optional and only normally came standard on the smaller sized vests. However, they could be special ordered as a clip on or sewn in on the larger sized version of the vests like this one was.
The vest also had two other unusual accessories. Some of you who are familiar with my stories might be familiar with what I would refer to as wrist straps in previous stories. These were a simple loop of webbing that strapped around the wrist and closed with a fatex buckle. They would then be attached to the clips to the d-rings on the hips to restrain the wearer's hands. This particular vest had a set of the wrist straps, but instead of clipping onto the hip rings they were sewn directly onto the waist belt of the vest. Similarly, there was a second set of straps sewn onto the belt that went around under the top of the arms. These were meant to pin the passenger’s upper arms down if you didn't to tie them at the wrists. I had been through a few of the vests growing up, but I had never seen one with the wrist straps actually sewn onto it. I held it up and showed it to everybody.
"It looks like you're going to be well behaved for the ride down to Grandma's." Scott commented with quite a bit of laughter in his voice.
I was partially excited at the whole prospect. At the same time I thought I had put this whole matter behind me. Using a vest in the family car was one thing, but wearing one with this sort of stuff to school would be another. My sister's employer sold them, so it wasn't a surprise that she was able to get one for me. Still, it wasn't a gift that I had been expecting.
"I think that one will just be for the family car honey. I don't think you should use that one on the school bus." My mother chimed in.
"I don't think I am going to use one on the school bus any more. But, it might be fun for the ride down to Pennsylvania." I commented back.
I lifted the vest up and slid my arms through the holes in the front of the vest and wrapped it around myself. The shoulder belts fell against my shoulders and I wrapped the straps around bringing them together in the back. However, there was a problem. It was too big. When I crossed the straps in the back even with the sweater Mary had gotten me on, the two ends of the zipper crossed over each other with more than 6 inches to spare. Also, as I looked down, the waist belt was only a few inches above my knees. I looked down at the vest.
"Apparently, Mary got you the wrong size. Maybe you'll grow into it by the time your 100." Scott joked looking over at me.
It was a disappointing prospect. The vest was huge and even if I tightened it up to the absolute limit that I could, it would be impractical in every sense of the word. I slowly slipped it off and dropped it onto the couch a little disheartened at the matter. The excitement of the moment dropped off and everyone let it fall. Amy had managed to open one of her new toys and was playing away with it. My father had departed for the kitchen to get a garbage bag to collect the paper off the floor. I just sat down on the couch and looked down at the car vest. I figured at first maybe Mary had gotten a larger size figuring I would be bundled up for the ride down. But, even that was impossible to believe. The harness was just too big.
My father returned promptly and he and my brother began to collect the wrapping paper. After sitting for another minute or two I decided to contribute to the effort. I lifted up a few balls and handed them to my father. Then I grabbed Mary's printer box. Although I had emptied it, I was surprised to find some weight to it. I glanced inside quickly and I suddenly realized it wasn't empty. There was still another package wrapped up in the bottom of it. In all the excitement and disappointment I must have missed it.
I lifted the package out of the box. It was airy like a piece of clothing free wrapped. However, it had a different weight and distribution to it than a shirt or another garment would. Suddenly, I had a pretty good idea what it contained and a little smile crossed my face. I set the package down on the couch and picked up the car vest from where I had laid it down. I stood up and approached my brother.
"Scott." I asked and waited for him to look up and acknowledge my presence.
"I don't think this belongs to me."
For a moment my brother just sat there and stared at me blankly not quite sure how to respond. After hesitating for a moment, he took the car vest from me and held it up to himself. It was a good match for his stature when he held it. My brother was not heavy by any standards, but be was considerably larger built than I was. He had close to a foot on me in height and probably a good 50 or 70 pounds on me. The belts on the vest all lined up with his figure as he held it up in front of him and us. My brother just stood there speechless while I crossed back over to the other sofa and began opening the last present of our strange and interesting morning. Sure enough its contents were as I expected. The package contained another car vest sized for me with the same unique construction my brother's had.
"I guess we really are going to have a quiet ride down to Grandma's won't we." My mother commented with a quick smile.
"Yeah I guess we will." Scott finally interjected.
The look for surprise had melted off of his face and seemed to be replaced with a happier one. I thought back to my earlier child hood and the first time my mother had gotten us the vests a few years earlier. My brother Scott had been less than thrilled with it the first time around and had grown to hate it as time went on. When he turned 12 he quit wearing it all together and my mother didn't push the issue any. I was really surprised by his reaction to the whole situation.
We finished tidying up the living room and shut off the light on the Christmas tree. We would be gone for a whole week and didn't want to risk leaving something on that would burn the house down. Once that was done, my parents went about the house making sure everything was ready for the trip. For my mother this also involved getting my little sister bundled up against the cold outside. She obviously left that task to Scott and myself in our own regard.
I crossed the kitchen and headed towards my own room. My mother was already there working on getting my little sister ready for the trip. So, I decided to let the pair of them be and make my stop at the bathroom. It was a long ride to my grandparents' home in Pennsylvania and we usually drove straight through. So, everyone had to use the bathroom before we left was kind of an unwritten rule. My mother had already taken my little sister and now was getting her dressed in the room I shared with her. I decided it would be a good time to empty my bladder while I was waiting. The process was simple enough and a few minutes later I crossed places with my mother in the hallway. My little sister was all dressed up in a Christmas dress, tights and some dressy shoes.
"We're all done if you want to get dressed Jen." My mother explained as she made her way back into the living room.
I headed into my room and decided to start getting ready for the journey myself. I dug through my closet and picked out some clothing. In previous years, I would often dress up for this trip. But I was a teenager now and I preferred comfort over formality. I slipped out of my pajamas and into some black jeans. I still had on the t-shirt I wore under my sleeper in case I needed to use the bathroom so I wouldn't be bare chested while I dropped them. I pulled a hooded sweatshirt over my head and slid it down to my waist. I had debated wearing a sweater or my pajamas under my clothing, but I didn't want to risk getting too hot if I was going to be tied down in the van. I parted my hair and let it hang loosely back under a red head band that flowed across the top of my head behind my ears. The whole process of getting dressed took me about 20 minutes at this point.
I slid on some white socks and some black Mary Jane flats to round out the outfit. It wasn't formal, but it added some semi-formal appearance to it. I opened my closet and pulled the first half of my outer layer off a hanger. They were some white snow pants. I no longer had a one piece snow suit that got used too often, but I still wanted to not catch cold. They were the overall bib style with two shoulder straps and a front zipper from the waist up. I slid them on over my normal clothing and stated to zip them up. As I was doing up the second buckle on them, the door to the room slowly creaked open.
"Really Jen, you’re wearing snow pants?" Scott's voice stated as I turned around.
"Hey don't you knock? What if I had been half dressed?" I replied rather loudly. Then I dropped it seeing my brother. "Yeah I am wearing snow pants. I cannot stand being cold." I replied.
"I set up a couple of seat mounts in the van. I am assuming that you wanted to use the new gift from Mary too. I was wondering if you could help me with this." Scott asked.
My brother was standing there dressed even less formally than I was. He was in blue jeans and some tennis shoes. He was wearing his winter coat, it was green in color and a pair of black light weight knit gloves over his hands. He actually had the vest harness that Mary had got hit for Christmas on overtop of everything. It had seemed to be a little loose on the fit and he had the between the leg strap bucked around to the side of his right hip. I looked him over from top to bottom.
"I cannot do my own hands with this on. He explained and I was wondering if you would secure them and help me get situated in the car?" Scott asked me.
"Sure." I replied.
I crossed the room slowly and examined my brother. It took a minute or two to take the whole situation in before I continued. I wanted to do this right. It had been a while since I had tied Scott up and I wasn't going to pass on this chance to do a good and proper job.
"Set your arms at your sides please." I instructed my brother.
I figured the best way to proceed with this was to get his hands out of the way and go forwards from there. Scott did as I had asked and let his arms sit at his sides. It would be a decision he would soon regret or enjoy based on how you look at it. I wasted no time snapping the two straps on his hips into place around his wrists. It was a simple process, the strap opened with a fatex buckle, wrapped around the wrists with a little adjustment and then snapped back closed. The upper arm loops were the exact same mechanic just located slightly below armpit level rather than at the waist like the wrists were. Once both of my brother’s arms were secured I stepped back.
"Try and struggle a little, I want to make sure the vest is fit correctly." I explained.
Scott moved his arms hard against the sides of the vest. There was quite some flexibility to the vest still. There was a lot of slack in it, but I doubted that he could free his arms from those restraints without outside help or a whole lot of brute strength. I decided to proceed. I shifted my gaze off of Scott for a moment and browsed around the room and quickly a plan of how I was going to do this was coming into my head. It's amazing how your mind works when you are young and you need to get inventive. I left my brother standing there for a moment and went over to my top dresser drawer. I opened it and pulled out a large handkerchief.
It was one that Sean had gotten me a year or two ago. It was an oversized one slightly bigger than what most of them would be. I began rolling it up into a long tight roll. Once I finished that I wrapped it around itself and tied a double knot in the middle of it. Scott stood there and watched me clearly knowing what I had in mind. I took a few steps towards him holding it up spread out between my hands. I wasn't quite sure how my brother would react, but he was surprisingly cooperative. He turned around to face away from me and opened his mouth quite willingly. I pulled the bandanna into his mouth and pulled it snug before knotting it off behind his head. It formed a rather simple cleave gag. Scott spoke a few words testing it out. The gag was not overly effective at silencing his volume, but it made his speech more difficult to understand and muted him somewhat.
"It's a long ride down and I don't want to risk you getting cold in the van. You are dressed reasonably warmly, but I am not taking any chances." I explained looking at my brother.
I crossed back to my dresser and pulled a long knit winter scarf off of it. The scarf was white in color with a purple snowflake patter woven into it. It was probably 6 or 7 feet long. I rolled it up in the center and came over to where my brother was standing. I pulled the rolled up scarf over the bandana in his mouth and tied it off securely behind his head. There was enough scarf left to go around his head twice more and cover his mouth a total of 4 times. Afterwards, I tucked the remainder around the front of his neck to add some warmth there. Scott tried out the gag again with this additional padding. It was considerably more effective but he could still make audible noise.
The scarf had been a gift from one of my aunts the previous holiday. I had a knit hat that matched it and I decided that was going to be the next addition to my brother's ensemble. It was a simple knit winter hat with a folded over brim and a little pompom on top. It matched the scarf being white with a purple snowflake pattern. I slid the hat overtop of Scott's head and pulled the brim down far enough to make sure it covered his eyes. I got a couple of muffled grunts at this treatment of him, but I dismissed the matter. He had asked for my help, and he was getting exactly what he bargained for. The next matter that required addressing was the vest itself.
The vest harness fit him well, but it still had quite a bit of slack in it despite him wearing it over his winter coat. I looked down at his back and immediately saw the main part of the problem. My brother had expanded the back of the vest by inserting the 4 inch and 2 inch inserts zipped together into it. I undid the back zipper and removed the 2 inch insert from the back of the vest before zipping it closed again. This snugged the vest up around my brother's waist and under his arms. Next, I undid the shoulder slides on the harness and snugged them down a little more to tighten up the top of the vest. Finally, I unbuckled the crotch belt from his left him and fastened it where it was meant to go between the legs. This pulled down on the vest and kept it snug across the hips.
I watched as my brother tried to move. There was considerably less slack in the vest now and his arms were pinned to his sides quite tightly. I gave him one look over and another idea popped into my head quickly. I left my brother standing there in the dark for another minute or two and I dug something out of the bottom drawer of my dresser. Some of you might remember the red thumb less waterproof mittens I had gotten the year before from my last story. I still had them. They were pretty simple, like a pair of normal winter mittens, but they lacked thumbs. They were nice if you wanted to keep your hands really warm, but made your hands pretty difficult to use. The had a cuff that came down over the wrists and a Velcro wrap strap that could be used to snug them up and keep snow from getting in.
I crossed the room over to where Scott was standing. I reached down and undid the strap around his left wrist. I think he was probably a little surprised standing there in the dark. After all the effort I had put into binding him, I was starting to let him go. Once his wrist was pulled away, I took hold of his hand and slid one of the mittens on overtop of his knit glove. Then I looped the Velcro strap into place snugging down around his wrist. Once that was done, I pulled his hand back towards the wrist restraint and secured it before he could react. His second hand was a little more difficult, but he was blindfolded and his arm was tied from the elbow up. I managed to work the other mitten over his right hand and get it strapped back to his side before he could do anything about it.
With my brother bundled up I turned the brim of his hat up so he could see and took hold of the front of his vest. I started leading him towards the garage and he came pretty willingly. I opened the side sliding door on the van and found that there were two of the seat mounts wrapped around the middle seat. I guided my brother into the seat furthest from the door. Once he was seated, I wasted no time in securing the 4 clips on the seat mount to the d-rings on the shoulders and hips of his vest securing him to the seat. Once that was done, I pulled out his lap shoulder belt that a normal person would wear in the van. I had learned a little trick a few weeks ago about them.
I pulled Scott's seatbelt all the way out until it clicked. Then I buckled it across his hips and buckled it to the seat. Next, I slowly guided the belt back upwards into the shoulder area where it came from. My mother's van had a neat little feature. If you pulled the belt all the way out, it would lock and not loosen until you let it go all the way back in. This was useful if you wanted to install a car seat with it. However, I had learned that you could tighten it up significantly and it was very hard to move around in because it wouldn't return any slack this way. I worked the belt as snug as I could making sure Scott really couldn't move. When I was done with that, I took a quick second and pulled the brim of his hat back down covering his eyes once again.
I was about to leave Scott and return to my own preparations, but I decided to take one more step first. I found a short piece of rope off the work bench. It was probably 5 or 6 feet long brown rope, nothing special. I grabbed it and took a couple of minutes to tie my brother's ankles together and tether them off under the seat. Upon completing this I stood back and admired my handy work for just a minute before slamming the sliding door shut and leaving my brother alone in the garage. With that done I returned to my room to resume getting ready.
I added my own winter coat over top of everything else I was wearing. It matched the snow pants forming an outfit. It had Velcro wrists and an attached hood. Nothing particularly fancy, but it was warm and that was all that really mattered. I took a moment and slid my own vest on. I had plenty of practice doing this over the years and it proved a rather simple endeavor. I had to use an insert because of the winter clothing. Once that was done, I snugged up the shoulder adjusters and snapped the other strap between my legs. I wrapped my lower face with a scarf. It was green and shorter than the one I had used on my brother. The white hat and scarf were meant to go with the snow pants and winter coat I was wearing, but they had been put to better use.
I added a knit hat and some ear muffs before doing up my hood over top of everything. I had a white pair of waterproof mittens that matched the coat. I slid them into my pocket and headed back to the garage. I made a quick stop in the kitchen to retrieve a few thing from a cupboard under the center island. We hadn't use the vests in a while in my family, but I decided to get a few of the accessories we had for them in case they would be useful at my grandparent's house. One item I retrieved was a set of ankle straps. The wrapped around the ankles similar to how wrist one did on the harness itself. However, instead of fastening to the harness, they simply would clip together in the center with a fatex buckle similar to a pair of handcuffs. I slipped them around my ankles leaving the center buckle undone for the moment and headed back out to the garage.
I climbed into the car and seated myself. Once I was sitting I slid the door shut and leaded forward. I clipped my ankles together locking them into the restraints. I shifted myself back in the seat until I was positioned correctly. Once that was done, I clipped the 2 d-rings on my hips to the seat mount. I then repeated the process with locking the seatbelt as I had on my brother. It was a lot more difficult to do when you didn't have somebody to help you. But, I managed the feat easily enough. Once that I was done, I secured my shoulders to the seat mount as I had done with my hips. Finally, I started on my arms.
I began the final part of the process by applying the upper arm restraints to both of my arms. Then, I fished my mittens out of my pocket. I slid the left one on and used my right hand to secure the wrist strap. Next, I slid my right hand into its mitten with the aid of my left. However, that is where my ability to secure myself ended. There was no way to work the right buckle with my right hand. It was well out of the reach of my left and my upper body was pinned quite securely back in the seat. It was quite the problem.
My brother and I sat there in the van silently for about 10 minutes before the sliding opened. My mother was standing there with my little sister in tow. I took a look at her and I saw quite the shock in her eyes examining her two older children. She let out a little chuckle. I was sitting pretty still and Scott was putting up a fair struggle. I didn't want to risk getting too hot all secured like I was.
"Well it looks like you two won't be getting into any trouble for the ride down." My mother commented looking at us.
"Almost." I replied. "I couldn't do my right hand. Do you think you could get it for me?" I indicated looking down and where my right hand was sitting.
"I help!" Amy exclaimed looking up at me.
She was going through that phase where she wanted to have a hand in everything. For example she wanted to help me play video games the week before. Rather than arguing with her, I simply handed her the second player controller. We were playing Super Mario World. I expected her to die but after 20 minutes she actually got the hang of it. She couldn't complete a level under the 5 minute time limit, but she didn't die by jumping off the cliff. She had quite the hand eye coordination.
My little sister examined the strap and figured out how it worked pretty quickly. She had seen me use them before in the car and it worked the exact same way the seat belt did in her stroller. She could buckle herself in quite effectively, but lacked the hand strength to release the buckle. I heard a quick click and from the tension on my right hand I knew I was secured. My mother worked her way around us and strapped my little sister into her car seat in the third row. She handed Amy her new tape player and headed back into the house to get a few more things.
The process took my parents another 10 minutes before we were finally ready to go. My father climbed into the pilot seat of the van and my mother rode shotgun. My parents fastened their seatbelts and the old van fired up for one more road trip. In the middle seat Scott and I were quite tightly secured for what would be a very long ride across our state and into the next. My sister was sitting behind us her head bobbing back and forth to whatever sound was coming out of her headphones.
I shifted back and forth in the belts that secured me quite tightly to the seat. My upper body was pinned down tightly and my arms were locked at my sides. Scott was in the same boat. He shifted back and forth a little bit trying to get a little more comfortable. However, he had given up struggling. There was no point, the situation was escape proof. My brother began rubbing his face against the shoulder portion of his seatbelt. I watched him curiously for a minute and I quickly realized what he was doing. There wasn't much I could do to stop him given my own situation after all.
After a few minutes of working his head back and forth he managed to work the brim of the knit hat upwards enough to regain his eye sight. After that was accomplished, he continued the process and worked it up into its proper place on his forehead. I watched him proceed with his efforts. After all there wasn't much else I could do. I figured my brother would try and work the scarf and the gag free next. However, in this assumption I was wrong. Once the hat was off of his eyes he shifted his weight back in the seat and leaned his head against the head rest. My brother made no further efforts to dislodge any of the belts retraining him or regain his ability to speak.
I hadn't tied Scott up in quite a while. He seemed pretty relax with the situation and was enjoying himself apparently. Our family drove on towards our destination. The two middle children were on their best behavior in the middle seat and my little sister's head swayed back and forth slowly in the rear seat.
Our outing started very peacefully. I shifted my weight back in the seat and let the harness take up my weight. I was anchored down pretty tightly. I gave my arms a few good pulls against the straps and quickly found I couldn't move. I could still move my legs back and forth a little bit despite them being bound together by the ankle cuffs. Still as securely as I was anchored to the seat that didn't do me much good.
Amy was sitting in the back seat with her headphones on. She had taken off her winter hat, but the vehicle was warm enough that she would be alright without it. My parents were speaking back and forth about the plans for the week ahead while I listened. I offered a comment now and again. Scott sat there in silence unable to participate in the conversation because of the bandana and scarf I had put over his mouth. I suppose I was a little more comfortable than my brother was. But after all he had asked for it. Besides there wasn't much either of us could do about it now.
Scott moved now and again testing the limits of how I had him restrained. However, he couldn't make any progress towards freeing himself. His hands were anchored far enough apart that they couldn't reach each other or his face. Even if he could with the mittens I had put over his hands, I doubted he would be able to do much to improve his situations. Still, my brother wasn't struggling much and he seemed pretty content to leave the situation as it was. I heard some clicking behind me. That was when all the trouble started. I couldn't verify this visually, because I couldn't turn around far enough to see the seat behind where I was sitting. I heard a few clicks then it started.
There was the sound of a guitar playing and then it followed with lyrics. "There's a hole in the bucket dear Ida dear Ida. There's a hole in the bucket dear Ida a hole."
I recognized the voice instantly when a middle aged woman joined in and sang the next verse of the song. The tape my little sister was listening too was a collection of silly songs that we had loved when we were younger. Apparently she had gotten to the end of the first side of the tape. Amy in her ability had opened up the tape player, turned the cassette over and managed to start it again. She was a very knowledgeable 4 year old. Unfortunately, while she had been doing that she had also knocked her headphones off of her head and onto the floor. The tape player Mary had gotten my sister had a speaker as well as a head phone jack and Amy was sharing her less than wonderful music with us.
At first I didn't say anything. I figured that she had taken off her head phones accidentally while flipping the tape over. I assumed that she would put them back on and all would be well. We listened as the tape when through that song and the next two on it before Scott finally piped up. He made quite a few muffled grunts through the gag I had put on him earlier in an attempt to communicate that he wanted my little sister to keep her music to herself. However, the sound coming from Amy's tape player was louder than anything he was able to make.
"Amy could you put your headphones back on please? I don't think Scott likes your silly songs." I shouted backwards at my little sister.
"Cannot reach. . . on floor." I heard her reply as she was straining against her car seats straps trying to reach the headphones that had fallen on the floor 3 to 4 feet away from the closest part of her body.
Then, I heard another thud. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but then I saw it as my father brought the van to a halt for red light. Amy had dropped the tape player in the process of trying to reach down to get the head phones. It was still playing at a fairly loud volume level as it had slid across the floor and was now situated off to the side of the seat Scott and I currently occupied.
"Mom, Amy dropped her tape player. Could we stop so you can turn it off?" I asked
"No dear, we're not stopping for a while yet. You and Scott used to love that tape when you were her age. It's not going to kill you to listen to it for half an hour." My mother replied.
The next 25 minutes seemed like an eternity. There wasn't anything I could do about the situation. Amy's tape kept blurting out annoying songs and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it. The tape player was less than 2 feet from where I was sitting. However, there was no way I could reach it under my current circumstances. I was strapped into the seat too tightly and I couldn't get a leg over to try and kick it off since my feet were bound together. I pulled hard on the wrist straps trying to free one of my hands. I couldn't even put my hands over my ears. I could tell from Scott's reaction that he was about as happy about it as I was.
Finally, the tape stopped playing and the recorder's auto stop ended our misery when it came to an end. Amy was a little unhappy that her music was gone. However, our mother wasn't going to stop to relieve us of our situation so she wasn't going to stop for a 4 year old throwing a tantrum in the back seat either. After 5 or 6 minutes of crying, Amy laid back in the car seat and quieted down. I think sometime later she fell asleep. With the worst part of the trip over I decided to follow suit of my little sister and catch a little sleep myself. I was comfortable and there wasn't a whole lot else to do.
. . . . . . .
I don't know how long I was out of it truthfully. We were not near our destination yet when I woke up. My situation was exactly the same as it had been when I had closed my eyes. However, my parents and Scott were having a quieted conversation. I honestly don't remember what they were discussing and I looked over at him silently without interjecting. My brother’s arms were still bound to his sides quite securely. However, in the time that I had taken a brief rest he had managed to dislodge the bandana and scarf from his mouth somehow and was now talking quietly with my parents.
The last hour and a half of the ride was pretty uneventful. Amy was asleep. Scott and I couldn’t move enough to itch our noses. My parents didn't have much going on either. I remember when we made the final turn off on the snowy road. My parents lived out in the rural country, sometimes the county didn't get around to plowing the road they lived on. So, my grandfather would get out his tractor and clear it for his neighbors. However, right now that hadn't been done either. Still there had been more than enough traffic in the last few hours to clear the way enough for us to get through.
As we turned into the driveway, there were the normal vehicles posted around the place and a few that I didn't recognize. I had known there would be a few extra guests this year. My father found a nice patch of driveway not too far from the end of the sidewalk. He brought the van to a halt there and turned off the ignition. It was already midafternoon by the time we had arrived. I looked off to the left side of the vehicle and saw several figures approaching us down the shoveled sidewalk. I knew one of them instinctively. The other two I had seen before, but I didn't know them on a first name basis.
My mother after, undoing her own seatbelt had come around the side of the van and opened the sliding door. She had got straight passed Scott and myself and started helping my little sister get out of her car seat. My father on the other hand climbed out of the vehicle and circled around to greet the lead figure in the procession approaching us with a big hug. Amy was tearing herself away from her car seat with excitement trying to meet the ladies coming out the van. Scott and I were stuck.
"Grandma, Grandma!" My little sister exclaimed running up and clinging to the old woman's leg.
"Well, my child look how you've grown." The woman said looking down at her granddaughter. She knelt down breaking away from my father and returned the child's embrace.
"How is he?" My mother asked as the woman lifted Amy up onto her hip.
"He is as well as can be expected at this point. Stubborn as ever and in high spirits. Thank you so much for making the journey. I am sorry Sean and Mary had to miss this. But I understand." My grandmother explained.
"Well, what can we help you carry in dear?" The second woman in the procession asked.
"I need to get my two oldest out of the van and they can do most of the lifting. But if you want to help there is plenty in the back. Lots of presents this year Karen. It's good to see you." My mother commented.
The third woman in the line took a bag from my father my mother and the woman I will refer to as Karen came over and started to help Scott and myself extricate ourselves from our current situation. It was a slow and long process undoing everything. For some reason, my mother left my hands for last. If she had undone them first, I probably could have freed myself in a few minutes.
"Sheesh you have these two strapped in good and tight. I don't think they could be safer." Karen commented helping us get out of the harness.
"I had nothing to do with it. My eldest got them the harnesses for Christmas and they strapped themselves in completely." My mother explained.
"Well it's good to know they are safe at least. I am guessing that it was a peaceful ride down for you folks then?" The woman asked my mother.
"Oh when you use a configuration like this it's always a peaceful ride. No back seat fighting, or arguing. Just a nice blissful ride down." My mother explained.
Out of the vests, Scott and I took a few minutes to stretch. We had been tied down for quite a duration on the long drive down. However, we didn't get long before my mother was handing us luggage and we were stuck making trips back and forth up to the house. Our first trip in was a real sight to behold. While the ladies helped us with our first trip the remainder of the unload fell to Scott and myself. They had to return to their duties in preparing Christmas dinner. It was no small feat cooking a large meal for 27 people. Scott and I made our way into the living room to drop off the gifts we were carrying under the tree.
My grandmother had gotten a 12 foot tall live tree fresh cut from her woods nearby. She never had an artificial one in her life. It was the biggest I had ever seen. The whole house was decked out in the spirit of the season inside and out. I think she had used every Christmas decoration she owned and asked her company to bring a few more. I hadn't ever seen it this decorated in all my life. Scott and I wanted to put our presents under the tree, but we couldn't get anywhere near it. There was a mountain of presents and we just added to the huge pile. It was really overkill for Christmas.
I had mixed feelings about everything I was seeing. On the one hand it was the biggest Christmas celebration I had ever seen. On the other, I knew the reason for it deep down. This was probably going to be my Grandfather's final one. The man was dying and everyone here, with the possible exception of my little sister knew it. He had cancer, it had caught up with him in his old age. He had lost a sister to it a few years earlier. The condition was inoperable and my grandfather refused to seek any chemo treatment for it. He had watched his sister waste away on that poison and dye miserable in the hospital. Instead he had come home and decided to just make the most of the time he had left. It wouldn't turn out to be as long as any of us wanted. The following May we would bury him.
I was sad my older siblings missed this holiday. I understand why they had, but it still hurt. At the time though my Grandfather's condition was buried deep in the back of our minds between everything else that was going on at the moment. I apologize to dump that, but as I said when I started this story there was a lot going on in the background and I wanted all of you to be aware of the circumstances. It was on our second trip out to the van that my brother spoke to me.
"Jen, help me get these mittens off. I cannot grab hardly anything with them on and I don't want to have to bite them to free my hands." Scott explained.
I help my brother slip out of the thumb less mittens and we began making more trips back and forth to the house. One the third one we brought in the first part of our own luggage.
"You young ones will be down the basement this year. The house is packed and we decided all you kiddos are going to be sharing down there. There is plently of heat. I hope that is alright. Get your stuff unloaded then get washed up. We're going to be eating in about 45 minutes." She explained while she was checking several post on the stove.
Scott and I followed our Grandmother's instructions and took our belongings down to the basement of the house. It was a larger room set up rather comfortably. The main room had an area with carpet, a television set and some older furniture off in one corner of the basement. There were a few walls set up to divide the space further into several small rooms that branched off from the main room. The one closest to the stairs housed the hot water heater, furnace, and my Grandmother's laundry room. There was a large room for storage off to one side and a third room that served as a play room for my parents when they were younger. At the far end was a door that lead into the way to the root cellar and where my grandmother's pantry and freezers were.
Aside from the small living room area there was also a large open area with a ping pong table set up and half a kitchen against one wall. It had a small fridge, several cabinets, a sink and a stove. Scott and I deposited our stuff over in the area by the carpeting and television. The main room was huge and could accommodate 15 people comfortably. There was also a full bathroom off to the far corner walled off for privacy. After we made a few more trips back and forth, we began to shed our outer layers and start getting washed up for Christmas dinner.
We had quite a spread and the women of the house had got to great lengths to prepare this feast. The main dishes were turkey, ham and roast beef. We also had salad, mashed potatoes, fresh backed rolls, several vegetables, stuffing and several other sides. Desert we had cake, Christmas cookies, brownies, peanut brittle, candy and pies. I don't think anybody went hungry. The dining room was too full with all the adults. So, the children would be eating at the kitchen table. My grandmother had both leaves in her table and had set up two card tables just to accommodate the adults. The whole of us gathered in the living room and my little sister got the honor of saying grace.
Amy ended up reciting something she had learned in Sunday school, but it served the purpose it needed to and most of the adults complimented her on the effort. Afterwards everyone found a seat and sat down to being eating. The children's table was well populated. Scott, Amy and myself were the ones from our family. Kyle and Tom were both absent this year, for reasons similar to my eldest brother. Lucy was still around. There were a few other new faces as well. There was a boy named Mitch with short auburn hair and blue eyes. He was a tall well-built lad a year or two my senior. There were also his two younger brothers Timmy and Alex. They shared his blue eyes but had blond hair after their mother.
The boys were twins around 10 or 11 years old at the time of this story. Like me they were a little shorter for their age. Both boys sported a face full of red freckles and wore their hair long. Timmy had his down to his shoulders almost in a rather unkempt mess. Alex actually wore his tied back in a short pony tail. It was a strange sight, but it seemed to be their defining style. Both of the boys were wearing black jeans and the same ugly Christmas sweater. You could tell they were twins and their mother's wanted you to know it. The trio were the sons of one of my parent's cousins. Give the situation the way that it was there was some extended family spending this week with us.
Despite their appearance, all three of the boys were reasonably well mannered for their age. The final occupant at our table for Christmas Dinner was my Grandfather. He had made his way down from the room he now spent a good deal of his time residing in on the second floor of the house. He was dressed nicely and carried a cane with him. Still it hardly touched the ground. He looked strong and you wouldn't have known about his condition unless someone told you. His face bore a warm smile as he took a seat between Alex and Amy at the table.
The 8 of us shared a wonderful meal and talked of things to come over the following week. Amy was very excited to see him as most of us were. We left his condition out of the conversation. It wasn't what any of us wanted to talk about and it kept it hidden from my little sister. Something that we all wanted to do. I wasn't sure if Timmy and Alex knew either, but it didn't matter. We left the matter unspoken. We shared one of the most wonderful meals I ever remember all with good cheer and happiness.
Afterwards, Lucy and I helped clean up and work on the mountain of dishes from the meal. Most of the boys headed off to clown around down the basement. But that was alright with us. Our role in the family as better defined. Mitch followed my Grandfather outside to help cut and get some wood for the living room fire place. The old man was stubborn about taking any help. However, the older boy probably did most of the work allowing my Grandfather to be useful where he could.
It was getting into the early part of the evening when everything was finished. It had been customary part of our holiday to open gifts after Christmas dinner. However, given the monumental size of the task it was decided that would have to wait another day. With the work done and the living room very full of adults exchanging holiday greetings and conversation, Lucy and I decided to be kids and headed downstairs to see what was going on. Most of the fun would be starting shortly.
With the evening winding down, Lucy and I bid our Farwell to the women in the kitchen and began making our way downstairs towards the basement of the house. I was a year Lucy's senior, but that didn't show all that well. The girl had hit the first part of puberty pretty steeply and it showed. She wore her black hair short and neatly trimmed about the sides of her head. The freckles she had shared with me growing up had faded with age and she was starting to look more like a woman than a girl now. She was already 4 inches (10cm) taller than me and by the time we were 18 that margin would double. She was dressed politely for the family gathering, but outside of this circle she dressed less conservatively. Still even though her outward appearance had changed her inner personality remained intact.
The two of us made our way down the basement. We were the last of the members of the younger generation to arrive. Most of the others were gathered around the area mimicking living room in the corner of the basement. It was carpeted there with an older large screen television set and some furniture. My grandparents had two reclining chairs, a daven port and a full couch sitting over there. The set was a complete mismatch and showed it's age and style differences openly. My grandparents had recycled their living room several times throughout their lives and these were whatever survived with each generation.
Still despite the mismatch, the furniture offered a comfortable setting painting a picture of the course of their life. One of the chairs reclined and matched the large sofa. They were both a white color with brown striping. The davenport was bright red and looked like it belonged more at a good will store rather than in my grandparent's basement. The final recliner was a deep blue chair set with a soft fuzzy fabric. The television set was probably a 30 inch screen give or take and sat encased in a full stand that looked more like a hope chest than anything else. This was the informal area of their lives and a nice place for the kids to retreat to when they visited. The television still worked just fine and my grandparents had hooked up cable to it some time ago.
Scott was seated neatly in the big blue chair. He slouched back into it with his feet up on a matching foot stool. The three youngest members of our company were all squished together on the davenport as though it was a small couch. The television was playing the Charlie Brown Christmas special that I am sure most of you have seen a few hundred times growing up. It seemed to have everybody's undivided attention including my 15 year old brother's. He had changed out of the outfit he had worn for the trip down into some sweat pants. He still wore the hooded sweatshirt and was in his socks now.
The sight on the other couch was very cute. The twins boys Tim and Alex were dressed in some dark blue zip up pajamas with built in feet and the little while bottoms and toe caps. They were made of a medium weight fleece and had a Winnie the Pooh screen print on the front of them. The boys were dressed identically now as Alex had allowed this hair to go messy rather than tucked back into the pony tail. I couldn't tell them apart. My little sister was sandwiched between them in a long red nightgown and some moccasin style slippers. Mitch was absent and in the bathroom probably taking a shower.
"Hey Jen. Hey Lucy." Scott greeted. "By the way we took a vote. The boys are sleeping in the corner here, you girls are sleeping out in the barn." My brother commented with a little laugh.
"No we not! It too cold! You sleep in Barn! We sleep here!" Amy shot back at my brother. She was a little young to get sarcasm yet.
There was quite a laughter spread between us about Amy's response to my brother's comment. The television special went to commercial and things began shift back to reality. Our sleeping arrangements had already been decided but my brother was having fun teasing the younger generation. They boys would be sleeping in here in the living room area. The larger sofa had a fold out bed. I didn't know whether Mitch or my brother would get it, but it didn't really matter all that much to me. Lucy, Amy and myself were going to be spending the night in the play room that was off of the main basement area. It was carpeted and had a heater along one wall that kept it pretty toasty warm during the cooler months of the year. All three of us had sleeping bags and Lucy had brought an air mattress as well.
"We'll tie you girls up and put you out in the barn." Scott replied "That way you'll keep out of our hair for the night."
"Actually, I don't think I would mind that too much. Well at least other than the barn part." Lucy replied to the conversation. "Did you guys bring any stuff with you?" My cousin asked looking at my brother.
"Quite a bit actually." Scott replied with a quiet smile. "Do you want me to get some of it out now?" He asked Lucy looking at her.
"Yeah! If you don't mind that is." Lucy replied back to Scott.
My brother eased himself up from the chair and headed over towards the left wall of the basement. He picked up a large brown duffel bag off the floor and unzipped it. He had packed most of our TUG stuff and the contents of the bag were quite diverse as he began to sort through it onto the ping pong table. We had two sets of handcuffs, bandanas, tape and enough rope hogtie Santa and his 8 magical reign deer along with some other stuff. Scott didn't unpack everything and just grabbed a few lengths of rope and began to uncoil them. They were the normal white cotton clothesline I used at home in most of my stories. We had pieces in many different lengths probably 4 or 5 hundred feet in total that had accumulated over the years. We didn't bring all of it, but there was a sufficient supply.
Lucy came over and turned around bringing her wrists behind her back neatly. My brother drew them together in a crises cross patter and started to tie them. He did several horizontal passes then cinched it off vertically before knotting it on top. With that done he took a second piece of rope and tied it around my cousin's waist and tied her wrists to it. The Christmas special had resumed on the television and it had Amy's full attention. Growing up in our family she had seen somebody get tied up quite a bit. However, both of the twins were looking over the back of the davenport up on their knees while Scott continued the binding process.
My brother selected another two lengths of rope and bound Lucy's legs together at the ankle and just above the knee. He wrapped them around several times and cinched them off in the middle before finishing the tying process with a knot. Lucy just stood there and struggled for a moment. She was careful trying to keep her balance with her legs tied together and her hands behind her back. After a little shifting, she slipped and almost fell. Luckily Scott caught her and restored her balance.
My brother braced her with one arm and looped his other down under her legs. He lifted her up and cradled my cousin in his arms. Lucy was getting older, but I doubted that she weighed more than 100 pounds and my brother was quite strong. He lifted her off the ground and made his way back over towards the living room area carrying my cousin with him as he went. He deposited her in the other easy chair and let her sit back before letting her go. The twins shifted forwards as she crossed the basement and fixed their eyes on the girl trussed up pretty securely in the chair a few feet away from them.
Lucy put on a bit of a show for us trying to free herself. Scott was an expert at binding someone at this point in his life and I was already fairly certain she wasn't going anywhere any time soon without outside help. My cousin twisted her arms behind her back and pulled her legs against each other for a few minutes. However, no real progress towards freeing herself seemed to materialize on the matter. Both of the twins were watching. Finally, Lucy just relaxed and sat back in the chair. Her eyes shifted to the second half of the cartoon and she eased up a bit on her efforts to escape.
"Why did you tie her up for?" Tim asked a few moments later.
"Because she asked me to." Scott replied.
"Why did she do that?" Alex inquired as well. Apparently they were not as versed in this as the remainder of my closer family was.
"It's just a game we play from time to time. Just for fun. Nobody gets hurt or anything." Scott explained breaking the matter down to its simplest terms.
A few minutes passed and things seemed to calm down in the room. Amy's attention hadn't swapped from the television for a moment. I seated myself on the floor closer to the television. I sat cross legged careful to position myself not to block the view of any of the other. My little sister had seem me get tied up quite a bit growing up. So, the sight of my cousin decked out in ropes wasn't the center of her immediate universe though, it seemed to attract the attention of the twins.
Lucy sat back in the chair and relaxed her efforts after a few minutes. It was a rare occasion that anyone escaped when somebody in my family tied them up. After all my brother and I had both been through the scouting program and learning to tie knots was a basic side skill from that. I had seen them make a tower that could support the weight of 10 people 25 feet off the ground using only logs and ropes. Tying up my cousin was a pretty simple affair. After a few minutes Alex seemed to lose interest in the topic at hand and returned his attention to the television set. Tim on the other hand stood and watched Lucy work around in her ropes for a few minutes more. Scott, sat there and took note of the boy's interest in the topic.
"Do you want me to tie you up too?" He asked Tim. At first the boy didn't respond. He just stood there with a dumbfound looking on his face. His brother interjected over hearing the conversation.
"Don't let him tie you up. They'll throw you in the dungeon and you'll never see Mom again" he explained.
Tim entered the conversation next. "If you tie me up how long do I have to stay tied up?" he asked.
"Until you want me to let you go or you escape on your own. If you ask me to let you out, I'll untie you." Scott replied looking down at the boy.
"Don't believe him he's lying. He tied up Lucy and he hasn't let her go yet." Alex interjected.
"That's because I didn't ask to be untied yet." Lucy added from where she was sitting on the recliner. "Like I said it's just for fun and if you want out they will let you out." Scott nodded reinforcing her position.
"Ok, you can tie me up if you want. But you have to let me go when I say so." Tim responded.
"Alright, I'll be right back." Scott replied
My brother got up and went to retrieve some more rope from the bag of supplies that we brought with us. He selected two coils probably between 8 and 10 feet each and made his way back. Tim was already standing there with his arms together behind his back. My brother took a moment and readjusted his arms so his wrists were crossed. Then he started the tying process. Scott wrapped Tim's arms a few times horizontally and then again vertically before cinching it off. He secured it with a knot just above the wrists.
"Alright now sit down and I'll get your feet too." Scott instructed.
Tim complied the request and seated himself on the floor putting his legs together. Scott leaned over and wrapped the second piece of rope around his ankles several times. Then he cinched it off in the middle and knotted it. Then he stood up and backed away.
"Hey aren't you going to use more ropes like you did on Lucy." Tim asked as he tested his bonds for the first time.
"Let's see if you can get out of that first. If you get free I will know I need to use more ropes on you next time." Scott explained.
Tim set you work struggling against his bindings. Most of us and especially Alex was watching him wriggle back and forth. It was quite clear he had little to no idea about how to escape and had resorted to basic struggling. The boy shifted his limbs back and forth against the ropes and put up quite a struggle. However, his efforts for no gain for his work. He ended up rolling around a little on the ground trying to get loose but in the end it proved a fruitless effort. Most of us just watched him try to get loose. Finally, he stopped struggling and let out a long sigh.
"I guess you don't need any more ropes." Tim commented relaxing. He shifted himself back into a seated position and turned his attention back to the TV.
"Does that mean you want me to untie you now?" Scott asked.
"No, I want to stay like this for a while and try to get out again. But, you know how to keep me from escaping." Tim replied.
We dropped the matter at that for a little while. The Christmas special was reaching its conclusion and it soon grabbed most of our attention. We were getting older into our childhood, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying something from when you were younger. After another 20 minutes or so the whole situation began to diffuse itself. Tim seemed to be enjoying his predicament and it was all in good fun.
"Hey Scott, I think I am ready to be let out of this." Lucy requested.
"Alright, I'll let you lose." Scott stated rising from where he was sitting on the sofa.
"Yeah me too." Tim offered.
Scott nodded as well and continued to make his way over to Lucy. My brother started to untie her beginning with her ankles. For some reason when you let someone go you always leave the hands tied for last.
"Hey I thought you promised to let Tim go when he asked!" Alex shouted.
"I will, but Lucy was tied up first so I am letting her got first. 5 more minutes isn't going to hurt your brother. Besides you are welcome to untie him if you're in that big of a hurry." Scott explained.
I decided to defuse the situation before it escalated. I got up from where I was sitting and moved over to attend to Tim's request. I undid the knot binding his ankles and unwrapped the center cinch. Before I could release the loop he kick back and forth and pulled his ankles free of the loops of rope. I collected the rope from the floor and began coiling it up. Tim stood up and turned around offering me easier access to his hands. I took just a minute and undid the knot. After I loosed a few coils he was able to wriggle his hands loose as well. By the time this was accomplished Scott had freed Lucy as well.
"There how was that?" I asked looking at Tim
"It looked scary to me. You won't be tying me up. I won't let you." Alex added before his brother could reply.
"It wasn't scary. It was kind of fun. Thanks for untying me though. It's getting late and we need to get ready for bed." Tim replied answering my question and his brother's observations.
I nodded at that. It was getting late for most of the younger kids. Scott and I gathered up the ropes and returned them to their duffel bag. The twins got up and headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth. I took my little sister by the hand and led her into the other room where we would be sleeping. I helped Amy unroll her sleeping bag and tucked her in with her favorite teddy bear. Then I collected my own pajamas and made my way across the basement to see if the bathroom was free yet. I still wanted to grab a shower before heading to bed.
Over the next hour or so things began to wind down. Lucy and I got dressed for bed as did most of the boys. The twins were soon laying down in sleeping bags on the floor. Scott was laid out on the fold out bed hidden in the couch with his eyes closed. Mitch was sitting laid back in the easy chair watching the old television set. He had the volume off and seemed to just be relaxing now that everything was winding down. I headed into the room I was sharing with Lucy and my sister. Lucy had an air mattress blown up and was laying down in it. Amy was already fast asleep. I turned off the light and climbed into my own sleeping bag. It had been an interesting first day of this visit. There would be many more to come.
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Jennifer's stories
- 01 - My First Time (f/mf)
- 02 - Trying New Things: Breakfast with Mom (Fm/f)
- 03 - A Walk in the Park (mm/f)
- 04 - The Pole and the Dungeon (m/f)
- 05 - A long camping trip (mmf/f)
- 06 - One Rainy Day at Home (m/f)
- 07 - Winter Vacation at Grams (both genders)
- 08 - A Long Weekend tied up (F/f)
- 09 - Shopping with Mom (F/f)
- 10 - My New Friend (m/f)
- 11 - The Bike Trip (m/f)
- 12 - Sharing With Friends (Ffff/fff)
- 13 - New Horizon (Both Genders)
- 14 - A Trip to My Aunts (mFF/f)
- 15 - A Second Christmas Story (mmff/mmf)
- 16 - Mary's Weekend (F/F)
- 17 - The Next Chapter (*/self, f/f)
- 18 - Ropes and Skates (Good Combination?) (MFmf/fff)
- 19 - Hanging With Mary (F/f)
- 20 - College (FFF/FF)
- 21 - College Days : Stephanie's Captive (F/F)
- 22 - College Days : A New Chapter, Ashley Gets Involved (*/self, F/F)
- 23 - College Days : A New Chapter, Ashley Comes Back (F/F)
- 24 - College Days : A New Chapter, Normal is Good (F/F)
- 25 - College Days: Theodore Roosevelt (FF/F)
- 26 - College Days: Summer Job at the Farm (F/F, M/F)
- 27 - Holiday Trip to Grandma's (f/f, f/m, m/fmm)
- 28 - A Long Trip to Alaska (self/f, F/fmm)
- 29 - The Pioneering Experience (mmmm/f)
Index of all stories in the "Archive for Everyone" section