And thank you for welcoming me back. Your comments are much appreciated.
Summer - 1966
Blind Revenge
Part I
Practicing the Typewriter
(mf/mm)
Blind Revenge
Part I
Practicing the Typewriter
(mf/mm)
We fought a Cops and Robbers game as the last tie-up game in the vacation at our great grandfather’s farm. Andrew (10), Angela (9), David (10) comprised one team, the cops, while Frank (9), Donald (9), and I (9) comprised the other team, the robbers. We lost the game due to a combination of luck and my brother’s skill.
It was in the middle of August when we next played a tie-up game. We had already been home for a week during that time, and Angela in particular wanted to tie Andrew and the others up to even up the score, but we decided to wait. Chester and Jay, we were informed, would be back after a week. Besides, in spite of us being on “vacation”, our parents insisted that we do some activities that would “improve” us. Mom in particular was insistent that we won’t “waste away” the summer, but Dad was loathe to pay anything that he feels he himself can teach us. So it wasn’t a summer with much free time.
Well, in the second week of August, Chester (10) and Jay (10) arrived, and I was particularly eager for revenge, especially after they scared me to death while blindfolded (See the First Game of Summer, August 2002 archives).
It was the morning of Thursday. Chester and Jay had arrived the previous day, and they were planning to come over that day, before lunch. Angela had come very early, so early that she ate breakfast with us. After breakfast, to my surprise, instead of playing with my sister Betty, her best friend, she approached me.
“Chet and Jay are coming over later. David will come a little earlier,” she whispered.
“Yes, so let’s get Andrew now?” I asked.
“Go get the ropes,” she ordered.
I did, and we went to find my brother.
We found Andrew in my father’s study. He was practicing in my father’s typewriter; the strike of the keys could be heard throughout the house.
Now, during those days before computers and word processors, my father and mother were all excellent typists who could use the machine with their eyes closed. My mother, for the summer, wanted to hire someone to teach his oldest sons how to use it, even if we were only nine and ten years old. My father, however, doesn’t want to spend money on it, so he insisted that he himself would teach us. So every evening since our return from Vermont, we were at his study trying to learn how to use the typewriter.
Andrew has a blindfold on, and he was practicing striking the keys without looking at his fingers. We’ve started doing that the evening before. He was so concentrated on listening to the keys of the typewriter strike that he didn’t hear us coming.
Instead of simply grabbing him, Angela and I simply walked over to where he was. “Hi Andy. What are you doing?” she greeted.
“Practicing,” my brother said. “Okay, say a letter.”
“K,” I said, and he typed L.
“You typed wrong,” I said.
“Well, practice makes perfect,” he said. “What are you two doing here? You want to practice too?”
“No, we’re here to tie you up,” Angela said.
Andrew stopped, removed his blindfold, and looked at us. “Do I have any choice?” he asked once he realized he was trapped.
“Well,” Angela said smiling sweetly, “you can come quietly with us, or we can drag you kicking and screaming.”
He laughed. “Okay, I’ll come quietly.”
He stood up and raised his hand.
“Okay, Andy, turn around and put your hands behind your back,” she ordered.
He did and I wrapped the rope around his wrists and cinched it tight. I carefully put the knots beyond the reach of his prying fingers. Then I looped a long piece of rope around his waist and tied it to his wrist bonds to prevent him from looping his wrists to his front.
At the same time, Angela untied his blindfold from around his neck, and wadded it.
“Open up,” she asked, and Andrew opened up. She inserted the wadding into his mouth, took a large bandana from her pocket, folded it, and cleaved gagged his mouth to keep the packing in.
“Tom, call Frank and Donald and tell them to come here at once,” Angela told me. “I’m going to put Andy here in his room. Do it! David is coming any minute now and we need them to catch him not to mention Chet and Jay.”
I nodded and quickly went for the phone. I called Frank and Donald, and they both said that they would be coming over. However, as soon as I put down the phone, who should arrive but Andrew’s best friend David?
He quickly asked where Andrew was, and I told him that my brother was in his room.
“Thanks,” he said and he bounded up the stairs to my brother’s room.
I quickly followed, knowing what would happen when he sees Andrew bound and gagged.
I was not disappointed. We entered his room and saw Angela putting on the final touches to the tight hog-tie she had applied to my big brother. David was stupefied.
“We’ve got you and you can’t escape. Surrender, or we’ll take you down,” I told him from behind.
David was snapped from his stupor by my words and quickly tried to escape. He collided with me who blocked the doorway and we both fell on the floor. Angela quickly went and decided the impromptu bout in my favour. David tried to struggle but it was no use taking both of us at the same time. He was rolled unto his stomach where I held his wrists behind him as Angela tied it off. It was tight and snug, but not so much that it would hurt or cut off the circulation.
Immediately after tying his hands, Angela handed me a rolled sock and I put it in David’s mouth. He was quiet and cooperative at this point, as he knew we had him the moment we were able to tie his hands. I finished the gag by wrapping duct tape around his mouth and head. We then led tied his ankles and knees, then hog-tied him.
We now have Andrew and David, and we only have to catch the twins, Chester and Jay Adams, to win.