## Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by Alex95 » Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:12 pm

Tuesday !!
Zac looked down at the digital readout on the blue watch clinging to his left wrist. He had set it to the same time as the clock on the wall in his class room at the beginning of the year. It allowed him to keep his eyes forward rather than continuously glancing back at the clock to see what time it was. He still had another 10 minutes to go. Class would be out soon, and he had to meet Tammy at the front door of the school so he could find Sarah. Otherwise he would have to walk home, his mother didn't have time to come and get him. He had already told his bus driver not to expect his this afternoon, a comment that Emily would repeat when she got on the bus. Zac would be going over to Tammy's house alone this time. He was having second thoughts on the matter. But, it was too late to back out now.
The young student had come to school this morning bearing a note for the front office bearing his mother's signature. It gave written permission for Sarah to pick him up from school. Norma and Tammy's mother had both called during the day to confirm these instructions verbally. The idea was simple enough he would meet Tammy at the front door of the school. Sarah would give him a ride over to their house and then bring him home around 6:30 that evening for dinner. It would only give Zac and Tammy a few hours to play, but it was better than nothing. He liked Tammy quite a bit now. He didn't quite understand it, it really wasn't a crush, but he felt closer to her than any of the other girls he knew. She had her quirks about her, but he connected with her and the two of them always had fun together.
The two of them played together at recess almost everyday now. Usually boys and girls each hung out with their own genders, but there were exceptions. Zac usually met up with a group of two other boys. Now, Tammy made it 4. The other two members of the group were indifferent. Tammy just seemed happy to see a familiar face. The weather had grown warmer the last two days and coats were a unnecessary thing at the moment. Zac was dressed in a pair of jean shorts, and a short sleeved red shirt with a collar folded around his neck. He wore a pair of leather sandals over his bare feet, they had a strap in front of the foot along with an ankle and back strap at the rear to keep them on. The shirt was a recent purchase from his mother's shopping trip with him. Emily didn't get to make her's yet. She still had that coming up this weekend. She had been engaged with an Box game with Robbie and asked if it could wait. Norma had grumbled over it, but left her at home. She had returned with the weekly groceries in good time and a the second set of pajamas she had promised. She would have bought more of them, but this set was the last of them in Emily's size.
The bell rang loudly in the background and his teacher offered a few final instructions for the day. Zac was in good luck today. He had finished the only page of homework that had been given to him earlier in the day. The year was nearly done and the teachers wanted to grade more papers as much as the students desired to do them. Zac collected his back pack and lunch box from the coat closet and began to make his way down the hallway towards the front of the school with the huge crowd of students tripping over each other to leave. He kept his eyes peeled for Tammy. He couldn't screw this up.
All of Zac's caution and worry turned out to be meaning less. His father always told him, "Son, you shouldn't worry about things you cannot control." It was a lesson he was learning at some expense. Tammy found him almost immediately and took him by the hand. She guided Zac through the crowd and over around the side of the school into the larger parking lot. Sarah met the pair on the front sidewalk and took Tammy's empty hand guiding them safety through the traffic and confusion towards her van. The three walked along quickly in a single file line with Sarah leading the way and Tammy serving as the middle link, between the two of them. It was about a 2 minute walk all together and Sarah led the way quickly. They stopped momentarily at to let an oncoming car pass. Sarah asked Tammy if she had a good day at school and if she was excited to have Zac coming to play. She got a quick yes to both questions from her daughter. Then she shared a question with their other passenger.
"Zac, how much do you weight?" Sarah asked.
"Sixty three pounds." He replied quickly. The question seemed rather random but Zac let it pass without giving it much thought he was having enough trouble trying to keep up with Sarah and her daughter. She had asked it and he had answered that seemed satisfactory for her information on the matter. He pondered the question a moment longer, but his concentration was broken when the way to the car cleared and the three of them could move forward. Once they crossed the initial driving area between the school and the parking lot, navigating to the minivan was easy enough. Sarah led the two children by the hand and made sure that they both arrived safely at the vehicle. Sarah stopped and removed her keys from the left pocket on her jacket. She opened the side door to the vehicle and Zac got a good look at it for the first time.
The van was a bright blue Dodge caravan. It had the normal front and driver seats at the front of the vehicle. There were two additional bucket seats at the center of the van and a bench seat in the rear. Zac looked over the white gray interior of the van from one end to the other. It was a newer vehicle, and it had a number of different things in it. One in particular caught his eye was on the rear seat of the vehicle. There were two car seats situated at the rear of the vehicle on the back seat. Zac knew what they were. It had just been over a year ago that he had gotten out of using a booster seat in a car and moved onto adult seat-belts. Tammy was a year younger than him and a few inches shorter. It made sense to him that she might still be in a booster seat at her age. His suspicious were confirmed.
Tammy made her way past Zac and her mother and made her way to the rear of the vehicle. She seated herself in the car seat on the left side of the car. It had a light purple color as she turned around and plopped herself down in it. Then, Tammy proceeded to strap herself in. The booster seat Zac had spent the last few years in raised his height so that the shoulder part of the seatbelt would fit him properly. Tammy's seat still had a five point harness like the ones that a younger child would wear rather than just adjusting her height for the seatbelt. She seemed familiar with it as she slipped the straps over her arms and buckled them together at a buckle near the front of the seat between her legs. Zac was watching Tammy for a moment with an interest in the matter. He was a little surprised when he heard Sarah's voice.
"Well, are you getting in the car or are you walking home?" The tone of her voice was low and full of sarcasm. "You said you need to be home by a little after 6 so, we should get going don't you think?"
Zac just nodded and climbed up into the vehicle. He didn't intend to hold them up, but it just happened. He was surprised to find Tammy still sitting in a car seat at her age. He climbed in and seated himself in one of the front bucket seats and prepared to depart.
"Don't you want to sit back here with me Zac?" Tammy asked looking at her friend. Zac returned her stare and then looked at Sarah.
"I really don't like sitting in the middle. I would rather sit up here." He explained. Zac stated assuming that Tammy meant for him to take the open center position in the rear seat.
"No, Zac." Sarah responded understanding what Zac meant. "Tammy means to you want to use the other car seat in the back and sit on the opposite side of her?"
Zac looked back at Sarah as if she was crazy. He took a minute to concoct a response and then spit it out. "I think I am a little too big for a the car seat. They usually only go up to 40 of 50 pounds at the most." The information was something that he had learned a few years earlier when his mother had transitioned him to a booster seat from his car seat. Sarah was about to interject, but Tammy beat her to it.
"They are special car seats. They are made by a company called britax and they fit older kids like us. As long as you are not 80 pounds, then you should fit just fine. My mom got the other one out of the truck especially for you." Tammy finished. Sarah continued the explanation.
"I don't like having Tammy ride the school bus without a seatbelt. So, I drive her back and fourth to school every day. When she is in my car, I use a car seat with her because she is still a little too small for normal seatbelts on her own. The car seats with a harness are a lot safer than just a booster seat." Sarah paused and took a breath. "Anyways, we have 4 of them one for each of our vehicles and an extra one. When Tammy heard that I was driving you home she asked me to take the one out of her father's truck so that you could try using it. That is why I asked you how much you weigh earlier. If you were already over 80 pounds then you couldn't use it in the first place."
Zac nodded again taking in the whole explanation. Everything from earlier was beginning to make a whole lot more sense. Now, he knew why Tammy didn't ride the school bus and why her mother had asked him his weight on the way out to the van. Zac took a few seconds to consider the matter and then just shrugged. He reached down and pushed the button on the seatbelt he was wearing and stood up. Then, he made his way to the back of the van and tried to climb up into the car seat that was sitting on the opposite side of the car as Tammy. Zac figured he would climb into it. It would be too small and Sarah and Tammy would drop the matter. He turned around and hopped backwards up using his arms to lift the top half of his body into the car seat. It was a relatively easy task for him and he scooted himself back into the seat.
The seat was a good fit for a child his size and there was a lot more room in it that he originally figured there would be. He shifted a little bit and got more comfortably situated. However, then came the tricky part. Zac started trying to adjust the seatbelts that made up the harness. The harness had two shoulder belts that went down his front and tapered off to the sides to form a lap belt. The two straps came together and buckled into a third strap that came up between his legs towards the front of the seat. It was simple enough, he understood how it worked, however, the seatbelts would not fit around him correctly and he was having a difficult time with the whole matter. Sarah stood in the door of the van and watched.
"Here Zac, let me help you." She exclaimed and climbed into the vehicle. Zac stopped messing around with the seat belts and allowed Sarah to do it for him. The problem he was having was not that he didn't know how the harness fit, it was that it was too small. The car seat was adjusted for Tammy at the moment and he was a little bigger than she was. Sarah made a few adjustments and let out a little more slack on the straps. She had him climb out of the seat for a moment and raised the shoulder straps to a set of holes higher up in the car seat's back. Then, she had Zac climb back into the seat. This time, the straps fit him better and left pleanty of slack for him to side under them and do up the buckle. Sarah adjusted the straps a final time to make sure they were buckled down good and snug. Finally, she fastened a clip that laid across the top of Zac's chest at about his armpit level that kept the two shoulder straps together.
Once she was sure her cargo was correctly secured, Sarah crossed the inside of the vehicle and closed the side door on her way to the driver's position. She seated herself and buckled her own seatbelt before starting the van up and driving the three of them back to her house. The trip was a mild one. Zac's bus ride usually lasted between 35 and 45 minutes depending on traffic. Sarah's home was a little further from the school than his. However, she didn't stop every 2 streets to let children off. So the ride was much shorter. Tammy seemed to sit quietly and look out the window. There wasn't much conversation going on. Tammy seemed occupied with the scenery and Sarah seemed to keep her eyes and attention fixed on the road.
Zac's attention was drawn more to the car seat itself that he was in. It felt strange to be back in one after being out of one for over a year. It wasn't uncomfortable. The straps were tight, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable. It was the nature of the situation. He had gotten used to riding with just a normal seatbelt in a car. It went across his lap and over one shoulder. He had an additional shoulder strap and the extra strap between his legs now. Also, he could lean forward when he had a normal seatbelt on. Unless he jerked it hard or pulled it all the way out it would glide forward easily. The straps on the car seat her anchored securely and didn't allow him as much movement. There were also sides on the car seat so he couldn't move from side to side as easily. Still, he tolerated it quietly and without comment. Zac shifted a little now and again trying to get a little more comfortable.
His mother had taught him well growing up. She always told him that when he was a guest in someone else's home, he should follow their rules and do anything reasonable they ask of him. One example he called to mind was a rather silly phrase she had given him. "If you're at somebody's house for dinner, if they start eating the tablecloth, you put some salt on it and take a bite too." The idea was stupid, but it got the point across. Zac sat quietly and watch the familiar passage of his ride home take place. Besides, he didn't have a long wait, Sarah pulled into her driveway just short of 20 minutes. Without the extra stops the ride went a lot faster than the yellow meat wagon, Robbie's nickname for the school bus.
Sarah pulled the van into the garage closing the door behind them with the remote control. Tammy almost immediately hit the button on the buckle between her legs releasing herself. It took her another minute to wriggle out of the car seat, but soon she was standing on the floor of the van. It too Zac a while longer. It took him almost two minutes to realize he needed to undo the chest clip in order to allow enough slack to release the main buckle. Still, he accomplished it on his own. By the time he was out of the van, Sarah was already at the house and had opened it with the key.
Tammy lead the way up to her room again. It was a nice day outside, but she told Zac on the way home that she wanted to play inside today and asked if that was alright with him. He responded it was. It was about all the conversation that had really gone on during the short ride home. Neither of the ladies seemed really talkative about much of anything. Zac followed Tammy upstairs to her attic bedroom again. The place was set up exactly as it had been. The two children entered the room and Tammy lead the way. It wasn't as neat as it had been during Zac's last visit. Tammy had a few things out and around the room. There was a coloring book open on the table with a box of crayons left out next to it. The doors on the cabinet under her television were open and one of the Wii controllers and the television remote were left out on the floor. Tammy lead the way around her bed. Zac noticed what looked like a yellow hooded sweatshirt and matching pants laying on the floor next to her bed with a weird pattern on them.
He looked down at them curiously trying to see what Tammy was doing as she knelt next to the bed. "My pajamas" Tammy explained picking them up and throwing them off to the side out of her way. "I left them there when I changed for school this morning. I didn't have time to clean up before I left."
Tammy reached under the bed and brought out a shoe box. Zac was familiar with it's contents from his last visit. He took a deep gulp and swallowed the air in his throat.
"Do you want to play Mario cart on the Wii Tammy?" He asked looking at her. She looked up returning his gaze. She could read the nervousness in his eyes.
"Zac, are you afraid to be tied up?" Tammy asked looking at him with a warm smirk.
"Uh no." Zac almost shouted quickly trying to defend his courage. However, he failed at it.
"Look Zac, it was pretty clear from last time that you and Emily don't play prisoner at home. You're sister used enough rope to tie up 5 people and I got out in 20 minutes." She paused looking at him trying to gauge his reaction. "I know you wanted to come over and play today. But, I also thought I would show you how to tie somebody up right. Well, at least so they cannot escape in 5 minutes." Tammy continued with a short laugh. "Look this will only take about half an hour if you pay attention. I promise I won't keep you prisoner very long if you don't like it. When we are done we can play with the Wii if that is what you want to do today. But at least give me a chance here." Tammy finished with a smile as she opened the box displaying the ropes in front of Zac.
Zac swallowed another large gulp of air. "Alright, let's get this over with." He stated with more fear in his voice than he intended to show.
Tammy nodded taking the first coil of rope out of the box. She unknotted it and let its length hang loose in front of her. Up until no Zac had been rather curious about the whole thing. Still, deep down he harbored a fear of it. It was time to face this matter head on like a man. He like Tammy a lot and this was something she seemed to like. She wasn't being mean about it and Zac wanted to know one way or the other if this was going to be an obstacle between their friendship. Still deep down he wasn't a man. He was a scared little boy about to face a new fear.
I am going to break this story here for now. I will continue it sometime later this week.
Alex 95

### Re: Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by Wyatt9999 » Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:43 am

hehe I hope that kid get's tickled

### Re: Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by sarumansauron » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:32 am

> Wyatt9999 wrote:hehe I hope that kid get's tickled

Me too. Great continuation! Thanks!
I love TUGS and TICKLING Torture!!!!!

### Re: Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by FeliDaKitten » Tue Jul 26, 2011 11:23 am

Looking forward to more

### Re: Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by rikj1982 » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:12 am

fab story

### Re: Down on the Farm Series: Over Again

Post by jc77 » Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:20 pm

Awesome story
I travel the road less travled,now where the heck am I?!?!