Tom hung up the phone, turned around and said: “Right! Everything is arranged: as soon as I leave, the clock begins to tick. Remember, in a couple of hours from now, it’ll be all over. Bye for now!”
My sister and I looked at each other, all but jumping up and down and giggling as little girls bursting with excitement. As part of the game, we were dressed alike: leather boots, thick, red pantyhose, denim mini-skirts, and black-and-white chequered, long-sleeved blouses. We waved good-bye to him, carefully closed the door, “forgetting” to lock it, and sat down in the living-room to watch some TV.
As the movie we were watching was so exciting, we never noticed the front door being silently opened and four boys sneaking in, until they suddenly stood in front of us. Without saying a word, they yanked us to our feet, and swiftly tied our hands behind our backs. Then, still without saying a word, they pushed us outside and into the back of a van. The doors were slammed shut, leaving two of the guys in there with us. They used two more pieces of rope, and tied our knees together, as the van drove off. Bandanas, with tennis-balls tied inside them, were used as gaggers.
The van drove around for a while, and when it finally stopped, we were pushed outside and into a hut. Inside, we were tied, back to back, to the post in the middle, with long ropes around our upper arms and chests, wastes, (in the process squeezing our hands between our bodies and the post) and ankles. Trapping our wrists like that, made sure we weren’t going to get at the knots.
“O.K girls”, one of the guys said, with an evil grin on his face. “Let’s see how long it takes for him to find you! You see, I did put a note in your house telling him where you are, as we agreed”, he put up a sad face eyes glowing with delight, “but with a few red herrings thrown in, just for the fun of it. And I set a time-limit of four hours, in which to find you.”
When they saw that we started panicking when he said that, they started laughing. “Don’t worry!” he said. “Your’knight in shining armour’ will find you, just as we agreed. We’ll leave you now, to contemplate your fate. BYYE!” They went out, closed and barred the door. We heard the van start and drive away.
We started pulling at the ropes, trying to get free, but to no use. The knots were just too expertly made. Our hands being trapped the way they were, didn’t help either. We just had to face it; we were tied to a post in a hut, probably in the middle of nowhere, and there was no way we were going to get free on our own.
Instead, we started ‘mmphing’ to one another, just to reassure ourselves, and keep us from panicking.
“I’m actually starting to like this!” I thought after a while. “I wonder if Pats is?” Pats, or Patricia, that’s my sister. I looked over my shoulder, and as far as I could see, she was.
I don’t know how long we stood there, but suddenly I could see the door-handle move. When the door didn’t open, we heard Tom telling us to relax, and that he’d get us out of there as soon as possible. Suddenly the old, leaky door shattered and he fell flat on his face, on the floor. Behind the gag, I smiled at the sight, as I’m sure Pats was too. He took out a Swiss army-knife from his back-pocket, and started carving at the ropes holding us to the pole. For some reason, the blade he used was blunt, so it took him quite a while, but in the end we were freed from the pole. Without carving the other ropes off, he ushered us out to a waiting car, inside of which the other four guys sat, grinning from ear to ear. “I told you so, didn’t I?” one of them said. “He did find you in the end. Didn’t he?”
After a rather uncomfortable ride back home, with us girls sitting in the lap of one boy each, we were finally completely freed. As the others left, I couldn’t help but tell them what I thought of their little stunt. “Please, let’s do it again sometime soon, will you? I really enjoyed it.”
My earlier suspicions were confirmed, as Pats said: “Me too!”