Beach
Blanket Bondage
That was a long
hot summer, the summer of ’62, but for me it wasn’t just the temperature that
made it so hot. It was a game I stumbled
into playing in the neighbourhood, which made it the most exciting time I had
known up till then – and started a lifelong hobby for me.
And I have my
big sister to thank for it. I was
twelve, and Barb was seventeen – and being the summer, she spent most of the
day in swimsuits, either with or without shorts. I remember it was a Saturday when I walked in
on her – my folks were out, and I wanted permission to go to a friend’s house –
and she was in her bedroom, kneeling on the floor in her red top and pants, her
brown hair in that hairstyle every woman wanted. More to the point, however, she was reading a
book, and she had in her hand two of my skipping ropes.
She looked up
when I came in, and blushed as I looked at the book. It had a picture of a woman tied down to
railroad tracks, the man in a top hat standing over her. I asked Barb what she was doing, and – well,
she was well within her rights to tell me to get lost, but instead she said she
had been reading this book, and wondered what it would be like to be tied to
the rails like that.
And that was
when she looked at me, and said I was a scout – which meant nothing to me,
until she got up and lay on her bed, and told me to her wrists and ankles
together with the skipping ropes. I must
have stared at her, because she said she would not tell mom or dad, so I took
the rope and tied it round her wrists, as if I was lashing two sticks together,
and then round her ankles.
I then watched as
she put her arms above her head, pretending she was tied to the rails, and
wriggled round, calling quietly for help.
It was an – intoxicating sight, and it stirred something within me. Especially when she clamped her mouth shut
and pretended she could not say anything…
Well, I untied
her soon after that, and didn’t think much about what happened – until the next
week. I was home alone – not so uncommon
in those days – and sitting in the back yard when I heard Miss Johnson, out
next door neighbour, come out of their house with her sister.
Miss Johnson
was a black woman, with long dark hair, and normally I only saw her in business
dresses or jumpers and slacks. So it was
different to see her in a dark blue swimsuit, a silver buckle between her
breasts, her glasses on her face. I had seen
her sister with her at church – she had shorter hair, but she also had on a
blue swimsuit, her one with buttons down the front.
I watched as he
sister sat on one of the sun loungers – and then Miss Johnson took two lengths
of rope, and tied one round each of her wrists so that her arms were tied down
to the armrests on the recliner. She
then took a third length of rope and tied her sister’s ankles together, before
she stood in front of her and did something.
When she stood back, her sister just nodded – and then she looked at me,
and so did Miss Johnson.
She smiled, and
said she hoped I wasn’t upset by what she was doing. I shook my head, and said I wasn’t shocked,
but why was she doing it. Miss Johnson
said it was a game she and her sister played – and then she made the most
amazing offer. She said it was rarely
the two of them played together – but would I help by doing to her what she had
done to her sister, and in return I could watch them?
I was twelve –
what do you think my reaction was? I
nodded and came over the low wall as Miss Johnson sat on the other recliner,
and told me there were some more cords in the kitchen – and a cloth I needed to
bring out. I went into their house,
found the three cords and a white cloth, and then came out as she nodded.
It was one
thing to do this to my sister – but my next door neighbour? I was shaking as I tied her wrists down to
the armrests, but she said I was doing a wonderful job, watching as I tied her
ankles together. She then told me to
fold the cloth, and when I did that, she told me to put it in her mouth.
Now I really
was scared, but Miss Johnson said it was all right – but I had to let them go
in an hour, so I nodded, waited as she opened her mouth, and then put the cloth
in as she closed her lips over it. I
looked at her sister, wondering if she had a cloth in her mouth – and as if she
was reading my mind, she smiled and nodded.
So I spent a
truly wonderful hour just watching two captive women as they lay back, unable
to move or talk – and then when the hour had passed, I let them go, Miss
Johnson thanking me and giving me a long cold drink…
I wondered
after that when I would get the chance to tie someone up again, but the
opportunity came from a totally unexpected direction – Angie Harmon.
Angie was in my
class at school, and I spent an afternoon a week that summer at her place. A week after I ‘played’ with Miss Johnson, I
went round to her house, wearing a Hawaii shirt and shorts – and found Angie in
her back yard, wearing a dark blue top and pants, a striped canvas belt round
the waist of her pants.
She said hi as
we sat at the table, and her mother came out with a tray of drinks. Like Angie, she had long dark hair, and she
was wearing a dark blue outfit with four white buttons at the front. She sat at the table as we each took a glass,
and I asked Angie what she wanted to do that afternoon.
I saw the look
that went between Angie and her mother, before Angie put her hand on mine, and
asked if I had seen an episode of Dragnet that had been on the other
night. I had seen it – a gang had tied
up a mother and daughter while they robbed their house, and…
I looked at
both of them, and asked why they wanted to know if I had seen it – and that was
when they told me they wanted to be that mother and daughter – if I would help
them?
They had to
ask? So we went into the front room of
the house, where there were some scarves laid out on a couch, and two blankets
on the floor. Angie and her mother knelt
down on one of the blankets each, and put their hands behind their backs,
looking at me as I picked up a red head square, folded it into a band, and used
it to tie Angie’s wrists together behind her back – and then a white headscarf
to tie her ankles together.
I used a black
square and a blue one for her mother, before they told me to gag them like the
two women in the television program.
There were two red bandanas on the couch, so I rolled them into bands,
and then pulled a band between the lips of each of them before tying it round
their head.
I then helped
them both to lie down – but there was something in that scene that I had not
done yet. As Angie lay on her side, I
picked up a long green chiffon rectangle, and gently pulled her ankles back
before I used the green scarf to link her ankles and wrists. A grey one did the job for her mother, as I
sat back and watched them wriggle round, then try to get free.
It took them an
hour and a half, but in the end Angie managed to free herself, coming over and
giving me a kiss before we untied her mother.
I went round
and played with Angie and her mother a few times after that – but then came a
reckoning. Somehow, I had managed to
keep my new hobby from my mother – but I guess Barb must have let something
slip one day, because when I came back from Angie’s place one day, Mom called
me into the front room.
When I went in
she was sitting in a wooden armchair, wearing a white swimsuit and looking at
me. I asked what was for dinner, but she
said she wanted to talk to me first – and then she told me she knew about what
I had been doing.
As she talked,
I wondered what she was going to do, especially as if truth be told, I had
always done it to someone who wanted to be tied up – and I was praying she had
bene told that as well – and then she held up a roll of masking tape.
I wondered why
she had that, but then she tossed it to me, and said if I was going to do this,
she had to know I was not doing it in a way that hurt anyone - so she put her
hands palm down on the armrests, and told me to tape her to the chair.
And then to
cover her mouth with the tape.
Now, tell me –
if you are a boy, and your mother said you could tie her up, what would you
do? I took the roll and wrapped it round
the armrests, trapping her wrists against the wood, and then taped her bare
ankles together – before I looked at her, and then taped her legs together
above and below her knees.
Mom didn’t say
a thing for some reason – and then I taped over her mouth, just as she had
asked me to do. She started struggling,
and I just sat and stared at her – until Barb came in, took one look, and asked
if there was enough to do the same to her.
Which is why, a
few minutes later, she was lying on her side on the couch, her wrists taped
together behind her back and her legs taped in the same way, and her mouth
covered in the tape as well as they tried to talk to each other. It was a most wonderful way to spend time –
and Mom cooked a wonderful dinner after that.
After that,
word started to spread round the neighbourhood about some of the games I had
been playing – which was why I had a phone call, and found myself walking round
to where another school friend, Ashley, lived with her aunt. Ashley is a cut kid, but one I never thought
would want to be tied up by anyone, let alone me.
But when I got there,
I found out it wasn’t Ashley so much as her aunt who had called me. Her aunt had blonde hair piled up on her
head, and when I arrived was wearing a red swimsuit with thin side panels – and
she was a big woman, so the swimsuit was holding a lot in. She also had white sandals on her feet, as
she let me in and told me that Ashley was in the house – but she wasn’t able to
tell me where. I had to make sure she
stayed in the room, find Ashley, and bring her to her aunt.
Okay – I felt I
could do that, so I asked her aunt what I was going to tie her with. She smiled, and opened a bag to show some
brown ropes – and then she said she would tell me how to tie her.
So she handed
me a length of rope – a much longer length than I usually used – and told me to
double it over as she put her hands behind her back, and then taught me how to
use the doubled rope to tightly bind her wrists together, wrapping the rope
round and between her arms.
When I tied the
ends off, I asked if it hurt, but she shook her head and said no, as she told
me to take a longer length, double it over again, and then wrap it round her
arms and body below her chest, then pull the rope tight. As I did this, and then followed her instructions,
I realised that I really was tying an older woman up, much more tightly than I
ever had before as I framed her chest.
Ashley’s aunt
nodded as she wriggled round, and then sat on the couch, telling me to sue two
more lengths of rope to bind her ankles together, and then her legs below her
knees. After I had done this, taking the
rope around and between her legs as she told me to, she smiled and lay down,
then said there was a roll of brown sticking plaster in the bag – so I was to
tear a long strip off, and press it down over her mouth before I tried to find
Ashley.
Well, I had seen
such taped mouths on television shows, but sticking the brown fabric over
someone’s mouth from real was a totally new experience for me. Still, her aunt seemed happy I had done it,
as she lay down and I started to look round the house.
I found Ashley
in her bedroom, on her bed, as she looked at me walking in and said
“helllhthrrr.” That was what she said –
because she also had a strip of sticking plaster over her mouth as well. Ashley was wearing a swimsuit with a yellow
body and black and white checked pants, a grey scarf tied over her dark hair –
but her hands were behind her back, and she had bands of rope around her arms
and chest, her legs and her ankles as well.
I sat on the bed
next to her and asked if she was all right, and as she nodded I said her aunt
wanted her to join her downstairs. She
shook her head when I said this, and then pushed herself over so that her head
was on my lap, looking up at me.
I did take her
downstairs, a short while later, over my shoulder and then laying her on the
floor as her aunt looked on – but what happened between those times was between
us.
Like I said, a
long hot summer, especially sometimes with Ashley – but it was the last game I
played with a neighbour that still sticks in my mind to this day. Mrs Brayen was an older woman who lived
across the road, and she knew Mom from her schooldays – so when Mom asked me to
go over because she had asked me to, I wondered if she had talked to her about my
games.
I got my answer
when I went over, and Mrs Brayen answered the door. She had short dark hair, and was wearing a
white swimsuit with a black fern pattern on it, her chest actually visible
under the tight material.
She told me to
come in, and then said she had heard I was tying some of the mothers and
daughters up in the area. Well, I was
brought up not to lie, so I said I had – and she smiled at that, as she wanted
me to tie her up in the same way as Ashley’s aunt – and then a visitor was
going to come in, and I was to tie her in the same way.
I asked if she
had rope – and oh yes, she had rope. A
lot of rope, cut into pre-measured lengths, so I picked one out and tied her
wrists tightly together behind her back.
I then tied her arms to her sides, ropes above and below her chest – but
as I tied those ropes, Mrs Brayen seemed to sigh, and I wondered what was going
on. But I kept going, as she nodded and complemented
me on how tight it was. I then asked her
to sit down – but she sat on the floor rather than a chair, bending her legs
and watching as I tied her ankles together, and then her legs below her
knees. She then said I was to put some sticking
plaster over her mouth – but first, I was to put a folded cloth into her mouth.
I did that –
but before I did, she asked me to do one more thing. So I put the cloth in and taped her mouth
over, before I helped her to lie on her side, bent her legs back, and tied her
ankles to her chest ropes.
And that was
when the visitor arrived – and I was shocked to see Mrs Carter, the church
organist, walk in from the garden. She
was wearing a matching swimsuit – although hers had an orange fern print – and
she had an orange chiffon scarf over her blonde hair and neck.
She asked Mrs
Brayen if she was all right, and when she nodded she looked at me, and turned,
crossing her wrists behind her back – do I did what I had been asked to do,
binding Mrs Carter in the same way around her arms and body, waiting until she
sat down, and then binding her legs.
Before I made sure she could not talk, however, she said I should leave
them alone for an hour, before coming back and untying her. I asked Mrs Brayen if she was happy with
that, and when she nodded I gagged Mrs Carter, helped her to lie on her side
and tied her ankles to her chest ropes, and made my way out to the back yard.
It was when I
looked back, and saw both of them slide over to each other and then press their
brown fabric covered lips together, that I decided that leaving them alone was
the best thing to do…
As I said, a long
hot summer, but it was an amazing time…
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