The Games
Player – Two Grannies
My name is Emily,
and I’m ten years old. I live with my
mother in a nice flat, but I spend a lot of time with my grandmother because my
mother works – and that was where I met her.
It was a
Saturday afternoon, and I had been to a friend’s birthday party. I was wearing one of my favourite outfits – a
black vest top with pink trim and a pink bow on one side, a layered skirt made
from black lace, black leggings and a pair of mid-calf black leather boots that
had a studded strap round the ankle.
I had a great
time there, but it came to an end and Granny Cath was waiting to pick me
up. She’s old, but she dresses as if she
was younger – when I saw her waiting, she was wearing a black leather jacket
over a tight grey dress. One with a
short skirt, as well as dark tights and a pair of knee length leather boots
with a lace knotted at the back of the knee.
She smiled as
she saw me, her hand running through her hair – she has long light hair,
certainly lighter than my own hair. I
put on my own jacket and we talked about what I had done as we walked back to
the car, laughing as she drove me to her house.
Now I should
say Granny Cath lives with Granny Mary, and I was hoping she would have a snack
and a drink ready for me when we got there.
When we walked into the house, however, we could not hear anything – and
then we saw Granny Mary.
She’s older
than Granny Cath, with short grey hair, and when I saw her she was wearing a
grey sparkly dress with a thin white belt round her waist, and long black fabric
boots – and I could see at her ankles and below her knees where some rope had
been used to bind them together, going around and between her legs.
She also had
her hands behind her back, and I saw bands of rope that went round her body,
holding her arms against her. She was
looking at both of us, shaking her head and trying to speak – only there was
grey scarf pulled between her lips and tied tightly round her head.
“Mary,” Granny
Cath said quietly, “What’s going on? Who
did this to you?”
“I did – and
I’m glad you’re both back here for Emily’s special treat.”
Oh – I’m
Emily. We both turned round to see a
woman standing there. She was wearing a
brown sweater and leggings, with knee length brown leather boots – and she had
something pulled down over her head that obscured her face.
She smiled as
Granny Cath gripped my hand, and said “special – treat?”
“Indeed – your
partner,” she said as she looked at Granny Mary,” has hired me to play the part
of a burglar, and you’re all going to be my hostages for a while. Did she not tell you about it?”
Granny Cath
looked at Granny Mary, who nodded as she looked at me and then at Granny. “I see,” Granny Cath finally said, “Emily,
we’re going to play this game, all right?”
“Does that mean
the lady is going to tie both of us up?”
“I think so,”
Granny Cath said, “but I don’t think she is going to hurt us. Do you need to go to the toilet?”
I nodded as the
woman said “I’ll go with you. Your other
gran is going to stay here – aren’t you?”
Granny Mary nodded
as we all went upstairs, Granny Cath and I hanging our coats up, and I went to
the toilet. I could hear both of them
talking as I did what I needed to do – and when I came out, I saw Granny Cath
had her hands behind her back.
“The lady has
already tied my wrists,” she said as she turned round, and I saw the white rope
going around and between her wrists. “I promise
you; it does not hurt – so let the lady do the same thing to you.”
“Okay, Granny,”
I said as the lady went behind me, and I felt her taking my hands behind my
back – then felt the soft rope on my wrists as she wrapped it around and
between my wrists. It was soft, but it
was tight – and when she was done, I found I could not move my hands apart.
“There,” the
lady said, “so let’s go back downstairs, and when I am done, you will both be
like your other gran.”
“Let’s go,”
Granny Cath said, and we walked back down the stairs. I then saw a rucksack on a chair, as the lady
told us to stand still and she opened it.
The next thing I felt was the way my arms were pulled against my sides
as the lady wrapped some more rope round my stomach and my upper arms, and then
tied it off behind my back.
I felt the band
son my bare arms as I twisted round, but I really could not do much more than
that – as I watched her do the same to Granny Cath, so that she was as tightly
bound as me.
I saw Granny
Mary raise an eyebrow, as we sat next to each other on the couch, and the
masked woman knelt down. She had taken
more rope from the rucksack, and used one length to tie my ankles
together. It made a funny sound as the
rope rubbed on my boots, and my boots rubbed together. That made me giggle as I looked at Granny
Cath – and she smiled as the masked lady then used some more rope to tie my
legs together below my knees.
I twisted my
legs around – it was as tight as the other ropes, but felt snug, and as I swung
my legs up and down I felt how it seemed to tighten and then hold firm. I watched as the lady did the same to Granny
Cath, seeing how her cloth boots seemed to be lighter under the bands of rope,
and then she took a black scarf from the rucksack and rolled it up.
“Open wide,
Emily.”
It felt funny
as she pulled the rolled-up scarf between my lips, and then tied it tightly
round my head. The taste was nice on my
tongue, but I felt it pull the corners of my mouth back, and it was very
difficult to talk after that. She rolled
up a blue scarf and pulled that between Granny Cath’s lips, but when she smiled
at me as the lady tied the scarf round her head, I could see she was happy.
Granny Mary
nodded as well as the lady turned the television on, and I shuffled over and
lay down with my head on Granny Cath’s lap to watch the Paw Patrol. The lady said she was going to pretend to
look round, as she picked up her rucksack and went out of the room.
I did wonder
where she had gone, but ‘I was soon more interested in the program I was
watching – so when I heard the front door open and close, and then heard Mummy
call out, I looked at Granny Cath and wondered if I should try and call
out. She looked down at me and shook her
head, and then I heard the lady talking to Mummy, so I figured she would be
playing the game as well.
A few minutes
later, she came in, and I could see she was playing. Mum was wearing a jersey dress that was white
at the top, then black stars with a white band round them, and black leather
boots that went over her knees – but she also had her hands behind her back,
and bands of rope round her stomach and arms.
She also had a white scarf between her lips, and I saw how it was
getting darker at the corners of her mouth as she sat in the other armchair.
I watched the
lady as she tied rope round Mummy’s ankles, and her legs below her knees, just
like the rest of us, and she winked at me to show she was enjoying it as
well. The lady then told us all to sit
nice and still for half an hour, then to see who could escape, while she waited
in the kitchen.
We sat watching
the television for half an hour, before Mummy managed to stand up and jumped
out of the room. I wondered what she was
going to do, and I could hear her in the kitchen – and then she ran in, without
the ropes but with the scarf still in her mouth, before she helped me to sit up
and pulled the scarf out of my mouth.
IT was so good
when she hugged me, and said we were going to be all right…
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