Matt may have been physically in the kitchen with his mother helping to prepare supper but mentally he was upstairs trying to solve a problem. At this moment his sister Lizzie was bound and gagged on the floor of her bedroom. There was nothing he could do to change this situation but he desperately needed to minimize the consequences that were to follow.
He had already volunteered in the kitchen, which went against all of his principles, in order to divert his mother’s attention. Now he had to come up with a plan to release Lizzie without getting a punch in the nose and to keep his grounded time to something under a year. They were just finishing up and then dinner would go into the oven. It would take an hour to cook and mom had laundry to do so that gave him a scant sixty minutes to come up with something.
Matt is a genius when it comes to getting into trouble but his true talent lies in concealing and controlling the damage that it created. He already had several alternatives under consideration when the doorbell rang. ‘That would be Miranda’ his mother said ‘she’s coming to do homework with Lizzie.’ This was a complication he hadn’t factored in. It had to be dealt with immediately.
‘Don’t worry mom’ he said ‘I’ll get the door. You go do your laundry.’ She walked away muttering something about how “a woman’s work is never done” and he answered the door. Without even saying hello he blurted out ‘Lizzie is busy.' He giggled at his unintentional rhyme. 'Lizzie is busy. She has no time for you. You have to go home.’
Miranda, who was used to his nonsense, firmly told him ‘My mother dropped me off. She won’t be back to pick me up for at least three hours. Lizzie and I are doing homework, then I’m staying for supper and then we are doing each other’s hair. So get out of the way and let me in.’
Matt quickly processed this latest information and a new alternative came to mind. It wouldn’t get him out of trouble, actually it would create more, but it was too good to pass up. ‘I’ll let you in if you help me with my homework first. Lizzie is already helping.’
He let her in and before going upstairs he explained to her that his class had been given the assignment to write a crime story. Half of the class would be writing from the view point of the victim, the other half the criminal. She observed that obviously he was one of the criminals. He ignored her remark and continued. He pointed out that rather than make up a fictitious story he wanted to be the only one to actually commit a crime. She noted that he had plenty of experience and once again he ignored her.
He pointed out that murder was out of the question. Robbery, while an attractive choice, was also out. Then he played his trump card. He told her that Lizzie had suggested kidnapping. He knew that telling her it was his sister’s idea would draw her in. Then he told her ‘She even let me kidnap her to help me out.’ Miranda had her doubts and said so. Now it was time for him to make his move. He said ‘If I can prove it will you let me kidnap you too? You can’t do any homework until her ransom is paid so you might as well join in the game.’
Miranda was so certain that he was lying that she agreed to his terms. He took her upstairs and they opened Lizzie’s door a crack. Miranda peeked in. Lizzie was lying tied spread-eagle on the floor peacefully looking at the ceiling. She knew that Miranda would be coming any minute now and that Matt would have to let her go so she was no longer struggling. Matt closed the door and motioned for Miranda to follow him. Once in his room he told her ‘It’s just like I said. She is helping me out. Do you think that she would be so calm unless she was in on it?’ Miranda had to agree; Lizzie would be going crazy if she hadn’t been part of it. She conceded to Matt that he could kidnap her too.
She wanted to go to Lizzie’s room and say hello first but he convinced her that it would spoil the realism of the crime. He told her to sit at his computer and play a video game. He would leave the room, sneak back in to kidnap her and then take her to Lizzie’s room. He set her up at the computer and dashed to the garage.
Dad was still working on his project and had electronic parts scattered all over his work bench. Smoke from the soldering iron hung in the air and some sort of test equipment was humming loudly. Matt scoured the garage. He had previously taken all of the rope for Lizzie and he needed to find something else. In a cardboard box on a shelf he found some white extension cords neatly coiled up. The ends had been cut off for one of Dad’s previous experiments. He grabbed those and took one more look around. Another box labelled “adhesive tapes” caught his eye. In it were dozens of various rolls but two had his attention. They were both duct tape. One was the plain old gray while the other was a shiny sinister looking black. The choice was obvious he raced back to his room.
Creeping in he grabbed Miranda from behind hand-gagging her. She rolled her big dark eyes at him and pointed to the screen. She had managed to pause her game when he seized her but she wanted to finish. He backed off and she continued. As she played he studied his newest victim.
He had known her for years and had always teased her about looking “goofy” but recently she had changed. She was dressing differently and her hair was different too but it was more than that. He couldn’t figure out why but if someone had asked him to describe her, the words “good looking” would come to mind. Her dark Latina features, especially those big brown eyes, fascinated him. She was wearing a tank top and shorts so she was showing lots of dark skin which mesmerized him. The sound effect of a “game over” shattered his daydream.
He restaged his entry and she was a perfect victim. She played surprised and then offered some resistance and then finally showed submission. He tied her wrists behind her. He couldn’t do her ankles until she had walked to Lizzie’s room but he had lots of cords and decided more was better. He wrapped a long cord around her arms and body several times and then tied a knot just below her breasts.
“Breasts?” he thought. “Where did those come from?” He had never noticed them before. The cord had pulled her loose-fitting top tight to her chest and they had magically appeared. They weren’t large but they were certainly noticeable. He tried not to stare. He quickly grabbed another cord and wrapped it around her to distract himself. That only made it worse. This time he had placed it above her bosom making it all the more prominent.
This was something that all of his meticulous planning hadn’t accounted for. He was actually finding himself attracted to his sister’s best friend. He had to get it out of his mind. He grabbed the roll of tape and peeled off a long strip. He carefully placed it across her mouth, firmly pushed it down and smoothed it with his fingertips. As he did so the impression of her wide mouth and full lips showed through. This was crazy he thought; how could a gag look so good. He needed to refocus.
He gathered up the remaining cords, took her by the arm and walked her to Lizzie’s room. At first Lizzie looked shocked and then she went ballistic. Matt said to Miranda ‘Isn’t she a great actress. You would think that someone had really kidnapped her.’ Lizzie tried to express her anger and surprise but the gag was too effective and all that escaped were unintelligible muffled noises.
He sat Miranda in the desk chair and tied a cord around her waist and the back to hold her down. Then he tied her ankles together. Another cord at her knees finished the job. The white cords against her dark skin looked fantastic and he found his mind wandering again. A call from downstairs, “come to supper”, snapped him back from his new found appreciation of Miranda.
‘I’ll be back to deal with you two later’ he said as he left the room.
To be continued…