you're not my father."
"No, we can't," John said. "That's why we're having a meeting. We've got to make a lot of
new rules about this thing."
"Like what?" Cindy was obviously against rules of any kind. Nonetheless, she sat up.
"Like, for one thing, we have to stand watch over her. Take turns," John said. "If she ever
gets loose .... "
"She can't get loose," Bobby said quickly. "I put the knots where she couldn't get them."
· "What if she found something sharp and cut the rope or reached over and knocked the
telephone over?" Cindy said.
19
"Aw, that's only like you see on television. Where could she get hold of anything sharp
enough to cut rope?"
"Just the same, we ought to watch her," John said stubbornly. "Take turns, one at a time."
"We ought to write this down like the other rules we used to have," Paul said. "Hey, Dianne,
get some paper .... "
"That's a good idea," John said.
"Where's something to write with?" Dianne, who at seventeen was slightly the oldest, got
up and went searching. There was an opening and slamming of drawers before she found a
telephone pad and a ballpoint pen. "OK," she said, "Number One: watch her."
"Right. Now, since Red Fox Patrol will have to watch her all night, Blue Fox Patrol will watch
her while we're here. OK?"
"Blue Fox, Roger," Paul said. "OK?" John looked at Dianne.
Dianne did not say Roger. In no way did she condescend to say it. "Certainly," she said
coolly.
"OK, and another thing," Bobby said. "We can't keep her tied in one place all the time.
How're we going to move her around?"
"Why move her?" Cindy said.
"She has to get some circulation sometime, and she has to go to the bathroom like
everybody else."
There was general giggling.
"Yeah, but she's strong," Bobby said. "You should have seen her this morning. Man, I
thought she · was going to tear the bed apart."
"Really?"
"We'd better all be here when we do have to move her," John said thoughtfully. The idea
didn't appear to cheer him. "There're five of us-we ought to be able to do it."
"I got some things figured out-" Bobby began. "Write that down," John ignored him.
"Then what about feeding her?" Cindy said. "Yeah, that's something, too."
20
"I think we ought to put her on bread and water once a day," Paul said quite seriously.
"You know, like a diet."
"Why?" Cindy said. "She's not fat."
"To make her weaker. Bobby says she's strong, so make her weak. Our mother diets.
She doesn't eat anything at all during the day, except for carrots and celery and
skimmed milk and junk like that, and she's always weak and tired out. Besides," he
said, "we can do anything we want with a prisoner."
"Does your mother really eat that stuff?"
"All grown-ups do. They're afraid of getting fat and dying."
"Aw, you only get that from smoking and cancer," Cindy said. "Don't you watch TV?"
"Shut up, Cindy," John said, but kindly enough.
"OK, how're we going to feed her? What happens if we take off the gag and she starts
doing a lot of yelling?"
"We've still got the chloroform from Bobby's father," Paul said. "We can tell her if she
screams, we'll put her to sleep and not feed her at all."
"There's enough stuff in the rag still." Bobby thought and had to agree. "I put it back in
a tight jar."
"No one could hear her way down here anyway," Dianne said coolly.
"I know! We'll tum up the TV like they do on ·TV," Cindy's redundance was unconscious.
"That way, anybody'll think it's that."
"Well, at least we all ought to be here whenever we take off her gag," John said. "Five
are better than two. Write that down, Dianne."
"Another thing," Dianne spoke while she wrote.
"Bobby and Cindy are supposed to have a baby-sitter to do all the housework and keep
them clean," she looked up at Cindy. "If the house isn't neat and the yard's a mess and
the trash piles up, anybody stopping by'll want to come in and find out what's wrong."
"I'm not dirty," Cindy said.
"You ought to wash your face and brush your hair”
21
"Aw, I thought we were going to be free after her-"
"We are free, stupid," Bobby said, "but that doesn't mean you can do everything you
want."
"It specially doesn't mean you can do what you want," John said. "We've got to be extra
careful from here on. We have to do the things they usually do." They meant adults,
clearly the other team (and the children all understood this).
"Right. First of all, we have to stay neat. Don't / make a mess. Second, we all have to
chip in and help clean things up," Dianne said. "Well, we have to," she added to the
silence with which she was heard.
"I liked it better the other way-when she did all the work,'' Cindy said. "At least, she was
our friend and played with us."
"Friend," John scoffed. "She was plain bossy. HI was your age, I wouldn't want her to sit
for me."
"Besides, grow up," Bobby said. "We're too old to play all the time. Even you."
"What'd'ya mean?" Cindy sat up with the beginning of a tantrum in her voice. Whatever
brother-sister love they had shown earlier was erased just now.
"Leave her alone," John said. "Now what else?" "Phone calls," Dianne said.
"Yeah, we got to be careful about them-"
"And food," she said. "You've both got to eat for a week. We have to shop .... "
"That's easy," Bobby said. "We have a charge account at Tillman's. That's closest, and
he delivers. Somebody can phone in an order, and he'll bring it up on the porch and
leave it. He does all the time-"
"Arid he has Pop-Ups!" Cindy said.
Dianne looked at her with a frown. "And you
have to cook .... "
._
"We'll barbecue things on the grill like Daddy
does!'' Cindy was slowly rekindling some enthusiasm.
"And vegetables, too." "You're not my mother."
"Do what she says,'' Bobby said. "Eating has to
22
be just the same as always. Just as if nothing was wrong."
"Then why're we doing all of this?" Cindy's smile sort of stopped.
"You want to go swimming anytime you want to?" Bobby said. "You want to stay up late
and watch the movies on TV you're not allowed to see? You want to try some of Dad's