“What are you moaning about? After all; it was you who suggested it, wasn’t it?” Lisa asked, with genuine surprise in her voice.
“Yes, it was; but I had planned on doing it to you!”Adam replied.
“Yea, well; shit happens, doesn’t it?” Lisa shrugged. Impatiently, she continued: “Are you going to do something today; or aren’t you?”
“Relax; I’m almost done! Just give me a few more seconds, will you?”
“Mm; that’s what you said five minutes ago!” Lisa laughed. “I don’t think you can; and if you can, don’t want to! Mm, that’s it; isn’t it? You’re enjoying yourself too much! Ha, ha; gotcha!” she triumphantly exclaimed.
“No, dear sister of mine; It is I who have got you!” Adam ceremoniously said, brought his hands in front of him and gracefully got off the floor, tossing the ropes which had tied his wrists and ankles together aside.
They both had straight, blonde thick hair; Adam having his fringe cut off in a straight line just above his collar bone and eyebrows, Lisa’s being cut off halfway down her back, and put in a ponytail. Her fringe was cut off just above her eyebrows too.
They were almost identically dressed, Adam wearing a pair of light blue, braced and bibbed denim shorts and a white t-shirt, and Lisa a light blue, braced and bibbed knee-length denim skirt and a white, short-sleeved lace blouse. Both wore open toed, brown leather sandals, but no socks.
Lisa carefully wrote down the time, put the pen and writing pad on a hay bale, and got to her feet.
Her brother stood behind her, grabbed her wrists, crossed them behind her back, and tied them together in a seemingly inescapable way, using the spare rope to anchor them to her waist. She got on her stomach, and he tied her ankles and knees together.
“Right,” he said, as he picked up the pad. “Let’s see, if you can beat my time! I very much doubt it, but miracles do tend to happen; at least once in a while!” He looked at the pad, and when he saw the time written on it, he moaned again, this time because he had imagined his time to have been somewhat faster. Lisa would have no trouble beating it! Heck; their grandma, 86 years old, could probably beat it!
“15 minutes, 30 seconds?” he asked. “Are you sure? It seems like an awfully long time. I would have thought it was closer to 5 minutes!”
“If you hadn’t been so busy moaning and yapping, it probably would have been!” his sister dryly replied. “Are you ready with the stopwatch? I’d like to start trying to escape; preferably sometime today!”
Unlike her brother, Lisa worked methodically and quietly, and was free in half the time it had taken her brother.
“O.K,” Adam conceded, “you are better at escaping than I am! You’ve proved it; I am rubbish at tying a decent knot! Always have been, and always will be!”
“Yes, I am!” she gloated.”That, and the fact I once was a scout. One of the first things I ever learned was how to tie and untie a knot, even behind my back!”
Suddenly, someone behind them applauded and said:
“That was very impressive. Both of you did a really splendid job even though I don’t think the competition was particularly fair given you once was a scout, young girl. However, if you were to do it again, and you’d let ME tie you both up, it would be a fair competition. What do you say?”
The siblings quickly turned around to see who it was. When they saw their uncle Reece, they relaxed.
“Yes please, uncle,” they said, adding; “Would you do that?”
“Course I would! You just wait there a minute, while I go and get some more rope!”
When he returned, he brought several coils of rope.
“Ladies first as always,” he said, as he crossed and tied Lisa’s wrists together behind her back, helped her get on her stomach, and tied her knees and ankles together.
When he had finished tying Adam, Lisa thought she saw him giving her brother a wink. “I wonder what that means?” she thought. “The knots on his ropes seems to be as well done as those on my, so it can’t be a signal for him that the competition is rigged somehow!”
Uncle Reece picked up the stop watch. He raised his right arm, said: “Ready?” and lowered it again, as he yelled: “and GO!”
Lisa immediately started searching for the knot on the rope around her wrists. She became somewhat desperate, when she could only just reach it with the tips of her fingers. She looked over at Adam, and saw he suddenly didn’t seem to have any major problems getting his wrists free!
“So that was what the wink was about!” she realized. “Uncle Reece IS cheating! If he thought I was going to let him get away with it, he’s going to have to think again!” But it was too late; Adam was already free, and well on his way off the floor.
“Well, what do you know? I did it!” he exclaimed in wonderment, “I beat Lisa!”
Now that the competition was over (not that it had ever been a fair one) Lisa relaxed and said: “Yes, you did. Now; can someone please help me?”
Uncle and nephew looked at each other. “How ‘bout it, son; shall we?” Reece asked.
“Most definitely; we shall,” Adam replied, “but not just yet! I like seeing her like that. Let her squirm around some more.”
“Good idea! But I think your aunt will have supper ready any moment now, so I think I’ll carry her into the house, and she can try to get free there.” He looked his niece. “Don’t you even think of trying to get free before we’re inside; you hear me, young lady?”
When he used that tone in his voice, Lisa knew the best, and smartest, reply was: “Yes, uncle,” and do as he said.
Reece bent down, picked her off the floor, and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
Having walked for a while, uncle Reece stopped, bent over and sat Lisa against a tree, and he and Adam sat down either side of her.
“Sorry guys,” he gasped, “this old man’s not what he used to be! Either that; or you’ve put on a heck of a lot of weight since the last time I carried you, Lisa!”
“The last time you carried me, I was three or four years old, uncle!” she dryly remarked.
“Is that so?” Reece lifted his eyebrows. “My; my, how time flies; it seems like only yesterday both of you were crawling around on the floor, making all of us laugh at your genuine amazement, when you saw all the new things around you.”
He slapped his knees and said:” O.K guys, the rest is over for now, even though I suspect I will have to stop a few more times before we’re back home!” He checked the rope around Lisa’s wrists and prepared to throw her over his shoulder once more.
“Please uncle;” she begged, “can’t you untie my ankles instead? It’ll be a lot easier on your back if you let me walk, at least part of the way. You can tie them back together again when we can see the house. I bet auntie Jess will be mighty surprised when she sees us!”
“Horrified, is more like it.” Reece growled, but he put on mischievous grin. He untied her ankles, and helped her on her feet. “But only as far as the meadow; as soon as we reach that, you go back over my shoulder; understood!” he put a finger on her nose and gave it a little push, something which had always made her laugh hysterically when she was younger, but now only made her smile nostalgically. “Yes uncle.”
Despite not being able to walk properly, Lisa kept nearly the same pace as her uncle and brother, all the way to the meadow, were he tied her ankles back together again, and carried her over his shoulder the rest of the way, as he had said he would.