"I thought we were going to ask her if she wanted
28
to go to the bathroom!" Cindy giggled at the idea. To her the capsizing of roles seemed
endlessly funny.
"If she wants to go," Dianne said. Then she said directly to Barbara, "Do you?''
"Umnn?"
"Do you want to go to the bathroom?" Dianne said with painful clarity. "We can take
you."
Barbara looked back up at her and then closed her eyes. The situation was, in actuality,
more desperately impossible than she had foreseen. Going to the bathroom with five
youngsters in tow! First, she thought that she'd never go to the toilet again rather than
this. On the other hand, caution slowed her the matter would have to be faced
sometime if they held to their plans, and anything was better than simply being forced
to lie here forever.
The other selfish thought skipped through her mind, of course. She hardly dared think it
lest the kids somehow intuit it. This might be a chance to break free.
"She wants to go," Paul said. Squirming from foot to foot, he now seemed to be
enjoying himself.
"OK, now. Like we talked about it," John said.
"Are you ready?"
·
"Yeah"-Bobby had some more rope in his hand-"but, remember, she's strong for a girl if
you let her get even a little bit loose."
"I won't." John rather squared himself. "Let's do
it."
"Well, OK, I'll tie her hand first."
With one piece of the new rope he had brought, Bobby tied her right wrist just above
the point where it was already tied. Then he took the free end of this new rope and
squatted down beside the bed. "Now, we'll run it through here-"
Her momentary objectivity gone, Barbara watched them a little apprehensively. She
could not see all they were doing, and she was afraid it might hurt.
Bobby straightened up. "OK, now, when I untie 29
her hand up here, you all hold her arm and move it down there and Paul pull on your end."
"All right," Dianne sighed. "Just do it, will you?" There was a moment's silence with Barbara
looking up at them, and John and Dianne looking down at her arm as if it had more-than-
human strength in it. Barbara despaired.
''OK, that's it." Bobby jumped up from the head of the bed. "Move her-hurry up." He went
around to help Paul.
The plan at last became clear to Barbara and everyone. At no time was she to be free.
When Bobby released her wrist from the headboard of the bed, it was already tied by a
longer rope to the lower part of the frame; all they had to do was to move her one defense-
less arm down more or less by her side while Paul took up the slack. She was helpless at
each instant of the operation.
"There, see? It did work." "Yeah ... "
They all straightened up.
Barbara now lay, legs still apart, one arm tied down by her side and the other up to the
headboard. It didn't really hurt, at least no more than before, but it was frustrating and
disappointing. At no time could she have done so much as free that one hand even for a
minute.
"She looks like she's doing semaphore," Paul gave her one of his squirmy little smiles and
looked around for approval.
"Or dancing," Cindy said critically. "Like Mrs.
Gulliver." She giggled.
"Miss Gulliver," Dianne said.
"OK, never mind that. Let's do the rest of it."
With the same engineering care, they brought her other hand down by her other side and
tied it, too. Her shoulders, stiff and sore from the hours of unnatural position, throbbed.
Here, at least, was circulation and movement.
"Now, she has to sit up."
30
"What if she won't?" Cindy said. "How're you going to make her do it?"
"She's the one who wants to go to the bathroom.
If she doesn't, we can always put her back the other way." It sounded reassuring when
John said it, but, in fact, Barbara had more freedom now than at any time since she had
awakened. She could do nothing with it, but she was more free.
"Yeah," Bobby said. "Sit up. You can if you want to." It was the first thing like a
command that they had given her, and he did so with hesitation in his voice.
For the same reason, Barbara just slightly held back. The lessons in this relationship
were painfully few, and yet she seemed to have so much trouble learning them. Were
the youngsters, on the one hand, demanding that she sit up and, on the other hand,
threatening to retie her if she did not? Indeed they were, indeed they would. Barbara
must realize that no matter bow far beneath her station she felt the kids to stand, they
were absolutely in command. There was no alternative with dignity. She would obey, or
she would be returned to a less pleasant position, and this would be repeated until she
submitted. Barbara sighed and then, being a swimmer in good condition, managed to
do the sit-up demanded.
They all looked at Bobby expectantly.
"OK, here-" He passed the rope around her body. "Now we tie her arms to her sides."
This was done. After that, her left wrist was released and tied up behind her back with a
rope that went up over her right shoulder, crossed her body between her breasts,
hooked under her elbow and returned to her wrist. For the left side alone, it was the
same position she would have been in had someone been "twisting her arm" except
that it was twisted and held there.
They were so cautious, everything took so much time and was so elaborately done that
Barbara began to grow irritated. All right, she was doing what they wanted; she couldn't
get away-she knew it, they knew
31
it-why so much fuss? When they got ready to move her legs together, she impatiently
did it for them, or
nearly did it before she fell over backward.
.
Cindy laughed, but Bobby, remembering his struggle this morning, quickly hobbled her
ankles before she took the notion to kick out at someone. He seemed almost fearful
when he released the last of the rope that held her to the bed.
. "What about her other hand?"
"She needs one free, stupid. Besides, she can't do much with the elbow tied like that."
"Can she get up now?"
"Yeah, I guess so." Actually they had to swing her feet over the side of the bed and help
her sit up
again.
.
"How're you going to make her go just where you want her to?"
"Well-" Bobby hadn't thought of that.
. "I know. Put a rope around her neck," Paul said.
As he did when speaking most of the time, he sort of ducked his head and came up
sideways like a myna bird struggling to say a difficult word.
"Yeah! That way, if she doesn't follow, we can choke her or at least pull her down."
"No, I've got a better idea," Bobby said. "Sit up," he told Barbara. He didn't hesitate this
time, nor did she. She actually leaned towards him.
"Here-" Bobby looped his last long length of rope around her neck with ends trailing in
front and in back. "One of us goes in front and one of us behind, and if she doesn't
behave, each one pulls:"
This was a little frightening. Barbara looked from one child to the other. She felt as if
her upper body were embalmed in clothesline. The shoulder of her shortie was no
longer on her shoulder, and she was a trifle bare-feeling.
"Choke her?" Cindy said.
"Don't worry. Not unless we have to." "I'll lead," Paul said quickly.
"No, you won't," Dianne said. "Let Bobby and
32
John do it, and you follow and just don't get in the way unless we tell you to."
More foolishness. All right, she would go. More than anything else now, Barbara wanted to