Part 3: The scouting code
Well, sorry about the long wait everybody. I finally got around to writing this up. As busy as I have been lately I am surprised that I got it out as fast as I did. Anyway here we go.
Saturday afternoon was warm and quite overly so given the state of the weather. I guess I should take a few lines and bring the rest of you up to speed of what happened. Friday after we got to the livery, I rode in the middle of the canoe that my father and Sean were paddling. The trip was about 3 hours in duration and we had a fun time. Next, we proceeded to the campsite. It was at a local campground along the river's edge. I ended up sharing a large tent with my father while the scouts set off into pair. We ate dinner and spent a night around the camp fire along with a few other activities throughout the day. I was usually welcome to watch, but there were quite a few things that I wasn't allowed to participate in. With camp set up and everything settled, I went to bed about midnight and got up at 7 the next morning with the rest of the troop.
We had an early breakfast, followed by more activities for the boys around several different skills. The older boys demonstrated how to use the tools to cut fire wood and gave a rather lengthy lesson in first aid. I got to fill in as the person who got pretended to get hurt, Mostly because I was the lightest to carry around. But all in all it was a fun morning. The group ate lunch and the boys had the afternoon off to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do. A couple of them were going on a hike and another group was going to ride inner tubes down the river back and fourth to the camp site. I was old enough to go with either group and my dad let me choose. Sean was going tubing and Scott was going on the hike. Both of the ideas sounded fun, but I decided that as warm as it was that I would rather ride down the river on an inner tubes than walk through the woods. So, the scouts divided into two groups. Five of them were going on the hike and the rest of us were going to go down the river on inner tubes.
Scott, four other boys and two of the adult leaders bid the rest of us ado and departed for their hike. Meanwhile, the rest of us went to change for the inner tubes experience. The river was in it's low part for the season and it was only about 3 or 4 foot deep at the greatest point anywhere along the campground with a slower moving current. I headed into my tent and got changed for the ride down myself. I put on a one piece green bathing suit with a U shape in the back and slid my a white t-shirt on overtop of it to offer some protection from the sun that hanged heavily overhead. I left my plastic fisherman style sandals on over my bare feet. Then, I slid my life jacket back on top of the T-shirt and buckled it up. It wasn't anything all that fancy. It was just a normal you life jacket with a yellow color foam and blue straps. The jacket wrapped around me and had closed arm holes underneath the shoulders. It closed in the front with three plastic fatex buckles that secure it snuggly around me. It also had a fourth strap that came up between my legs to keep it from being pulled off me in the water. Once I had changed I stepped back out of the tent and waited for the group to assemble.
Two of the other boys came out first and Sean followed. Then the remainder of them came out and the group came together. I had learned most of the other boys names besides just Brandon and my brothers over the last day and a half. Some of the boys had on T-shirts and a few of them were bare chested against the warm sun with only swim trunks on. All of them were wearing either water shoes or sandals of some type. It was dangerous to walk barefoot in the river and it was about half a mile up to where the tubes were kept. My brother being the oldest left of the scouts took a head count and told the adults that everyone was going. My father and the other leaders no going on the hike were staying at the campsite. With that, the rest of us formed up and headed down the main road towards the checking area where the inner tubes were piled up for the trip.
I stayed close to my brother as my father had instructed me to and followed closely at his heels. The other boys followed in close rank behind us as we began the short journey. The sun was warm around us and my life jacket kept some of my upper body head close to me as we walked. Scott and I were the only two of the entire camping group that had brought life jackets with us from home. The rest of the group had worn them on the river the day before, but they had borrowed them from the people who rented out the canoes. They were similar in style to the ones that I was wearing minus the crotch strap. The one I had on my mother had bought for me and it was a pretty good fit so she had me pack it. In truth I had been wearing since I had gotten up this morning. My father made it clear once the camp site was set up that if I was within 10 feet of the river that I had to have it on. I had crossed the boundary several times without it and gotten scolded for it. Plus, I was tired of taking it on and off. So, I just put it on when I got up and forgot about it.
The trip down to the main office was only about 10 minutes and it passed pretty quickly with the talk of everything that had happened that day. Sean was in the lead and the other boys were following close behind us. I stayed close to my brother's side. It wasn't that I was scared or anything, I just liked spending time with him and this was new experience for me. The remainder of our group consisted of 4 other boys that Sean and myself. There were a set of blond haired twin boys named Todd and Alex that were only a couple of years older than me. Michael who was a year younger than Sean and Brandon, the boy that I had met on the bus. The six of us walked in a close rank as we traversed the trail towards our final destination. Sean was dressed in his bathing suit with a short sleeved t-shirt on his upper body. He also had his life jacket draped around his shoulders with his arms threaded through the holes although the straps on his were still undone. Todd and Alex were shirtless in the afternoon sun while Brandon and the other boy were both wearing tank tops. Looking back I was probably the odd ball of this group, but I was accepted and that was all that mattered to me.
After the short hike was finished, we arrived at the main office where campers would check into the campground. My brother and Michael told the rest of us to wait outside while the talked to the campground's owner and got permission to use the tubes. It was a short wait while my brother and his friend said our peace and got permission to proceed with the activity. The door reopened and my brother gave all of us a nod to allow us to go ahead and get started. "Okay listen up everybody. The rules are pretty simple. We're allowed to tube down the river, but we need to exit a little past our campsite down stream It's not hard to miss as there are a point down there to deposited the tubes when we're done. If we want to go more than once we need to carry the tubes back up here for another launch. Life vests are mandatory and I don't want anyone wandering off alone. Find a buddy and stick with them. Any questions?" Sean finished his lengthy explanation of the situation and waited for any responses. Alex asked two of them, but I don't remember what they were.
With everything explained, the remainder of the boys went to retrieve life jackets from the small shack next to the edge of the river while Sean buckled his up the front. Once everyone was set we moved on to selecting tubes for the ride down. The camp site had two different kinds that we could use. They had ones for a single rider or ones that you could get two people on, one in the front and one in the back. The twins got a double tube and Sean insisted that I share one with him as well. Our other two friends each got a single tube. Before we knew it the six of us were heading down stream at a comfortable pace. My brother allowed me to sit up front while he steered us from the back. It was a fun ride and a good way to spend a warm afternoon. After about 15 minutes of floating or so, we drifted by the campsite and I gave a hello wave to my father. A couple of minutes later and the gentle current brought us to our final destination where Sean guided us out of the water. We had a good time on the trip down and discussed the possibility of a second.
The vote was cast and it was unanimous that a second run would be in order. The six of us made the return trip upstream on foot carrying the inner tubes with us. My brother carried ours and the twins each took up and end on theirs. The conversation was light and bounced back and fourth between the events of the morning and the canoeing trip that we had taken the day before. When we arrived at the launch point again, Sean asked if anyone else was willing to go with me down the river so that he could make the trip on his own. Brandon offered to make the trade and the six of us set off down the river again in the same way that we had before. However, this time the ride talk during the drift down river took a direction that it had for the previous part of the afternoon. We were only about 20 feet down stream when Brandon, who was sitting behind me, opened his mouth.
"Umm, So Jennifer are you having a good time?" The question was a little misdirected and out of the blue. I just turned back and acknowledged that I was and returned my concentration to the river ahead of us. "Well, I have had quite a while to think out here, and I keep thinking about the bus ride down here and how I tied you up on the way down. I was wondering if you still want a chance to get even with me for keeping your hands tied on the bus?" I lost my focus on the world around me from the question and turned my gaze backwards to meet his eyes openly. The question had caught me completely off guard. I saw the look on Brandon's face and I could tell that he was a little embarrassed by the whole idea. I swallowed and gave him the first response that came to mind. "Sure why not. I could tie you up if you want me to. But, only if you want to try it not because I am mad about the bus." I looked back at Brandon. The fear melted away from his face as we continued to drift down stream. However, our conversation wasn't as private as Brandon had intended it to be.
Alex, let out a loud laugh in our direction from the other double inner tube that was sailing down the river. "That's pretty good Brandon. You want to be tied up by Sean's little sister? Why would you want to do that? I bet your still scared and you figure that you can escape from her pretty easy if you change your mind." The conversation continued down this road for another minute or two and Todd jumped in and added a similar comment. I got a few laughs from the other boys and I saw as Brandon's expression sank back where it had been a few minutes ago. It seemed to be a big joke to half of the group. Still my brother and Brandon weren't laughing at the situation. In fact, like he always does it was Sean who came to my rescue adding his two cents to the conversation.
"You know Alex, you shouldn't joke about things like that. If Jennifer tied you two up I doubt that you would be able to escape." Sean was speaking from personal experience. He had shown me quite a few knots and techniques that he perfected over the years and I had managed to keep my older brother helpless on more than one occasion. Alex resounded his boast that no girl could keep him tied up for more than a few minutes. This time, Michael responded differently after listening to my brother's comment. "Well Alex, that sounds like a challenge to me. Maybe we should have Jennifer tie you up and see just how long it takes you to escape from it. I'd be willing to bet you doing the dinner dishes tonight that it would take you more than five minutes to escape." One of the duties involved with camping was the preparation of meals and having to clean up afterwards. Most of the boys hated doing dishes and Alex was stuck with dinner which, was going to be one of the worst. He took the bet almost without any hesitation on the matter against having to fill the buckets of water around the tents to protect against a fire.
"Well then, that's settled for now. Does anybody have any rope that we could use to put this matter to a close?" None of us had anything on us. Sean told us that he had a generous stash back at camp and that we could go there after this run to work this matter out. With the bet in place, we continued to drift down past the campsite and we followed the river to its conclusion before exiting and beginning the hike back to camp. It wasn't a long hike hardly at all and before we knew it the six of us trudged back into camp and deposited the tubes at the edge of the camp site. Sean departed our company and headed over to the tent where he was staying to retrieve some rope for the challenge. "I thought you all were going to spend the afternoon inner tubing. What are you doing back here so soon?" One of the adult leaders asked us. Alex repeated his boast to my father and the other adult and Michael explained that we were here to settle the matter. The other adult just shrugged and my father gave us a smile and told us to "have fun". He was pretty used to me and my brother's escapades by now so this wasn't much of a surprise for him. He just sat down and went back to reading the newspaper he had brought with him earlier from the morning.
It wasn't long before Sean returned holding an arm load of rope wrapped up into several small coils. He passed a few of them around and asked each of use to untangle one of them. The rope was just cotton clothesline about a quarter inches thick burned on the ends to keep them from fraying. Sean had half a dozen pieces of rope or so. The ranged in length between 7 and 10 feet. We laid out the coils of ropes parallel to each other across the ground sizing up the lengths. Alex looked down at the rope and then over at me confident that he would prevail. "Okay Mike, for this to be a fair bet she has to tie me up by herself. Your not allowed to help or give her any advice or the bet is off. Also if she is going to use all that rope I might need more than five minutes to escape." Michael was about to offer a protest to the second stipulation, but I put the matter to rest quite easily. "I am only going to need two pieces to keep you from escaping. One for your hands and one for your feet. But you have to cooperate with me until I have you tied up all the way." I explained. Alex nodded and the original time interval was renewed in terms of the original bet.
With everything set, I leaned down towards the ground and picked up one of the piece of rope that was sitting there. I gathered it up and righted myself as I approached Alex. "Turn around and put your hands together behind your back." I instructed him. Alex just let out a short snort and turned his back to face me. Then he brought his arms around behind him and pushed his wrists together. I began by looping the rope around his right hand and knotting off a loop securing it snuggly to his wrist. Then, I took hold of his left wrist and drew his arms together parallel behind his back. Once his wrist were touching, I began to encircle the rope around them forming several snug coils. I made a good 6 or 7 passes then I used the rest of the rope to cinches his hands off in the middle and knotted the ends together on top of his hands. Then I stepped back for a moment.
Alex strained his hands against the ropes for a moment and they held pretty well. The other boys just watched from where they were standing as he pulled for a moment or two. Brandon watched for a moment and then he approached me from the left. "Hey Jennifer, do you think that you could tie my hands up also before you use up all the rope on Alex?" Brandon asked with a little bit of anxiety in his voice. I replied that I could if he wanted me to and I leaned down and picked up a second piece of cord from the ground. Brandon was compliment with the instructions that I had given Alex a moment ago and turned his back to me so that I could bind his hands behind him. I repeated the tie in the same mannerism that I had tied Alex's hands. Finally I knotted it off securing my second captive. I leaned down to collect a second piece of rope to tie up Alex's feet, but I soon found myself with a third volunteer.
A minute or two later I was finishing off the last of the cinches on Todd’s hands behind his back as well. He had suggested that maybe I should tie him up too and that he and his brother could have a race to see who could get out first. I am trying to save a little dialogue here that I don't remember the exacts of anyway. This little game was turning into a regular competition between the three boys. However, I was running out of rope and out of volunteers. Thankfully neither Michael or Sean wanted to join in the fun as a participant because that would have probably used up too much of the rope. Sean played quite a bit a home and Michael seemed only too happy to watch as the younger scouts in the group got tied up. I picked up a fourth piece of rope off the ground and instructed Alex to sit down and put his legs together. Once he was in position I wrapped them several times and cinched them off in the middle before knotting them. I repeated the process with Todd once Alex was secured. I offered to do Brandon as well, but he just stood back and said that having his hands tied was enough for him.
Once I had the boys all thrust up, Michael came over and took his watch off his wrist and pushed one of the buttons on it several times. Then he knelt down and showed the stop watch display on it to Alex. "Alright, 5 minutes go." Michael commented as he hit the button and the stop watched beeped. What followed for the next 5 minutes was a very entertaining display from the twin brothers as they both made a bid for their freedom against the ropes. It was quite a show as Alex and Todd rolled around on the ground and struggled every which way. The rest of us just stood and watched from the distance as they moved back and fourth looking for enough slack to escape. Brandon twisted his arms against his own ropes for a little while as well, but he didn't put up near the struggle that the other two did.
After what probably seemed like an eternity to the captives, Michael yelled that time was up and showed the stop watch to the helpless Alex on the ground. Alex worked himself back into a sitting position and just hung his head down in defeat. His was still sitting there at the end of the time limit in his swimsuit, flip-flops, lifejacket, and of course ropes. Todd had faired now better. Both of them were tired and dusty from rolling around on the ground trying to escape, but neither of them had come close to succeeding. Sean gave Alex a smile. "See I told you that nobody can get free from one of my sister's ties. Especially in five minutes, I hope you have fun doing the dishes tonight." Alex was helpless and there wasn't anything that he could say in response. He just sat back and ate crow. I turned around slowly to see my brother standing behind me with the last piece of rope that he had brought with him. "Well Jennifer, you did a pretty good job tying the rest of them up, would you like to join them for a little while. Michael and I would like to make a run or two down the river without all of you along and it seems that your the only one who is still going to complicate that." I knew how this was going to end one way or the other. So, I decided not to put up much of a fight.
I turned around and put my hands together behind my back. Sean crossed my wrists and lashed them together with the last piece of rope being careful to put the final knot on top of the tie outside of the reach of my hands. I gave them a few tugs, and they were pretty secure. Once Sean finished tying my hands, he reached around the front of my life jacket and made one final adjustment to keep me tied up for a while. He unbuckled the strap on my life jacket that went between my legs and connected with a buckle in the front. Once he released it, my brother pulled it back through my legs and lifted it up. Then, he looped it over my tied hands bad threaded it back through to the front of my jacket and buckled it back into place. It was surprising move, but it did the job. I gave the ropes a few good tugs and realized all at once that the strap prevented me from being able to move my hands to the front and get out of this on my own.
I gave the ropes a few more struggles to demonstrate that I was secure to my older brother. He looked down at me and nodded with approval. "Well, now that should keep all of you busy for a little while. Michael and I are going to make a run down the river with just the two of us. If you get out by the time that we get back you can join us for the next run. But I don't think that any of you are going to escape this one. Have fun." Sean offered with a quick smirk on his face. The older boys asked the adults to keep an eye on us while they went off to peruse their fun. One of the leaders said that he would make sure that we kept out of trouble. With that handled my brother and his companion set off in the direction that we had come from earlier. This was turning into a fine mess and there really wasn't much that any of us could do about it. Well at least that the boys could do about it.
I spent the next 20 minutes or so just watching as the scene unfolded in front of me. Sean was usually pretty good with rope work and without getting my hands to the front or someone to undo them struggling was pretty useless. I watched as the scouts squirmed around in the ropes that I had applied to them earlier. They weren't faring any better than I was on their own. Todd and Alex were at a greater disadvantage because they were tied both hands and feet, not that Brandon was capitalizing on his mobility. My third captive had seated himself cross legged on the ground and set about struggling with his friends. None of them seemed to possess either the flexibility or ingenuity to try and bring their hands to the front like I would have. The leg strap on my life jacket prevented much chance of that happening. As I watched the Houdini wantabes I caught my brother Sean waving to us as he floated past on the river. My hands were tied good and there wasn't a whole lot that I could do about it under the circumstances.
Sean and Michael came past the camp site a second time. They gave us a second wave and a taunt as they passed and wished all of us luck on getting free. I was starting to get a little mad at the situation. It was fun being tied up, but I hated that the my brother and Michael were having fun while leaving the rest of us to sit bound in the hot sun. I needed to expedite the situation and get out of this before their next return trip. Once they had marched down the trail and out of sight I worked myself back into a standing position and hiked over to where Brandon was sitting. He looked up at me as I approached. "Well, Jennifer I think we have to admit that you did a pretty good job. I don't think any of us are going to get out of this. It looks like your brother is pretty good at this also." I just shook my head and looked down at him. "Brandon, do you think that you could undo the strap on the front of my life jacket? The one that goes between my legs?" I asked.
He just looked up at me puzzled as to why I would ask him to do that. I guess under the circumstances that his response was appropriate. I turned my back to him and gave my hands a little tug so that he could see that they were pinned underneath the strap on my life jacket. Brandon just shrugged his shoulders and worked his way back to a standing position. It wasn't all that difficult for him since his legs were free, but it still took him a minute or two pull it off. He turned around and looked down as I tried to guide the clip towards his bound hands. After a little effort our work was rewarded with a gentle click and the strap fell free. I wasted no time in giving away my little escape secret. I untangled my bound hands from the strap and began the process of threading my legs through my hands to get them to my front. After that it just took me a minute or two to pick the knot free with my teeth. With a few tugs and a fair amount of struggling, I finally pulled my hands free of the ropes. I walked around Brandon and reached down to undo the ropes that bound his hands behind his back. However, he pulled away when I began to reach for the knot.
"Not just yet, I want to see if I can get out on my own first. Hey Jennifer, since that ropes is not being used on your hands any more do you think you could use it to tie my feet up too?" I nodded and began untangling the rope. I told Brandon to sit down and put his feet together in front of him. My newest friend complied with my request and put his leg parallel to each other in front of him. I wound the rope around his ankles just above his flip flops and cinched it off in the middle similar to how I had tied the other two boys. Then I stepped back to watch the fun continue. Alex and Todd looked pretty tired and had given up trying to get loose. They just sat there and looked over at me. It wasn't long before my brother and his friend came up the trail again to check on our progress. Sean was a little surprised to find me free, until I told him how I accomplished it. He congratulated me and invited me to join him on the next ride. I took the older boys up on their offer and we left the rest of the prisoners to their own devices.
The three of us made one ride down the river before returning to camp. This time we untied the other three captives all the way. Well, almost Michael made Alex march to the tube launch point with his hands still tied behind him. But, once we got there we let him go. They had been tied up for about an hour and it was too hot out to be for much longer. Once everyone was free, our group tubed down the river another 4 or 5 times before we had to come back and prepared dinner. By the time that it was all done, most of the matter had been forgotten and all of us pitched in to help with the meal rather than dumping it on Alex and Todd. They weren't too sore about the whole experience. It had been fun for both of them and myself and we had a good laugh about it.
I finally managed to prove that a girl was just as good as a boy at tying knots. No one in the troop debated that after that little experience. If you look up the background on the boy scouts of America, you'll find that they are rooted in good values and citizenship. However, what you won't find is the hidden motto of most boys around the age of 10 to 12. It goes that, ' Turn about is fair play, and don't get mad get even.' That is exactly what they did, but that will be my next story. Until next time,
Jennifer