Lock-In Tales 2

A quiet morning

It was an impossible situation – I had to attend this Zoom meeting at 10, but my husband had been called into his workplace, which meant I had the girls to look after. Four year old Amy was wearing a blue denim dress over a pink long sleeved top, and brown tights with white polka dots, while her three year old sister Kate was still in her pink pyjamas.

I knew I had to take the call in the front room of the flat, but I also knew it would be next to impossible to do if they made any noise – so in desperation, I looked online for something to do, and one suggestion caught my eye.

I went a few minutes later into the front room, Amy and Kate looking at me as I said “girls, Mummy needs to take a call, and she needs you both to sit still and quiet. If I put Peppa Pig on the television, will you let me do something to help you do that for me, and then we can watch a film afterwards?”

Both girls nodded, and then looked at me as I produced the roll of packing tape. “Sit on the floor for me, in front of the couch,” I said, and as they did I put Amy’s hands together in front of her and wrapped the packing tape round them, holding them together palm to palm, before I took the tape down and wound it round Kate’s ankles.

The girls giggled as I taped Kate’s hands together, and then Amy’s ankles over her brown tights. They were both giggling and bumping into each other now – but it got a little quieter when I covered their mouths with some of the tape, and then turned the television on, before I set up my laptop.

Don’t worry – I made sure the video camera could not see them, and they were engrossed in the cartoons, so I was able to do my business without any real interruptions…

The Chang Girls

Running a takeaway business during a lock-in can be quite different, as my wife and I have been discovering. We do not have customers come in too often – instead, one of us mans the phones and the other delivers. Which means we have to find ways to amuse our girls.

For Suranne, who is ten, and six year old Bobbi, we have found a way that amuses them. They came across a chat room online, and there they read stories of girls – and some boys – who had played robbery type games. So, with some persuasion, they talked us into allowing them to play these games as well – provided they had finished their coursework for the day.

So this particular evening, while I man the phones, my brother cooks, and my husband delivers, Suranne and Bobbi are sitting on Suranne’s bed, back to back, with green washing line holding them together around their stomachs and arms.

Bobbi is wearing a coloured t-shirt, with a little pink bow in her hair, and is playing the Play Station, the controller in her hands and brown tape over her mouth. As for Suranne, she is exchanging texts on her phone – and she also has brown tape over her mouth.

But tonight is a special night, because I also have little Peg to look after. She is only three, and cannot be left upstairs with the girls on their own. So she’s sitting on the floor in her chair, where she can see me and I can see her, wearing her peach and white pyjamas.

She’s giggling away as she waves her hands around – her hands with her wrists taped together with masking tape, her ankles also secured together, and strips of tape over her mouth as well. I know it seems cruel to some, but she wanted to be like her sisters, and I know she is safe with me.

As another order comes in, my husband returns and waves to her, the mask covering his face. To Peg, she is just the same as him, and that makes her happy…

Lunch Delivered

It was twelve thirty, and Mummy and me were at the kitchen table. I had just finished a drawing, and was clearing things away for Mummy. My name’s Tracy, and I’m nine, and I was wearing a lovely floral print dress Mummy had bought me, my glasses perched on my nose.

Mummy was wearing a black top with coloured leaves on it, and white jeans. We both have red-brown hair, mine long, hers short. But, as I said, we had just finished my drawing, and Mummy was going to prepare a sandwich while I put things away.

The last thing I had to clear away was a roll of clear tape, which we had used to stick the paper down onto the table while I was drawing. I looked at it – and what happened next… I’m not sure if it was curiosity, or boredom, or what, but I tore a strip off and pressed it down over my lips.

“Chicken or Ham” I heard Mummy say, so I replied “Hmmphldsmhmmme” as the tape crinkled over my mouth.

“Tracy?” Mummy turned and looked at me, and then burst out laughing before she came over and hugged me.

“Whtssfhnnehmhmmme?”

“Let me show you,” she said as she tore some strips of the tape off and pressed them over her own lips. I could see her lips under them, red and smiling, before I came over and hugged her.

And that was when the woman came in, with something pulled down over her head, and said she could see we had already started the game without her. Mummy looked at her, and then nodded as she hugged me back, took my hand, and led me into the front room.

The lady had some cords with her, which she used to tie my wrists together in front of me, and then my ankles, before she did the same to Mummy – and then tied a length between my wrists and her wrists, and my ankles and her ankles, before she turned the television on and left us there to watch In The Night Garden.

Daddy was really surprised to find us there when he came home, and gave us both a great big hug after he cut us free. It was a very different way to spend the afternoon…

Just like my sister

Beth and I do everything together – she’s three years older than me, but we’re really inseparable. Even though I’m a boy and she’s a girl.

And with both of us off school, we were looking for different things to do while stuck at home - especially with Mum trying to learn how to make clothes and sew. That meant there were a lot of things lying round like ribbons and threads. We gathered them together and kept them in our room – which may not have been the best of moves, as we discovered when Mum came into Beth’s room and demanded to know where all her ribbons had gone.

We could see she was upset, as Beth took the bag of ribbons out and handed it to her, Mum nodding as she asked us what she thought she should do as a punishment.

“Tie us up.”

It was Beth that said that, in her pink vest and blue shorts, while I was only in blue shorts. I stared at her, as she put her hands together in front of her, Mum shaking her head as she took a blue ribbon and tied her wrists together.

I looked at Mum as Beth lay back on her bed, and waited a moment, then shook my head as I put my hands together, and she tied my wrists together with a purple ribbon.

She then tied my legs together, below my knees, with a blue ribbon, and Beth’s with a yellow one. We giggled as we bent our legs and rolled around on the bed, having a great deal of fun.

Mum was understanding really – just as when we got our own back a few days later…

Baby Taped

“Not Another Jigsaw!”

I despaired at that point – three weeks in and somehow Rowan and Tim had managed to entertain themselves, but it looked as if the honeymoon period was over. Rowan’s twelve, long red hair, and today wearing a fetching pair of pink pyjamas with a print on them, and nine year old Tim in his Spiderman bottoms and a long sleeved blue and white top.

As I say, they had been remarkably well behaved, but as I lifted Billy into his booster seat and strapped him in I had other things to think of. He’s two and a half, and wearing a light blue top and shorts with a darker blue bib on. He was giggling away as the other two started bickering, while I fed him his breakfast.

“Well, it’s all we’ve got to do today,” I said with a smile, “until we get that delivery later. But…”

Rowan and Tim looked at me, before I said “my brother used to help me with jigsaws, but he had a way of doing it that made it more – interesting. Want to see how he did it?”

That made them both nod, as I said “well, go to the toilet, and then come back here.” I smiled as they both ran off, and continued to give Billy his breakfast.

When they came back, I told them to sit side by side on two of the dining table chairs. They’re white wood, with brown leather seats, and they both had bemused expression on their faces as I went into the kitchen for something, while Billy stood on the floor and looked at them.

So the look on their faces when I came back in with a roll of silver tape was priceless, and even better when I knelt in front of Rowan, put her ankle against the chair leg, and secured it there with the tape. Her other ankle was next, and then I did the same it Tim – albeit with his ankles near the seat joint, rather than half way down the chair leg.

Billy was giggling as he stood in front of them, while I took the roll of tape and wound it round Tim’s upper body, trapping his upper arms against his sides as well as taking it around the chair back to hold him in place. Rowan was laughing by now – and even more as I did the same to her, so that she could only move her lower arms.

“It’s going to be next to impossible,” Tim said as I gave Billy the roll of tape to hold, and then moved them so that they were sitting at the table.

“Well, I can help as well, once I have Billy in his play pen.”

“No.”

I looked at Billy as he said “I want to be that too.”

Which is why he is sitting in his booster seat, his ankles taped together and tape round his upper body as well, laughing as he looks at his brother and sister trying to do the jigsaw.

Not that any of them can say much more – not with strips of the silver tape covering their mouths…

Hide and Seek

I made my way down the hallway, listening for the noise of anyone else who was playing, the giveaway that would tell me where to look for them. It had been fifteen minutes since I had started, and I had only found one of the others.

The cool breeze was blowing down the hallway on me, as I stopped and stood in my purple vest top and grey leopard print leggings. I still had the bandage wrapped round my right wrist, where I had sprained it a couple of days ago, and my black hair was pulled back in a ponytail. For a few minutes, I listened to see if I could hear anything, and then opened the door to my brother’s room.

I could see it was in the usual state of disrepair – shoes and things scattered over the floor, and the sliding door to his wardrobe slightly open. I made my way in, looking round as I moved forward – and then I sighed for a moment. I needed to rest, so I sat on the floor and lay back, my head resting on the floor as I raised my wrists.

The silver tape was still wrapped tightly round them, holding them together as I looked at the purple varnish on my fingernails, then at the band that was holding my ankles together. I could also feel the silver tape tugging at the skin around my mouth.

I could also hear someone sliding along, and as I turned my head to my left I saw Chloe push herself along on her stomach. She was still wearing her peach top, her hands behind her back, and as she turned her head and nodded to me I saw the silver tape covering her mouth as well.

“You found someone else?”

I nodded as I heard my brother come into the room helping Chloe to stand up and jump out of the room. Quiet Hide and Seek was certainly one way to pass the time confined to my grandparents’ house with the rest of the extended family…

Drink up

“Drink up.”

I looked at Zoe and Yvonne as they both nodded and took a drink from their juice cups. Zoe was wearing a pink top with thin straps over her shoulders and pink cotton shorts, while Yvonne had on a peach top with puffed sleeves and a matching skirt, both girls barefoot. It was about teatime, and their father was still no duty at the hospital working to treat people there.

They had just finished their tea, so their drink was the last thing they needed to have. I smiled as I watched them while sitting in the seat, proud of the fact they could do this right now. Yvonne pushed back the pink headband that was holding her hair back, the yellow flower on the side, and then put her cup down as she looked at me.

“That’s good – now, sit down behind your sister, back to back.”

They both sat on the floor next to me, looking at each other as I nodded, and then the man who had been speaking told them both to raise their hands, while he wrapped the white tape around their tummies. Crime, it would seem, was not a respecter of the need to stay at home, although he was wearing blue latex gloves and a face mask.

But he had already used that tape on me, taping my wrists together behind my back and my arms to my sides, then my ankles together and my legs above and below my knees. I was wearing a camouflage print romper suit, but now all I could do was wriggle round as he told them to put their hands together in prayer, and taped their wrists together.

His friend was searching the rest of the house, while I watched him get my daughters to bend their legs, and then tape their ankles together, their legs below their knees, and then their taped wrists down to their upper legs.

They both look at me and smile – before he puts the white tape over their mouths as well, and put a film on before he leaves. I suppose, at least we won’t be bored, as I slide off the chair to sit next to them…

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