Jennifer : 19 - Hanging With Mary (F/f)

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Jennifer : 19 - Hanging With Mary (F/f)

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Jennifer's stories
19 - Hanging With Mary
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By Jennifer

Part 1 : Introduction

Hi everyone, I am finally going to get to my next story here. This is the one that follows the skating event where I had a fall and broke my right ankle. This story takes place at my sister Mary’s house while the rest of my family was on vacation. I was 16 at the time of this story and Mary was in her 20’s at some point. It was a little over a weeks since the incident at the park.

The day was warm and a little muggy for summer. June was in full swing when I was stepping out of my mother’s car in my sister’s drive way. I was still pretty early and first light was just beginning to show over the horizon. My family had this trip planned out pretty well as far as departure and travel times were figured. My parents only had about 10 days to make the trip as a whole and they didn’t want to spend more time traveling than they had to. The plan had been to leave early that morning around 7 or 7:30 am. This meant of course that I had to be dropped off at my sister’s even earlier. It wasn’t the choice arrangement that I wanted on the situation, but Mary had plans the night before and my mother wanted her there when I was dropped off. To tell the truth, I was pretty tired running on only a few hours of sleep. No one save my father had gotten much rest that night. The anticipation of what was coming made doing so rather difficult.

Mary’s house sat as it always did. Quiet and removed against the back drop of the woods behind it. The neighborhood was rather rural and my sister owned a couple acres of land directly in front of the tree line. The place was rather spacious for someone of her age living alone, but the price had been below what she expected it would be. The previous owner had wanted a quick sale and my sister had been in the right place at the right time. I yawned as I eased myself out of the back seat of the car and planted the two crutches that I relied on for mobility on the ground. I lifted a small backpack over one shoulder and began to make my way towards the house. My mother popped the trunk on the car and gathered the first of 2 duffle bags out and carried it towards the house as well. Despite her heavier load and delayed start she easily crossed the distance before I did. My mother reached to knock on the door as I closed the last fey yards of the sidewalk. However, it opened before her hand made contact with the surface. Mary was standing before her already dressed for the day.

My mother and sister exchanged a few words of greetings while they waited for my arrival at the base of the steps. When I finally closed the distance, Mary looked down to meet my gaze and offered, “Good morning little sister, glad to have you with us.” I replied politely that I was glad to be here but it was a little too early for me. My mother handed off the duffle bag that contained most of my clothes and a few other things that I wanted to bring along to Mary. Then she helped me mount the 4 steps that led up from the sidewalk to Mary’s front porch. My sister took the parcel inside and deposited it next to door. Then she walked around the two of us and returned out to the car to get the other parcel while my mother helped me inside of the house.

Over the last few days, I had become more competent on crutches than I had first been, but I still wasn’t the best at it. I lacked the speed and grace that I see a lot of people have with it. Mary was coming up behind me carrying the other bag on her shoulder as returning to the house. She waited when she arrived at the front porch for me to finish my assent before making her way around me and into the dwelling. “Well, your up and ready to go early. I thought you were going to be off today?” My mother addressed my sister with a look of concern on her face. “I am.” Mary replied. “I am off for the next 4 days then I have to work for 3 then I will be off the following 3. Under the circumstances it was the best that I could do on such short notice. Still, I need to go in for a little over ah hour this morning to handle a few last minute things. I am sure that Jen, can take care of herself while I am gone.”

Originally, my parents didn’t want to leave me alone with my broken leg, but I was getting pretty self reliant despite the injury. I reinforced my sister’s position and assured my mother that I would be fine for an hour or two on my own. My mother nodded at the announcement and told my sister to hurry back. We spent the next few minutes exchanging goodbyes and wishing my mother good luck on the trip. Mary promised my mom that she would keep me out of trouble and that the two of us had a good couple of weeks planned ahead. After a final hug goodbye, my mother left the porch and returned to her car. Then she started the car and left me to what would be an very interesting week and a half with my older sister. Mary closed the door behind as my mother departed the driveway. Then she helped clear a path so that I could make my way across the house and into the family room. I plopped down on the couch and laid the crutches against the side of the sofa. Mary followed me in.

“So, little sister, welcome to my humble home. It looks like your getting better with being on crutches and moving around.” I nodded. “I am still getting the hang of it. But, I’m not all that good at it just yet.” The reply was the truth of the matter. I could make my way around the house better than I could directly following the fall. However, I was still pretty slow and stairs were a real hassle for me. Mary’s house was two floors plus a basement. She planned for me to use her guest bedroom on the first floor for my stay. I guess I should take a minute and give the layout of the house.

Mary’s house was a fairly large and well spread out. The front porch had 4 steps that led up to a double sided porch with a swing and several chairs spread out on it. Once you got inside of the door, there was a hallway with a closed right next to the door. If you followed down the hallway you came to the living room on the right. This was a smaller room with sofas and a television. It was mostly used for sitting and greeting. Off of the living room, there was a door that led into what Mary called the family room. It was about twice the size of the living room and contained a fireplace and more furniture. This was also where Mary kept her big screen TV. The ground floor also contained a bathroom, a large kitchen, the dinning room, the bedroom I would be staying in, another two hallways and another closet. There was a small laundry room that led into the garage and a fairly sizable deck off the back of the kitchen.

The upstairs had two more bedrooms and two more bathrooms if you counted the master bath. Additionally, it had several large closets. My sister was using one of them as an office for her home at this time. The house also had a basement and attic so it was a pretty big place. My sister wasn’t exactly rich, but she made a pretty good living with the medical supply company that she worked for. She got paid every week. One and a half of her paychecks went to pay the mortgage every month. Still, it had been a wonderful place to have gatherings with friends and family. A lot of times my sister hosted for holidays around here since she had the space to do it.

“Well Jen, make yourself at home I need to go into work for a couple of hours. I need to pick something up and take care of a few closing matters.” Mary continued her explanation of the short trip. Originally, she had planned to go in early and get back before I even got there, but my mother had moved up the time table for my drop off and that left her without the necessary time to make the trip. I guess I should describe what I was wearing for this little encounter. It was early when we departed, and I didn’t really bother to change that much. I was still dressed in the pajama pants that I had worn to bed. They were lightweight and open hemmed at the bottom of the leg. I had changed the matching top for a short sleeve t-shirt before I had left for the day. I had added a sock and one tennis shoe over my leg without the cast on it. Having a broken ankle had limited my wardrobe of over the last few days. Mary’s outfit spoke that her trip into work would be casual. She was in blue jeans and a red polo shirt. Not the usual dress clothes that she wore on the job.

Mary leaned down and picked up the TV remote clicking it onto a channel. I don’t remember what was on. Then she tossed the remote my way. “Think you can keep yourself out of trouble until I get back?” My sister asked me as she began departing the room. “I’ll try to have the dancers and beer out of the house before you get back.” I replied The statement was sarcastic at best and got a good laugh out of my older sister as she smiled back. I was just joking around with her. “Well, as long as you don’t wake up the neighbors.” My sister replied with a joking tone to her voice before she departed from the room. Both Mary and I had a good sense of humor growing up and it had gotten a little more mature as I had aged. Still, my mother found it a little annoying, but I still made a bad joke now and then. I heard the door to the garage close from the house and assumed that would be the end of the matter.

I sat back on the sofa and began surfing through channels up and down. There wasn’t much on at this hour of the morning. I flipped probably through 30 or 40 channels and picked the best of the worst and settled on it for something to watch. I almost didn’t notice as Mary came back into the room. I looked up at my sister as she stood in the doorway. “Did you forget something Mary?” I asked with a look of surprise on my face. I had assumed that she already left, but it turned out that I was wrong. “Nothing much, I just forgot to secure my little sister before I go. I can’t have you having any wild parties while I am gone.” Mary replied with a smile on her face. I followed her eyes downward to where she was looking at something in her hands.

My sister was holding a pair of metal handcuffs in her left hand and a piece of string in the other. “Just wanted to make sure that you keep out of trouble while, I am out. “ I just gave my sister a smile back in reply. It had been a while since I had been tied up at all. I hadn’t tried anything since the fall since I needed my hands to move anywhere. “Let’s get these on you and then I can leave knowing my house is safe and sound.” I nodded and allowed my sister to approach me. As Mary approached, I leaned forward some and brought my hands together behind my back for her. My sister finished her approach and leaned down over me. She unlocked the handcuffs and worked them securely around my wrists. She left me a click more of space than she needed, but it was more than tight enough to make sure I couldn’t slip loose.

The handcuffs were the normal standard fair except they hand a hinge between the hands rather than the normal chain. Mary had several sets of hand and feet cuffs that she had managed to collect over the last few years. I had seen these and wore them before on several occasions. They double locked the same way normal handcuffs did with a key. My sister worked the key that was on the end of the string in her other hand and secured my arms behind my back with a couple of clicks. “There, that should keep you out of trouble while I am gone.” Mary said with another grin on her face. I gave the cuffs a few tugs to demonstrate that they were secured. “Good, now I don’t have to worry about anything while I am gone.” Mary said. I leaned back against the couch and let the my shoulders rest against the cushions.

Mary made one last drop before she departed. She took hold of the piece of string in her other hand and unfolded it. It was a loop of string probably 2 feet in length. Just a piece of yarn tied in a loop. There was a handcuff key hanging from it. Gravity had pulled it to the bottom of the loop. “I am going to leave this with you, just in case you get bored or want to get out for some reason.” Mary commented as she draped the key around my neck like a pendant. With a means of escape in place for me, Mary patted me gently in the shoulder and began her real departure from the room. A few minutes later, I heard the car start up and Mary left the house for real this time. She left me alone to my situation and morning.

I was no stranger to wearing handcuffs or having my arms behind the back. I shifted around a little to get more comfortable. The cuffs were a little looser than I would have preferred, but Mary had been careful since I was going to be on my own. After shifting around a little, I found a position where there was no weight on my hands and I could still rest the upper part of my body against the back of the couch. I twisted my arms behind me to remind myself that I was restrained. Then I just got comfortable and watched the television. The program wasn’t all that good, and I soon lost interest in it. However, there wasn’t much that I cold do about it. Mary had moved the television remote to the coffee table a good 3 feet from where I was sitting. I wouldn’t be able to get at it without freeing my hands. Normally, I could even if my feet would have been tied up as well, but with my ankle I didn’t feel like taking any chances on the matter. So, I just sat back and accepted my situation.

I had to admit that I was comfortable like this. If I didn’t try to move around, I quickly forgot that I was handcuffed. There was only one small reminder of the whole situation. That stupid handcuff key dangling around my neck. It was lightweight enough not to cause a problem, but it was more of a tantalize that I could see it but not get at it. While Mary had left me enough string that escape might be possible, it would take some considerable effort to free myself. The real problem I was having came from the piece of yarn. The weight of the key kept it against the back of my neck and the fibers in the yarn were starting to itch. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just annoying to have. After putting up with it for about half an hour, I decided to do something about it.

I sat up and moved away from the back of the sofa. Then, I leaned forward slowly letting the string and key hand loosely downward away from my body. Then, I snapped myself upright quickly. This caused the key to jerk upwards and bump me on the forehead. Then it dropped back into it’s original position. Not a good first result, but the theory would work. I repeated the process a couple more times until I got the timing right. After the fifth or sixth try I managed to finally catch the key and the string in my mouth. Once I had hold of it in my mouth, I began trying some other awkward twist and turns. After a little bit of effort, I managed to slip the loop of yarn over my head and freed the key from around my neck. The whole process probably didn’t require more than 5 or 6 minutes, but it seemed like it took longer.

Mary was right I could escape from this. I took the key in my mouth and swung it back and fourth a couple of times before I let it go. It flew forward and down a couple of feet before bouncing off the coffee table and landing on the far side. I had accomplished my goal. I could have freed myself if I had wanted to, but that wasn’t what I was aiming for. I just wanted the piece of string off from around my neck. Once I was done with my little stunt, I shifted a little further back on the couch and began the process of reclining myself into a laying position on my side. I was still pretty tired from getting up so early and a quick nap sounded good. I used my good leg to propel myself to the end of the couch and brought my head to rest on the arm of the sofa. I closed my eyes as I got comfortable and just tuned out the background noise of the television. Then I drifted off slowly.

I never could manage to sleep a whole night with my hands behind my back. However, this was comfortable for a quick snooze and just a relaxing position. I am not sure if I slept or just laid their with my eyes close. Either was I was fine with the result. The next thing I remember was Mary shaking me gently by the shoulder to wake me up. I opened my eyes and looked up at my sister. “Rise and shine sleepy head, I am back. I see you managed to keep yourself out of trouble.” Mary commented with a smile seeing that my hands were still cuffed as she had left them. I worked myself up into a sitting position with a little help from Mary. I glanced a quick look over at the clock on the wall. I had been asleep for about 45 minutes or so.

“Where’s the key that I left you with Jen?” My sister asked seeing that it wasn’t where she had left it. I looked across the room to where the key had landed and Mary followed my stare. There was a look of disbelief in her eye when she remade eye contact with me. “How did that get all the way over there?” she asked. I smiled and gave my sister the story of how I managed to get the key off of my neck and across the room. Mary just gave me a pat on the head and went over to retrieve the key from where it was laying on the ground. She returned with it shortly and asked me to lean forward. I complained that I didn’t want to be unlocked yet and that it could wait a little while longer. “Sorry, but those need to come off now. We can put them back on later if you want, but right now I need you to come with me to the kitchen. You’re going to need your hands to do that. I have a surprise for you and I want to show it to you right away.” Mary explained as she maneuvered me forward gently to allow her access to my hands.

After a minutes work, Mary freed my hands from the cuffs and began to the process of retrieving my crutches from the foot of the couch. I took a minute to massage my wrists and work the feeling back into them fully from the handcuffs. My sister handed me the crutches and helped me into a standing position. “Come on” she said as she departed the room without waiting for me to keep pace. I began to follow along as best I could. Whatever was waiting in the kitchen, Mary was pretty excited about it.

I am going to break the story here and end the first part. The next segment is pretty long and I am going to make it the next section. This part of my life was an interesting phase that would help define the rest of my summer. It had been a fun tie up. Still, the real fun was just beginning. Mary had a lot planned for this week and we were going to have quite a good time. Stay tuned for the next part of the story. Just as a reminder, since I am not posting this story on tieupgames.net if you want to leave me a comment feel free to use the message board here or email me. Thanks a lot everyone.

Jennifer

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Post by Soraka »

Part 2 : The Chair

Well, thanks to everyone for the comments and emails. I am continuing with this story here and now. This is the second part of what will be a several for this series of stories involving my stay with my older sister.

Mary had just released me from where I was sitting on the sofa. I had risen and was following her to the kitchen to find out what the big ‘surprise’ was. I headed down the hallway slowly and rounded the last corner into the kitchen. I wasn’t moving all that fast. Mary’s house was more ideal to my situation as it didn’t have any steps on the first floor of the house. This made it easier for me to navigate my way on crutches. It took me a good 5 or 6 minutes to move across the ground floor and arrive at my destination. The whole trip across the ground floor of the house had me filled with inquisitiveness wondering what my sister had brought home to share with me. I rounded the corner and looked into the kitchen.

Mary was seated at the kitchen table and the ‘big surprise’ was sitting right next to her on the floor. My jaw almost dropped when I saw what it was. I looked over at my sister like she was crazy. “Oh, is that the big surprise?” I asked with a good deal of disappointment in my voice. “It wasn’t quite what I expected when you said you had a surprise for me.” Usually a surprise from Mary was a new video game or a new outfit. Something that I could either be entertained with or wear. This was nothing of the sort. The anticipation left me like a five year old who Santa left socks for a Christmas present for. “Yup, that’s it alright. I was at work two days ago and I thought about your situation and that you might want to give this a try.”

The surprise was sitting on the floor to the right of where Mary was seated at the table. The wheel chair was so large that it was almost impossible to miss. It was just a standard model wheel chair with the two big round wheels on the side for moving and the two little wheels in front for stability. Mary explained that she had ordered it for me from her work place. She knew that I was having a hard time getting around on crutches and thought it might be a plausible alternative. The only problem was that it hadn’t come until this morning and she had to go into work and pick it up. Suddenly her little trip this morning came into light. She wasn’t going in to finish up some unattended task, the trip in had been for my benefit. Mary explained that she had told my mother about the whole idea, but asked her to keep it a secret from me. Mostly because she didn’t know how I would react and she couldn’t get it until today anyway.

My initial reaction to the whole idea was less that happy. I told Mary that I thought that a wheel chair was a little extreme and I was doing okay as it was. Mostly, I thought it was more than I needed under the circumstances. I didn’t want to be reminded that I was injured and having to rely on a wheel chair for mobility would do just that. I voiced my opinion on the matter to Mary not taking much care to spare her feelings on it. I realized that she was just trying to help, but I really didn’t want it. Mary sat patiently and took in what I had to say before she responded. Then she finally gave me her side of the matter. I was rather surprised at her response. My sister didn’t give me a long lecture about what was best for me or start a fight with me on the matter. She remained seated and addressed me in a rather reserved and balanced tone of voice.

She began, “I know how you feel about this Jen. I get this reaction quite a bit in my profession. I help people get used to new equipment like this all the time. Quite often people don’t want to make such large adjustments, but sometimes it works out for the best.” I stopped pouting for a moment and took in what my sister was saying. “I know this wasn’t what you expected, but I drove all the way into work on my day of to get this ‘stupid thing’, as you put it, for you. So, could you at least give it a shot before you condemn it?” I looked over at my sister and again at the wheel chair that was sitting next to her. Then it hit me just how much trouble she had gone to do this for me. Mary never tried to do anything that would intentionally make my life worse. She had good intentions here and I was just being a bad recipient of a good thought. I nodded and shuffled across the room. Then I turned myself around and sat down in it.

Mary rested her grief aside and allowed a warm smile to return to her face. “Good, looks like your situated. I’ll tell you what Jen, let me show you how to work this thing and then give it a try for the rest of the morning. After lunch if you still don’t like it, I’ll take it back.” I nodded, it was a fair offer and my sister seemed more please with my response than my first outburst. I took a moment and got myself seated a little bit further back in the seat and got more comfortable. The seat under me and the back were both lightly padded and more comfortable than I had originally thought they would be. My legs hung freely in front of me and rested on the floor. The chair had two arm rest one on each side and I could allow my forearms to rest there.

Once she knew I was seated, Mary began working her way around me. She had cleared the path in front of my position and around it as well. My sister had plenty of experience with this and I caught on from the start about her expertise. Mary began the lesson by showing me where the breaks for the wheel chair were. They were two metal tabs that got pushed forward by handles at the back of the chair. When they were pushed forward, they rested against the wheels and prevented them from moving at all. Mary snapped them into the off position and took hold of the two handles behind the seat. The top of the chair came just above my shoulders but below the top of my neck. Mary began by pushing me forward and backward gently to show me how the chair moved on the big wheels. Then she stepped back and explained how to move the chair myself.

The majority of the work was done with my arms and turning the wheels. She showed me next that by turning one wheel and not the other that I could cause the chair to turn in one direction or the other and that was most of the source of my mobility. I began the process of moving myself about the kitchen in the chair. It was an awkward experience to begin with and I bumped into a couple of different things a few times on and off. Mary spent the better part of an hour working on using the chair with me. And pretty soon I was able to move myself around fairly well. I managed to exit the kitchen and gave the rest of the ground floor of the house a try. I found that after some moving around, that I could get to just about anywhere I wanted to go on the first floor of the house. The chair was a little harder to work on the carpeted areas, but I soon got the hang of it. It took a lot less effort to move myself around with the big wheels than it did hopping around with crutches. Everything went along pretty well and at the end of two hours I could successfully navigate the house under my own power.

Mary called me into the kitchen before I knew it and announced that lunch was on the table. I really don’t remember what we had to eat. It was probably sandwiches or something simple like that. Mary had always been a pretty good cook, but she never really fussed over a lunch unless it was a special occasion. She cleared me a place at one end of the table removing the normal chair from it’s place completely. She bid me to roll right up and I accepted the invitation. My sister told me to stay put and went about getting the food together for both of us. She served the meal and brought all the plates and other things to the table for each of us. Then she took the seat across from me and the two of us started eating. “So Jennifer, what do you think of your new ride?” My sister asked looking across at me rather pleased with herself.

I swallowed the food I was chewing before I offered an answer. It was the polite thing to do and it gave me an extra moment to weigh my response. “Well, I guess it’s not as bad as I thought it was at first. Still, it has a tough time on the carpet and my legs keep dragging on the ground.” I had a few other difficulties and things I thought would prove difficult to manage. Like using the bathroom for one or going up and down the stairs for another. However, Mary assured me that she could help me overcome the specific situations. The bathroom issue would turn out to be simpler than I thought. Everything I could come up with Mary had a simple explanation for other than the stairs. But, since most of my time would be spend on the ground floor that could be avoided almost entirely. Let’s face it, there really is no good way to do stairs with a broken ankle. The real issue that I was having was that my feet were hitting the ground each time I moved the chair. I could lift them up off the ground, but that took some effort and the cast on my foot added a good deal of weight to it.

It really wasn’t all that big of a deal, but I felt the bump each time my cast bounced on the floor. It was a little annoying. After a long conversation on the matter and a good meal, Mary asked me again whether or not I wanted to keep the wheel chair for the rest of my stay. I had run out of excuses. The real problem I had with it in the first place was that I worried about my appearance in it. After I got used to piloting myself around, my image took a back seat to the options I had available to me. I told Mary that I would go ahead and keep the wheel chair for the duration of my stay. This made my sister quite happy with my decision. She had gone to a lot of trouble to get it for me on such short notice. I figured that it gave me a quicker mobility option than hopping around on one foot with the crutches that I had been using. I could climb in and out of the chair rather easily. This gave it quicker access and it would get me where I needed to go.

Once lunch was over, Mary cleared the table for both of us and placed the dishes in the sink. Then she circled around behind me and took hold of the handles on the wheel chair and began to guide me towards her small laundry room. The trip was short and ended abruptly there. I didn’t put up a fight on the movement, but I inquired it’s purpose when we reached our destination. I asked my sister what we were doing in the laundry room. “Well, you complained about your feet hitting the ground when you’re moving along, I thought I would go ahead and do something about it. Wait here for a moment and I will be right back.” Mary set the wheel locks on the back of the large wheels and exited the laundry room and headed into the garage. She left me seated by myself to await her return. I didn’t have to wait very long.

A couple of minutes later, Mary came back into the laundry room holding a couple of pieces of metal and a small bag that jingled as she carried it. Mary knelt down in front of where I was sitting and held one of the pieces of metal under where my casted foot was sitting. She lifted it up using the metal object and asked me if that was a comfortable height. I replied that it was and Mary marked a position on one of the bars conncected to the lower chair with a pencil. Once that was done, my sister helped me up out of the wheel chair and helped me over to another chair sitting next to the door to the garage. Usually Mary used it as a place to sit and tie her shoes as she left the house. However, it helped to offer me a place to sit while my sister went to work on the wheel chair. She opened the small bag and took out a couple of metal tools. Without much further explanation on the matter, my sister went about attaching the piece of metal to the bottom of the wheel chair lining it up with the pencil mark from earlier. Next, she took a small ruler and measured the height and matched the other one on the opposite side.

Once Mary was done attaching the two pieces of metal to the bottom of the chair, she told me to have a seat and that we would give that a try. The two pieces of metal were footrest that the rider of the chair could rest their feet on to keep the off of the ground. I lifted my feet up and landed them on top of the foot rests. I had to sit a little further back in the seat to keep my knees at a comfortable height, but this managed to lift me feet off of the floor. “There Jen, is that a little better for you?” Mary asked as she looked at my new situation. I tried rolling the chair back and fourth a little bit across the floor. I had to rely completely on my hands for mobility now. Before there were a few times that I used my uninjured leg to push the chair along on the floor. However, this really didn’t matter all that much compared to the trouble I had been having keeping my injured foot off of the floor. I gave the wheel chair a few pushes and made a lap of the lower section of the house without much difficulty.

I returned down the hallway to the laundry room and brought the chair to a stop where Mary was waiting. Everything had been going well until this point in the day. However, the forward momentum of the stop caused me to shift forward slightly in the seat and my feet skidded a little. My leg in the cast slid off the foot rest and bounced slightly off of the floor. I gave out a little wince of pain, but kept the main portion of the noise suppressed. The situation was better this way and I didn’t want Mary to feel unappreciated for the effort. Still, my sister saw the whole ordeal and let out a little sigh. “Well, Jen what do you think of the foot rest?” I replied that they were a good help, just that I needed to get a little better at keeping my feet on them. Mary rested her chin on her hand across the washing machine and considered the problem. I sat and watched the cogs in her head turn trying to manufacture a solution to the problem.

In reality, it really wasn’t a problem that she had to solve. I just needed a little more patience and practice. However, my sister was a perfectionist and she wasn’t going to let the matter fall to me. Mary suddenly raised her head and snapped her fingers. “Jen, I think I have a solution to this little inconsistency and I think you are just going to love it.” Mary stated with a sly little smile on her face. My sister directed me to hop out of the chair again and have a seat on the adjacent chair while she departed the room. She was only gone for a few minutes before she returned with something else for the wheel chair. They were sort of a molded plastic attachment for the wheel chair’s foot rest that were meant to keep the feet on them at all times. Each of them attached to the metal footrest with a couple of screws to keep them in place. The footrests were both made of a hard plastic and had two fatex straps on them to keep the feet attached to the footrest.

(The are kind of hard to describe, so I had Mary email a picture of them to me so I could show what they looked like. Here it is.)



Mary finished mounting both of them and had me take another seat in the wheel chair. My sister guided my feet onto the platforms and fastened the straps down overtop of them. She left me a little slack on my foot in the cast so that the strap wouldn’t dig in or cause pain. On my good leg, she snugged it down as best she could. “There we go Jen, give that a try.” I shifted a little in the seat trying to get used to the new position on my legs. I sat back and made another short roll around the ground floor of the house. The straps were very effective in a number of ways. First of all, they solved my first problem and kept my feet from sliding off of the foot rest. Secondly, they kept my feet really well on the foot rest. The second reason sounds the same as the first, but they are a little different.

The foot rest prevented my feet from leaving the small platforms rather the reason was voluntary or involuntary. I tried pulling up with my good leg several times and no matter how hard I pulled or twisted my ankle, I couldn’t jerk free of the straps. Under the circumstances, it really wasn’t a big deal. I could just lean forward and unbuckle the straps if I wanted out. But they prevented me from moving my legs pretty well. I rolled back into the laundry room where my sister was Anxiously awaiting the results of my trial. I stopped and scooted myself back in the seat again to get a better placement on my legs. If I sat all the way back, my knees bended at the end of the seat and gave my legs the most comfortable position. “well Jen, is that better?” Mary asked looking down at me. I nodded, “Yeah, that solves the problem pretty well. I need to make sure that I keep seated back in the seat, but other than that, this works pretty well.”

Mary returned my nod accompanied by a small smile of satisfaction. She was a professional at setting up equipment like this for her work place. I think my sister was quite pleased with herself on attending to my situation as well as she had. “I think the feet straps are a good add on for you. If your going to use them, I think you should also probably have a seat belt to keep you from sliding around in the seat as well. I usually use one with them when I use these on a wheel chair for a client.” I told my sister that was fine with me. I didn’t have a problem with her adding a seat belt to the wheel chair. It would keep me better in place and make moving around a little harder. Mary had me scoot out of the seat again while she went to the garage to retrieve the straps for the seat belt.

My sister returned in a couple of minutes and went to work attaching the belt to the seat. It bolted on the two back support bars on the chair with a couple of light bolts. Once it was in place, Mary had me hop back in and reattached my feet to the foot rests on the chair. The seat belt was nothing special. It was the same kind you would find in the back middle seat of older model cars. It was just a lap seat belt that you tightened manually by pulling one end of the strap on the male end to shorten it. Mary snugged it down pretty tight and fastened it in place for me. Then she and followed me while I took the chair on one more test drive. This worked out pretty well and with the feet straps kept me properly positioned in the wheel chair as we moved about the house. The straps added complication if I needed to get out to use the bathroom or for another reason, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Overall, they were a good improvement over the initial situation. Plus, they made me fell like I was tied up a little, which proved a nice distraction from the fact that I was injured.

I spent most of the rest of the day in the wheel chair other than a couple of bathroom breaks and sleeping that night. I got used to the situation after a few hours. In fact by the time dinner rolled around, I was more than competent in my new form of mobility and hardly noticed any real change. I knew from about the time that I went to bed to bed that I was going to be spending most of the week in the wheel chair. Mary had informed me as much and really I preferred it to hobbling around on crutches. It was a big adjustment at first, but I got used to it. I learned that afternoon, that I could be somewhat secured to a chair and still manage to move around pretty easily. Little did I know just how secure I was going to end up over the next week. But that is another story.

Alright, I am going to break the story at this point. I apologize that wasn’t as much of a tug story as I usually write. However, I had to lay the ground work of the situation and this is getting pretty long. I already had to delay finishing and posting this part of the story for Mary to send me the picture of the foot rest. Hopefully, I will have the next part written and posted a little more promptly. As always thanks for reading. Any comments or questions are always useful to helping me improve my writings.

Jennifer
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Part 3: Mary Really Gets to Work

Morning came on the second day of my stay with my sister while my family was on vacation. I rolled over in bed and looked at the clock on the side table next to where I was laying. I was in the same room that I had used at Mary’s from the story when I was 13. She had updated the furniture a little more and given it some more flare. Still, it was a small room with just a bed across and down the hallway from the bathroom. My sister had moved the extra chair out of the room when I claimed it as my sleeping ground the day before. It made the most sense since this was the only bedroom on the ground floor of the house. I really didn’t feel like sleeping on the sofa or the floor especially with my ankle. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet. It was stills set for the time I had programmed it for the night before. It was a quarter to 7 still and I had failed to sleep in this morning as always.

Sleep had come much harder to me since the accident. I was used to sleeping on the top bunk in the room with my sister usually with my vest harness on for security. I had outgrown my fear of falling from a few years earlier, but I still wore it to bed often out of habit. It made me feel safer and restricted my movements quite a bit. I had just gotten used to it being part of my night time routine. I didn’t have to worry about that here. I still had the vest with me from the car ride down, but the strap mount used to affix it to the bed was still at my parent’s house. I had spent most of the night rolling over and over trying to find a comfortable position without much luck. I pulled the covers off of myself and raised myself into a sitting position with my legs over the side of the bed. I drew my arms up around my chest and tried to capture some of the heat that I had lost from removing the covers. It was summer, but Mary had air conditioning and she wasn’t shy about using it.

After a minute or two of shivering, I regained my composure and reached for the crutches that still sat at the end of my bed. I levered myself upwards to a standing position and began working my way across the room to the door. The wheel chair my sister had gotten me was in the room and within access, but I had to use the bathroom and this would be quicker since I was already up. Besides, I would have plenty of time to spend seated for the rest of the day. The trip across the hallway and back to the room was quiet and uneventful. I did my business, which included brushing my teeth and some other personal hygiene. I returned to the room and seated myself back down on the bed. They I laid back and rested my head against the pillow. Whenever I got up, I could try to go back to sleep, but it seldom worked for me. Instead I just laid back and conserved my energy.

I guess I should describe my outfit since I normally do. I was just in a set of pajamas. Light blue and white crisscrossed the flannel sleep pants I had on. They had an elastic waist and an open hem down around my ankles. I usually wore them to bed during the warmer months of the year with a tank top with spaghetti shoulder straps when I was around that age. They were a four piece set that my mother had gotten for me earlier in the year. They also had shorts and a long sleeve top to match the pants. I would have to be really hot before I didn’t wear pajama pants to bed, but the top usually changed with the seasons. I had gone to bed with the pants and tank top on originally the night before. However, I donned the long sleeved top when I realized how cold Mary had the air conditioning set. The pants fit well overtop of my cast. I had a light blue open backed slipper on my uninjured foot with a little stuffed moon on the toe of it. My cast prevented me from donning much overtop of it without stretching the clothes all out of shape.

After a while, Mary popped her head in the door and asked how I was doing. I told her that I was still a little tired, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep. She nodded and told me that she was going to go and make breakfast for the two of us. She told me it would be about 15 minutes or so. I laid on my back and waited for the time to pass doing nothing. I had been pretty depressed since the fall with my whole summer going out the window to the stupid ankle. No trip with the family, no swimming, no driving, no hiking, no camping, no summer job, . . . The list continues forward in that fashion. I spent most of my time lying around the house and waiting for the 7 or 8 weeks to pass so I could maybe get this stupid thing off. Being here at Mary’s wasn’t helping the situation much. I had fun being handcuffed the day before, but other than that it was pretty much as boring as home.

I glanced over at the clock and realized I only had about 5 minutes or so before my sister would holler for me to come and get it. I just shrugged my shoulders and lifted myself back up. No point in spending most of my day laying in bed here. I worked my way down the length of the bed and used the edge of it for support to reach the wheel chair. I still didn’t care much for relying on crutches to get around and I was determined to master using it. Mary had already promised me the use of it for the rest of this ordeal if I wanted to and I hoped to take her up on it. I took 2 unaided hops forward from the end of the bed across the 3 feet of floor separating it from the wheel chair and caught my balance on the side of it. I rolled myself around gently and eased myself into the seat. Then I brought my feet upwards and worked them back into the plastic shells on the foot rests. Once they were in place, I leaned down and buckled the double straps overtop of each of them. This secured them in place quite well and kept them off of the floor. With that done, I leaned back in the seat and went about fastening the seat belt that my sister had installed the day before as well.

I snugged the strap down across my waist tightly and took most of the slack out of it. It wasn’t as secure as a harness, but it did a reasonable job of keeping my upper body secured to the seat. With everything set, I released the brake tabs from behind the rear wheels and began making my way to the kitchen. It was a short trip and I made the crossing much quicker than I had the day before. Certainly faster than when I had been relying on crutches to get around. I found the spot nearest the entrance to the kitchen at the table still vacant for me to pull up to. I parked my chair and set the breaks behind me to prevent it from moving around during the meal. Mary brought me over a plate and set it down in front of me with a warm smile and a second “Good Morning” for the day. I watched as she crossed the room back and fourth without much attention shifting my way. I had a question or two I wanted to get out, but I wasn’t sure what the best approach would be.

I let caution fall from my lips and just blurted out the silly thing without much thought. “Mary, so you still have the handcuffs you used on me yesterday?” I asked with a tone of ignorance in my voice. My sister looked over at me from where she stood cooking. “Why no dear sister, I don’t. I threw them out after you got your cuddies on them yesterday.” I could tell from her tone that she wasn’t serious, just making a snipe remark to a stupid question. “Well, you said that I would be wearing them again yesterday and we never got around to it.” Mary slammed the spatula she was turning the eggs with against the stove top. I could tell that she was getting a little annoyed with the off topic interruptions. So, my sister decided to do something about it. S

Mary flipped the eggs once more and set the spatula down on the stove top. Then she reached down to a drawer on the counter and drew it open. She reached in with one hand as I watched from across the room and retrieved something before slamming the drawer shut again. Then, Mary turned and crossed the room to where I was seated. She reached her hand up over the table and dropped it’s contents on the empty plate in front of me on the table. “Here, eat up.” She said with an annoyed tone of voice while the handcuffs made a loud clink on the plate in front of me. My sister turned and went back to her cooking without another word. She left me sitting there staring at the hinged handcuffs from the day before. She had also brought me the red piece of yarn with the key still hanging from it. I sat in silence while my sister finished preparing the meal. After a couple of minutes of dead silence in the room, Mary switched the stove off and crossed over to where I was sitting holding a large platter. It contained bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, jam, butter and fruit. She set it on the table in front of me and looked down at me.

“Well, are you going to wear them or eat them?” Mark asked looking me in the eye. The joking tone had returned to her voice and I realized she had just been playing the whole thing up a little bit. I apologized for interrupting her cooking, which she accepted easily. With the platter deposited, Mary reached down onto my plate and picked up the shackles in one hand and collected the key with the other. Without waiting for my approval on the matter, she took hold of my right wrist. A few moments and clicks later, and Mary had finished double locking the cuffs securely around my hands in front of me. “Well, I hope your comfortable, because your going to be stuck in your pj’s for the rest of the day.” Mary said with a smile as she slipped the red piece of yarn with the key into the pocket of the jeans she was wearing. I swallowed a gulp of air as I realized just how serious she was. With my sister you had to be careful what you wished for. She usually was more than willing to give it when it came to being tied up.

With my hands joined quite securely, Mary went about the task of serving the meal without much formality. She deposited a little of everything on my plate and handed me a fork. I wouldn’t be able to use two piece of silverware cuffed like this, so I had to make do. Once I was serve, my sister took the seat across from me and the two of us began eating. There was no such thing as a simple breakfast when it came to my sister. She always put out a pretty good spread. I dug in without much trouble alternating using the fork for the eggs and my bare hands for everything else. I had plenty of practice eating with my hands tied together. Even having a pair of mittens over them wouldn’t have slowed me down all that much. Mary watched in amazement as I consumed everything in front of me quicker than she was able to. I was always the quicker eater of the two of us. My sister offered me the remaining portion of food while she worked on her first.

“So, Jennifer did you sleep well last night?” Mary offered trying to find some common ground for a conversation. I finished my latest bite of food and replied. “I slept okay I guess.” I watched Mary’s reaction before continuing making sure she wanted the honesty of the situation. “It’s not your bed, I am just not used to having the cast on my leg and not having my vest on in bed. I spent most of the night rolling around trying to get comfortable.” Mary gave me quiet smile as she swallowed another bite of food. “I still don’t see how you can sleep all strapped down like that. I doubt that I could get comfortable like that.” I finished my next mouthful between sentences. “It makes me feel safe since I know I won’t end up on the floor. I just got used to it after a while and it became normal for me.” For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, I wore a vest style harness in my parents car and on the school bus ever since I outgrew my car seat when I was 8 or 9. Some of my earlier stores have some of the details about it. I began wearing it to bed as well when I turned 12 and started sleeping on the top bunk of the bunk bed in the room I shared with my little sister Amy. Again the details about it are in another one of my earlier stories.

I had finished eating and Mary sat across from me munching on her second piece of toast. “I thought mom left your car vest with you here didn’t she? Why didn’t you just wear it to bed last night?” Mark asked me implying the obvious solution to my problem. “The extra seat mount and the strap that extends the back of it are still at home. I didn’t think to have mom bring them when she dropped me off. Besides I don’t know if they would fit around the bed here anyways.” Mary nodded at the obvious logic in my thought process about the situation. “Well then, I will just have to make a short journey and collect them for you.” Mary said as with a good deal of anticipation and perk in her voice as she swallowed her last gulp of milk. I interjected to the idea. “No. that’s okay. You don’t’ . . “ Mary held her hand forward in a stop gesture as she verbally cut me off. “Nonsense, sister you’re my guest and I should make every effort to give you all the comfort that I can offer you.” She stated rising to her feet and crossing the kitchen towards the refrigerator. She picked her car keys off of a hook on the wall and pocketed them and began her departure before I could offer another protest.

“I’ll return shortly. Sit tight and stay put until I get back.” Mary said with a little laugh as she crossed the kitchen and headed down the hallway towards the garage. I heard the door open and close and the engine on her car start up before I could even think of another good argument to offer her. I heard the car back out as Mary departed and left me there in my wheel chair all strapped in with the handcuffs still on. She had forgotten my situation almost entirely. The keys to the cuffs around my wrists were still in my sister’s pocket and I was pretty much SOL on the while situation if you know what I mean. Looking back, it probably wasn’t all that good of an idea for my sister to leave me alone like that, but we did a lot of stupid things when we were kids without thinking. It wasn’t until Mary turned thirty when that steak of inconsistent thinking finally departed from her mindset. I still think there is some if it lying around for the right time and situations.

With the departure of my sister from the house, I was left in a rather difficult perdicament. I was still sitting in my wheel chair and my hands were cuffed together in front of me. This really put a difficult spin on my ability to move around. I could use my hands together as a unit, but not individually because of the handcuffs. I tried moving around a little bit where I was sitting and found that I was rather limited in my ability to go anywhere. It would be easy enough to undo the seatbelt around my waist and then lean down and release my feet from the footrests. However, that really didn’t help me since the crutches I used for mobility outside of the wheel chair were still all the way down the hallway in the room where I had left them the night before. Even if I had access to them, there really wouldn’t be much that I could do with my hands locked together like they were.

I tried a second and much simpler tactic of releasing the wheel breaks on the back wheels of the chair. My goal was to see what I could accomplish of actually moving the wheel chair itself. Once the breaks were released, I took my bound hands and pushed off from the table to move myself backwards and clear the table itself. Once that was done, I began an experiment to see what I could accomplish like this. The first thing I tried was turning the right wheel on the chair to spin myself facing the exit to the kitchen. This proved rather effective, but all it did was spin me around. Next, I tried spinning the other wheel on the chair and ended up turning back the way I had just come from. This is where the real problem with moving around came from. With my hands cuffed to each other in front of me, I could turn one wheel or the other, but not both at the same time. In order for the wheel chair to move forward, it required me to turn both the large rear wheels at the same time. Having my hands locked to each other prevented me from doing that.

I tried several different approaches to the problem, but all I managed to accomplish was to turn myself in a circle while I sat in the open space in the kitchen. I moved back and fourth a little bit, just from the spinning motion, but I didn’t manage any controlled movement that I could direct. My spinning experiments came to an end when I rolled backwards into the countertop with a hard thud. Thankfully, I was strapped in pretty tight so I didn’t feel too much of the force of the impact. Still, it got me to begin rationalizing my situation a little better. I was by myself and nobody but Mary would be coming to my sister’s house for a long while. If something happened, I would be on my own until Mary got back from our house and I didn’t want to risk getting hurt. I decided to abandon my break for freedom and just wait for my sister to get back. I was luck nothing had happened so far, but I didn’t want to push my luck any further than I had to.

I scooted myself forward a couple of inches in the chair. The jerking motion pulled me away from the counter may 6 to 8 inches in the forward direction. I was tried a couple of different things and I knew this would work. However, I doubted that it would work on the carpeted part of the house unlike the linoleum here in the kitchen. Once I was clear of the counter I reached back and reset the breaks on the back wheels to keep the chair from rolling around, voluntary or otherwise. Then, I just sat back in the seat and began the long wait for Mary to return. I looked up at the clock on the wall. Mary had maybe been gone for about 20 minutes or so at this point. It took a good 25 to 30 minutes depending on traffic to reach our house from hers. Plus she had the process of gathering the bed strap from my room and anything else she wanted to get. That meant I had at least an hour to wait until she would be back. I slid myself back in the seat and got comfortable. I wasn’t going anywhere and it would be a long and boring wait.

Sitting there, I shifted around in my straps and shackles a few times to get comfortable and enjoy my perdicament. Still, it was a long and boring wait with nothing to do. You would think that Mary would have at least took me to the family room so that I could watch television. But, no she had just left me in the kitchen pretty well secured. I watched the clock as the second and minute hands made their slow rotations around the circle of numbers. Time always seems to pass a lot more slowly for me when I am all tied up with nothing to do. Especially when I have a clock to watch. But, that was all I could do. Watch and wait for my sister to return from her little sojourn. After about an hour and a half, I heard Mary pulling back into the garage. I could only wonder at the success of her search and what surprises she would have in store for me. I heard the door to the garage click.

Okay, I am going to break the story here and go on to the next part in my next post. There is still a lot of ground to cover with this series, and I seem to be making good time on it. Until next time,

Jennifer
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Part 4 : A New Harness

Hello Again everyone, I am finally getting around to finishing the next part of my story.

I heard the garage door closing shortly after Mary’s car had pulled into the garage. My long and boring wait was over at long last. Still, it was another good 15 minutes before Mary exited the garage and came back into the house. My sister returned the kitchen in a rather sluggish fashion and looked down at me. My position had moved a few yards from where she had left me seated at the end of the table. “Jeez Jen, it looks like you have been rather busy while I was out.” Mary looked around the room at the some of the chaos I had caused. My little bump into the counter had knocked a couple of things on it over including a rack of knives by the sink, a pile of mixed mail and several other things that had been left loose when my sister left. “You couldn’t just stay put like I asked you for an hour and a half now could you?” Mary commented as she began reorganizing the mess.

“Well, you should have known better than to leave me alone tied up like this. What if something had happened while you were out.” Mary just shrugged. “You’re old enough to take care of yourself even if you have handcuffs on. You were only 10 feet from the front door is something did happen. I have no doubt you could have made it out of here if your life depended on it. Besides, you’re the one who wanted to be handcuffed this morning. So, I just gave you what you wanted.” Mary’s words stung deeply, but I knew she was right. My sister had made sure that nothing that could have caused a fire was left on when she left and there were at least 8 smoke detectors in the house that I knew of it. I probably could have gotten out of the house if I had to. I just didn’t like having to eat my own words. I had asked for this situation and my sister had only granted my request.

While Mary tidied up the mess my little collision had made earlier, I noticed that she had left a duffle bag on the kitchen table. I knew the bag pretty well. It belonged to me, I used it when I went camping sometimes and on a few other expeditions. It was a smaller one and I had chosen the larger 2 in my collection when I had packed for the stay with my sister. I had left it empty in my closet at home when I left the day before. Apparently, Mary had used it as a to transport the harness mount from my bed at home as well as a few other things. For the size of the bag, it was pretty full. Once Mary had straightened the kitchen, she came over and retrieved the bag from the table. “Pleases don’t go anywhere this time, I really don’t want to have to clean up another mess.” My sister comment while she departed the room with the duffle bag in hand. I watched as Mary wend to down the hallway and rounded a corner disappearing from sight.

I tugged around a couple of times on the straps that secured me to the wheel chair to get comfortable again, but for the majority of my effort, I just complied with my sister’s request. There really wasn’t much else that I could do and I really didn’t want to make Mary any more angry that what I already had. Well, I don’t think she was truly pissed off at me, just more annoyed with the result of my attempt at controlling my environment. Her departure was short lived as my sister returned a couple of minutes later. “Jen, I need your help with this, I am not really sure how this things goes on the bed.” Mary came up behind me as I nodded to her request and undid the brakes on the back of the wheel chair that kept me from rolling around. My sister took hold of the handles and began pushing me back towards the bedroom where I had slept the night before. The trip was a short one and even when I was on my own and Mary was an expert at pushing people around in a wheel chair.

After a couple of minutes, we arrived at the bed room and the mess that my sister hand made. I guess it was only fair with the mess I had made in the kitchen. Mary had the mattress up off the bed I was sleeping on and had it leaning against the wall on the right side. She was having a difficult time getting the seat mount around the bed. I explained the finer details of the process to her as I had seen it go on the bed several times. I also had experience getting it on and off when my mother wanted to wash the sheets of the house. The seat mount was the same type that I would use on the school bus with my harness vest. I am not sure if it was from ez-on harnesses or not. There are a couple of companies that make and sell this type of harness even that long ago. However, the design was the same. Basically, the mount was designed to wrap around the back of a school bus seat and was secured in place with a normal seat belt buckle. Look at the picture below if you have any questions. Once it was secured to the seat, the mount attached to the vest that would already be on me with four clips to D-rings at the two shoulders and waist. The problem Mary was having wasn’t how the mount worked, it was that the straps even all the way out were about 5 feet short of meeting under the twin mattress.

“See Jen, no matter what I do, it won’t reach. What am I doing wrong?” Mary asked throwing up her hands in frustration. I had a good laugh at the problem and then explained that she needed the other strap to finish the connection. The other strap I was referring to was just a long piece of seat belt with a male and female buckle on opposite ends of it. My father had bought a seat belt kit intended to add a lap belt to a car and just added built it for this purpose. The ends of the extra strap attached to the ends of the seat mount’s attachment belts and extended it to fit around the mattress. The mount really wasn’t meant for this, but it was pretty effective. It’s not like I was relying on it to protect me from a 50mph crash here. I just wanted something to keep me from falling out of bed at night. If the strap was pulled tight, the mount would fall flush with the bed and prevent much movement around at all. With the added instruction from me, Mary managed to get the mount centered on the bed and snugged down into place. Then, she returned the mattress to it’s rightful place on my bed and centered the clips on the mount close to where she assumed I would be sleeping that night. “There, Jen the hard part is done.” She commented and I nodded in agreement with here. Mary finished remaking the bed and putting the blankets and sheets back on top of it.

With the comforter back in place on the bed, the straps seemed pretty well hidden from sight. Only a few inches of it showed in the space between the pillow and the start of the blankets. I could also see a few inches exposed where it wrapped around the end of the bed. The harness vest itself was still tucked and folded under the edge of bed where I had left when I first arrived for this stay at my sister’s. “Well, that takes care of that for the time being. Sorry to keep you waiting so long while I went to the house. I figured I would have it off of your bed and back here pretty quick, but it took quite a bit longer than I thought to get the silly thing off of the bed.” Mary finished looking down at me. My reply was quick and well stationed. “ Thanks for going to all that trouble for me.” Mary nodded and told me it was no trouble at all. She was happy to help me with this.

“Oh yeah, Jennifer I brought this back a few other things from the house too. I thought I would try to make you a little more comfortable if you know what I mean.” I got the meaning of Mary’s message and intention when I was what she was holding. My sister had another little piece of strap in her hand that was putting up on display for me to see. The item was a connected 4 point set of straps that formed an X-shape around a central connection. Each of the 4 ends of the straps had a small metal clip on the end of it. It was the chair mount that my mother had gotten me a long time ago when she first got me the harness vest when I was 8. She got it around the time I was 9 or so, it was meant to attach the vest to a wheel chair. Although I had always used it with a normal chair while I was growing up. It had never occurred to me to ask Mary to get it so that I could actually use it for what it was intended for.

“I found this sitting on the top of the dresser in your room at home Jennifer and I knew what it was the moment I found it. I thought I would bring it along to see if you wanted to put it to it’s proper use.” Mary explained as she deposited the connector strap back on the bed. I thought the matter over for a moment. It hadn’t originally crossed my mind to use my vest harness with the wheel chair, but the idea made a lot of sense under the circumstances and it sounded like a plausible course of action. “Sure why not?” I replied to my sisters inquiry. Mary nodded again in agreement and began to approach where I was seated in the wheel chair. She reached down taking the set of keys out of her pocket and took the handcuffs off of my wrists. The cuffs hadn’t been all that tight, so my arms were okay. If they had been a notch or two looser I probably could have wriggle out of them. Still, my wrists were a little sore as I began to massage some of the circulation back into them.

Meanwhile, Mary came over and began the process of undoing the straps on my feet and releasing the seat belt that held me in place in the wheel chair. It only took her about a minute to get me loose. Then she helped me to reach a standing position and allowed me to use her for support as I hopped over to the edge of the bed and sat down. “All right Jennifer, let’s get this on you so that I can get you secured to the chair properly this time.” My sister said holding up the vest harness. I will give a brief description of it in case anyone is not familiar with the item from my previous stories. The harness is made of 2 inch seat belt type material. It begins with a straps that goes around the waist and a double set of shoulder straps that go up over each shoulder. There is also another strap that wraps around the front of the wearer at about the armpit level. This connects the shoulder straps in front and wraps around the wearer for more security. The shoulder straps come together in the back and zip together with a fairly heavy zipper in the back. The waist and upper belts connect around to the shoulder straps there. Finally, there is a smaller set of straps that go between the legs on the harness and close with a fatex style buckle to keep it low on the wearer.

Mary helped me loop the harness around the top of my upper body. It was adjustable in a couple of ways. The shoulder straps could be loosened or tightened through an adjustable feed. Also, the back zipper could be expanded by two zipper inserts. These were either a 2 or 4 inch 2 sided piece of material with a zipper on each side to expand the back of the vest. They were usually meant for heavier clothing or to allow the vest to fit you as you got bigger. This was the same vest I had been using since I was 12 and I was beginning to get a little big for it. I had the shoulder straps extended a fair amount and used the 2 inch insert to wear the vest normally with a secure fit. Mary zipped the vest shut in the back let me do up the strap that went between the legs and buckle it. Then, she helped me hop back over to the wheel chair and sit down. Once I was seated, Mary got up and crossed the room retrieving a few items from the bed.

The first item she brought back was the seat mount for the harness. The second was a 2 pieces of rope probably 7 or 10 feet in length each . I looked up at her as she came towards me and inquired the purpose of the rope. Mary just smiled as she began her explanation. “I thought you wanted to be kept tied up all day at breakfast. I thought I would use a piece of rope rather than the handcuffs. If that is okay with you.” I should have known the answer to the question before I even asked it in my family. I gave Mary my consent to tie my hands. Mary instructed me to sit back in the wheel chair and let her do the rest. She guided my right arm along so that it was sitting tight against the right armrest of the chair. My sister had me fold my arm flat on the arm rest. Then she went to work. Mary began by wrapping the end of one of the ropes around both my wrist and the wheel chair several times. Next she took the remainder of the rope and cinched the rope off between my arm and the arm rest. Finally, she tied a neat little knot on top of the whole thing. This pinned my right arm good and tight to the armrest without much chance of me being able to remove it from that position. Once my right hand was securely tied, Mary repeated the process with my left, effectively immobilizing my arms quite securely.

Once my hands were properly bound, Mary went about her work with getting my vest secured properly to the chair. However, things didn’t go as I had originally planned for them to. The first thing Mary did was push me forward a little in the chair and reached down to unzip the back of the harness. When I inquired what she was doing, Mary just replied. “Making sure you sit still.” My sister removed the 2 inch extender from the back of the vest and after some work refastened the zipper without it. This drew the main straps around me considerably tighter. It wasn’t painful, but it was less comfortable than I usually wore the vest. Once that was done, Mary continued by snugging down the shoulder straps on the vest a little tighter. She finished by undoing the strap between my legs and tightening it an inch or two as well. I complained that it was a little tight, but Mary replied that if I was going to wear it then I should wear it properly. She explained that when a harness is used for support in a wheel chair it has to have rather snug fit to be effective.

I thought about complaining further, but it wouldn’t do any good with my hands tied like they were. I had no way to loosen the harness. Mary had me sit back in the seat and began the process of securing the harness to the seat itself. The mount I described earlier functioned by wrapping around behind the chair and connecting the clips on the end of the four straps to 4 drings on the harness. One was located at the top of each shoulder strap and the other two were on the sides next to the hips. Mary attached each of the four clips. At first the straps were rather loose and allowed for quite a bit of slack. My sister took a few minutes unbuckling them and tightening them for very secure fit. When she was done, the vest pulled me back and upright in the seat. I tried moving around only to find that my entire upper body was pinned securely to the seat. I couldn’t lean forward or move most of my upper body more than an inch in any direction. “There we go, nice and secure.” Mary commented looking down at my perdicament in the wheel chair.

I sat back as my sister watched me try to squirm around a little. I gave the whole situation a pretty good struggle, but it turned out to be a futile effort. I strained myself against the straps and ropes, but nothing gave me more than an inch or two of slack to work with. Mary stepped back looking quite pleased with the progress she made in securing me. I was all strapped in good and safe. However, I was secured so well that I couldn’t even scratch my nose if I wanted to. Mary finished the whole ordeal by buckling the lap seatbelt securely across my hips. “There we go Jen, I don’t think I have to worry about you going anywhere on your own.” I shifted around in the chair trying to get a little more comfortable. However, I really couldn’t move enough to accomplish my goal.

Mary looked the situation over one more time before she moved around behind me. My sister took a good look over each of the straps and ropes that secured me and made sure that nothing offered me enough slack to work it loose. Mary didn’t want me going anywhere. “Well, Jen now that your all nice and snug I think you could use some fresh air. That should liven up your spirit’s a little bit.” Before I could protest the matter one way or the other, my sister released the brakes behind the wheels on the chair and began the process of rolling me out of the room. She worked her way down the hallway and through the living room. I knew our destination and that Mary planned to take me outside. The two of us came to a halt at the glass sliding doors that led out and onto the deck of Mary’s house.

Mary slid the first of the two door open and then she came back around behind me. With a little bit of effort and strength, my sister guided my chair over the door jam and out onto the deck. I immediately noticed the difference in temperature from the inside of the house. My sister’s house had air conditioning and outside it was at least 75 degrees F. With a final amount of effort, Mary managed to push me full onto the deck and slid the glass sliding door closed behind us. We crossed to the back of my sister’s deck where she parked me and put the beaks on the rear wheels of the chair to prevent it from rolling anywhere on its own. Mary gave me one more look over and made sure that I was safe and secure before she retreated to get a chair for herself. She brought over a lawn chair and set it up next to the wheel chair that I was secured to.

The two of us sat there and watched the beautiful view of my sister’s back yard. My sister’s house was a little ways back from the road and we were positioned so that no one could see us without coming around the house. Still, I was a little nervous sitting out here all tied up in my pajamas. That, and I was dressed a little warmly for the time of year. As time went on, I began shifting around trying to get a little more comfortable in the wheel chair. It was difficult to do under the circumstances. With each of my wrists tied to the arm rests, I couldn’t move my hands more than an inch in any particular direction. My feet were strapped securely to the foot rests and prevented me from getting any leverage from my legs either. With all four of my limbs secured and out of the way, moving around was pretty much out of the equation all together. My sister had also secured my car harness much tighter than I usually put it on. It was quite snug around my upper body and attached to the wheel chair without any slack. I could turn my head from side to side and scoot about an inch or two up or down from where I was secured, but that was about the limit of the movement that I had available to me at the moment.

My sister and I ended up sitting outside for most of the morning and while I was a little hot, it was a nice day outside. The two of us just sat and talked for most of the time. I really don’t remember the topic of the conversation, but it was an interesting one. Mary checked on me a couple of times and made sure I was okay. The ropes and straps were a little more secure than I would have preferred, but nothing was painful and I got comfortable once I quit struggling. Mary got me a drink of water at one point when she went inside to get one for herself. The whole episode of the morning ended a little before lunch time when I needed a bathroom break which, required my freedom. Afterwards, Mary resecured me to the wheel chair as she had earlier, but left my hands free to move around. I wanted to be able to move them, and it was getting on towards lunch time anyways. I spent most of the remainder of the day in the wheel chair and the two of us just hung out together. Overall, it was a pretty fun day and I got to try a new experience. I had a few other incidents to report from this week, and I will share them with the next part of my story.

Jennifer
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