"Or dancing," Cindy said critically. "Like Mrs.
Gulliver." She giggled.
"Miss Gulliver," Dianne said.
"OK, never mind that. Let's do the rest of it."
With the same engineering care, they brought her other hand down by her other side and
tied it, too. Her shoulders, stiff and sore from the hours of unnatural position, throbbed.
Here, at least, was circulation and movement.
"Now, she has to sit up."
30
"What if she won't?" Cindy said. "How're you going to make her do it?"
"She's the one who wants to go to the bathroom.
If she doesn't, we can always put her back the other way." It sounded reassuring when
John said it, but, in fact, Barbara had more freedom now than at any time since she had
awakened. She could do nothing with it, but she was more free.
"Yeah," Bobby said. "Sit up. You can if you want to." It was the first thing like a
command that they had given her, and he did so with hesitation in his voice.
For the same reason, Barbara just slightly held back. The lessons in this relationship
were painfully few, and yet she seemed to have so much trouble learning them. Were
the youngsters, on the one hand, demanding that she sit up and, on the other hand,
threatening to retie her if she did not? Indeed they were, indeed they would. Barbara
must realize that no matter bow far beneath her station she felt the kids to stand, they
were absolutely in command. There was no alternative with dignity. She would obey, or
she would be returned to a less pleasant position, and this would be repeated until she
submitted. Barbara sighed and then, being a swimmer in good condition, managed to
do the sit-up demanded.
They all looked at Bobby expectantly.
"OK, here-" He passed the rope around her body. "Now we tie her arms to her sides."
This was done. After that, her left wrist was released and tied up behind her back with a
rope that went up over her right shoulder, crossed her body between her breasts,
hooked under her elbow and returned to her wrist. For the left side alone, it was the
same position she would have been in had someone been "twisting her arm" except
that it was twisted and held there.
They were so cautious, everything took so much time and was so elaborately done that
Barbara began to grow irritated. All right, she was doing what they wanted; she couldn't
get away-she knew it, they knew
31
it-why so much fuss? When they got ready to move her legs together, she impatiently
did it for them, or
nearly did it before she fell over backward.
.
Cindy laughed, but Bobby, remembering his struggle this morning, quickly hobbled her
ankles before she took the notion to kick out at someone. He seemed almost fearful
when he released the last of the rope that held her to the bed.
. "What about her other hand?"
"She needs one free, stupid. Besides, she can't do much with the elbow tied like that."
"Can she get up now?"
"Yeah, I guess so." Actually they had to swing her feet over the side of the bed and help
her sit up
again.
.
"How're you going to make her go just where you want her to?"
"Well-" Bobby hadn't thought of that.
. "I know. Put a rope around her neck," Paul said.
As he did when speaking most of the time, he sort of ducked his head and came up
sideways like a myna bird struggling to say a difficult word.
"Yeah! That way, if she doesn't follow, we can choke her or at least pull her down."
"No, I've got a better idea," Bobby said. "Sit up," he told Barbara. He didn't hesitate this
time, nor did she. She actually leaned towards him.
"Here-" Bobby looped his last long length of rope around her neck with ends trailing in
front and in back. "One of us goes in front and one of us behind, and if she doesn't
behave, each one pulls:"
This was a little frightening. Barbara looked from one child to the other. She felt as if
her upper body were embalmed in clothesline. The shoulder of her shortie was no
longer on her shoulder, and she was a trifle bare-feeling.
"Choke her?" Cindy said.
"Don't worry. Not unless we have to." "I'll lead," Paul said quickly.
"No, you won't," Dianne said. "Let Bobby and
32
John do it, and you follow and just don't get in the way unless we tell you to."
More foolishness. All right, she would go. More than anything else now, Barbara wanted to
get this thing over with quickly. She looked at Freedom Five and made her only sound:
"Umnn?"
"OK, stand up."
She tried and found that she couldn't do it without the fear of falling forward. "Ull m.mnn,"
she said.
They looked at her blankly. All her sounds sounded the same.
"UH mmnn ! "
"Help me," Dianne translated. ·
Obediently, John and Dianne took her bare arms and helped her to stand. Briefly, she
recorded the fact that they were much stronger than she would have guessed. Then Bobby
gave a timid tug on the rope around her neck-it worked as he had said-and she
turned and followed him, the rest coming behind. ·
The trip down the hall was a mile and a half long.
Barbara was hobbled just above the ankles, and Bobby had tied his loops too tightly. When
she stood up and put her weight on her legs, they swelled and the ropes cut in. Moreover,
he had hobbled her too closely so that she advanced only by short little slides no more
than nine or ten inches a move. Finally, her feet finished each step nearly in line so that it
was like walking a tightrope. She was afraid of falling and kept her right hand out to steady
herself against the wall as they went.
When the slow procession reached the bathroom at last, Dianne told the rest, "You can't
see," and let Barbara slide in ahead. The whole time afterward, Dianne stood inside against
the wall near the door, her gaze primly averted.
"Well, we'll have to feed her sometime." John was sitting, elbows on table, heels hooked
over the rung of a kitchen chair. He chewed while he talked, and in front of him lay part of
a sandwich Dianne had made.
33
"How'll we get the gag back in her mouth if she doesn't want us to?" Cindy said. "She
might bite."
"First of all, what if she starts yelling, you mean?" "That's easy." Paul gave a twisted shrug.
"Let John have a pillow, and if she does, he wraps it over her face."
"She'd smother," Bobby said.
"Just for a little while, while we open the chloroform, and then we put her to sleep."
"How about the gag though?" Cindy persisted. "Same thing, stupid."
"I'm not stupid. You stop calling me that!"
"Why don't you leave her alone, Bobby?" John sighed.
"Somebody better stand guard and watch the road in case anyone drives in when she isn't