101 - 100 USES OF A RED SKATEBOARD
Part 2
“I’m glad you understand. You see, this is worth a fiver to me.” Ollie released the shaggy-haired skater with the words, “Over to you, mate.”
“Aren’t you going to help?” asked the skinny blonde as he raked the hair out of his eyes.
“Why should I? I want him to be able to escape.” Ollie was the tallest of the three boys and had a round head with a ready smile and a rather military haircut. “And he can’t afford not to be cooperative. Can you, Jimmy boy? James’s answer is best not related here.
Leo sighed somewhat but he could see Ollie’s point as he opened the sports bag he had been carrying.
James hoped against hope that someone else would arrive to use the skate-park for the first time since he’d been getting up so early for his morning practices, but he knew there was very little chance of that happening so he had no choice but to cooperate with his captors.
James stood waiting for Leo to sort himself out. He was wearing a baggy grey band t-shirt over a black long-sleeved one, a pair of baggy brown cargo shorts reaching down well down past the centres of his calves, his skate shoes and that scruffy beanie, which he’d retrieved from the ground.
It took a few minutes for Leo to untangle his ropes and lay them out to his satisfaction. For such a scruffy individual, he was quite methodical when he needed to be. Once he was ready, he reminded Ollie that James had to be free of ALL the bindings inside an hour. They’d already agreed what would be allowed and what would not so there was no doubt about the conditions of the bet. Leo set to work.
“Here, hold on to this.” Leo pressed the board against James’s back with the trucks facing forwards and James realised that he had to hook his arms over it. “Hmm. It’s a bit wider than I thought.”
“I told you it wouldn’t be easy.”
“Alright, alright, hold your horses.” Leo shoved the board high up under James’s armpits occasioning the inevitable imprecations form the skater. “No, I’m not one of them; them’s useful. Or so I’m told.” Now hands forwards and hold it in place. James hooked his forearms under the board and reasserted his opinion of Leo’s anatomical resemblances. “Now, now, just hold tight.” As far as Leo was concerned, James could call him what he liked; he simply had no choice but to cooperate as he was bound to his precious skateboard.
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Leo anchored the middle of a long rope to James’s left wrist by doubling it and forming a double loop by passing the bight back along the two strands of what was actually his big brother’s old top-rope that he’d cut to what he thought would be a suitable length and bound the cut with electrical tape after having melted the ends. Leo adjusted his prisoner’s arms until he considered that they were gripping the board as tightly as possible under the circumstances. He then wound the rope four and a half times between James’s wrists while Ollie threatened him about the perils of any failure to cooperate. Ollie was a fair-minded kid really.
As James tried to ensure that he wasn’t going to let the loops slip under the circumstances, Leo started wrapping the remainder of the rope around the loops, pulling them tighter with a predictable repeat of James’s opinion of not only Leo but Ollie as well. Leo had more than enough rope left to knot off through the original lark’s head knot. There were advantages to having skinny, nimble fingers but James wouldn’t have agreed. The edges of the deck were now digging fairly unpleasantly into James’s arms and armpits. It was a good job he’d worn that long-sleeved t-shirt.
That might have held James securely already but Leo was taking no chances. He took a shorter rope and loped it round James’s right upper arm, down in front of the deck round his forearm and returned it several times before cinching the loops and finishing off with a knot behind James’s upper arm. His left arm was soon similarly secured as Leo claimed that, if James had only had the decency to be as skinny (although he said, ”slim”) as he was, then his job would have been a lot easier. James chose to disagree.
Leo thought that, even if James managed to loosen to ropes, the trucks and wheels would stop him forcing the deck right the way through. James thought that, if he managed to loosen the ropes, he would be able to force the wheels between his arms and his back. We’ll see.
“Leo?”
“Yeah?”
“You think he’s making too much noise?”
“Wha’ d’you think?”
“You going to do something about it, then?”
“It’s not in our bet.”
“I don’t mind. Have this one on me.” Ollie reached down into Leo’s sports bag and threw a roll of gorilla tape to Leo.
“You are NOT going mmm nnn . . .” Leo stripped the woolly hat from James’s head and reinstated it where he had placed it previously. James clamped his jaws shut preventing Leo completing the task.
“Cooperate? Remember?”
“Ooo uuuiii uuu!”
“You going to ring his mum or shall I do it?”
“On it now.”
“Nggggh, Ngggh!”
“It’s OK mate, I think he’s changed his mind.” James opened wide and Leo removed the hat once more before rolling it into a more compact form. ”And once more, please.” Leo was beginning to sound unpleasantly like a dentist but he soon had most of the fabric located where he wanted it without making James gag too much. “Bite!” James did his best to do as he was told as Leo applied a generous amount of tape to hold the beanie in place. In spite of his generosity, the grey wool still piled out around the black tape.
“OK, over here.” Leo led James over to a half-pipe and told him to sit down and put one leg on each side of one of the upright supports
“Come on, that’s not in the bet. No tying him to anything except his skate-board.”
“Oh, bugger!”
“Good try!”
“Can I still tie his legs?”
“Sure, but not to anything else.” By now James’s fury was being overtaken by his desperation. What the hell would this skinny, blond bastard do to him next? He soon found out.
Leo took his victim and laid him quite gently on his belly. Both sets of wheels couldn’t be on the ground simultaneously and Leo threaded the bight in the centre of a fourth rope between the deck and James’s back, tying another lark’s head round the deck. He then tied an overhand knot in both the free ends of the rope and pulled it tight. James’s protest was not very comprehensible this time.
“Lift your feet and cross them.” James’s feet looked out of scale enclosed in the substantial skate shoes but Leo soon had his ankles bound in such a way the he couldn’t lower them again or uncross them. Leo then lifted him to his knees while debating with himself what he should do with the remaining rope. Eventually he decided to bring the ends forwards, under James’s crutch and tie one off to each of the trucks more with the intention to “make my construction look pretty” than to cause any more discomfort.
“Shall I blindfold him?”
“Nnnnn! Eeee! NNN!”
“Come on mate, that was just cruel.” Leo grinned. “You know we said that wasn’t allowed. He’s got to have some chance of seeing what he’s doing.”
“OK, then, synchronise watches.
“On the count of zero, go! Five, four, three, two, one, zero!” James started his frantic escape attempt.