## A Second Chirtmas Story (Part 6): The Straight Jacket

Post by jennifer » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:57 am

Hey all, I am trying to get this next section of the story posted in a little more timely of a manner than the last one. Unfortunately, the title is a bit of a give away on the subject of the story. But, most of you knew that it was coming from the innuendo in the third part of this series. This is one of my favorites and I hope everyone enjoys it.
It had been two days since the end of our last game and all was well at my grandparent's house in PA. It always turned out to be a wonderful time getting together with friends and family. Our activities over the last two days varied from playing out in the snow, to our normal holiday gift exchange that had taken place earlier that morning followed by our traditional Christmas dinner. The really large meal with all the trimmings. The table had been full of mountains of fantastic food. It turned out to be a really cheerful time to spend as a family. When the meal had concluded and the holiday banter had quieted down most of the family had either gone off to engage in some other form of activities or they gathered in the family room to continue the conversations. I had spent the afternoon out in the snow with Lucy, Kyle, Scott, and Amy playing around. Even though I had become a teenager officially a month ago, I still behaved more like a child than an adult. I wasn't above having fun outside in all the fun white stuff with everyone else. None of us were.
The day winded down as the 5 of us came in from the cold to warm up in by the big fire place in the family room. We shed our winter clothing and hanged it up to dry so that we could put it to good use the next day. Then, we sat down to a warm dinner fixed primarily from the leftovers of lunch. My grandmother always made way too much food to eat in one sitting. I was still pretty full from the first meal and only ate a little, mostly to appease my mother. The conversation at dinner was less complex than the first go around. Everyone had caught up with the lives of the rest of the extended family and the topic jumped all over the place. Like me, most of the younger portion of our group found the talk pretty boring and excused ourselves from the table at the first available excuse we could create. I was no exception and the second one gone. I wanted to take a shower before the line got to long. In a house with 14 people and only two bathrooms, it could be a long wait. I headed upstairs to the room where I was staying with the rest of the girls and collected my stuff before heading down the hallway over to the bathroom.
I trudged their slowly with the dragging the large duffle bag over my shoulder. I arrived to find the bathroom conveniently empty from the gathering of people downstairs and went inside. It wasn't long before the water began running and I allowed it to reach a comfortable temperature before stepping into the shower. I let the warmth of the water drift over me as I absorbed it into my skin. It had been a pretty cold and busy day outside. The heat was a welcome stress relief that promised to soon be followed by a restful night. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
I let the shower run for a good while as I enjoyed the quiet break from the stress of the day. Unfortunately, all good thing must come to an end.
I turned the water off slowly letting the last of the spray hit the floor quietly before I grabbed a towel and stepped out of the shower onto the floor of the room. I was struck almost immediately by the cold air that inhabited the room. It wrapped its chill around me like a cold breeze. I dried off quickly and decided to seek comfort in some warmer clothing as I hiked over to where I had left the duffle bag on the back of the toilet. I opened the zipper on the bag and began to dig though it's content's hastily. I changed into my undergarments. I already knew what I wanted to wear to bed, the only problem was finding it. I had packed about half a dozen outfits for the week along with 4 sets of sleepwear. We did laundry throughout the week so we didn't need to worry about running out of clean clothes. I had packed two sets of normal pj's plus a long nightgown, but they weren't what I was looking for tonight. I dug toward the bottom of the bag and found the blanket sleeper that I was looking for neatly folded and ready to remove from the bag.
I lifted it up and unfolded it letting the lower part of the garment fall to the floor. First, I undid the zipper and ran it all the way down the front to where it ended in at the waist. Next, my legs were slid into the lower part of the sleep suit and my feet ended up in the built in feet on the garment. Then I worked my arms into the sleeves and zipped the front of the sleeper back up sealing myself in with the warmth that it provided. I was covered all the way from top to bottom in warm fleece and I watched as the cold swept away from me. After my pj's were in place, I began to did back in my bag for a second layer to wear to before I went to bed. I settled on a set of green sweat pants and a dark blue sweater with long sleeves and a tall collar on it. I pulled them on and tucked the top into the bottoms. Now, I was really going to keep warm, I wasn't going to wear the second layer to bed, but I wanted something to keep warm before I went to sleep. I finished the outfit off by donning my teddy bear slippers over the pajama feet and I added a light weight pair of fleece mittens over my hands. I tucked them under into the cuffs of my sweater before I went to close the bag.
Once, I was changed for the night, I leaned over and picked up my duffel bag from the floor and lifted it onto my shoulders. Next, I reached down to zip the bag shut. However, this proved to be a little bit difficult because of the mittens that I was wearing. I lowered my gaze and concentrated on looking down at the zipper so that I could get a reasonable grip on it. The grip was easy enough to find once I focused on what I was doing, but looking downward caused me to look into the bag where something else caught my attention. It was hidden under my clothes close the bottom of the bag itself. Only a slight part of the left sleeve of the canvas jacket was visible from beneath the clutter of clothing that lined the bottom of the bag. My attention shifted away from closing the bag and I began to focus on the straight jacket that was situated at the bottom of my bag. I exited the bathroom with the duffle bag still open, my attention drawn away from wanting to close it.
I hiked across the upstairs to the room where we were staying for the week and entered it almost secretly. It was empty of other human beings. Lucy and Amy must have still been down stairs with the rest of the family I thought to myself. I crossed the room to the bed that I was currently sharing with my little sister and placed the duffle bag on it with a plop. Then, I couldn't hold back my curiosity any longer. I pulled the rest of the contents of the bag aside and withdrew the garment from it's resting place on the bottom of the bag. I lifted the straight jacket out and held it up in front of me so that I could examine it more closely. I had gotten it for Christmas a few days ago from my parents, but I hadn't had time to try it out yet. So, it ended up getting packed in the bottom of my bag in the hopes that my schedule would be a little freer once we arrived at our grandparents house. Now that it was in front of me, I gave it a much more complete examination up and down.
The straight jacket was made of a reasonably heavy canvas type material designed to withstand struggling. It a large opening in the back that seemed to be drawn shut with quite a few straps and buckles that ascended the height of the jackets. When it was held up, the sleeves on the jacket extended a good foot or two below the where the waist ended and would likely cover my arms all the way down with plenty of room to spare. There was also a high collar on the jacket that would make it difficult to pull it off over the wearer's head. Finally, there were quite a few loose straps and loops hanging in several other places on the jacket, whose use I could only guess at. I held it up in front of me looking it from top to bottom and back. I tested the weight of the straight jacket against the force of gravity and it was heavier that I originally thought it would be. It had been a the back of my mind ever since we had arrived at my grandparents house that I wanted to take it for a test drive. However, no real opportunity had presented itself. Finally, I decided to give into temptation and try the thing on to at least get it out of my system.
I lifted it forward in front of me and pulled the back gently open. Next, I threaded my left arm into the sleeve and followed it promptly with my right. As you could probably guess, the sleeves were more than too long and extended the well past the ends of my arms covering my hands. I shrugged back my shoulders and pulled the back of the garment closed the best that I could. However, with the limited amount of dexterity it offered, I couldn't go much further on my own. I shifted around a little and tested it's weight and strength for a minute or two. It was quite heavy and made of a very sturdy material. With everything done up it would probably be nearly impossible to escape from it. Unfortunately, I had gone as far as I could go on my own. There was no way that I could secure my self to the point that I wouldn't be able to get out of the jacket with relative ease. I contemplated my decision a moment longer before I finally arrived at the conclusion I had been building for the last few minutes. I wanted to try it out officially and I was going to find someone to help me out. I decided to swallow my pride and head down stairs to ask for help. I turned and walked away from where I was standing and exited the room slowly heading for the stairs. I headed down and began my short journey to the living room.
My fascination with straight jackets had begun about 8 months ago when I was watching a special on TV. I forget what the show was exactly, but it was talking about escape artist and it had a demonstration on how to get out of one on the television. I had been fascinated with the idea the first time that I had seen someone escape from one of them. It looked pretty restrictive, and I wanted to see what one was like. A few months ago, I had Sean make me a pretend one by putting on one of his shirts and tying the arms together behind me with my hands folded in front. It only took a few minutes for me go get out, but it was an neat experience. The next time, he tied rope around my arms overtop of the shirt and I wasn't able to escape. After that experience, I decided that I wanted to try the real thing. So, I asked my mother if I could get a real one and got the standard answer of no. After another two months of nagging, I worked it up to a "we'll see" and I left it at that. Low and behold, I opened my presents two days earlier and there it was. I had to wait a long time to get it, but it was really neat to finally have one and I wanted to try it out. I rounded the last corner of the lower hallway and entered the family room most of the other people were gathered. Almost immediately, most of the eyes in the room floated over to where I was standing as my presence seemed to completely disrupt the scene.
"Hello Jennifer, what do you have there?" My aunt asked as she looked over at me and then back over at my parents with a look of astonishment. "It's a straight jacket that I got for Christmas, I was wondering if someone could help me put it on?" I replied. My aunt looked over at me as if I mentally needed it and then asked my parents for an explanation. My father got up from where he was sitting and came over to where I was standing. He gave my aunt the long version of the story and explained the purpose and background of the strange gift. His speech concluded with, "Mostly we thought it would keep her out of trouble and our hair if she had it on." The room soaked up the cheap pun and we all had a good laugh over the matter as my father hiked over behind me and looked the jacket over. He gave a wave over to my brothers to come over to where I was standing. The two of them rose and hiked across the room to where I was standing. "I'm going to show the two of you how to close this up. That way Jennifer won't have to bother us the next time she wants to wear it." My brother both nodded with the statement and my father went to work on the straight jacket.
With the jacket already partially on, he began by closing it off in the back. There were several buckles in the back that threaded from one side to the other and tightened down like a belt. My father drew each of them tight and pulled them secure before setting them in place. With each strap he drew, the jacket got snugger and tightened around me. Once he finished with the back, he directed me to let my arms hang at my sides. There was a looped strap on each side just below the shoulder that secured the upper arm to the side of the straight jacket. He snugged one of them down into place and allowed Sean to secure the other one. Next, my father lifted up my arms and had me fold them across my chest. He guide them each through a loop that was set there and folded my lower arms. The look helped to keep me from being able to pull my crossed arms away from my chest. He drew the ends of the long sleeves around my sides and tucked them into another set of loops before he drew them together behind my back. They secured to each other there through a series of straps and buckles. He secured them and drew them up tight explaining each of the straps to my brothers as he went. Then it was time to do up the last strap.
My father leaned down and took hold of the strap that was hanging down from the front of the jacket. He guided it between my legs and threaded the end of it into a buckle on the back of the jacket. Then, he drew it up and took of the slack from it. He drew the strap to where it was tight between my legs and pulling down on the rest of the jacket. When it was drawn, it tightened everything down good and snug. I felt the canvas pulling in on me from several different angles and it really felt secure. My dad stepped back to admire his handy work for a moment. Then, without another word, he turned and went back to where he had been seated next to my mother. The adults watched me for a minute or two longer, then they went back to their conversation as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, I set about testing the limits of the straight jacket as Scott and Sean watched me.
With all of the straps done up, the straight jacket was a lot tighter than I had anticipated that it would be. I began by pulling my arms in several different directions. I also shrugged my shoulders back and fourth and pulled against the jacket in several different ways. However, it all proved to be a futile effort. I could squirm my upper body around in it quite a bit, but nothing I did seemed to make any difference about my current state of affairs. The one I had seen escaped from on TV didn't have the extra loops in front and around the upper arms. The held my arms rigidly in place where they were and prevented any attempt to move them more than an inch or two out of position. I wasn't getting anywhere at all. Every time I pulled against part of the jacket, it tightened up on the opposite site or area. The canvas was much heavier that I thought and held well against any struggles that I could provide. Finally, I decided there was no way out of this and accepted my fate. I was going to be stuck in this thing until someone let me out, and it was awesome to say the least.
I settled on that I was stuck and decided that I was going to sit down and just enjoy the atmosphere of the room. There were several conversations going back and fourth along with a warm fire burning in the fire place. I hiked over to the couch that my brothers had been sitting on and turned around. I plopped myself down gently and scooted all the way back to the rear of the couch. I seated my self against the back of the couch with my knees just short of the edge and my feet dangling over the side. Scott and Sean followed and took a seat on either side of. The flow of the evening continued less interrupted by my presence. I sat back in silence and watched the warm glow of the fire as everyone else continued to talk. I shifted around back and fourth now and again to remind me that I was secured. The straight jacket was a little stiff, but if I sat still it wasn't really uncomfortable to wear. I was really enjoying this situation quite thoroughly. I was a little warm, but I kept that to myself. If I asked for the straight jacket to come off, so I could cool down it was probably not going back on and I wanted to stay like I was for most of the evening.
I spent the next couple of hours secured quite nicely seated between my two brothers on the couch. I struggled a little and dangled my slippered feed back and fourth somewhat, but for the most part I just watched the fire and sat quietly. Amy gave me a look over a couple of times and asked several questions about it. She soaked up the explanations we gave her and was content to go back to playing. As the evening drew onwards, several other members of the family grew tired and began to depart the room for where they were sleeping leaving the rest of us to continue onwards. Most of the adults gradually left the room in turn and Lucy took Amy up to bed around 10 or so. After another half hour or so, Mary asked the boys if they would depart so that she could get ready for bed. She slept in the family room on one of the two sofas with a sleeping bag. With a lot grumbling, the boys departed leaving just my sister and myself in the room. Mary told me she would be right back and told me not to go anywhere. Not that I really could once she closed the door to the room behind her.
I think my sister understood that I wanted to stay like this for as long as I could. She was will to tolerate my presence a little long if it would make me happy. With my brother gone, I decided to stretch out on the couch and get a little more comfortable. I drew my legs upwards and used them to maneuver myself into a laying position. I brought my head up against a pillow on one end of the sofa and straightened my legs out in front of me. Then, I went back to watching the fire as I drew in the silence of the room. Mary was gone for about 15 minutes or so. She returned changed into a yellow nightgown with her hair drawn up in a braid behind her. She closed the sliding door behind her and crossed the room. My sister said nothing to me as she set about laying out her sleeping bag for the night across the opposite sofa. Once that was compete, she put her pillow above the top of the bag and hiked over to the fire places. Mary drew back the screen and added a couple of more logs to the fire stoking it up to provide her with some warmth for the night. Then, she back to her makeshift bed and sat down.
"You look pretty comfortable over there Jennifer. you can stay like you are a little longer if you like, it will be a little while before I go to bed. Just let me know when you want out and I will let you go." I looked over at her and nodded before changing my gaze back to the fire place. I shuffled my shoulder back trying to get a little more comfortable. There was just something relaxing about being restrained like this. It was calming not being able to move around and I was content to stay put for the moment. My sister and I just laid their across from each other watching the fire and drawing in it's warmth. I was in no hurry to be let go and I decided to take my sister up on her invitation to stay put a while longer. The straight jacket was very secure and completely unyielding to any of my efforts to free myself. I laid there and began to wonder how someone could escape from something like this. I allowed my thought to wander as I laid there. I was in no hurry to go anywhere fast.
I am going to stop here with this story. It is starting to get on the longer side and I want to get it posted. I finish it in the next part. I hope everyone has enjoyed this one. It has an interesting conclusion, but it will have to wait. Some feed back would be welcome, Part of me feels a little uneasy sharing this story, but it was one of the more memorable ones from my childhood. I will hopefully post the next part in the near future. Until next time everyone take care.
Jennifer.

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Post by Daniel » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:00 am

I always love your stories! Thanks for posting.