## Water, Sand and Rope (Parts 1 and 2 ): It's your funeral

Post by jennifer » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:02 pm

Water, Sand and Rope (Part 1): Water
Well everyone, I thought it would be good to go back to my childhood experiences now that I finally finished with my latest college story. This one takes place when I was 10 years old as a kid. The title gives some of it away, but the rest is rather interesting. I hope everyone enjoys it.
Summer is one of my least favorite months of the year. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have all the pretty color and not have to shovel snow or trudge through the mud. However, the one problem that summer has is that it's hot. It's really hot especially during July and the first part of August usually. The day this story takes place was no exception to the rule. I was 10 years old at the time of the story and my brother Scott was 11.
I don't remember what the exact temperature was that day. It was in the mid 80's or lower 90's in Fahrenheit. In other words as I put before it was hot. Back in during this time, my house didn't have air conditioning. We had fans around the house, but all that did was create a breeze blowing the already warm air back around the room and onto you. It was about the middle of the morning when I came into Sean's room. My brother was laying on his bed with a fan blowing on high pointed at him. "Hey big brother." I shouted as I came into the room. Sean looked up from the game he was playing and looked at me. "Yeah Jen, what do you want?" I took a moment and stared at him as he returned my gaze. My brother knew better than to just ignore me. I was persistent when I wanted something at that age and I could be a real bother until I got an answer.
After I let my request linger in the air. "Sean, . . . It's hot. I mean it's really hot." I spit out looking up at him. Sean didn't pause his game he just shot me a glance. "Really Jen? Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I was beginning to feel a little bit cold. Maybe I should dig my snowsuit out of the closet and crawl under my electric blanket to warm up." I let out a loud laugh at my brother's statement. I was beginning to gather the idea of sarcasm at that age. Sean had to put it out pretty thick, but I was able to pick up on the joke. "Really Jennifer, I know it's hot. What exactly did you want me to do about it?" I waited until my brother finished, he was a little annoyed by my bothering him over the obvious situation and I could pick up on his attitude in his voice.
"Scott and I want to know if we could go swimming." Sean looked up and at me and just shook his head. "No Jen, you cannot, it's a mile to the city pool and you know mom doesn't want me taking the two of you there by ourselves. Besides, I don't have the 10 bucks to spare for the three of us to get in." Sean gave me a direct answer. The there is no chance in hell of that happening. I waded around the excuses since that wasn't my request in the first place. "I know" I replied, "I didn't mean the city pool, I meant the swimming pool in the garage. Scott and I were wondering if you could help us set it up." Sean looked at me like I was crazy.
He sat back and rolled his eyes around in his head. Then he looked down at me. "You're serious aren't you Jen?" I just nodded with a quiet smile. Sean looked at me again and gave me a look of frustration. Then, he let out a heavy sigh. "If I do this, you'll leave me alone to finish my game in peace for the rest of the afternoon?" I nodded again. "I'm serious Jen, I don't want to be bothered. If you interrupt me again after I dig this pole out, I am going to tie you to the tether ball poll out in the hot sun for the rest of the day. Do we understand each other clearly?" I nodded again. "Fine, go get your swimsuit on and I will go dig the pool out of the garage.
With that, Sean paused his game and departed from his room down the hallway towards the kitchen and ultimately the garage. I headed down to my room to change. My room was closer to Sean's room than the garage. I stepped inside and closed the door to get some privacy while I got ready to go outside. Usually, I would have bothered my mother to help me find my swimsuit and help set up the pool. However, she was absent this morning off visiting my aunt as she often did on weekends during the school year. Sean was 16 at the time of this story and more than capable of watching Scott and me for a day at a time. We did some dumb things, but we we capable of rational thoughts at this age at least most of the time. We really didn't need to be watched constantly unless something was going on.
Still, even without my mother's help, locating my swimsuit didn't take long. It was a green one piece suit with a U shaped back on it. I slid out of the shorts and t-shirt I was wearing and slipped into it. I also grabbed a pair of plastic fisherman style sandals from under my bed and slid them on over my bare feet. Our driveway was gravel at the time of the story and it didn't feel good under bare feet. Once I was changed, I headed out of my room and over to the laundry room which was just off the garage. I opened the bottom cabinet and began digging around looking for the bottle. I was old enough to know not to drink anything under the sink. After a couple minutes of looking, I found the sunscreen and poured some out into my hands. I spent the next five minutes or so spreading a generous coating of it over my body.
The sun was bright over head and I didn't need to get sunburn.
Once I was all set, I entered the garage just in time to see Sean handing the large box down to Scott from the rafters. My younger brother slowed its decent to the floor, but it was still rather heavy for him to handle on his own and it hit the floor with a soft thud. Once the box was down, Sean hopped down and hefted the heavy load onto his shoulders. "Come on you two, let's get this thing set up so that I can get back to my game." My eldest brother stated as he headed out the open garage door with the large box hefted above his shoulders. Scot followed behind him carrying a bicycle pump and I followed after them empty handed.
The three of us formed a procession to the rear yard of the house. Sean led the way looking for a good spot to proceed. My oldest brother selected and open and level spot next to the covered sandbox that sat out in our back yard. Our father had gotten a fresh load of sand for this year like he always did, but it did get to see much action from us as we didn't play in the sand very often at that age. Sean opened the box and hefted the big thing out onto the open lawn next to the sand box. "Well, this is about as good of a spot as any I can see from where we currently are. You had better hope this thing holds air, otherwise it's going back into the garage and you two will have to find something else to stay cool with. By the way, our deal stands either way whether or not this works." Sean began to spread the contents of the box out on the lawn and then began to try and locate the air nozzle to insert the pump.
The item contained in the box was an old wading pool that my mother had bought for us when I was roughly 4 or 5 years old. It was the inflatable kind that you set up in the back yard and fill with a garden hose. The pool was pretty old and had seen it's share of use over the years. It had several patches on it where a leak had sprung, and the hole had been repairs. Sean inserted the end of the pump into the nozzle and made sure the seal was secure. "Ok, you two go ahead and start pumping. It's hot and I am not the one who wants this silly thing set up. If you want to go swimming go ahead and start pumping. I am going to go untangle the hose. With that, Sean walked back toward the house leaving Scott and me with a tiring task to complete.
Scott began pumping first. He was the oldest and he wanted this done apparently more than I did. I just stood there wand watched as my brother pumped the handle up and down at least 100 times. I continued to watch as the pool began to expand and take shape as the air pulled the first of the three chambers that composed it. Scott pumped for a good 10 minutes and to my pleasant surprise, the pool held air without a hitch. Once he was done filling the first chamber, my brother wiped the sweat from his forehead and closed the valve. Scott stepped down on the first wall of the and applied some pressure with his foot. The two of us listened carefully to see if we could hear any leaks. Luckily, there weren't any in the old pool so far. With that done, Scott moved on and put the pump into the second valve.
"Ok Jen, it's your turn." I didn't argue. The sooner the pool got full of air the sooner it could get full of water. I began pumping hard and a few minutes later, the second section of the pool was beginning to inflate well. My endurance wasn't as high as my brothers and I only got it to about two thirds of the way full until Scott had to take back over and finish the last of it. After we filled the second section, we tested it as well to see if the pool would hold it's air. The third section got filled in the same mannerism. Scott and I each had to take 3 turns to fill the final section with air. Both of us were getting tired, but we had come too far to quit now. By the time we got half way, Sean had made his way back over with the hose.
Both of us were out of steam, burning up too much energy early in the process. Sean stepped in and finished the last chamber for us rather than waiting on us to do it. After a quick air test, we got another pleasant surprise as despite the two years in storage, the pool was in tact and held air quite well. Sean smiled and began filling the pool up with the garden hose that he had brought over from the house. Meanwhile, Scott collected the bicycle pump from the ground and headed back to the house. His goal was to put the pump away and change while Sean filled the pool. I just stood there and watched the water go into the swimming pool as my brother sprayed it in. It was going to take about ten minutes or so for the pool to fill up.
Sean paid attention to what he was doing half haphazardly. He was really paying attention to me. My older brother could ready my body language like an open book. When he noticed my full attention was focused on the pool, I got a huge shock as the stream of water altered it's course from the pool to me. Sean gave me a good soaking from the end of the hose as I held my hands in front of me vainly trying to stop the water. It was all in good fun. It was a hot day and the cold water felt good. After a minute or so, Sean pulled the hose back down and resumed filling the pool. We both shared a laugh over the incident and Sean commented that I needed to cool off.
Sean finished filling the swimming pool a few minutes later. "Alright Jen, there it is, give it a try." I wanted to run and jump into the pool instinctively, but I just stepped over the side and sat down. The water felt cool and was a welcome relief from the sun. Sean stepped back and laid the hose on the ground. My eldest brother just stood there and watched as I sat in the water and splashed around a little bit. The pool wasn't very big. It was mostly meant as a wading pool for younger children. It was circular in shape and probably 8 feet in diameter across. I don't remember how deep the water was, most likely between one and a half to two feet. Enough that I could get wet if I sat or lied down, but not deep enough to put in any risk of drowning. Still, Sean stayed and kept an eye on me until Scott got back from the house.
My middle brother was wearing a blue set of swim trunks and trodden out into the yard without a shirt in his bare feet. I heard him use the choice words as he crossed the driveway to the back yard. Sean nodded as Scott came over and sat down in the pool with me. "Alright, you two have fun and let me be for the rest of the afternoon. Scott, you are in charge of keeping an eye on Jennifer. Don't let her out of your sight by the pool. I will be keeping an eye on you from my room from time to time so behave." Sean stated pointing at the window to his room that over looked the back yard. He had a clear view of the pool from it. Scott replied that he would keep an eye on me and that the two of us would behave. I nodded and repeated his promise, at least my own version of it. Sean nodded. Scott climbed into the pool and Sean headed back to the house.
At first, the two of us just sat there in the water staring at each other. It was a hot day and despite how stupid the two of us probably looked sitting in the wading pool, the water felt cool and it was a nice relief from the day. After just sitting there for a while, I shifted my position and half laid on my stomach with my head just above the water. Scott just stayed put and the two of us started talking. I don't remember the content of the conversation, probably something to do with summer vacation and the plans we had for the rest of the summer. I am sure the topic bounced back and fourth. However, after about 20 minutes of talking or so, Scott splashed me hard with a small wave of water. My diary doesn't say who started the fight, but since I am writing the story I am going to go with him. More often than not when two of us start a fight he was the instigator.
Well, two minutes later both of us were bringing up small tidal waves aimed at each other. The whole process took about 5 minutes before we tired ourselves out and drained half of the water out of the pool by splashing it over the side. We both calmed down and Scott got out of the pool and headed over towards where Sean had left the hose. Then he came over and pointed the hose at the pool and began to refill it. Our parents were going to have a high water bill this month. When my brother began spraying the water into the swimming pool, I climbed out as well and retreated outside of the perimeter of where the hose was. Scott ignored me at first and continued with his task. The new water would replenish the depth of it in the pool, and would also lower the temperature of the existing water some. Even though I had just climbed out, the suns heat was quickly drying the water dripping from my sides.
I turned and began to walk towards the house. Scott noticed as I was departing. "Hey Jen, where do you think you are going." My brother was far from being done in the pool and didn't want to be stuck sitting there alone. "I am heading over to the garage to get a life jacket." Scott stopped filling the pool back up and looked at me. "Why on earth would you want a life jacket? Hello Jen, the water isn't even up to your waist. It's not like you are going to drown without one." I nodded, "I know. I just want to go and get one. I'll be right back." Scott just lifted his shoulders. "Alright suit yourself. I should be finished by the time you get back." I repeated my previous reply and continued on my departure. Scott resumed filling the pool with water.
My departure was a mix of lies and truth on the matter. I told my brother the truth about where I was going. However, getting a life jacket wasn't the real reason that I had left the swimming pool. It was really just the first excuse I could come up with that I thought my brother would believe. Not that he took me much at my word on the matter. My real reason for leaving was a mixture of two items that needed to be addressed. First, my secondary reason for leaving was that I wanted to see what we had to play with in the garage. I was a little old for some of the toys that I had played with when I was 4 or 5, but I was still a kid and I wanted to see if I could find something to play with in the water. We had a couple of kick boards, goggles and some other things in the garage that I knew about. I wanted to explore and see what I could find. However, that was only a secondary motive for leaving the pool.
My primary reason for the unexpected departure was to deal with a trust issue that I was currently having. It's not that I didn't trust my brother to keep me safe or have a good time with. I didn't trust him with the hose. There was no way that Scott was that mature and I didn't want to end up on the receiving end of getting sprayed with a hard stream of water. I drew the conclusion when he picked up the hose that my best move was probably just to get out of range before the idea came into his head. I rounded the corner of the driveway and entered the garage through the open door. I began to look around as I entered the room.
I already knew where my life jacket was before I entered the garage. It was hanging on a hook on the wall with the rest of my family's collection of life vests. We had a fair assortment of them. Probably a dozen or so in all. My parents each had one and my older siblings each currently had one as well on the wall. Additionally, there were a couple of extra ones. Some of them were ones my brothers and I had outgrown over the years and two other ones were just extra that we had bought to have some extra one's around for guest going to a boating with us. I began to sift through the dozen or so of them that were on the wall of my family's garage. I needed one that would fit me. There were 4 possible choices and I took a moment to decide on which one.
The first one, I decided against. It was one of those orange ones that looks like a big horseshoe. It wraps around your front and has no back. It secured with a single strap around the waist and the top ties shut. Basically the cheap one you get at Kmart for 5 bucks. The next two were pretty much the same except the size. They were both normal life vests that would simply close with 4 straps around the body. My mother had gotten one for me recently. I had outgrown the normal weight limit on the one that I used to use. It was only meant to go up to 50 pounds and I was a little past that. The only problem was that my mother had gotten it for me at the beginning of the summer. It was still hanging on the wall new with the sales tag still attached. I didn't want to get it dirty or try to break it in just with the wading pool in the back yard.
The second one of that type was the current one that my brother Scott used. It was the same design, but a little bigger. I lifted off the wall and tried it on around my upper body. It was a little big to say the least. Well, after about 5 minutes of searching and failing to find what I was looking for, I settled on my old one by the process of elimination. It was just a red vest style life jacket with closed under arms. The front of it closed with 3 straps and there was an additional strap that went between the legs on it. I slipped it on around my shoulders and did up the straps rather snugly. The jacket was still a comfortable fit and it molded neatly around me. I was just a little past the recommended weight for it. Not that it would really matter in our current swimming pool.
With the life vest wrapped around me, I began looking around the garage to see what else I could find to take back with me. There was a large mesh bag sitting on one of the lower shelves just below the life jackets. It contained quite a few toys that my brothers and I played with at the beach and the local swimming pool when our mother took us. I lifted the bag up over my shoulder and began making the return trip to where my brother was still waiting in the wading pool. The bag was pretty heavy with all the junk that was in it. If I had taken the time to think about it, I should have just dug through it for what I wanted. The whole thing weighted about 30 pounds and at the age of 10 I had to almost drag it back to the backyard from the garage.
When I arrived, Scott had finished filling the pool with water and was sitting back down inside of it. "Hey skipper, looks like you're back. What do you have there?" Scott asked looking over at me from across the yard. "It's all swimming stuff, could you come and give me a hand with this? It's really heavy." I shouted back at him. Scott just shrugged and got up out of the swimming pool. My brother crossed the yard and stood before me. He reached down and scooped the bag up out of my hands and slung it effortlessly over his shoulder. Then he gestured for me to follow and lead the way back to the wading pool. It never ceased to amaze me how one of my brothers could turn a difficult task for me into something they could do effortlessly. The bag hardly slowed my brother down on the return trip.
My brother plopped the bag down on the ground and undid the drawstring. "Well Jen, let's see what we have got here." Scott stated as he began to dig through the bag's contents looking at the trove of treasures I had brought back with me. I just stood back and let him do the sifting. All I really wanted was a pair of swim goggles that were at the bottom of the bag. He was welcome to anything else he could find. The bag contained a whole slew of interesting stuff. My brother sorted through the contents for a few seconds. Then he just flipped the bag upside down and emptied its contents onto the lawn. There were quite a few things in the pile. It contained several sets of goggles, some swim fins, a few things that get blown up and even some rope.
I am going to break the story here for the first part. I know I didn't get as far as I wanted to with it. However, this is already 5 pages long and I really should get some sleep. I have a lot further to go before everything comes together and I don't want to leave any details of this story. Stay tuned and I will get the next part written up in the next week or so hopefully. Until, then you can just use your imagination.
Jennifer
Last edited by jennifer on Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

### Re: Water, Sand and Rope (Part 1): Water

Post by William F Somebody » Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:53 am

Great start! I for one has no idea how the tie-ups will start, I bet it would have something to do with Sean.
Well, update soon! I'm waiting for you to finish this one!!!

### Re: Water, Sand and Rope (Part 1): Water

Post by Qarl » Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:36 pm

Thanks for this latest edition from your annals of TUGs experiences. You've had an amazing legacy. I'm so glad you've chosen to share it!

### Water Rope Sand (Parts 1 and 2 ): It's your funeral

Post by jennifer » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:49 pm

Water Rope Sand (Part 2): It's your funeral
Well, here we are again. I thought I would try to take less time composing the specifics of this story than the last few that I have posted here. The title a little misleading, but don't worry. I survived this experience alive and well. Actually it was pretty fun if I remember it correctly.
I began looking through the pile of items that my brother had dumped out onto the ground in front of us. I found what I was looking for a few moments after I began hunting for it. Amongst all the items there, I found the pink snorkeling mask that was sitting in the pile. It was just a set of goggles that covered the eyes and nose, much like any diver would wear. I lifted them up off the ground and tried to wrap them around my head. My mother had bought them for me two years ago. They were just a kids toy with a one size fits most strap around the back of the head. I had to readjust the strap so that it was a little wider, but after a quick adjustment it fit around the top of my head just fine. I headed back over to the wading pool and sat back down in the newly replenished waters.
The water was a little cooler than when I had left it. At least that was the way that it seamed after standing back out in the hot sun for a few minutes. Scott dug around through the stuff a little bit more and selected a couple of things. My older middle brother got a pair of smaller goggles that covered just the eyes and a set of swim fins that ended up going on over his bare feet before he came back to join me at the pool. My brother seated himself next to me in the water. He pulled his knees up to his chest and just let the water submerge him. I took the other side of the pool and spread myself out.
I began my new found exploration by shifting positions onto my stomach and rolling face down in the water. I wanted to see what the bottom of the pool looked like through the goggles. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open under water without out them. Of course, there wasn't a whole lot to see at the bottom of the shallow wading pool, but that didn't stop me from using my imagination. I braced my hands against the bottom of the pool like I was doing a push up to take take up my weight while I laid on the surface of the water face down. I could hold my breath for about 40 or 50 seconds at that age and after that time period expired I would have to raise my head above the top of the water to take a breath. Securing some air I returned from the surface to my deep sea exploration.
The difficult part of the whole operation was keeping myself above the surface of the water. Because it was so shallow it didn't have much resistance and I didn't have a whole lot to spread my body. The life jacket helped with this quite a bit. It took up the majority of the weight around my upper body and kept it floating on the surface of the water. With my hand lifting me up from the bottom I managed to keep my legs and feet off the bottom of the pool as well. I continued with this game for about 10 minutes coming up for air as I needed. I got so involved with this, when I came up once I finally noticed that my brother was absent from the wading pool and I was alone. I rolled back around and repositioned myself sitting up. Then I began to look around for my brother. The goggles made my vision narrower than normal and I had to spin my head around in several different directions before I found him.
Scott was sitting about 15 feet away from the pool seated in our sand box. I was surprised that I hadn't seen him leave the pool, but there he was. There had been some old sand toys in the bag that I had drug out of the garage. My brother was sitting there playing in the sand with a bucket and shovel. He looked like he was having a good time. As much fun as a five year old would have with such impediments. I decided to get out of the wading pool and see what my brother was up to. I stood up and climbed out of the pool and made the short trip over to where my brother was seated in the sand box.
"Hey Jen, how goes the deep see exploration?" My brother asked looking over at me as I stood next to the sand box looking at him. I smiled at him at took a look at what he was doing. "It goes well, I haven't found Atlantis yet, but I intend to keep searching. How about you how goes the excavation?" I commented looking down at the hole my brother was digging in the sand box. Actually, it was more of a trench than a hole. The sand box was a little over a foot deep with sand and my brother had drained all of it down to the bottom on one side. He had given up on the small plastic shovel and switched to using the bucket as a larger scoop. The other side of the sand box behind my brother looked like a rising mountain where he had displaced the sand he removed from his small ditch.
Scott looked up at me and then looked down at the hole he had dug. "There is no excavation going on here, I am just digging a hole for something to do. It has been a long time since I last played in the sand and I thought it would be a good day for it. You know since we were swimming and stuff. It's kind of like the beach don't you think?" My brother asked me as he continued on with his work. I hadn't really thought about it that way, but now that Scott had brought the thought into my head, it kind of made sense. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that. It is kind of like the beach isn't it Scott? So, what are you digging the big hold for. Are you going to use it as a moat to a sand castle?" I asked looking at him inquisitively. I should have watched the tone of my voice more. I was really interested in what my brother was doing and I genuinely wanted to join him in this little project of his. However, Scott took it as I was belittling him for playing in the sand box at his age.
My brother shook his head. Then he looked up at me and I could just tell by the expression in his eyes that I was in for it. "No Jen, this isn't a moat for a sand castle. Do you want to know what this little hole is for?" I stood there with my arms folded. I got the feeling from the tone in his voice that I wasn't going to like the response. Still, I just nodded without a word. "Well then, I will tell you why this hole is for." Scott said as he rose from his seated position to a half crotch. "Tt's almost the perfect size so that I can bury my annoying little sister for pestering me so much." Scott yelled as he left forward in my direction trying to tackle me.
I realized what he was planning to do before his little announcement. I jumped backwards instinctively and my brother fell short landing face down on the lawn. He righted himself as I stood up and began to retreat from where he was standing. My brother reached his feet and gave chase almost immediately. The race was on. I was trying to avoid him and he was trying to catch me. Our little game of cat and mouse began without much difficulty. I had a slight head start and Scott came after me as quickly as he could. I went around the far side of the wading pool trying to use it as a barrier between me and him. He followed directly behind me and we began to make laps of the the pool using it as an inner ring to run around.
Well, Scott was about average height for his age and I was shorter than him. He had always been a better runner than I was. My brother had every advantage in physical size and ability. However, there was one problem with his plan to chase me around the pool. He still had the swim fins strapped on his feet. Anyone who has attempted to walk while wearing a set of them, knows how hard it is to move in them. Let alone try to run in a circle after a younger sibling in them. We made 6 laps of the pool at the best speed we could both manage. I lead the way and Scott was fast on my heels. Well, not really. The truth of the matter was that I was going so much quicker than he was that I was gaining on him.
Unfortunately for me, Scott thought about what he was doing more than I was. When I was starting to get more than half a lap ahead of him, he stopped and changed directions. I didn't by the time I looked back and realized that he was not behind me, Scott was right in front of me. I turned to try and round, but my brother dove and tackled me straight to the ground. Scott brought me down without much of a struggle. As soon as he got a hold of me I was on the ground pinned pretty well. I could evade him while we were on our feet, but there was no contest between us on who was stronger. Scott took a moment and rolled me onto my stomach so that I couldn't try to roll out of his grip. Both of us were breathing hard and trying to catch our breath from all the running.
After the air returned to our lungs, we both let out some deep breaths followed by some giggles. It had been pretty funny to watch Scott try and catch me with fins on his feet. Scott made sure he had his weight pinning my lower body. He was sitting up on his knees with one leg on each side of my body. He was using his arms to pin my upper half down. My brother let go of my upper body and began to pivot his upper body reaching for something near by. I caught sight of it the moment my brother tried to grab it from where I was laying. There were the two pieces of rope from our original toy bag, My brother was trying to retrieve one of them why keeping me from running away. If I didn't catch sight of it, he announced what he had in mind.
"Jennifer, it's too hard to keep up with you wearing these fins. I think I am going to have to tie you up so that I can keep up with you. Then, I am going to bury you in the sand over there to keep you out of my hair for a while." Scott stated as he reached over and finally got the end of the rope in his hands. "Is that ok with you?" My brother asked. I didn't respond verbally to his question. By the time he gathered the rope up and returned to a full upright position all my brother had to do was look down to get a response.
My upper body was lying flat against the ground now no longer supported by my arms. My arms were crossed and resting in the small of my back on top of my life vest. The truth of the matter was that I was excited by the idea of Scott's proposal from the first time that I had heard it a few minutes ago. I just gave him a hard time catching me since it was fun to run around a little and let off some steam. I had been buried in the sand before as a kid at the beach a couple of times. It was always a fun activity to lay there with my whole body covered with sand except my face. I was more than game. If he asked me to come over and lie down in the hole I would have been more than cooperative. However, I had never tried it tied up before. The two sounded like and interesting combination and I didn't want to have Scott do a poor job of tying me just because I was a wiggle worm while he was doing it.
Once my brother knew that he didn't have to fight me to get me bound, he slowed down and began to take his time with the process. Scott wasn't the expert at tying someone up that Sean or Mary was. However, he had some experience with the subject. Mostly from watching and being on the receiving end of my two older siblings. My brother untangled the rope and set to work on the process of binding my hands securely behind my back. The pattern was pretty simple, he went around my hands horizontally several times. Then he made several vertical wraps around them as well. Once he had finished several passes, he tied a knot of on the rope on top of the whole thing in order to prevent me from slipping out of the bindings.
Once I felt my brother take his hands away from mine, I gave the ropes a few good tugs. They were pretty well tied for my brother's experience. Scott got off of me and stood up. I took that as a cue that it was okay for me to roll over and sit up. I rolled over and used my legs to get myself in a seated position so that I could face my brother. Again, I gave the ropes a few good tugs now that I was off of my stomach and had some leverage to work with. The ropes held well despite my struggles. I found something else out when I attempted to free myself that I hadn't noticed earlier. I couldn't move my hands away from my back. Scott had made a couple of passes of the rope that he used to tie my wrists around one of the waist belts that was part of the life jacket. I couldn't move my hands away from the middle of my lower back. That pretty much ruled out my little trick of bringing my legs through my hands to get free.
"Nice Job! I don't think I can get out of this." I commented regarding my brother's recent handiwork. Scott took a minute and looked down at his feet. Then he looked back up at me. "Glad to hear it Jen. You really aren't all that fast, but it's really hard to chase you with fins on." I nodded and both of us laughed as we recalled the recent event of my brother trying to find some footing while chasing after me. It had been an interesting chase, but it was over and I was not in much shape to attempt a second go round. I don't think Scott was up for it either. "You know, maybe you should tie my feet up too. That way I really have no chance of getting away?"
Scott nodded at my suggestion. "Not a bad idea Jen, let me get the second piece of rope." My brother got up more casually and crawled the 3 feet or so that it was to where the second piece of rope was laying. Scott retrieved it and came back over to where I was sitting. My brother didn't have any trouble. I cooperated as he pulled my ankles together and began to circle coils of rope around them. My brother made about half a dozen passes or so before he switched tactics and cinched them off in the middle. He ended the tie with a simple knot on the front of the binding. Once he was done, he retreated for a minute to admire his handiwork. I sat back and squirmed around demonstrating how well my brother had done in binding me.
With my ankles tied now, I really began to feel secure. I tried to move in a couple of different directions, but I couldn't separate my limbs from each other. After a minute or two of squirming around, I stopped and rested. It was pointless and I didn't want to expend all my energy just yet. Scott watched me try to escapes without much success. "Well, that should hold you, lets get you over to the sand box and get started with this." My brother explained. I pulled myself up into a sitting position facing forward. Scott came around behind me and helped me get up to a standing position on my bound legs. It took a minute or two, but with him picking me up I managed to stand and find my balance. A very difficult feat with both sets of my limbs tied up.
Once I was standing, I began moving towards our final destination of the sandbox by taking small hops in that general direction. It was a slow process given I was careful no to fall. My brother plodded along next to me trying to make sure I kept my balance. A couple of minutes later I was seated in the small ditch my brother had dug in the sandbox. After I adjusted my position, I laid down and extended my body the full length of the hole. "All right Jen, are you all set." I gave a quick nod and Scott began the process of burring me in the sand. It didn't take him long, my brother used a bucket and began returning the displaced sand to on top of me. His aim was careful and he did his best to avoid my head.
The goggles managed to keep the sand out of my eyes and nose, however, I couldn't completely avoid eating some. The task of covering me from my shoulders down to my feet with a foot and a half of sand required Scott the better part of half an hour of work. I just laid there and watched him labor away at it. When my brother finished, I was completely covered from my feet all the way up to the bottom of my neck with sand. Only my head was sticking out. "There Jen, that should do it." I wiggled around a little bit and tested the weight of the sand and my ability to move. Scott stood up and watched me for a few minutes. After a couple of minutes, Scott abandoned his post of watching over me. I couldn't blame him. It was hot and he worked up quite a sweat just burring me under the dirt. Scott departed my position and headed over to our wading pool to cool off again.
My brother left me to explore my new predicament and that is exactly what I did. At first, I tried moving around a little bit. However, this displaced some of the sand that was sitting on top of me. So, to avoid getting any on my face, I stopped struggling all together. I just laid there on my back and looked up at the sky. The clouds drifted gently over head hiding and uncovering the sun as they made their pass above. I just laid back and enjoyed my situation as a whole. Quite a few children my age at the time of this story would probably find my current situation quite frightening. However, I found that it was more relaxing than anything. This wasn't the first time that I had been buried like this in the sand. This was an activity that I had participated in several times growing up at one of our family trips to the beach.
I was probably 3 or 4 the first time I had been in this sort of predicament. I always found it relaxing being buried in a mound of sand for some reason. Once a few years earlier, my mother had to rouse me to inform me that it was time to go home. I had fallen asleep. This time was a little different in that I was tied up under the sand. That was the one part of the experience that I had never tried before. If anything it helped the situation more than it hurt it. Usually when I found myself like this, I would try to stay as still as possible. I preferred to leave the top of the sand as unchanged as possible as I lay there. The ropes just served as a reminder that I should stay still.
I decided that it was a good day for a nap. I shifted around just enough to get comfortable. Then I rested my head back and closed my eyes. I had no desire to go anywhere, I was perfectly content where and how I was. I could have spend the whole afternoon there. However, after dozing off for about 20 minutes, I got a rather rude awakening.
Jennifer

### Re: Water, Sand and Rope (Parts 1 and 2 ): It's your funeral

Post by sarumansauron » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:31 am

Very good! Thanks!
I love TUGS and TICKLING Torture!!!!!

### Re: Water, Sand and Rope (Parts 1 and 2 ): It's your funeral

Post by Tom Ford » Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:09 am

Excellent update!!! I haven't read a story, well, that recall, with the combination of tie up and being buried in sand! Update soon!!