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Post by RJH on Oct 26, 2014 22:43:32 GMT -5
The wagon hit the embankment supporting the train tracks at over forty miles per hour. It shot up into the air and by inches cleared a passing flatcar between two boxcars. The boxcars blocked the view from of what happened to the four boys from the residents of the town. In fact, the wagon landed smoothly on the embankment on the other sides of the tracks and continued to speed away in a westerly direction.
There soon came a sharp left curve in the road as it followed the side of a small grassy mountain. The wagon was going much too fast to take that turn, and it skidded down the grassy slope, slowly turning so that it wound up going forward. Farina and Mickey in front then had a better chance of controlling the runaway vehicle. They all hurtled toward another rural town at fifty miles per hour. Soon they approached a farm.
“There’s a hedge!” shouted Mickey. “If we go through that, it will slow us down a lot and maybe stop.”
“Good idea,” the others agreed.
Mickey reached over to his right to pull on Farina’s rope, sending the wagon a little to the right. It would be just enough to catch end of the hedge. The boys braced themselves, covering their faces with one hand and hanging on tight to the wagon with the other. As the wagon tore through the hedge, there was a loud ripping sound as shirts and pants were torn off. The wagon did indeed slow down, to roughly thirty miles per hour. However, the boys were left in only their undershorts, socks, and shoes.
“We’ve done been ventilated!” exclaimed Farina.
There was no time for more conversation as the boys braced themselves as they sped through an open gate and scattered a flock of chickens, sending eggs and feathers all over the place. This got the attention of a farmer, who was stunned for a moment and then jumped out of the way, falling into a trough the pigs were eating from. The gang then narrowly missed a few cows and then the wagon smashed through the flimsy fence on the side opposite the gate.
The fence had slowed the wagon down some, but then it went over another hill and picked up speed again as it headed into the next town. Pedestrians bumped into and knocked each other down scrambling to get out of the way. There were several near misses with cars including a police car that swerved out of the way at the last second and ran over a fire hydrant, sending powerful jets of water all over the area and soaking many onlookers.
Moments later another police car chased them, and ordered them to stop. It was hard to hear the officer, but it mattered little. Crossing the street ahead was a man carrying a large box of tacks. He dropped the box to get out of the way, and it split open, sending thousands of tacks onto the street. The wagon with its wooden wheels passed by, but the rubber-tired police car ran over dozens of tacks and got four flat tires before spinning out of control and smashing a storefront window. Three more cars and a bicycle also got flat tires. The bicyclist had to do some fancy maneuvering to avoid the cars, but wound up bumping and falling into a fountain. There was more screeching of tires as additional motorists tried to dodge all the wrecks, but in the end there was quite an impressive towering pileup of vehicles.
The wagon reached the end of town and plowed through more countryside. Farina and Mickey struggled to maintain control as it hit another downhill.
“Hey, there’s another hedge!” pointed out Mickey.
“NO!” cried out the other three boys in unison, and Farina jerked his end of the steering rope so that the speeding wagon veered away from the upcoming hedge. Mickey didn’t fight for control of the wagon as he was unsure what course was best. The wagon missed the second hedge by a small margin, and continued on its way toward the Pacific Ocean.
The land was rather smooth and grassy for the next couple miles. Then the wagon hurtled across a major road near the coast, and through a short expanse of woods. Narrowly missing several trees, the wagon slowed down to twenty miles per hour before it smashed into a three-foot high stone wall, sending the boys flying through the air between some trees and landing on sand. The wagon came apart in several pieces with the wheels flying every which way, but the boys were only slightly stunned.
Looking up, they appeared to be on a small private beach. There was a short pier at which a single large boat was docked. It felt funny to be stranded far from home in their underwear, but with all of them being in the same boat made it much more bearable.
“Is everyone okay?” asked Mickey.
It appeared that they were.
“Maybe we should have gone through that second hedge. It could have stopped us way before here.”
“If you hadn’t insisted on making the tires straight, we wouldn’t have gone far at all,” countered Farina.
“So what are we going to do now?” asked Jackie.
“From the looks of those cops we’re in a lot of trouble,” answered Joe. “How about we sail away in that boat and go to Tasmania or some place until this thing blows over?”
Then they heard a police siren, and did what came naturally: they panicked.
“They’re gonna pinch us!” claimed Joe.
“We need time to think this over,” opined Mickey.
“Joe’s right: at least we can hide in the boat!” suggested Jackie.
There was quick agreement, and within moments the boys had clambered on board, and through a door into a lower section where they were hidden from view from the outside. They waited quietly until the sounds of the siren faded away. It turned out that police car was chasing someone else in an entirely unrelated incident and had no idea about all the chaos the gang in the wagon had caused.
Joe then made an important discovery.
“Look, there’s a chest here … and it’s full of food! I’m starving, let’s eat!”
Mickey was hesitant, and was thinking about what Mary would think. “It ain’t etiquette to eat in your underwear.” He looked at Farina and Jackie for support.
“I’m with Joe,” declared Farina, “It’s better than eating in a barrel.” He helped himself to a sandwich after Joe had grabbed a chicken leg.
Jackie looked at Mickey, and then decided, “Hey, eating in your underwear beats starving in your underwear,” and grabbed a doughnut.
Mickey relented. “Well, no one’s here, and it’d be a shame to let this food go to waste.”
The boys devoured most of the contents as if they didn’t know where there next meal was coming from, which may have been rather accurate.
Mango nervously walked the two blocks to Mary’s house. Not seeing anyone in front, she walked around to the back, and saw the gardener working away in a flower bed. He looked up, somewhat surprised, and said,
“Hello there. You’re Mary’s friend, aren’t you?”
“Yes sir. I’m Mango. She told me to give this letter to you.”
The gardener grew concerned at the request. Why wouldn’t Mary come to him in person?
“Where is Mary? I thought she’d be with you today.”
“She was, until those three men came and kitnapped her.”
“WHAT!?” The gardener seized the letter and read it, stuttering over “no cops” and then shakliy, “They want you to deliver the ransom money tomorrow?”
“Mary said that her father couldn’t get the money out of the bank before Monday, so they said I should do that then.”
“How did this happen?”
“We were selling lemonade, and this guy who bought a glass slipped and fell. When we went over to see if he was okay, a big black car came, another man came out, they grabbed us and threw us inside, and a third man drove away. Then they let me go because they said I was poor and I would be good for bringing the note and the money.”
The gardener thought for a moment. “I have to try to call Mary’s parents. Why don’t you run along home? And remember, the police must not find out about this.”
“Okay, I’ll remember.”
Mango raced home while the gardener went inside to make the phone calls. Mary’s parents were at different meetings and no one he called knew where they were. He would have to wait until they came home.
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Post by RJH on Nov 24, 2014 0:00:26 GMT -5
Red Mike, Blow-em-up Baker, and Moonshine Mose took Mary on a long car ride. Mary remained quite calm, figuring it was best not to upset the desperados. They stopped at a gas station where Baker got out to make a phone call. When he was finished, he gave the others the news.
“I told our old pal Bicarbonated Billy about the change in plans in that we might have to stay at his new hideout on the coast for a few days. The cops are watching the road that leads to it, but the boat he stole is in place with enough gas and food for us to make it there.”
“Are you sure you got enough food since it looks like we’ll be there all weekend instead of one day like you planned?” asked Mary.
“Don’t worry about that,” replied Baker. “We got plenty.”
“Hey, you don’t answer her questions,” complained Mike.
“It was a good question.” Mose came to Baker’s defense. “I don’t want to have to make an extra trip for food and stuff.”
“Just keep quiet,” ordered Mike. He resumed driving, taking care not to draw attention.
Mary did keep quiet, and paid close attention to where they were going. She realized that whatever circumstances arose, she would be better off if she knew where she was and how to get back if the situation presented itself. The ride went on for several miles, mostly downhill and they went generally west. They crossed some railroad tracks in one of the small towns they went through, and continued on toward the Pacific Ocean.
The car turned onto a major road than ran roughly parallel to the ocean, and soon thereafter turned onto a dirt path that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. After some twists it ended at some boulders facing the ocean. The men and Mary got out, and with Baker holding Mary’s arm they followed a trail through overhanging tree branches around a hundred yards until it let out on a small beach. A single large boat was docked on a short pier.
The group climbed on board and up to the forward cabin. Mose untied some lines, freeing the boat from the pier, and after a couple false starts, Baker managed to engage the engine and the boat was headed into the ocean. Mary looked back, making a mental image of where the small beach was. The shore was rocky on either side and didn’t lead to much in the way of landmarks, but there was a lighthouse a few miles to the south. Mary determined she could use that to get her bearings if it ever became necessary.
Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina had eaten most of the food in the chest when they were startled by the sound of footsteps on the boat. They froze in fear, and then Mickey whispered that they should close the chest and hide behind a tarp at the front end of the lower section in which they were. The huddled in silence, and then listened as the engine roared to life. They felt the boat leave the dock and head into the open ocean.
Mango made it home where her mother was hanging up clothes to dry on a clothesline.
“Mama, Mary’s been kitnapped!”
“What? What happened?”
Mango explained to her mother everything that she knew happened that day. Mango was calmer than her mother, not understanding all the implications because of her young age. The mother was glad in a way that the family’s lack of wealth kept Mango safe.
“Does Farina know anything about this?”
“No Mama, I haven’t seen him since this morning.”
“He took the wagon then. But he was supposed to return it. But … isn’t that Dinah there?”
They went to the barn to check. Dinah was there, but the wagon was nowhere to be seen. The mother was puzzled.
“Mango! Do you know what happened to our wagon?”
“No, Ma. Farina took some of the gang in it this morning, and then I went to the lemonade stand. I haven’t seen the wagon since then.”
“Then Farina owes us an explanation. Go find him and bring him home.”
Mango first went to Jones’ barn, but no one was there. She then went back to Goat Alley to ask at all the gang’s houses. She found out that Mickey, Joe, and Jackie had not returned home since that morning, and got the same story from Johnny, Jay, and Bonedust that Mickey was going with whoever wasn’t hurt too badly by Farina the day before to the junkyard to replace a lot of damaged equipment. Thus Mango walked back up Goat Alley to the junkyard, but there was no sign of any of the boys. She trudged back home.
“Mama, Farina isn’t anywhere. And Mickey, Joe, and Jackie are also missing.”
“Then they’ll be back for dinner. Thank you for looking.”
The mother didn’t know what to think, as the gang had gone all over the place during summer days and could well have done something with the wagon. However, they were very reliable at not missing dinner, so her concern grew when her husband came home just in time for dinner and Farina hadn’t shown up. She explained what had been happening to him, and his thought was,
“Do you think Mary’s kidnapping and Farina’s disappearance are related?”
“It didn’t sound like it. They probably got carried away with something and will be back soon.”
Not being in a position to waste food, the parents and Mango ate dinner quickly. They hoped Farina would show up, but he didn’t.
“We better check on the others to see if they’ve learned anything,” announced the mother.
They went down Goat Alley and found that none of Joe, Jackie, and Mickey had returned. They explained Mary’s kidnapping, and soon the group of parents thought they should visit Mary’s house. When they arrived, they found that Mary’s parents had just come home and learned the story from their gardener.
“What are you going to do?” asked Mango’s mother.
“I guess I’ll have to pay the ransom. I’m sorry your daughter got involved. Are you okay with her delivering the money like this note says?”
“I can do it!” declared Mango.
“We can watch her from the edge of the park,” added Mango’s father.
“Do you think Mary and our kids’ disappearances are related?” asked Joe’s mother.
“I think it would be a big coincidence if they weren’t,” replied Mary’s father. “Your boys may have seen something, and tried to follow them in that wagon or something.”
“That wagon couldn’t possibly keep up with a car,” responded Mango’s father.
“Actually, it might,” interjected Mango. “The boys fixed it so the wheels wouldn’t wobble so much.”
“They did what!?” Mango’s mother was not pleased.
“They wanted it to go faster and not have stuff fall out over the sides.”
“So maybe they did …” thought Jackie’s mother. “Should we notify the police?”
“But if those crooks see the police involved, they’ll think they’ll be looking for Mary, and we’ll never see her again,” wailed Mary’s mother.
“Beside, do you trust our police force that much?” added Mary’s father.
“I can’t say that I do,” admitted Jackie’s mother.
“How about instead of the police we get a private detective?” suggested Mickey’s mother?”
Mary’s mother still objected. “If the crooks see him snooping around, they might think he’s part of the police force. I don’t want to risk that.”
“Yes, I suppose using anyone who looks like they might be police, or undercover cops, could be bad for Mary and the boys,” admitted Mickey’s mother.
“But … we can’t just sit back and do nothing,” complained Jackie’s mother.
There was silence for several seconds, and then it was broken by Mango.
“Ernie and Pineapple told me several times about how they solved a case or two with their friends. Why don’t we bring them onto the case?”
The adults looked around, and decided that was a reasonable idea. The older boys would have to be pulled out of the boarding school, but this was worth it.
“Let’s get them right now,” suggested Mary’s father. “What’s the name of that school?”
“Mother’s Malone’s,” answered Jackie’s mother. “My older son Jack is there.”
“Thanks. And what are the other boys’ names?” asked Mary’s father.
“Like Mango said, our older sons Ernie and Pineapple,” added Mango’s mother.
Joe’s mother added, “There’re a couple more Mickey used to hang out with,” noted Mickey’s mother. “Andy was one, and …”
“Sing Joy,” recalled Joe’s mother.
“Got it. My driver will have my big car ready in five minutes,” announced Mary's father.
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Post by RJH on Dec 21, 2014 23:17:17 GMT -5
The boat carrying the kidnappers and Mary was safely out to sea a few miles, when Red Mike declared, “We’re clear; no one’s following us. Now let’s get the food Billy stashed.” Blow-em-up Baker went to the back of the boat, opened the door to the lower deck, and went down the stairs into the lower section and opened the food chest.
“Hey, he shouted back. Most of the food’s gone!”
“What?” questioned Moonshine Mose. He left Mike to keep an eye on Mary, though short of jumping overboard there was nowhere for her to go. Mose verified Baker’s statement.
“How do you like that?” asked Baker. “Someone broke in here and ate our food.” Baker didn’t think of the fact that he himself had stolen on several occasions.
“That’s strange,” noted Mose.
“What do you mean?”
“That they only ate part of the food.”
“What’s so strange about that?”
“Think man. In that situation, I’d eat up all the food or take what was left with me.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I think we surprised someone in the middle of their meal. I bet we got stowaways - and they must be hiding there!” Mose pointed at the tarp at the front end of the lower section. “All right, you back there, come on out slowly or I’ll shoot!”
Mose didn’t have a gun, but the boys didn’t know that and there wasn’t much light in the lower part of the boat. Mose’s voice was easily menacing enough to convince the gang members they had better obey. They slowly lifted the tarp back. They didn’t recognize the crooks, while the crooks were surprised to see the boys in their underwear.
“What are you doing here?” demanded Baker.
The boys were too afraid to answer immediately.
“Maybe they were swimming and the current took them here,” suggested Mose.
“Y-Yeah, that’s it,” stammered Mickey, deciding the truth was too bizarre to believe.
“So you thought you’d break in and steal our grub?”
“W-we were starving,” responded Joe.
“Don’t move or say anything,” commanded Mose.
Mose and Baker talked quietly to each other.
“Those kids look familiar,” noted Mose.
“What do you mean?” asked Baker.
“I think those are some of the girl’s friends.”
Baker paused. “You could be right. But how could they have known to come here?”
“They couldn’t have. It’s a big coincidence. But if they find out about each other they might plan something. We can’t let the girl or the boys know each other are here.”
“So what do we do?”
“We can’t leave them loose,” declared Mose. “We have to tie them up. And make them think that they’re the criminals. From their looks they don’t know who we are.”
“Okay, but I don’t think we have enough rope,” answered Baker.
“Well, look for some.”
Baker left and in a minute and came back with four pieces of rope two to three feet long. Mose then turned to the boys. “We should turn you over to the cops.”
There were murmurs of “Please don’t.” After McManus’s warning and the police yelling at them during the runaway wagon ride, the boys did not want anything to do with the police.
“Well, we can let you thieves off along our way, but we can’t keep watch over you till then, so we’re going to have to tie you up.”
It didn’t sound great, but it was better than facing the cops or getting shot.
“This isn’t enough rope for all of them,” noted Baker.
“We could use shoelaces,” pointed out Joe.
“Good idea, kid. Take off your shoes and tie your feet together with the laces.”
Mickey jostled Joe by shoving his shoulder into Joe’s.
“We have to gag you too,” stated Mose. “Can’t have you criminals plotting with each other.” He was more concerned with them communicating with Mary.
“What can we use for gags?” asked Baker. “This boat doesn’t have too much stuff on it.”
“Socks?” contributed Jackie.
Mickey jostled Jackie.
“Another good idea.” Mose chortled. You all take off your socks, stuff one in your mouth, and tie the other around your head. And if you don’t do a good job, I’ll do it for you – only you’ll trade socks with your friends.”
The thought of being gagged with someone else’s socks was so bad that the frightened boys quickly complied. Within two minutes the four of them were barefoot, sitting there gagged and with their feet tied, looking at the kidnappers.
Mose checked their work. “Good. Now get on your stomachs and hold your hands behind your backs.”
Again there was no point in resisting at that time. The boys obeyed quickly, and Mose tied their hands behind their backs with the four pieces of rope Baker had found. Then Mose put back the tarp, went up the stairs and closed the door, locking it behind him and leaving the trussed-up quartet in total darkness.
Baker and Mose rejoined Mike on the top deck.
“What’s going on?” Mike asked.
“There’re some …” Baker stopped, and looked at Mary. “You girl, go stand over there and hang onto something, we got business to discuss.”
“Is there somebody down there?” asked Mary.
“Never you mind.”
“If you three want more space I could steer the boat.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” opined Baker.
“Yes it is!” countered Mose. “She’d bring the boat around to where we started.”
“I promise I won’t do that,” pleaded Mary.
The men considered. “Okay,” relented Mike. “But we’ll be watching. Keep this steady in that direction.” Mike pointed to the north.
Mary was a bit surprised, but took over the controls, and after a few moments was able to control the boat. This was a useful skill in case she got the chance to escape by boat. Another control regulated the speed, but she wasn’t told how to use that.
Down below in the dark, the boys squirmed but couldn’t free themselves after several minutes. Then Mickey rolled onto his side and scooted backwards, hoping he could untie one of the others’ hands. He bumped into Jackie without knowing who it was, and Jackie understood what Mickey was trying to do, although Jackie couldn’t tell who it was either.
While this was going on, Joe, with superior jaw muscles that had gotten strong from eating, was able to chew through his sock gag in a few minutes, and then spit out the other sock. He whispered, “What should I do?” but none of the others could answer him clearly.
Farina’s shoelaces were so ratty that when he thought of moving his feet back and forth against each other in an up-and-down motion, they broke. It was a relief to be able to move a little, but he still couldn’t do anything about his hands.
It took several minutes to overcome some false starts, but Mickey eventually managed to loosen the knot around Jackie’s wrists by an inch. That was enough for Jackie to wriggle one hand free, and then the other. With a moan of relief, he worked off the sock tied around his head and spit out the other sock. Turning back to Mickey, Jackie fumbled in the dark and found the rope binding Mickey’s hands. In another minute Jackie had loosened that knot enough for Mickey to get his hands free. Then Jackie and Mickey worked on untying the ropes binding Joe and Farina. In a few more minutes they were all free of all the ropes, socks, and shoelaces.
They pushed back the tarp, and there was some light filtering in through portholes. The barefoot boys crept to the bottom of the stairs.
“What do we do?” asked Joe.
“Maybe we can sneak out, take them by surprise, knock them out, tie them up and take control of the boat,” responded Mickey.
“Where are we going to go then?” asked Jackie.
“I don’t know. But … you think these guys are crooks? Would regular guys tie us up? We could turn them in if they are and get a reward and make up for the trouble we caused.”
“And if they aren’t crooks, we’ll be in even more trouble,” commented Farina.
“Maybe we can go to Hawaii or Tahiti or Bermuda or something,” remarked Joe.
“And stay there until the trouble blows over. Sounds good,” agreed Jackie.
“But what about our parents? They’ll be worried,” protested Mickey.
“We can write a letter telling them we’re fine and we’ll come home when we won’t get in trouble,” was Joe’s answer.
The boys continued to discuss the possibilities.
On the top deck, the kidnappers were having their own discussion.
Mike: “What are we going to do with them? We can’t look after all of them.”
Baker: “Right. And we can’t turn them loose after we get to the hideout.”
Mose: “I wish we could just dump them on that island over there. After we get the ransom money, we could tell … no, the girl could tell where to find them. And we’ll be long gone by then.”
Mike and Baker looked at Mose. “That’s a great idea,” said Mike. “That island was used to shoot some jungle movie some months ago. No one lives there, and Bicarbonated Billy and I were considering using that as a hideout if things got too hot on the shore.”
Mose: “Will they be okay for three days?”
Baker: “They just ate enough food to last three days.”
Mike: “There’re fruit trees and a stream, and the only animals there are birds. They’ll be fine.”
Mose: “Okay, it’s settled.”
Mike: “All right, we’ll head to the island. When we get there you can untie the kids and dump them off. Then we’ll go to our hideout as planned. We may have to get more food tomorrow. But we better not let the girl see what we’re doing. That’ll just make for more complications we don’t need.”
Mose: “Is there something here we can use for a blindfold?”
Unable to find a good blindfold, the men put a sack over Mary’s head. This turned out better for the kidnappers as it prevented her from hearing much as well as seeing anything.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Mary when she was covered by the sack.
“We got a situation that just ain’t right for a little girl to see,” answered Mike. “Now hold still and keep quiet and everything will be all right.”
Mike kept watch on Mary and guided the boat to the only dock on the island they were talking about as Baker and Mose went back to the door leading to the lower deck. They opened the door and caught the boys by surprise, talking quietly on the stairs. They were in no position to put up a fight, and still thought the kidnappers were armed.
“Well, well, looks like you saved us the trouble of untying you,” snickered Mose.
“Wh-what are you going to do to us?” asked Mickey.
“Keep quiet, and we’ll let you go. Now come up one at a time, step onto the dock, and we won’t tell the cops about this. Otherwise you’re going to jail.”
Given the choices, the boys meekly followed the orders. Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina climbed the steps and then over the railing onto the wooden dock.
“Uh, where are we?” asked Mickey.
Mose chortled, “You got a whole island to yourselves. Someone’ll come by in a few days to pick you up.”
The boat sped off. When the dock was out of sight, Mike took the sack off Mary’s head. Mary wondered if that was Mickey’s voice she had heard, but didn’t see how he could have gotten to the boat. Based on the number of footsteps she heard there had been more than one person who had just left the boat, but the kidnappers wouldn’t answer her questions.
Back on the island, the four boys looked at each other dumbfoundedly.
“What just happened?” asked Joe.
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Post by RJH on Jan 12, 2015 1:14:18 GMT -5
Now this story requires that the events of “Buried Treasure” did not happen. Picture the island the boys are stranded on as the island in that film.
Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina surveyed their new surroundings. The dock entered onto a wide beach, and about fifty feet into a grassy area stood a small hut. A hundred feet beyond that was a smaller structure that looked like an outhouse. The island was dotted with many palm trees and some of other kinds. There was a gentle slope to a high hill in the center of the island which was roughly three miles in diameter. It was quiet save for the occasional chirping of birds.
“What happened?” Jackie answered Joe’s question. “What happened is that we got away from the cops and chores our parents keep making us do.”
“And annoying little sisters,” added Farina.
“We can do whatever we want!” exclaimed Jackie.
Joe was coming around. “Like search for buried treasure!”
“Yeah,” agreed Jackie.
“You’re supposed to have a map so you know where to dig,” pointed out Mickey.
“Maybe we’ll find one in that in that hut.”
“Looks like that’s where we’re sleeping anyway. The sun will be down in less than an hour. Let’s check it out.”
The boys walked quickly across the sand to the hut. It was primitive looking, built of logs lashed together with vines and insulated with large leaves, but was quite sturdy. A barrel, perhaps for collecting rainwater, was outside. The hut was sparsely furnished, with a simple small wooden table and two chairs. On the table stood two cups made out of coconut shells. The floor was just the ground, and in one corner appeared to be a broken spear along with a thin strip of some shiny material. Jackie picked it up.
“This looks like … film?”
“Someone could have been filming a movie here,” offered Joe.
“Yeah, one of those jungle movies, I guess,” agreed Mickey.
“Looks like they didn’t leave any clothes or costumes behind,” noted Joe.
Jackie snickered. “We got enough clothes. Having this house is more important.”
“Underwear beats wearing a barrel,” agreed Farina, “but do we have to sleep on the floor?”
“There were some palm leaves outside,” answered Mickey. “We can use them as a rug, and blankets. Let’s hurry, there aren’t any lights here.”
The boys went outside and gathered a couple dozen palm fronds. Then they laid half of them across the dirt floor of the hut, lay down, and covered themselves with the rest. Fortunately it was late June and it was plenty warm enough to sleep even without the makeshift blankets. Jackie giggled as he adjusted his blanket.
“What’s so funny?” asked Farina.
“Nothing, it just tickles.”
Despite the austere accommodations and some snoring from Joe, the boys fell asleep fairly quickly due to their busy day.
With Red Mike back at the controls, the boat carrying Mary, Blow-em-up Baker, and Moonshine Mose made its way north along the coast and into the gang’s hideout. They took the food that the gang hadn’t eaten with them and sat down to eat at a table. The men’s etiquette was something less than exemplary.
“Your table manners are dreadful,” scolded Mary, who acted as if nothing extraordinary was going on. She had an effect on the kidnappers that made them feel like being rude was out of place.
“What?” Mike was not expecting the criticism.
“You shouldn’t have your elbows on the table, the fork is supposed to go on the left, the knife and sthingy on the right, and you should be sitting up straight.”
“Those things don’t matter to our … uh … associates,” claimed Baker.
“But after you get the ransom money you’ll be rich enough to travel in higher social circles, and better etiquette will be expected of you.”
“You mean stuff like using napkins and washing dishes?” asked Mose.
“That’s part of it,” replied Mary. “I can teach you a lot about etiquette if we’re going to be here a few days. And make a list of things you should get while we’re here.”
The men were feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Eventually after they were done eating they locked Mary in a small room with a cheap bed. Then discussed plans for the next day while playing poker for a couple hours before retiring themselves.
Three years earlier the gang, at the time consisting of Ernie, Pineapple, Jack, Andy, and Sing Joy, got credit for solving a kidnapping. It began when Jack mistook the kidnap victim, who looked a lot Jack’s little brother Jackie, being driven away in a stolen car. Jack got the gang to give chase on bicycles. The car driver freaked out and tried to lose the gang. He did, but crashed in the process, and in the course of fleeing, he and his partner in crime tried to take refuge in a barn the gang had been using for meetings. Not knowing the secret mechanism for opening the door, the crooks got buckets of eggs dropped on them, and then the police caught up.
Since then, that group had found their way into Mother Malone’s Boarding School due to various behaviors that their parents hoped would be improved. The parents didn’t realize how awful the place was, and the boys were eager to accept a chance to get out of there and do something good.
Mary’s father and his driver collected the older kids from the boarding school and drove them home, with the father explaining the situation along the way. It was dark when they got back, and the serious investigation would have to wait until the next morning, but there was something of an emotional reunion. Mango hadn’t seen Ernie or Pineapple in months, and jumped into their arms, asking,
“You’ll find Farina, won’t you?”
“Of course we will,” answered Ernie, without a clear idea of how that might happen.
The next morning at the breakfast table Ernie suggested, “The best place to start is at the scene of the crime.”
“Definitely, and we should all meet there,” agreed Pineapple. The middle brother earned a trip to the boarding school after making a disaster of his job at a beauty parlor, and Sing Joy got the same fate for his role in it. Besides the gang trashing the place, Farina had wound up with hair that got set into spikes so hard that it was three days before his hair softened up enough for him to be able to pull his shirt off over it.
“So Mango, can you take us to where this happened?” asked Ernie.
“Sure,” answered the little sister. “It’s just a few blocks from here.”
A half hour later the older boys had rounded up Johnny, Jay, and Bonedust, and they and Mango were all at the lemonade stand.
“Can you describe the bad guys, Mango?” asked Ernie.
“They were pretty ugly.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“They smelled bad, too.”
“Anything else, like what they looked like?”
“Well, one was a lot taller than the other two. He had a dark beard.”
“We kinda need more than that.”
“What kind of car were they driving?” asked Sing Joy.
“It was big and black.”
Mango’s responses weren’t the most helpful. Then Pineapple had an idea.
“Did you notice the license plate?”
“That thing with the letters and numbers on it on the back of the car?”
“Yes, did you see it as the car drove away? Do you remember what the letters and numbers were?”
“K-I-C-9-6-8.”
“Wow, how did you remember that?”
“K-I-C” were the first three letters the gang painted on Farina’s back, and 968 is the address of the Cartwrights where the gang dumped him. That’s one of the places we deliver laundry.”
“Painted on Farina’s back?” asked a puzzled Ernie.
Johnny, Jay, and Bonedust squirmed while Mango happily recounted the events from the past few days. Unfortunately, the investigation underwent a significant interruption when Ernie, Pineapple, and Jack hurt themselves laughing upon hearing of the exploits of their little brothers.
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Post by RJH on Jan 26, 2015 0:24:13 GMT -5
When he stopped laughing at the tale of the gang’s exploits, Ernie announce, “Okay, everyone spread out and look for that license plate …”
“KIC-968” piped up Mango.
“Right. Let’s report back here at noon.”
Jack, Andy, and Sing Joy went to their homes to get bicycles. The others went through different parts of town on foot. Mango was not going to be left alone so she tagged along with Pineapple.
At the hideout, the kidnappers discussed plans. It was decided that they shouldn’t leave their car by the dock, so when Bicarbonated Billy arrived, he and Red Mike drove together along mostly back roads to where the car in which Mary had been kidnapped had been parked, at the end of the dirt road near the dock. Then they drove back in separate cars, with Mike stopping to pick up food to replace that which had been eaten by the four boys now stranded on the island.
Meanwhile, Mary was restless, and bugged Blow-em-up Baker and Moonshine Mose to play with her. To appease her they taught her poker, and gave her some poker chips as pretend money. To their consternation, Mary soon was winning the large majority of the hands. The men could always steal her money back but it was unnerving to lose so often.
When morning came the boys in the hut on the island gradually woke up in a state of confusion. Jackie rubbed his eyes, moved aside a couple palm leaves, and saw Joe amidst a pile of large leaves moving slowly. “You awake?”
“I don’t know,” answered Joe. “I think I’m still dreaming. Is this a sleepover?”
“At whose house?”
“This ain’t my house.”
“Mine neither.”
“Then … this ain’t a dream? This thing about getting stranded on an island is for real?”
“If it is, then …” Jackie rolled onto his left side, and concluded that it was Farina laying there, a single palm leaf covering his lower body. Sitting up, Jackie saw Mickey, just waking up on the other side of Joe. “… Then this is great!” Jackie stood up. “We really can do whatever we want here!”
“How about eat?”
That question woke up Farina, who yawned, stretched and got to his feet. Mickey got up too, and suddenly realized that under the circumstances getting dressed normally was neither possible nor necessary.
“Yeah, we need to find something to eat. There have to be fruit trees around.”
The boys went outside to look around. There were plenty of palm trees, and several coconuts scattered on the ground. Joe picked two of them up and smashed them together.
“What are you doing?” asked Farina.
“Trying to get coconut milk.” Joe smashed them some more, but didn’t get anything useful.
“Come on, there has to be something better than that,” commented Mickey.
The boys walked along, angling down the side of a hill that had a large muddy expanse at the bottom.
“Hey look,” exclaimed Jackie. “That’s a banana tree!”
Indeed, a tree with some banana bunches hanging down was about forty feet from the edge of the mud. Joe, experiencing some hunger, took one tentative step in and sank to his shin. He fell back, pulling a muddy foot out with a sucking sound.
“I got an idea,” announced Mickey. “We can lasso it. Make a lasso out of these vines.”
The boys excitedly tore vines from the nearby trees and it became a game trying to lasso the banana clumps. Their efforts were not successful because the tree was too far away and the banana bunches hung downward, but it was fun trying for a while. Then Farina’s stomach growled.
“Ah, this ain’t working,” groused Farina.
“One of us could just run there, throw some bananas across, and run back carrying some,” suggested Jackie.
“Good idea,” agreed Joe. “Go for it, Farina!”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re the lightest.”
“Besides, it’s your stomach that’s growling,” pointed out Mickey, “so that seems fair.”
Before Farina could come up with a good counterargument, his stomach growled again, more loudly than before.
Getting a good running start, Farina dashed toward the banana tree, but after four challenging strides across the muddy patch the result of his fifth was that his left leg sank into the mud past his knee. His momentum caused him to twist to the left and step down hard with his right leg, which plunged in up to the middle of his thigh. He reflexively tried to pull his right leg out by pushing down with his left, and while that succeeded in raising his right leg an inch, his left leg went down two inches past his right. Determining that it was necessary to turn around so he could get back to solid land, he twisted his legs and body around. The mighty effort was successful, but disturbed the mud around enough to cause him to sink up to his hips.
Mickey, Joe, and Jackie were laughing at the sight as Farina’s underwear disappeared from view, but Farina was too preoccupied to notice them. Instead, Farina noticed that despite having stopped struggling for the moment due to exhaustion, he continued to sink, albeit more and more slowly. Disconcerted at the sight of his bellybutton going under the surface, he made one more attempt to work his way out of the muck. Not thinking clearly and somewhat in of a state of panic, he struggled mightily to reach the edge of the mud pit, twenty feet out of reach. He churned his legs, but went down more than forward. Moving one leg forward sent the other backwards, and raising one sent the other down slightly more. While he may have gotten another inch closer to solid land, he slowly sank deeper and deeper, finally stopping from exhaustion when the mud came to within two inches of his chest, which was heaving mightily from his effort. When he regained his breath and some of his senses, he shouted,
“I’m sunk!”
His words were not appreciated by the other three boys, who were rolling on their sides in hysterics.
Mickey was the first to catch his breath. “You’re not supposed to struggle. That only makes you sink deeper.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?” Farina shouted.
“Because it was so much fun to see you struggle and sink,” Jackie spurted out between fists of laughter. Joe clutched his sides amid further laughter in obvious agreement with Jackie.
Farina was not amused. He defiantly folded his arms across his chest, his forearms just scraping the surface of the mud, and glowered at the other three, who were in no hurry to get up and help him out. At least he was secure in the knowledge that he wasn’t going to sink any deeper if he didn’t move, and that freed his mind to plot revenge – the sooner the better.
It was fifteen minutes before the amused boys felt like getting up. Joe lumbered to his feet first, and that gave Farina a target. He scooped up a handful of mud, and hurled it toward Joe, to Farina’s right. Joe stumbled backwards, and to Farina’s surprise and delight, suddenly a net enclosed Joe and yanked him off the ground. Joe’s weight caused the net, a prop left behind by the movie production company that had filmed on the island, to cinch tight at the top. He floundered around for several seconds, then collapsed on his back and concluded that he was trapped.
“What!? Get me out of this!” cried Joe.
Mickey and Jackie, who had just gotten to their feet, were laughing at the sight of Joe curled in a ball on his back at the bottom of the net, but Farina used their distraction to his advantage. He scooped up another handful of mud, and turning a little to his left, and flung it at Mickey’s face. Mickey staggered back to dodge what turned out to be a glancing blow, and felt the ground shake beneath his feet. The next thing he knew, the four walls of a steel cage shot up from the ground around him, and the top, attached to one of the walls, swung around and locked shut across the top of the cage. In a bit of shock, Mickey pulled on the bars, but the cage, while another forgotten prop, was real. “Hey, get me out of here!”
Encouraged by his success, Farina turned more to his left to face Jackie. Jackie, now somewhat alarmed, backed off, saying, “No, don’t throw any more … yarrgh!”
Jackie had stepped on some of branch trigger, and a well-camouflaged loop of rope quickly tightened around his ankles and then yanked him into the air. The back of his head hit the ground, but fortunately the blow was cushioned by his large mop of unruly hair. Farina couldn’t resist throwing one more handful of mud at Jackie. The blob of mud missed the moving, swinging target, but Farina didn’t care. Jackie was left dangling upside down, his hands a couple feet off the ground.
Farina was euphoric, having defeated all his adversaries. His raised his arms in triumph, beat his chest, and extended his arms again while clenching his fists, shouting, “Take that, you jerks!” His gesticulations caused him to sink another inch, but he didn’t care.
Mickey tried pushing the cage over, but it was far too heavy. He grew worried. “Jackie, can you get out of that?”
Dizzy and disoriented, Jackie reached up in an effort to free his feet, but the effort caused the rope to cut into his ankles in such a way that a sharp pain ran down his legs. Only by hanging limp did the pain stop. “No, I need someone to get me down from here.”
Mickey turned to Joe. “How about you, Joe?”
Joe pulled some more on the ropes of the net to no avail. “Somebody cut me down. And my back hurts.”
Mickey faced Farina: “Now look what you did. You got us all trapped!”
The realization of what Farina had just done sank in. It dawned on him that he just trapped the three people who could pull him out of his own predicament. He was still defiant. “This wouldn’t have happened if y’all hadn’t gotten me stuck here!”
Mickey: “Let’s stop arguing and figure a way out of this mess.”
Joe tried to untie some of the knots in the net holding him captive, but they did not yield, and were made tighter by Joe’s own weight. Farina pushed mud away from his body, but soon it seeped back in around him as fast as he could clear it away. Trying to paddle forward resulted in no progress, either. Jackie was unable to reach anything, and was feeling faint. Mickey pulled on all the bars of his cage, but none of the budged a millimeter and they were too close to squeeze through. The boys looked at each other with a feeling of impending doom.
“We’re all going to starve to death!” wailed Joe.
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Post by RJH on Feb 16, 2015 0:44:03 GMT -5
In some future century, archaeologists would have a puzzling find. They would discover a skeleton hanging upside-down by its ankles from a rope on a tree. A nearby skeleton would be lying in a cage, another one sitting in a net, and a fourth embedded in the ground up to the middle of its rib cage.
“Wake up, Jackie!”
“Wha …?
Confused, Jackie rubbed and opened his eyes. Then he blinked, and tried to comprehend why the world was upside-down. After some feeble movements he remembered that he was the one that was upside-down. He had been hanging by his ankles from the rope trap for two hours, the last hour being unconscious, perhaps blissfully, although with that foreboding dream.
“We need you awake!” shouted Mickey.
Mickey had tried everything he could think of to escape the cage. The cage was too heavy and the bars too strong. He tried digging his way out with his hands, but after an inch the ground was too hard for that to work. Also vainly he had tried to reach one of the vines with which the boys had tried to lasso the banana bunches. The plan had been to pull Farina out of the mud with one of those, but now the vines all lay a little out of reach. Mickey sat dejectedly in the cage, trying to come up with more ideas.
Joe had come up with an idea. Unable to loosen any of the knots of the net he was trapped in, he chewed on the ropes until his jaw ached. The results were disappointing, with only a slight indentation made on any of the ropes. Bouncing up and down also proved useless as the net was made very well, and the actions only aggravated the pain in his back. Sitting still was the least uncomfortable position to be in.
The past two hours had also seen Farina get nowhere. He tried pushing himself up, and could raise his body a little at the cost of his forearms going into the mud. When he pulled his arms out, his body sank back to where it started. Leaning forward to the small extent he could pushed his legs an equivalent amount backwards. He was getting a physics lesson which amounted to his center of mass remaining stationary in the absence of being to pull or push off against something solid to create an outside force. At least it appeared he couldn’t sink any further unless something heavy fell on him, but that was small consolation.
A few minutes later a large hawk flew by, settling on a dead branch on the tree from which Jackie was suspended when a gust of wind blew. The gust sent a feather from the hawk in Farina’s direction, and after some erratic fluttering it struck and tickled Farina’s nose. This caused the mired boy to sneeze violently five times, which caused him to sink another inch. The hawk, startled by the sound, flew off slightly awkwardly, and the branch it had landed on cracked, with its end winding up near Jackie.
“Jackie, reach that and pull yourself up!” shouted Mickey.
Jackie floundered, waving his arms erratically and bending at the waist. He spun around and swayed back and forth, but after a couple minutes he was able to grab the branch. As he tried to pull himself up, the branch promptly snapped.
“Now what?” he asked, still in a state of confusion.
“Throw it over here,” answered Mickey. “I think I can reach that vine with it, and then pull Farina out of the mud. Then he’ll have to free the rest of us.”
Farina’s and Joe’s eyes lit up with the renewed hope.
“But be careful,” continued Mickey. “We might not get another chance. Wait till you’re still, and throw it carefully over here.”
Holding still sounded good to Jackie. It took a couple minutes for him to stop swaying, but he was still spinning a little. When he was facing Mickey, he swung his arms back and then threw the six-foot-long branch at the cage. It hit the cage and landed a foot away. Mickey was just able to reach it.
“Great job!” exclaimed Mickey.
Jackie didn’t feel like responding. The less he moved, the better he felt.
Mickey then moved the branch around to the front of the cage, where a vine lay between him and Farina. It took several attempts, but he managed to snag a vine and pull it within reach. He then coiled the vine, and wrapping one end around his wrist to make sure he held onto it, threw the other end in Farina’s direction. The throw was pretty good but fell a couple of feet short, and now having sunk fully up to his chest Farina could not lean forward to grab it. Mickey pulled the vine back and tried again, and the effort took on a resemblance to a carnival game. On Mickey’s third attempt Farina was able to grasp the vine and wrap it around his wrist like Mickey had.
Much encouraged, Mickey braced himself against the bars of the cage and pulled. Farina moved a little bid forward, but it was mostly pivoting, the top part of his body leaning forward with his legs rotating backwards.
“You gotta pull, too!” shouted Mickey.
“I am pulling!” complained Farina.
They kept at it for a few more minutes until both boys tired from the effort and needed a breather. It appeared that Mickey had pulled Farina up the inch he had lost due to the sneezing and perhaps three inches forward, but success was not going to come at this rate. Mickey looked around, and got another idea. He unwound the vine from his hands and picked up the stick again, and reached for another of the vines the boys had been trying to lasso the bananas with. This vine lay between Mickey’s cage and Joe’s net. Mickey reached out with the stick between the bars of the cage, and after a few tries managed to drag the vine to within reach.
“Joe, we need a hand. Catch this vine, and we’ll pull together.”
Joe shifted his position in the net, aggravating the pain in his back in the process. He then stuck his arm through the net, creating another target for Mickey. With the practice of throwing to Farina, Mickey did better this time, and on his second attempt threw the vine where Joe could catch it. Mickey instructed,
“Now take that vine and throw it to Farina, and we’ll both pull him out.”
Joe had not had any practice and was throwing from a much more awkward position than Mickey had. As his first several attempts to reach Farina failed badly, Farina yawned, stretched his arms, and folded his arms across his chest as he looked at Joe with scorn.
“I should be throwing that vine to Joe,” claimed Farina.
“Next time, we’ll try it that way,” offered Mickey, who was now trying to snag a third vine with the branch. Maybe that one was longer, or Jackie could help somehow. Mickey actually did manage to reach that vine and was dragging it toward the cage when on about his thirtieth attempt Joe managed to throw his vine close enough for Farina to reach.
Farina wrapped Mickey’s vine around his left wrist and Joe’s around his right. With all having a good grip, they began to pull. Farina had to pull hard since it felt like his arms might be pulled off otherwise. Slowly his abdomen rose out of the quagmire. But after four inches his progress halted. Joe’s grip weakened, and then he reached for a searing pain in his back. Mickey and Farina lasted a couple seconds longer but no more progress was made and they relaxed their grips. All were gasping for breath.
After a few minutes Mickey went back to his plan to get Jackie in on the rescue effort. “Jackie, we need you. Now catch!”
Mickey’s first throw of the third vine was good, but being upside-down Jackie didn’t have the bearings to react correctly to catch it. After two more tries Jackie did manage to grasp the end of that vine.
“Now you have to throw the other end to Farina,” instructed Mickey. “But wrap one end around your wrist first so you don’t drop it.”
Jackie, getting more light-headed all the time, did as Mickey instructed. Upside-down and swinging back and forth some made it almost as awkward as Joe had it. Jackie’s sixth throw came pretty close, and Farina lunged for it. It was six inches out of reach, and when Farina straightened up, he found he had sunk back down half an inch.
“Farina, you have to hold still, and let Jackie make a good throw,” warned Mickey.
“I know,” sighed Farina, who froze.
Jackie kept at it, and on the tenth try the end of the vine landed where Farina could reach it. He then wrapped that end around his hands and the other two vines, creating quite a tangle.
“Now everybody pull together,” command Mickey. “One, two, three!”
With everyone straining, they slowly pulled Farina out of the mud. Jackie had the worst of it, his body getting pulled in the direction of Farina causing more pressure from the rope looped around his ankles. Nevertheless, the plan was working. Farina’s abdomen was extracted inch by inch, and soon he was pulled out to his waist. He wriggled to help get his hips clear of the mud, and then Jackie screamed in pain, dropped his vine, and swung unconscious in wide arcs.
A moment later Joe shrieked in agony as he strained his back to the point of being unable to continue and collapsed in his net. But the boys had done enough. Mickey braced his feet against the cage while holding his vine taught, and Farina was out sufficiently far that with his remaining strength he could pull himself along the vine across the surface. When he reached solid ground all covered in mud, he collapsed face down.
One crisis was resolved, but there were more concerns. Mickey lay back for a minute due to exhaustion, and then realized there still were pressing concerns. He shouted, “Jackie? Wake up! Farina, get up! Joe, are you okay?” He didn’t get any immediate responses.
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Post by RJH on Mar 15, 2015 20:41:09 GMT -5
Trapped in the cage, Mickey pulled on the vine he had been holding on to and dragged Farina toward him. Farina groaned as being scraped along the ground made him more fully conscious. He shook his hands loose of the tangle of vines, and got up on his hands and knees. Mickey shouted at him,
“You have to get us out of this mess! Help Jackie!”
Farina turned, and saw Jackie swinging limply upside-down from the rope trap. This brought Farina to full consciousness, and he sprang up and ran toward Jackie. All covered in mud, Farina slipped and fell on his face. He slipped more times trying to get up, and eventually crawled and rolled over and over to wipe a good chunk of the mud off his body. Able to regain his feet, he finished racing to Jackie, and shook his shoulders.
“Jackie, wake up!”
“Wh – huh?”
“We got to get you out of this and save Mickey and Joe.”
Farina looked up at the rope around Jackie’s ankles, which was about three feet over Farina’s outstretched hand. It would have been nice to have a knife and something to climb up on to cut the rope but without a sharp cutting tool they would have to try something else. Farina ducked under Jackie and tried to push him up. It relieved some of the pressure of the rope around Jackie’s feet, but that wasn’t going to be a permanent solution.
“Can you do something with a vine?” suggested Mickey. “Throw it over the branch so Jackie can grab it, and you two can pull him up so he can reach the branch? That will take the weight off and he can loosen the knot.”
With no better suggestions, Farina took one of the vines, coiled the end and tossed it toward the branch Jackie was hanging from. The end of the vine fell back on Farina. His next attempt saw the end go over the branch, but not far enough for Jackie to reach.
“See, it’s not that easy,” commented Mickey.
Farina gritted his teeth and determined he needed to coil more of the vine. On his next throw the vine went over the branch and reached down to Jackie’s knees. Still rather disoriented, Jackie reached up and couldn’t quite grasp the vine. Displaying a touch of anger, Farina pushed Jackie in the back upward with one hand while holding the other end of the vine in his other hand.
“GRAB THAT VINE!”
Farina’s boost plus an adrenaline surge caused by his raised voice was enough for Jackie to finish an approximate vertical sit-up and grasp the end of the vine, first with one hand and then the other. Farina then pulled down on his end, and Jackie’s end went higher so that his hands were by his feet. Encouraged, Farina pulled down again, but this time the combination of friction and his lighter weight made him climb his end of the rope a couple feet.
“Both of you, climb!” shouted Mickey, now visualizing how the plan could work. “Get to that branch!”
With that inspiration and aided by their weeks of training in the gym, Jackie and Farina continued their awkward climb up the vine. They seesawed until Farina’s head hit the underside of the branch just as Jackie was able to grab the branch with one hand while not letting go of the vine with the other lest Farina crash to the ground. Fighting through pain shooting through his legs, with a big effort Jackie twisted his body to bring his feet within reach.
“Farina, can you hold onto the branch in case I let go of the vine while freeing my feet? Or maybe my end of the vine would be better?”
It was easier for Farina to grab Jackie’s end of the vine, which left Farina hanging by his hands just under the branch. Jackie then let go of the vine and grasped the rope where there a small space between his heels. With most of his weight off the rope, he twisted and pulled his feet apart until there was enough room to pull them free. He was left holding the rope with one hand and the branch with the other. The drop to the ground was more than he wanted. Fortunately he could transfer his grasp to the vine Farina was holding onto. Face to face, Jackie said,
“Let’s climb down this together.”
Farina’s grip was weakening, and he gladly slid partway down the vine. Jackie tried to keep up, and then they reached one end of the vine, the end that had been thrown over the branch. This end was seven feet from the ground while the other end reached it. Farina slipped off the short end and fell three feet to the ground, and Jackie fell immediately thereafter. They landed in a heap. Jackie winced as blood tried to circulate through his feet, and he sat up to rub his legs just above the rope marks. It was awkward, and in the shape he was he wasn’t doing a very effective job. Farina saw what Jackie was doing, and almost commanded,
“Here, let me do that.”
Farina crawled over and knelt at Jackie’s feet and in all seriousness rubbed Jackie’s legs like he had been doing. Jackie considered for a moment, and then lay back. This was the best way to get his body to return to normal.
“You … saved my life,” noted Jackie.
“You saved mine first,” countered Farina. “We needed you to help pull me out of that mud.”
“But I tricked you into getting stuck. I’m sorry … I’ll never play a trick on you again.”
Was that what Farina wanted? He had to think a moment before responding.
“Don’t say that. It wasn’t just you who got me stuck, and I shouldn’t have tried to get you trapped after Joe and Mickey were. Playing pranks is who you are. It’s just that sometimes you get carried away.”
“You really mean that?”
“Sure I do. Don’t you know how much fun it is to get back at you? You don’t want to deprive me of that, do you?”
“Well, if you put it that way, okay. I’ll keep on playing jokes on you, just nothing too crazy.”
“You guys all right?” Mickey asked after a couple minutes.
“I think so,” answered Farina.
Jackie’s response was “I .. need to find out what my feet are like. Give me a few minutes.”
“Take all the time you need. Joe and I aren’t going anywhere, and we need you in good shape.”
The ankle massage continued another fifteen minutes and Jackie regained close to normal sensation in his feet. He got to his feet and staggered some as his head was spinning. A few minutes of walking helped clear his head. “I’m better now.”
Jackie and Farina went to Mickey’s cage.
“I’m okay, you better check on Joe.”
Jackie and Farina then went over to the net where Joe was caught.
“Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.”
“Um, he’s snoring,” announced Jackie.
“Well, get me out of here, then,” replied Mickey. “I got an idea. Tie a vine to the top of the cage, and you two pull while I pull up on the bars in back. Farina, climb on Jackie and my shoulders, I think you can reach the top then.”
Farina took one of the vines, Mickey and Jackie bent down, and Farina climbed onto their backs, sticking one lower leg through the bars to get to Mickey, and then their shoulders as they straightened up. The human pyramid was a bit wobbly but it helped that Farina could hold onto the cage. He looped the end of the vine around a bar on the top of the cage and tied a knot, and then slid down the vine as Jackie fell down when Farina pushed off him with a foot. When they were all on their feet, Mickey instructed,
“Now pull on this end, and be sure you’re far enough away that the cage doesn’t fall on you.”
The younger two did as instructed, but the cage didn’t budge.
“Maybe we need a better angle,” suggested Mickey. “Try throwing the rope over that branch and then pull.”
Mickey pointed to a branch about ten feet from the ground, the same height as the cage, from the tree Joe’s net was hanging from. Farina let Jackie try throwing the vine over this time, and it took Jackie two tries. The two of them grabbed the vine and pulled, but even when they reached high on the vine and hung on, the cage no more than creaked. They gave up and went back to Mickey.
“I guess we need Joe for this,” was Jackie’s comment.
“Yeah,” Farina agreed.
“Well, see if you can get Joe out of that net, then.” said Mickey.
Farina and Jackie returned to Joe’s net. Looking at the contraption, they saw that the net was attached to a rope that ran over a branch, then to a branch from another tree about fifty feet away, and then to another net, this one filled with a lot of boulders. The bottom of the latter net was two feet above the ground.
Jackie and Farina looked at each other, wondering what they could do.
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Post by RJH on Apr 12, 2015 22:46:18 GMT -5
After circling the nets trapping the snoring Joe and containing the rocks a few times, Jackie had an idea.
“If we could take those big rocks out of that net, Joe’s net will fall to the ground, and then we can loosen that opening. It looks like the opening is big enough to get the rocks through. Maybe that’s how they got in there to begin with.”
“You mean climb up there?” asked Farina. “Are you sure that will work?”
“No, but do you have any better ideas?”
Neither Farina nor Mickey had any better ideas. “Just be careful!” Mickey called out.
Jackie and Farina climbed up opposite sides of the rock-filled net to keep it from swinging too much. The opening at the top was about a foot wide. Jackie braced his feet through gaps in the net, reached down, got hold of one boulder weighing around ten pounds, and with an awkward effort managed to pull it up and through the opening, and rolled it down the side of the net where it hit the ground with a thud.
“Good. Now can you do that a hundred more times?” asked Farina.
Jackie reached down again, and while he could touch the next boulder, he couldn’t get a good grip with both hands. He scooted forward to get a better grip – and then fell headfirst into the net. Fortunately his mass of hair cushioned the fall. Farina clung to the rope near the top of the net as it swayed as a result of Jackie’s action.
“Are you okay?” asked Farina.
“I meant to do that. There’s no way I could reach all those rocks from up there. Now take this and push it over the edge.”
From a kneeling position, Jackie lifted the rock to the opening at the top of the net, and Farina could roll it over the edge of the opening and then down the side of the net as Jackie had done with the first rock. They repeated this process a couple dozen times, and then Jackie tired.
“Want to trade places?” offered Farina.
Jackie looked up. “Okay, but some of these are heavy. Be careful, don’t smash your feet.”
“I’ll get the lighter ones then.”
Jackie clambered up the inside of the net and up through the opening, and Farina dropped in. It was more of an effort for the smaller boy, and being shorter he had to raise the large rocks nearly over his head at first. As more rocks were extracted he did half to push them over his head They cleared another fifteen rocks and were more than half way done but the remaining boulders were getting too heavy for Farina to lift over his head. Needing a breather, Farina lay down inside the net.
A few minutes later, Jackie came back down into the net. “Ready to help me lift one of these heavy ones?”
Farina took a deep breath and nodded. He got up, and the two of them picked up one of the largest remaining rocks and struggled to lift it to the opening on top. Being taller, Jackie was the one able to push the rock out, but without help from the outside it didn’t roll down the side, but rather settled precariously next to the opening. Jackie tried to push it away but didn’t have enough leverage.
“Farina, you have to get up there and push that rock away. It made the opening smaller and you can fit through it more easily.”
Farina hesitated, not feeling like climbing more.
“You can do it,” encouraged Jackie. “It’s like when we were climbing through those tires in our gym.”
“Heh, you’re right.”
Farina carefully climbed the inside of the net, wormed his way through the opening, and then with a big effort pushed the boulder off to the side where it crashed on the ground on rocks previously excavated. The process was repeated another dozen times until the last five boulders got too heavy for both of them to move.
“How’s it going?” asked Mickey from his cage.
“We almost made it,” called out Jackie, “but these last few rocks are too heavy to move.”
“What if you climb out of there? Maybe Joe weighs more than those rocks and his net will come to the ground.”
Jackie and Farina climbed out of the net, but it stayed in place.
“Can you jump up and pull Joe’s net down?” asked Mickey.
“It’s too high.”
Joe’s net was about nine feet off the ground.
“Can you use a vine somehow to climb up? Hey, wake up Joe, I think that will work.”
Jackie went over and yelled at Joe. “Wake up!”
“Wh … huh?”
“It’s time to get you out of there. Now we’re going to throw vines up to you. Catch them and we’ll pull this net down. We got most of the rocks out of the other.”
Joe rubbed his eyes and then remembered where he was. “Okay. Like I should tie the ends to the net?”
“Uh, yeah, that should do it.”
Jackie and Farina then got the two vines, besides the one that was attached to the top of Mickey’s cage that had been used to pull Farina out of the deep mud. After a couple of tries Joe managed to catch them by reaching through the net and tied them to the net. Jackie and Farina tried to pull the net down, but instead wound up climbing the vines. The combined weight of the three of them wasn’t quite enough to overcome the friction of the rope connecting Joe’s net to the net with the few boulders still in it by spanning tree branches.
With Jackie and Farina dangling holding onto the vines, Joe announced, “I got it! Watch this!” Joe reached up to grasp the net on both sides, raised his legs, and then let go and jumped down. The net lurched downward two feet. Joe reached for his back as this aggravated the injury he suffered when he got trapped, but he repeated the maneuver. The net kept going downward, and soon Jackie’s feet and then Farina’s were back on the ground. A couple more jumps and the bottom of the net was touching the ground.
Jackie and Farina climbed opposite sides of the net to the top and pulled apart the opening, which now grudgingly yielded now that Joe’s weight was no longer cinching it tight. Joe then pulled down and climbed the sides of the net until he could reach the top, and forced his way up and out of the opening. He rolled over and hit the ground, and then Jackie and Farina let go of the net as it started to rise again. When they dropped to the ground, Mickey called out,
“Are you guys all right?”
Farina and Jackie were, but Joe groaned, “My back really hurts.”
Mickey realized he needed Joe in good shape if he was going to help pull the cage over. “Remember the boxing book. Give him a rubdown.”
Farina and Jackie certainly remembered the last rubdown with its itching powder and unexpected result, but now they were completely serious and didn’t question Mickey. Joe rolled onto his stomach, and Jackie and Farina knelt down on either side of him and gave Joe a rubdown. They tried different techniques, from rubbing to chopping, from that book on how to become a boxer, until they got a combination that Joe indicated was working.
Joe was able to relax and feel good about something for the first time in several hours. A part of him wanted to lie still indefinitely, but then he remembered he had a job to do. After fifteen minutes of the massage he declared, “I think I’m okay now, guys, thanks.”
Jackie and Farina welcomed the opportunity to stop, as they had already expended a lot of energy lifting the large rocks out of the far net. Joe carefully got to his feet and stretched, twisting his back to get rid of the remaining kinks. He looked at the setup with the vine running over a branch and to the top of Mickey’s cage.
“So you need my weight to pull that cage over?”
Farina smiled and shook his head. “No, we need your strength.”
“Exactly,” added Jackie.
Joe perked up more. “All right, let’s do this.”
The three of them went over to the end of the vine lying on the ground, and picked it up in order of height; Jackie in front, Joe in the middle, and Farina in the rear. Mickey returned to his position in the back of the cage to grasp and lift the bars the best he could as he tried before.
“On three, everybody!” called out Mickey. “One, two, three!”
They all pulled, and the back bottom bar of the cage rose an inch off the ground. Mickey then shifted his grip from the vertical bars to the bottom horizontal one which allowed him to pull up more effectively. The cage tilted more and more, and Jackie, Joe, and Farina were able to take a step back, and then another. Mickey might have dived under the cage to freedom, but was afraid of letting go and having the cage fall on him, so he continued to pull upward while the other pulled outward. The bottom bar of the cage rose to the level of Mickey’s head, and then the cage teetered, and tipped over. Jackie, Joe, and Farina fell together in a heap while Mickey dashed out and over to them.
“Way to go guys, we did it!”
The other three didn’t feel like moving for the moment.
Mickey turned thoughtful and continued, “We got into this mess together and got out together. We each needed all of the rest of us to get out of these traps.”
A little reflection on the other three’s parts made them realize Mickey was right. All four of them bumped fists in a gesture signifying they would always have this bond between them.
After a couple minutes of recovery Joe had to ask, “Hey Farina, we’re sorry we got you stuck and started this mess. Why do you hang with us when we do stuff to you like that all the time?”
“My Pa says it builds my character.”
“You must have a lot of character then.”
“He says I could use some more. Just let’s not do anything too crazy again.”
They rested another minute, and then Joe’s stomach growled loudly, reminding them that they still needed to find something to eat.
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Post by RJH on May 10, 2015 22:47:45 GMT -5
“We still need to eat,” announced Joe. “Guess we should keep on looking.”
“We might not find something all day,” countered Mickey. “We can still get those bananas. We just need someone to crawl over there, or roll. You have to spread your weight over the mud so you don’t sink. We’ll tie a vine around his waist, and the other three of us will pull him back after he gets a bunch of bananas.”
Farina thought he understood. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“No, I should go,” argued Jackie. “You’ve already been in the mud too much, and it’s my fault.”
“But I’m the lightest. And I’m already muddy.”
“Do you guys have to argue?” asked Mickey.
“I don’t think one bunch of bananas will be enough,” pointed out Joe. “Let each of them make a trip.”
That suggestion brightened up both Farina and Jackie.
“So who’s going to go first?” asked Farina.
“You can,” offered Jackie. “You’re right, you’re lighter, and it will let my feet heel a few more minutes.”
“All right then,” said Mickey. Farina held his arms up, and Mickey took one of the loose vines and tied it snugly around Farina’s waist. Farina grunted a little, so Mickey asked, “Is that too tight? It has to be tight enough so it won’t slip off.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s okay,” answered Farina. He took a deep breath, dropped to his hands and knees, and began to crawl across the mud toward the banana tree. It worked for a few yards but then his hands and knees started sinking.
“Lie down on your stomach. Roll if you have to,” instructed Mickey.
Farina plopped down on his stomach, and tried worming his way across. He didn’t sink, but it was slow going. Then he turned to the side and rolled over and over with his arms and legs fairly outstretched. He got muddier, but that was of little consequence. It worked, and soon he grabbed a root of the tree, and then got up and balanced on it. He worked his way part way around the tree until he could grab a bunch of reasonably ripe bananas. The clump did not come off easily. Farina jumped onto it, shook it, and twisted it before he succeeded in wrenching it off the branch to which it was attached. He fell on his back in the mud, clinging onto his prize.
There was a cheer from solid ground, and then Mickey, Joe, and Jackie pulled Farina and the bananas across the mud. It wasn’t long before this task was completed. The boys looked at the bunch of bananas for a moment, and then tore into it. In a matter of minutes some forty bananas were devoured, after which Joe let out a loud burp.
“That worked out well,” commented Mickey. “Good job, Farina.”
“Thanks, but it wouldn’t have worked without you pulling me like that.”
“Okay,” said Jackie, “but we’re going to need more for later. My turn. Where’s the vine?”
In their eagerness to eat the bananas no one had noticed the vine was still tied around Farina’s waist, which wasn’t obvious due to the recent accumulation of mud all over his body. Jackie and Farina worked the vine loose, and then tied it around Jackie’s waist, which caused Jackie to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” asked Farina.
“Nothing, that vine just tickles.”
Jackie then lay down on his back at the edge of the mud, and when the others got a good grip on the vine, extended his arms over his head to spread his weight out as much as possible, and rolled over and over to the banana tree. Having seen Farina’s effort, Jackie was able to do the job more efficiently. He did get quickly covered in mud from head to toe, but didn’t seem to mind. Actually, it appeared more like he was trying to maximize the amount of mud that stuck to his body.
Jackie made his way to another bunch of bananas, wrenched it off a branch, and then called out that he was ready to be dragged back. With Farina being one of the three pulling and the heavier Jackie being reeled in, it took a bit longer than before, but again Jackie had no problem with that. In a couple minutes he was back on solid ground with the banana prize. It was apparent he had done a much better job of accumulating mud than Farina had. Jackie couldn’t help but laugh at his appearance.
“This is serious,” complained Mickey. “You had way too much fun with that.”
“You wanna go next and show us how it’s supposed to be done?” asked Jackie.
Mickey shook his head. “We have enough for now. We should explore more, see if we can find something else to eat, or water. But be careful. And try to clean up before we go to bed.”
The boys walked further away from the hut, gradually going uphill. It turned out that the muddy expanse was fed by a stream that ran down a hill on the eastern side of the island.
Back in town, Ernie, Pineapple, Mango, Jack, Andy, Sing Joy, Johnny, Jay, and Bonedust searched all over for clues as to the whereabouts of Mary, Mickey, Joe, Jackie and Farina. The older five invented a cover story that their boarding school had just let out for the summer in case anyone asked what they were doing back home. They couldn’t let anyone connect their presence to the missing kids and risk word being sent to the less-than-competent police force and then possibly to the kidnappers. Thus it was left to the younger ones to make discreet inquiries.
Johnny visited Mrs. Mack’s grocery store, and learned that none of the missing kids had visited there since Jackie and Joe were there two days before with “BAD” painted on them. Johnny was careful enough not to give Mrs. Mack any indication that anyone was missing. Jay visited Mr. Anderson and Bonedust saw Mr. Tuttle, with similar results.
The first break came when Red Mike, after having picked up some food, decided to drive past the park to check out the drop-off site for Mary’s ransom. Sing Joy could scarcely believe it when he saw the license plate that matched what Mango had said. On his bicycle, he followed the car south down a major road, and then it turned right. The car was pulling away when Sing Joy saw Andy at an intersection. To allay suspicion in case the driver was checking the rear-view mirror, Andy took over the chase. He kept up for several blocks, but then the traffic cleared some as the car made a soft left turn on a road leading out of town to the southwest.
Red Mike made it back to the hideout, unaware that he had been followed for a short time. When he arrived, he found Blow-em-up Baker and Moonshine Mose quite frazzled at a table strewn with playing cards.
“What’s wrong?” Mike asked.
“You take care of her!” demanded Baker.
Mary smiled sweetly. “Will you play poker with me? It’s really interesting, but your friends seem tired of it.”
Mike snorted. “I’m a lot better poker player than them.”
But soon Mary was having an effect on him as well. He had trouble concentrating and Mary was winning a large majority of the hands. Mike was becoming a bit batty, and this was not unintentional on Mary’s part.
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Post by RJH on Jun 7, 2015 22:54:50 GMT -5
The gang members who had not been kidnapped met at the site of the lemonade stand at noon as planned. Sing Joy and Andy told the others about spotting the kidnap car.
“We need more bicycles,” lamented Pineapple.
“We had part of a bicycle in the gym but it got destroyed when Farina went berserk,” noted Jay.
“I think Mickey has a bicycle. I’m sure his folks will let us use it.”
“Maybe Mary’s father will buy us one,” thought Johnny.
“We should tell him and his wife what we found out,” stated Ernie. “Then he’ll be more likely to get us one.”
“That might look suspicious,” pointed out Jack.
“Doesn’t leaving the lemonade unattended look suspicious?” added Pineapple. “Should we keep running it if Mary isn’t here?”
“I don’t want to run it by myself,” commented Mango.
“Why don’t we move it to the barn and let Mary’s folks know what is going on?” suggested Ernie.
When no passersby were within two blocks, the boys carried the lemonade stand into the barn. They had to break it apart somewhat to get it to fit through the board on the barn wall that pivoted. Then they went to Mickey’s house, and borrowed Mickey’s bicycle, and then went over to Mary’s house. There they met the gardener, and told him what they had learned that day. The gardener told them that he has an old bicycle in the garage they were welcome to use. As it was adult-sized it was best suited to be ridden by one of the older boys. The gardener thanked the gang for the information and promised he’ll let Mary’s parents know the latest news.
The gang decided to break for lunch and reassemble at the junk yard to look for clues. There weren’t any in the immediate area, so they spread out into the neighboring woods. They found nothing in three hours, and it was getting near dinnertime when Bonedust tripped over a mattress in the shadows.
“Hey guys, over here!” he called out.
The gang came over. “Why is there a mattress out here?” asked Sing Joy.
“We needed one to replace the one that got destroyed,” explained Johnny. “The wagon could have come this way.”
“Without Dinah …” thought Pineapple out loud. “Do you suppose the harness broke? I can’t imagine they would disconnect it on purpose.”
“We were always careful about that,” declared Ernie. “Maybe … we gotta see what’s left of the harness back home. And then we can follow this trail tomorrow; it’s getting too dark.”
They went back to the home of Ernie, Pineapple, and Mango, and Ernie quickly strode into the barn where the mule was resting, with part of the harness still attached.
“Look at this! These ropes have been cut!”
“Ernie’s right,” agreed Pineapple. “This cut is very neat … except at the end.”
Ernie was in full detective mode. “Like it was cut most of the way, and then the rest of the way when the wagon was … pulling something heavy uphill.”
“But wouldn’t have rolled down back this way?” pointed out Jay.
“Yes, unless it was cut on the other side of the hill,” replied Ernie.
“Who would do that?” asked Jack.
“The Tiger Cubs,” answered Johnny, Jay, and Bonedust in unison.
“Why would they do that?” asked Ernie. “It sounds like they beat you up pretty good last time you met.”
Nobody had an answer. The younger group didn’t make the connection that their blaming the Man-Eating Tiger Cubs of Wildcat Alley for Farina’s paint job on them might have reached that other gang via Officer McManus. Besides, it was Jackie and Joe who told that story to the cop, and they were among the missing.
“Well, tomorrow we can see if there’s a trail we can follow,” continued Ernie.
On the island, Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina carefully followed the stream uphill until the ground was solid on the banks. The water in the slow-moving stream was crystal clear.
Indicating Farina and Jackie, Mickey noted, “You can wash here, and we can drink water from upstream. We don’t want to get our drinking water dirty.”
In other circumstances Farina and especially Jackie wouldn’t have cared for that suggestion but now they simply waded in, knelt down, and washed off the mud the best they could. The stream was only a couple of yards wide and at most eighteen inches deep in the middle, so it took a bit of effort. Meanwhile, Mickey and Joe waded in a little bit upstream and splashed a little bit of water on themselves as it was refreshing.
When he cleaned off as much mud as he could without soap, an overpowering urge to be true to his nature overtook Jackie and he slapped his hands into the water, splashing Farina. Farina was taken by surprise, but not too much and he splashed back. Jackie splashed again, and turned around to splash Joe. Joe responded by jumping in the stream and soaking both Jackie and Farina.
“Come on, guys, look!” interrupted Mickey. “Orange trees!”
A source of different food captured the attention of Joe, Jackie, and Farina. They got out of the stream and headed toward where Mickey was pointing. Being a hot early summer day the wet boys would dry off quickly. “Are they ripe?” asked Farina when they got to the grove.
“Let’s see,” answered Joe. Joe pulled off oranges from three trees, and declared one good to eat.
“Let’s take a few and save some for later,” suggested Mickey.
The boys did and returned to the hut. They stayed clear of the traps and watched out for more, but the traps were confined to the one area as if the movie set hadn’t used the entire island. They had a dinner of bananas and oranges, and then they gathered some more palm leaves to make a better base to sleep on. After all the day’s events, they fell asleep quickly and soundly.
Red Mike lost his patience after losing another hand of poker to Mary. He swiped the cards off the table. “This can’t be happening!”
Moonshine Mose and Blow-em-up Baker came in from another room. Being away from Mary for a couple hours settled them down somewhat but not entirely.
“Let’s get some grub and go to bed,” suggested Baker. “We got to wait for Billy,” answered Mose.
“I want to eat!”
Bicarbonated Billy arrived just as the others were starting to eat. The other men explained what had been going on with the poker games. Billy shook his head and snorted. “Can’t you guys keep your heads on straight? This should be a simple job, and it will be over in two days.”
“You try dealing with her tomorrow then,” challenged Mike.
They ate, and then the kidnappers locked Mary in the same bedroom as the night before. The men did not sleep particularly well.
The next day, Sunday, arrived. The older boys with the bicycles, now Ernie, Pineapple, Jack, Andy, and Sing Joy gathered some food and water for a possibly long trip and rode past the junkyard and down the hill on the other side. They located the mattress they found the day before, and kept going. Every few dozen yards or so an out-of-place object would show up: a used tire, a water bottle, or a length of wood or metal. Recognizing these as possible gym equipment, they cycled farther, toward the southwest, and into the next town. They made some inquiries around areas where it looked like there had been recent damage, and learned about the runaway wagon. However, no one knew anything of it beyond the railroad tracks where the freight train had passed.
“I think we should keep going,” announced Ernie as the quintet grouped at the railroad tracks. ‘What do y’all say?”
Everyone else also wanted to continue.
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Post by RJH on Jun 21, 2015 22:57:34 GMT -5
Note: there are some terms in the following that aren’t up to modern standards of acceptability but represent how the boys would really talk in their time period. If anybody cares, I could edit this, but there’s a good chance nobody cares.
On the island, Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina woke up soon after dawn. They ate some of the bananas and oranges they had saved, and then looked at each other.
“So what are we going to now?” asked Jackie.
“How about Cowboys and Indians?” answered Farina. He danced around and made “whooping” noises.
“I wanna be an Injun,” piped up Joe. “Call me … ‘Leaping Lollypop’! Chief of the … Glucose Tribe.”
“And I’m … Farinomo! Whoop, whoop, whoop!”
“I’ll be General Custer,” announced Mickey. “What about you, Jackie? We need another cowboy to make it two against two.”
“I can’t be an Injun?”
“Next time.”
“Okay then, I’m Daniel Boone.”
“We need costumes,” pointed out Joe.
“There ain’t much stuff here for costumes,” noted Mickey.
“We can’t get full costumes, but we can put feathers in our hair and make headdresses. Or at least headbands.”
Farina and Joe eagerly collected feathers that were strewn all over the grounds. The only animals the boys had heard on the island were birds, and it stood to reason there would plenty of feathers around. They helped each other make the feathers stand neatly in their hair. The result looked much better on Farina, thanks to his massive mop of hair that hadn’t been combed in several days.
“Okay, we’re ready!” announced Joe.
“We need to make a lasso out of one of those vines,” stated Mickey. “I know how to do it. Tie a knot around the vine, and it’s a slip knot.”
The gang took one of the vines they had used before, and Mickey demonstrated what he meant, tying an overhand knot around the vine. It took several efforts to get it right. At first the knot was too loose, and the large loop wouldn’t hold its shape. Then he tied the knot too tightly, and it was very hard to pull the loop shut. Finally he got it right, and twirled it around.
The boys collected a bunch of the fruit they had saved, unsure if they would find more, and moved uphill, away from all the traps. The trees thinned out in that area, and it was a grassy region good for playing and running around. The cowboys proved to be rather inept. After running around for half an hour with Mickey and Jackie always missing with the lasso, and usually by a lot, Farina complained, “This is supposed to be more fun than this!”
“Well, hold still so we can capture you!” retorted Jackie.
“You couldn’t capture me even if I did hold still!”
But with Farina distracted by Jackie, Mickey sneaked up from behind and tossed the lasso over the little chief. He pulled the loop tight, pinning Farina’s arms at his sides at the elbows. Jackie leapt forward to help corral the enemy, and together Mickey and Jackie forced their captive to a tree about a foot in diameter.
“Help, Leaping Lollypop, they got me!” Farina attempted to show alarm in his voice, but a small giggle betrayed his true feelings. He made feeble efforts to escape while Mickey and Jackie wound the vine several times around Farina and the tree. Careful to keep the loop tight around the Indian’s lower chest and elbows, they wound the vine first across his upper chest and arms, pinning his shoulders to the tree, and then back down in a spiral, around his lower chest and elbows again, then below his waist, pining his wrists against his hips, and then his knees, and ankles. Finally they tied a knot in the vine in back of the tree, and stepped back to admire their handiwork, which looked like a neatly wrapped package.
Farinomo had been captured.
The brave little Indian stood erect against the tree; his arms pinned to his sides, and glared at his captors. His captors regarded their captive for a few minutes, and then quietly discussed his fate. Meanwhile, Leaping Lollypop was proving to be of no help, having retreated some distance, and then laughing at the spectacle. The cowboys came to their decision.
“Now we’re gonna scalp you!” announced Mickey.
With that, Mickey and Jackie plucked the feathers out of Farina’s hair. The bound Indian boy wailed in mock anguish to his supposed ally.
“Help, Leaping Lollypop, save me!”
“How am I supposed to do that? The cowboys outnumber me.”
“I don’t know. Think of something.”
Lollypop didn’t think of anything, and Farinomo helplessly watched as Mickey and Jackie, taking turns, gleefully plucked all the feathers one at a time from his hair. When they were done, they danced in celebration, while Farinomo wailed, “Aah, I’ve done been scalped!”
“Now what do we do?” asked Mickey.
“Lasso and scalp the other one, of course,” answered Jackie.
“So we let the little one go?”
“No, leave him tied up of course. We need to make another lasso.”
“Uh, so no one’s going to untie me?” interrupted the captive.
“Why would anyone do that?” answered Jackie in a convincing unbelieving voice.
“Because, oh never mind, I’m breaking loose.”
Being a single long fairly thick vine, the tie was not all that secure. There was nothing anchoring the slip knot around Farina’s midsection and elbows, and it would have been simple to push outward had it not been for the vine being wrapped around him once more. Even so, there was space between the backs of his arms and the tree, and the knot at the end by his feet wasn’t anchored either, so he could rotate around the tree in the direction the rope was would to give himself some slack. Furthermore he could turn his feet outward and lift them if necessary, as it hadn’t been possible to tie a tight knot in the thick vine.
But all that wasn’t necessary. Farina wriggled and squirmed and twisted, and the segment of vine around his upper chest slowly slipped down. His gyrations induced a little slack in the vine due to the diagonal angle in which it was wound from front to back. Gravity took over, and in a minute the upper loop had dropped to the level of his elbows. This also provided plenty of slack for him to pull his hands free from his hips, but he was still trapped by three loops of vine around his lower chest and elbows. With some more wiggling, the loops all fell down his body into a heap at his feet. He stepped out of the mass of loops and picked up the vine. The whole episode lasted no more than two minutes. While it was a lot of fun, Farina was disappointed that it didn’t take longer.
“That sure took you long enough,” taunted Jackie.
“Ha! Better than you could do,” retorted Farina.
“No way!”
“Yo’ brave enough to find out?”
“Uh …” Jackie really did want to find out, but didn’t want to appear too eager. That wouldn’t be in the spirit of the game. Fortunately, the decision was taken out of his hands when Leaping Lollypop suddenly sprang into action and grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. Farinomo quickly looped the vine over Jackie’s head and body pulled it tight, tight around the elbows as had been done to him. The Indians pushed Jackie toward the tree, when he remembered to act in character. “Help, Custer, the Injuns got me!”
Mickey walked nonchalantly toward the others, and addressed Jackie. “You need to honor your word, Daniel Boone. Let’s see if you really can escape faster.”
“Hey!” but Jackie wasn’t disappointed in Mickey’s response. Soon he was trussed up like Farina had been.
“Okay, Daniel, go!” commanded Mickey.
Having had the advantage of seeing what worked for Farina, Jackie immediately wriggled so that the vines slid down his body. It was actually a lot of fun, much as it appeared Farina had. It was over in less than a minute and a half, and Jackie flung the vine to the ground.
“See, that was faster than you!” claimed Jackie.
“No way!” retorted Farina.
“What do you say, General?” asked Jackie.
“You both are terrible,” was Mickey’s assessment.
Lollipop leaped into action again, picking up the lasso when Mickey was talking to the other two and looped the vine around Mickey as he had just done to Jackie. Mickey didn’t put up any real resistance and the Indians tied him to the tree.
“That’s for taking all our land!” shouted Joe.
“We didn’t take all of it; there’s enough for all of us,” countered Mickey, who already was wriggling his way out of the rope tie. Being older and stronger than the others, he worked his way out in about a minute.
“See!?”
Jackie and Farina were kind of disappointed, and then they all looked at Joe. It was clearly his turn. Mickey and Jackie ran him down and Mickey lassoed him. Then the cowboys tied Joe up the same way as the others had been. Then they scalped him just as they had done his supposed ally.
“Hey Farinomo, you think of something. They’re scalping me!”
However, Farina was busy reassembling his headdress by sticking the feathers back in his hair.
After he had been scalped, Joe tried to wriggle out of the bonds. However, due to the size of his stomach he couldn’t get the rope to slide down his body as his slimmer friends were able to do. Then Farina found a way to help. “I know what to do!” exclaimed Farina happily. He approached Joe, and quickly mussed up his hair.
The smaller Indian’s idea worked better than he had anticipated. With a violent effort Joe forced his arms from his sides, causing the vine to unravel enough for him to unwind it and step free.
“Don’t … muss … up … my … hair!”
Before Farina realized what was happening, his arms were pinned to his sides again but this time because Joe had lassoed him. Mickey and Jackie were quick to assist. On this occasion, they wrapped the vine around the bottom of his chest and just above the elbows a second time before wrapping the vine around the tree, and then spiraling down his body as before, but finishing by tying his ankles together in front of the tree. This left him much less wriggle room than before. Farina tried to sound indignant.
“Hey Lollipop, we have a treaty to fight the Palefaces!”
“You broke our treaty when you mussed my hair!”
“I was helping you! And it worked!”
“You know what happens when you muss my hair. You could have just loosened a knot!”
Farina figured that in his position he wasn’t going to win the argument, and it was his turn to be tied up anyway. He tried to wriggle loose as before, but with the additional turn of the vine around his upper body his arms barely moved a millimeter. He couldn’t get that top part of the vine to slide either up or down, and he couldn’t bend his arms enough to let his wrists slip from being caught between the back of his hips and the tree. Shrugging his shoulders gave him perhaps another millimeter of slack. He also couldn’t turn his feet outward and lift them as before. It would take quite a while for him to get loose this time, which in his mind was perfect.
Mickey, Jackie, and Joe laughed at Farina’s efforts, and then Jackie announced, “Hey, I thought we’d scalped you!”
“No, please don’t scalp me!”
Farina did not think that request would stop Daniel Boone from scalping him, and he was right. Jackie took great delight in removing the feathers from Farina’s hair one at a time.
As he finished scalping Farinomo, Jackie suddenly realized that he was holding a feather, and right in front of him was his bound captive. His very well tightly bound captive. An evil grin came over Jackie’s face as he held the feather in front of Farina’s face. The prisoner gulped as he realized what Jackie probably had in mind and he couldn’t defend any part of his body from the feather. Jackie held the feather between Farina’s eyes for some time. Then Jackie brought the feather down, always keeping it about a quarter inch away from Farina, past the captive’s nose, throat, and chest and down to his bellybutton. This tormented the tied-up Indian boy, causing his heart to pound and his breathing to deepen while leaving him in doubt as to whether the cowboy was really going to do anything to him.
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Post by RJH on Jul 5, 2015 22:59:25 GMT -5
Jackie waved the feather in front of Farina’s tummy, coming closer and closer until he finally grazed the target. Farina twitched, but was determined to put on a brave show. Farina glared silently at Jackie, which only made the latter grin more. Jackie continued his antics, letting the feather touch Farina’s stomach more frequently. Farina grimaced and stifled a laugh, not wanting to admit that one feather could affect him so much. But when Jackie stroked the feather up and down Farina’s sides, the prisoner could no longer keep from laughing.
Jackie kept brushing the feather over Farina’s upper body while Farina was laughing continuously and now trying to twist from side to side. Out of fake compassion Jackie paused for a second, and then tickled Farina’s throat. Farina’s laughter was interrupted for a moment by a gasp. Then Jackie tried tickling Farina’s knees, which made Farina get up on his toes a little bit. Then it was back to Farina’s upper body, where Farina’s laughter only encouraged the relentless Jackie.
Farina was roaring loudly and breathing heavily when Jackie circled Farina’s bellybutton with the feather. This sent Farina over the edge as he twisted violently from left to right, so much that so that he loosened the vines enough to free his hands. With the added slack, he got the vine down from around his lower chest and arms to his waist, enabling him to pull his arms free and take a swing at Jackie. The effort took long enough so that Jackie stepped back in time easily, and Jackie decided Farina had had enough. Farina, through bursts of laughter, still kept swinging at Jackie, but couldn’t reach the target because the vine still secured him to the tree around his legs and at his waist.
Farina settled down enough to realize that he had to unwind the vine more, and this wasn’t difficult with all the slack now. It was awkward reaching down to untie his feet, but with his adrenaline pumping he managed. Farina had thought he would be tied up for some time, but instead he was free in just under five minutes. Once free, he lost no time in tackling Jackie. They rolled around on the ground for several seconds, and then Farina yelled,
“Hey Leaping Lollipop, help me tie this treaty-breaker up!”
Having been addressed by his Indian name, Joe was quite eager to help. Joe grabbed the vine and got it around Jackie when the latter was on his side wrestling with Farina. As Jackie felt the vine going around him, he didn’t put up much resistance. He questioned whether he had gone overboard with Farina, and a big part of him said he deserved the same fate he had just inflicted. He took a quick look at Farina, and Farina’s grin convinced Jackie that Farina didn’t mind the experience in the least. Jackie determined that he must continue the game.
“Help, Custer, save me! The Injuns are capturing me!”
Mickey was of no help, as he had been snickering and laughing at the entire episode, and wasn’t about to stop now. With the lack of an ally, Jackie looked indignant as Joe and Farina tied him up against the tree. The Indians did their best to make sure Jackie was tied up the same way Farina had been, with the extra loop in the vine around the body pinning Jackie’s arms to his sides before going around the tree, trapping his wrists against the backs of his hips and then wrapping around his legs and finally tying his ankles together.
Joe and Farina stepped back to take a look at their handiwork. Satisfied with the job, Joe smirked, “Alright Farinomo, do your worst.”
Joe walked back to join Mickey to watch the spectacle as Farina preformed an exaggerated Indian dance around the tied up cowboy, making whooping noises by clapping his hand over his mouth. Jackie had to stand there and take it. After several minutes of dancing alternating clockwise and counterclockwise, Farina picked up one of the feathers off the ground and held it in front of Jackie’s face.
The spectators provided some speculation.
“Do you think Jackie’s as ticklish as Farina?” asked Joe.
“More ticklish. Much more,” replied Mickey.
“Why do you say that?”
“Remember Jackie got tickled by those palm leaves we use as blankets? And when we tied the vine around him went he went to get the bananas?”
Joe had to think a moment. “Now that you mention that, you’re right. This should be fun to watch.”
Farina continued to wave the feather in front of Jackie, narrowly missing him on several occasions. After several minutes of this, Jackie got exasperated.
“We all know you’re going to tickle me, just get it over with!”
Farina laughed. Part of his plan was to leave Jackie tied up a long time, and by now Jackie had been tied up longer than the rest of them combined. However, Farina was anxious to get started on the tickling, but wanted to draw this out some more.
“So Daniel Boone, are you begging me to tickle you?”
“Yes! I mean no! I mean …” Jackie wasn’t sure what he meant. It didn’t matter as Farina had enough waiting. Farina stroked the feather up, down, and around Jackie’s stomach. As Mickey predicted, Jackie’s reaction was intense. Immediately Jackie burst out laughing and practically screaming. Naturally this only encouraged Farina, who then tickled Jackie’s sides, which caused Jackie to twist significantly more violently than Farina had.
In about a minute there was enough slack in the vine for Jackie to pull his hands and arms free. He took a swipe at the feather in Farina’s hand. Farina pulled back, amazed at how wild Jackie had become. Jackie continued to twist and turn, loosening the vine around his legs and then his feet. Within another minute he was loose, and then he charged and tackled Farina. In the resulting wrestling contest Jackie’s high adrenaline level was easily enough to overpower Farina. He pinned Farina to the ground, and they stared at each other for a minute, unsure of what to do.
“Wanna call a truce and have something to eat?” asked Mickey.
The idea of eating was agreeable to all. Jackie and Farina separated, and they all got to eating bananas and juicy oranges.
“Are you okay?” Jackie asked Farina with genuine concern.
“I’m fine,” replied Farina. “It’s just that …” Farina trailed off, hesitating to admit what he was really thinking.
“What? You can tell us anything.”
Farina relented. “Actually I wanted to see how long it would take me to get loose the second time without any help or being tickled. Is that weird?”
“No, not at all. It would be weirder if you didn’t.”
When Farina looked down to grab another banana, the other three boys exchanged glances and came to an immediate understanding.
“Have you had enough to eat?” asked Jackie innocently.
“Yeah,” answered Farina.
They all stood up, with Farina being the slowest, still bearing the effects of the recent activity. “So what are we going to do now?”
Mickey sneaked up behind Farina, and to the latter’s surprised lassoed him, again pinning his arms to his sides. Jackie and Joe quickly grabbed Farina and with Mickey forced Farina against the same tree again.
“Hey, what are you doing?!” exclaimed Farina even though it was obvious. He did think of something else to say. “It’s Mickey’s turn!”
“You can have my turn,” replied Mickey while he was helping Jackie and Joe tie up Farina the same way as before.
“Gee thanks, you’re a real pal.”
Outnumbered and some ways from fully recovering, Farina couldn’t put up much resistance. Soon he was trussed up much like he was forty-five minutes earlier.
“What did you do that for?”
“You said you wanted to see how long it would take you to escape from this.” Jackie spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “Did we get it just like it was before?”
Farina shrugged his arms, and was able to move them a centimeter upward. He failed to move his legs at all. “It was a little tighter at the top.”
“Sorry, we can fix that.” Joe didn’t sound completely apologetic, but rotated the top part of the vine, twisted twice around the bottom of Farina’s chest and just above his elbows, to make it tighter. “How’s that?”
“Urk!” was Farina’s response.
“Does that mean we got it right this time?” enquired Joe.
This time Farina’s attempted shrug went nowhere.
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“We appreciate your honesty,” commended Jackie.
Farina collected himself. “This isn’t what I meant! Not now, anyways. Come on, untie me, and you can tie me up the same way tomorrow after I’ve had some rest.”
“You can rest right there,” pointed out Mickey. “Just don’t move until you feel you got your strength back.”
“Can you move?” snickered Joe.
Farina made a weak effort to move his arms and legs again. What he could do was bang the back of his head against the tree.
“Don’t bang your head too hard,” warned Mickey.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to damage a perfectly good tree,” added Jackie.
Farina glowered. “That’s so thoughtful of you.”
“And we promise not to tickle you or help you in any way,” added Joe.
“You don’t have to keep that promise.” Of course this promise was one of which there was no consideration of breaking. He continued, “Okay, you got me. You done tied me up real good and tight. Now please let me go and we can do this tomorrow.”
Farina estimated that the probability of his being able to talk his friends into untying him was zero, but it was great fun trying. Snickers from Mickey, Joe, and Jackie confirmed that assessment.
“You don’t have to untie me completely. Just untie the knots at the ends of the vine and I’ll do the rest.”
As Farina expected, no one took him up on his offer. He wasn’t quite done bargaining.
“Okay, just untie one end. Can it be the one on top? Okay, you choose which end. It will still take me a while to get loose.”
Unsurprisingly, no deal.
Farina stood still while the other three sat looking at each other silently for a minute, whereupon Farina could no longer contain his pained expression and broke into a broad grin.
“See, this is why I hang out with you guys. That you’d go to all this trouble to do something for me.”
“That’s what pals are for,” agreed Mickey. “We’ll always be your pals.”
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Post by RJH on Jul 19, 2015 22:38:10 GMT -5
On Sunday morning the kidnappers let Mary out of her room so they could all eat. The kidnappers dreaded another day of having to lie low before the ransom was to be paid. When they were done eating, Mary asked, “What are we going to do today?” Her eyes fell on a deck of cards on a shelf, and this did not go unobserved. “No more cards!” shouted Red Mike. Blow-em-up Baker added, “There’s something spooky about that girl with cards.” Mary looked disappointed. “Instead of playing cards, can you show me a card trick?” Having spent the least amount of time with Mary, Bicarbonated Billy was the least affected by her. The suggestion sounded reasonable. “I got a trick,” he proclaimed. He grabbed the deck, spent a little time arranging it, and asked Mary to pick a card. Mary did, and replaced it in the deck after Billy turned the deck around. He shuffled the cards and laid them face down one at a time until he came to Mary’s card, which he turned face up. Mary sensed that it wasn’t much of a trick, but it would be best to act otherwise. “Oh, that was great! How did you do that?” “A magician never reveals his secrets,” stated Billy. Moonshine Mose took an interest. “That’s nothing. Watch this.” Mose did his own card trick, and soon there was a competition among the kidnappers. After a while they ran out. “Do you know any more tricks?” asked Mary. Billy reached behind Mary’s ear and pulled out a nickel. Mary clapped, and asked for more. The kidnappers ran short on tricks quickly. “You got anything else in mind?” growled Baker. “We can make this a circus,” said Mary excitedly. “A circus?” asked Mike. “Yes,” said Mary. “Like, can you stand on your head?” “I don’t think so.” “I can,” bragged Mose, who put his hands on the floor and swung his legs up over his head so that his feet were leaning against a wall. “Can you be a circus?” Mary asked Baker and Billy. Baker refused but Billy couldn’t. Soon he was standing on his head next to Mose. When they fell over Mary looked sad and then encouraged, “Come on, do that again!” After a few more minutes it was clear the headstanding was at an end. Mary had to come up with another idea. “You can be an elephant, and I’m the rider.” Mike didn’t know why he complied, but he got down on his hands and knees and let Mary climb on his back. “Giddy-up!” Baker crawled around a table. Mary wanted the others in on the action. “Let’s have a race! You can be elephants, or horses, or anything.” The kidnappers were losing their minds more and more rapidly as they crawled around the house with Mary taking turns riding on their backs.
Ernie, Pineapple, Jack, Andy, and Sing Joy crossed the railroad tracks on their bicycles and looked for clues. They rode on the road, and started to make the first left turn, when Ernie noted, “If the wagon was going so fast it never would have made this curve. We should look down there.” The boys directed their bikes off the road and down the grassy slope. There was a hedge blocking the way, and they were about to pass it on the left, when Sing Joy exclaimed, “Look, it looks like something big crashed through this hedge here.” The boys altered course and stopped at the damaged hedge. There were a few bits of torn clothing caught in the branches, while most of the pieces had been scattered by the wind during the past couple of days. “You think this is from the missing gang’s clothes?” asked Andy. Pineapple looked at a scrap. “Could be a piece of Farina’s shirt, but this isn’t enough to be sure.” “And this could be a bit of Jackie’s overalls. Doesn’t matter, we have to keep going,” declared Jack. “If the wagon went through here, it would have continued on to that farm over there.” The boys got back on their bikes and rode over to the farm. The farmer is checking on some animals as the boys reach a fence. “Hey Mister, did you see four boys on a wagon come by here a couple days ago?” asked Andy. The farmer’s expression turned sour. “Dadgum varmints tore through here, scared all my livestock, and busted through that fence on the other side! You know them?” “Uh, maybe. Which way did they go?” “Straight through there,” the farmer pointed. He had repaired the fence the day before so it wasn’t obvious, but the wagon had gone in a fairly straight course.” “If we find them, we’ll have them apologize to you.” The boys weren’t anxious to stay at the farm, but it was very reassuring to know they were on the right track. They continued on in the direction the farmer indicated, and came to the next town. The street they came upon looked so bad they didn’t have to ask if the wagon came through there. Some store windows were boarded up, awaiting the delivery of new glass. On one corner was a broken fire hydrant which wasn’t getting fixed on a Sunday. Near a fountain farther ahead there were also several skid marks that must have come from car tires. The quintet continued past the end of that street and out of town. There wasn’t much to go on for the next couple miles as the terrain was smoother and leveling off. They reached a road near the ocean. “Do you think we’re still on the right track?” asked Andy. “I think so,” replied Ernie. “But maybe we’re a little off. Why don’t we split up through these trees? We have a better chance of finding something that way.” “Yeah, just yell if you find something important,” agreed Jack. The boys took paths about fifty feet apart. Within a minute Sing Joy had to swerve to avoid a piece of wood about two feet by six feet. The next thing he knew he was grabbing a tree branch to keep from hitting his head on it. His bicycle continued a few more feet before falling over. Annoyed, he dropped down to the ground and retrieved his bike. Then it hit him. “Hey, that could be important!” He looked around some more, and found a wagon wheel. “Hey guys, over here!” The boys converged to where Sing Joy had shouted. “Yes, that looks like a piece of our wagon, and that’s one of its wheels,” confirmed Ernie. “Let’s see what else is here.” Ernie looked some more, and exclaimed, “Here’s a piece attached to a rope! And this rope looks cut with a knife like the piece that was back in the barn.” The boys found more pieces of the wagon when Pineapple made a different discovery. “There’s a short wall over here. I bet they crashed into it and broke up the wagon.” “But where did they go?” asked Sing Joy. “If they were going as fast as we think they were they were probably thrown over the wall … and onto that little beach,” claimed Andy. The boys went up to the wall and looked over it. “Is there any evidence they were there?” asked Sing Joy. “There’s kind of a crater there,” pointed out Jack. “I bet Joe landed there.” “But then what?” asked Ernie. “Are there any footprints?” “Probably not any good ones after two days,” pointed out Andy. “But it doesn’t make sense. They had to have gone somewhere, but there’s nowhere to go. They’re not here, so they left, but they didn’t show up anywhere. Unless …” “Unless what?” Pineapple had to know. “Unless there was a boat docked on that pier and they sailed away on it.” “Why would they do that?” asked Sing Joy. “Who knows?” answered Jack. “You know they do all sorts of crazy things. Maybe they were scared of something and ran away.” “So now what do we do now?” asked Pineapple. “My uncle has a boat I’m sure we could borrow,” offered Andy. “At least if we don’t tell him. I’ve done some sailing with him. But … if they did take a boat there’s no way of knowing which direction they went.” “There’s a trail this way,” pointed out Jack. “Let’s see where it leads.” The boys walked their bicycles along the path about a hundred yards through lots of overhanging branches until it let out at the end of a dirt road. There were some tire marks but the boys couldn’t tell old the tracks were. The dirt road led back up to the road that ran parallel to the shore. “Think they hitched a ride?” asked Sing Joy. “Not from here, I don’t think so. If they got here they would have gone to that gas station up there and called,” said Ernie. “I think them getting on a boat is more likely,” agreed Pineapple. “So, I guess we go back and tell the parents what we found out,” Jack replied to Pineapple’s earlier question. “But remember nobody else must find out in case this is connected with Mary.” The boys embarked on the long ride home, more difficult than the first part of the trip since the second part was mostly uphill.
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Post by RJH on Aug 2, 2015 22:50:01 GMT -5
It was settled. Farina, having been captured in the Cowboys and Indians game, wasn’t going to get any help getting loose from being tied to the tree, despite his being too tired at the moment to make the attempt. “How long do you need to rest up before you try to escape?” asked Jackie. “I don’t know. An hour?” guessed Farina. “So what we should we do until then?” “How about take a nap?” suggested Joe. There being no other suggestions, Joe, Jackie, and Mickey lay down while Farina could only let his head drop forward. Mickey felt he better stay awake, so he rested with his head in his hands and gazed at the clouds in the sky. Farina wondered if he could sleep in his standing position. After a few minutes, it turns out he could. Jackie and Joe closed their eyes and drifted off, while Mickey did stay awake. After half an hour Joe’s snoring woke up Jackie and Farina, and then Joe woke up as well. Farina yawned, and tried to rub his eyes, and was puzzled to find out he couldn’t. He took a deep breath, and felt the vine digging into his skin just below his chest. There was a tingle of excitement at waking up tied up. He blinked, saw his friends lying on the ground, and remembered where he was. Jackie yawned, and asked, “Ready to escape now?” Farina wasn’t ready. “Not yet. Just give me a half-hour.” “Take all the time you want.” There was silence for a minute, and then Jackie giggled. “What?” asked Farina. “I was just thinking.” “Thinking about what?” As soon as Farina asked, Jackie’s expression told Farina that maybe he shouldn’t have asked. “That it’s a shame there’s no paint on this island. We could paint something on you and you couldn’t do anything about it before it dried.” It was an obvious reference to when the gang painted the “F” on Farina’s chest and “KICK ME” on his back when he had been knocked out by Joe. “That’s not a shame! You made me make a complete fool out of myself!” “You did act pretty funny. You told the girls you thought it was a dream?” “That’s the only thing I could think of that would explain where and how I was. You heard me say that?” “We were watching you to make sure you didn’t get hurt,” offered Mickey. “And to tell the truth, to see what you would do,” added Jackie. Farina replied as if this wasn’t news to him. “Yeah, I kind of figured that out when I got home. I know you were behind the fence when Mango was washing that paint off my back.” “We were just having fun with you, and know you like to play rough like we do. I guess sometimes we get carried away.” “Yeah, at least …” Farina wasn’t sure if he should reveal his secret. “At least what?” “Oh, nothing.” “That was something.” Jackie came up with another idea. Turning back to Joe and Mickey, he suggested, “Hey guys, now that he’s tied up, it’s the perfect time to interrogate the prisoner.” That brought Joe to his feet. “You’re right.” Then to Farina, “Okay now, talk or you’re never getting loose.” Farina looked over at Mickey, who also got to his feet. Farina was not surprised that Mickey agreed with Jackie’s suggestion. “You guys are right; Farinomo here is hiding information from us. As long as he does, he stays our prisoner.” Farina was not entirely displeased at this turn of events. It was something to do while he was building up enough energy to escape. He played along by making a face displaying dejection and steeled himself for the upcoming interrogation. Jackie strode up close to Farina. “All right then, what did you mean by ‘at least’?” Farina took a deep breath, and answered, “At least it was a lot of fun getting back at you.” “Yeah, having our mother see “BAD” painted on us really got back at us,” noted Joe. Mickey suddenly remembered something and got right in front of Farina. “Not just that, but you pushed the loose board on the barn door and knocked us all down the day after Jackie painted you. Admit it. Confess!” There wasn’t any point in denying it. There was no one else in the barn who could have done it. “All right, I confess. I was mad at y’all and that was what I thought of to get back at you.” “I had forgotten about that,” said Jackie. “Joe landed on me.” “You deserved it. And you’re welcome for the toughening up.” Mickey continued, “And then you ran to the other side of the barn and acted like you had been exercising for a long time.” Farina admitted, “Yeah, I think I did sit-ups and started counting after thirty. But you didn’t accuse me of anything then. Why not?” “I had another thing in mind in case you retaliated,” answered Jackie, “and didn’t want to give it away.” “Hey Jackie, the prisoner isn’t supposed to be doing the interrogating,” noted Joe. Jackie thought for a response. “We may get more information out of him this way.” “Well, I already know your thing in mind was that itching powder,” announced Farina. “You got me real good on that; I wasn’t expecting that at all.” “You were hilarious shaking and jumping and everything, but that sort of backfired after that. When I woke up I saw all those “BAD”s painted on us. Say, what was with the “X”s on our backs?” “That was a test to see if painting you would work. I think I painted an “X” on Jay first, and he didn’t wake up. Then I saw the black paint and thought painting “BAD” on you was appropriate. You were first, Jackie, because it was your itching powder.” “Thanks for the honor.” “And when you didn’t wake up I painted “BAD” on everyone else, and then decided you should all have the “X”s to match Jay.” It was Joe’s turn to comment. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if we could have gotten home without anyone noticing. But we had rotten luck – that cop McManus saw us borrowing clothes off a line and chased us. All the commotion and his whistle made our mothers come out, and got us in trouble.” “It wasn’t luck,” commented Farina, who immediately realized he was giving away his secret. “What do you mean by that?” thundered Joe as he got in Farina’s face. Farina gulped. He was sure Joe wasn’t going to hit him, but under the circumstances he figured he had to play along with the interrogation and reveal his secret. He steeled himself and answered. “I sent McManus after you when I saw what you were going to do.” “You did what? You know what happened after that? Our mothers made Jackie and me go to Mrs. Mack’s store to buy paint thinner without shirts. That was humiliating.” “Like you did to me? You deserved it.” Joe paused, and then broke into laughter. “You’re right, we did.” “I think admitting we all got knocked out by you was more humiliating,” opined Mickey. “Both were pretty embarrassing,” agreed Jackie. “So Farina, would have been better if we just let you wake up in the gym after Joe knocked you out, no paint or anything?” Farina thought for a few moments. “That trick was mean, but it was so much fun getting revenge on you that it was worth it. If you didn’t do anything, nothing exciting would have happened. I wouldn’t have destroyed the gym and we wouldn’t have had to make that extra trip to the junkyard and wound up here. So … I’m glad things worked out as they did.” “Yeah, it did work out for the best,” agreed Jackie. Joe and Mickey nodded in agreement. “I think that’s enough interrogation for now,” declared Mickey. “The poor little Injun must have been tied to that tree for an hour.” “Yes,” agreed Joe. “Farinomo, you can try to get loose now.” With obvious sarcasm, the captive replied, “Why thank you, you’re too kind.” Mickey, Joe, and Jackie took a few steps back and sat on the ground to watch Farina try. By this time Farina felt refreshed enough to try. He recalled twisting left and right from before, but without the incentive from being tickled his effort was much weaker and didn’t lead to any progress. He looked down, and confirmed that the main problem was the top part of the vine, wrapped tightly twice around his body before being wrapped around the tree, just below his chest and above his elbows, that prevented him from raising his arms enough to free his hands trapped by a lower coil of the vine to the side and behind his hips. He needed to create some slack somehow. A direct approach of trying to force his arms away from his sides accomplished nothing. He tried twisting from side to side again to no avail. He considered trying to loosen the vine around his legs instead. Unfortunately he couldn’t twist his legs, move them apart, or bend his knees even a little. He could never reach the knot around his feet, and the knot at the other end of the vine, the slip knot, was behind his back. Frustrated, he rocked some more from side to side with more force, and finally felt a little movement. He had moved the knot in back a millimeter, far from enough to free his hands, but enough to give him encouragement. The effort wore him out, so he paused, watching the vine digging into his chest as it heaved in and out while trying to figure out why that one particular effort was successful. The miniscule progress was not apparent to Mickey, Joe, and Jackie, who were enjoying the spectacle. It took five minutes for Farina’s breathing to settle down, and during that time he noticed that the vine was tightest when he had fully inhaled and loosest when he had fully exhaled. Thus it made sense to twist at the latter stage. He also realized that he should have been holding his breath when the lasso was first being tightened. He would have to remember that for the next time. For some reason he felt it was likely there would be a next time. Having recovered, Farina worked again on twisting back and forth, this time timing it so that the twisted when he had completely exhaled. He had some success doing this, albeit progress was slow, millimeter by millimeter. This particular maneuver was more tiring than the thought, and he had to rest by staying still several times. Finally, after an hour of the escape attempt, he judged he had enough slack to pull his hands free. Farina tried to force his hands forward across his hips and up over the part of the vine around his waist, but there wasn’t enough room. There was more room in back, though. He set his mind to slipping his hands out behind his back. One effort almost made it. On the next one, he succeeded in pulling the vine around his waist far enough from his body to slip his hands free. However, pulling that part of the vine caused the upper part of the vine to constrict tightly across his lower chest and elbows again, leaving his arms pinned between his back and the tree. Having used up his energy to free his hands, he had none left to force his arms forward around his side and had to rest some more. The result drew laughter from the audience. Farina was frustrated, having thought that he had been near to escaping but now realizing he was still far from it. After another ten minutes of standing still he attempted to force his arms forward but couldn’t. The slack part of the vine now was around his legs. He could swivel his hips and knees some, but that didn’t help him to free his arms. “Nice dancing, Farina!” commented Jackie. Farina continued to breathe in and out heavily and try to bring his arms in front of his body at the points of exhalation. This didn’t lead to any visible progress for close to half an hour, but there was a development to his advantage. His efforts had caused his entire body to be covered by perspiration, and he could feel his arms slide some against his back and sides and the vine. The more he perspired the farther he could swing his arms. Finally, two hours into his escape attempt he got his arms in front of him. Now Farina could shrug his shoulders fully and bend his elbows. There still was work to be done, and he needed to rest another fifteen minutes after the long, concentrated effort, his chest heaving heavily. “Come on Houdini, you can do it!” encouraged Joe. “Don’t give up now!” added Mickey. It took some more twisting, and experimenting. Eventually by sucking in his stomach and bending his elbows he was able to hook his right thumb in the vine and hold it far away enough from his body to bring his left elbow, and then his whole left arm out from within the loop of vine. Then there was plenty of room to free his right arm, and the entire top part of the vine fell around his waist. Farina next reached behind his back to tug at the slip knot to make the loop wide enough to fall over his hips. It was awkward not being able to see what he was doing, and there was enough slack now to rotate the knot in front of him, but at this stage he felt like continuing the show. In a few minutes that task was accomplished, and all that remained was to untie the knot around his feet. This proved stubbornly awkward and took another ten minutes. Finally, three hours into the escape attempt and four hours after having been tied to the tree, Farina was free. The sense of exhilaration was overwhelming. He raised his arms in triumph, and staggered a little when he took a few steps. The sense of exhilaration was overwhelming. “How are you feeling?” asked Mickey. “I’m hungry,” answered Farina. “Good idea,” agreed Joe. “It’s going to be dark soon, let’s get going.” The boys went back to the hut where there was still some fruit and water. Farina was a bit wobbly at first but was walking normally after a few minutes. They ate and prepared for bed quickly. As darkness set in, Jackie asked, “Are you really okay?” “Of course I’m okay,” replied Farina. “That was the most fun day of my life. I wouldn’t have minded getting loose an hour or two sooner but I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d just like to do something different tomorrow.” “Sure. How about we go digging for buried treasure on the beach?” “Let me guess. If we don’t find buried treasure, you’re going to bury me in the sand.” “Don’t be ridiculous.” “Huh?” “We’ll bury you in the sand whether we find treasure or not.” “Of course you will.” After the day’s events it was easy for all to fall asleep quickly and soundly.
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Post by RJH on Aug 16, 2015 22:36:20 GMT -5
The next day, Monday morning, Mary’s father went to his bank and withdrew nine thousand dollars from three different accounts from his bank. He didn’t offer an explanation, though when asked said he was buying a new car and making renovations on his house. He then went home to add this amount to one thousand dollars already in a safe in his house. After that he went to work, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary, but Mary was in his mind constantly. He would leave early to be in time for the 3:00 pm delivery of the ransom.
The non-kidnapped gang members plotted to position bicycles at various points between the delivery site in the park and the dock they had found the previous day in hopes of following the crooks. Others would be hiding in the woods next to the park. Mango was prepared to drop off the ransom money as instructed and go straight home, and was anxious to get the ordeal over with.
At the kidnappers’ hideout, the kidnappers couldn’t wait for the ransom to be picked up. In the meantime they had to entertain Mary again. They told Mary to stay after they left, and someone would pick her up a couple hours later, at least if everything went well. They warned her someone would be watching the house to make sure she didn’t leave. In actuality all of the four wanted to get away from her as fast as possible. They resolved not to let Mary get to them, but soon boredom and anxiousness took over.
“Can we play cards again?” asked Mary.
There was some shuddering, but Bicarbonated Billy thought he could handle it. Half an hour later he was losing his mind as well as a great majority of the hands. Red Mike, Blow-em-up Baker, and Moonshine Mose tried to relieve Billy, but soon began doing more circus tricks at Mary’s request. They minds were too far gone to understand why they were so compliant.
On the island, Mickey, Joe, Jackie, and Farina went ahead with the idea of searching for buried treasure on the beach after another breakfast of fruit and water. They looked around the hut for something that could be used as shovels. The best they could find were some boards with jagged ends, so they took those to the beach and started digging. The sand, undisturbed for a long time, was easy to dig through initially, so that they could dig two-foot deep holes with their bare hands.
After fifteen minutes of digging with no success, Joe plopped down in the hole he had been digging. Jackie then came over and pushed the sand piled up around Joe onto him, mostly filling the hole while barely covering Joe’s midsection and leaving Joe’s feet resting on the surface. Joe lay there for a moment, and then Jackie tickled Joe’s feet. Joe sprang up, and chased Jackie, who deliberately fell into to the hole he had been digging, anticipating the same treatment. Jackie’s hole was a little deeper, and Mickey came over to help, so there was about six inches of sand on top of his belly.
At this point Farina looked up. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“Mickey was right, you do need a map to find buried treasure,” explained Joe. “So it’s time for fun!”
With that Joe tickled Jackie’s feet. As expected, Jackie squirmed violently, and shook the sand off him quickly. In a few seconds he was standing up.
“My turn!” declared Mickey.
“What about me?” asked Farina, still standing in his hole which was barely a foot deep.
“Last night you didn’t sound eager to be buried in the sand,” offered Jackie.
“I didn’t mean that. It’s just that my family never goes to the beach, so I’ve never been buried in the sand before.”
“All right, you asked for it. Now stand still.”
Jackie came over to Farina and filled in the small hole with sand that came to Farina’s knees.
“Now see if you can get out of that while we bury Mickey.”
With the sand piled in loosely, Farina had no problem wiggling a little and stepping out before Joe and Jackie had gotten far with burying Mickey.
“Gee, you’re better at that than I thought you’d be,” remarked Jackie to Farina.
Mickey was sitting cross-legged so his feet couldn’t be tickled, but his hole wasn’t very wide and his knees stuck out to the sides. Jackie and Joe pushed sand onto Mickey and had to pile a little extra up to cover his knees. Then they stood back, and with a little effort Mickey wriggled and pushed up with his hands in an a few seconds was standing calf-deep in the sand. He stepped out easily.
“Hey, bury me like that,” ordered Farina. “The last time was nothing.”
“You have to make your hole wide enough to sit in,” explained Jackie.
Farina worked on enlarging his sand hole while the other three did the same.
“This is wide enough,” declared Farina.
Jackie and Joe came over and agreed.
“Okay, now sit cross-legged and hold still,” commanded Jackie.
The hole was now wide enough for Farina to sit in with his knees almost at the bottom. However, the hole still was barely a foot deep. Jackie and Joe filled the hole in with sand, which came up to Farina’s waist. They smoothed the sand out so it would have made a nice picture.
Farina did not think it would hold him for long since Mickey got out of a similar situation quickly, and Farina was right. His first attempt to push himself up failed, but then he easily pushed the sand covering his legs to the side. He had to clear about four inches of sand, and it took less than a minute.
In that time Jackie and Mickey buried Joe a few inches deeper than before. Joe was reclining some, and this time the sand came up to the middle of his belly. When Jackie and Mickey were done, Joe put on a little show, unconvincingly pretending he was in distress, and then pushed the sand off his tummy to his sides. Some shaking and pushing up with his hands allowed him to sit up straight, and then another push and he was standing.
“You would have got out faster if they mussed your hair,” noted Farina.
“You got out already!” exclaimed Joe. “We should have buried you up to your waist standing up.”
“I don’t know about that,” commented Mickey.
“Bury me standing up!” Jackie was practically yelling. He took a couple steps and jumped in his hole, which indeed came to his waist. Jackie and Farina were only too eager to comply, and then Mickey joined after some apparent thought. In less than a minute Jackie was neatly buried to his waist, also making for a nice picture.
Jackie waved his arms as if in distress, but his laughter dispelled any thought of that. He clawed at the sand around his body and scooped it away two handfuls at a time. He twisted and wriggled and writhed, gradually loosening the sand surrounding him. In a few minutes he had cleared away enough sand to uncover his thighs. Then with some more twists and pushing up with his hands at the edge of the cone-shaped hole he had formed, he was able to pull up one foot and then the other. The whole escape took just about five minutes.
In the back of his mind Farina was wary that the others were going to trick him somehow, but them getting buried the same way before him each time allayed his suspicions. Now it was clear Jackie was having a lot of fun, and Farina wasn’t going to be left out of it.
“I can too be buried standing up!” he exclaimed.
“You need to make a deeper hole,” remarked Mickey, who was already busy deepening his. Farina went to work on his, but with the head start Mickey finished his first. He jumped in. “Ready!”
Farina stopped working on his sand hole and certain his turn would come next, helped Jackie and Joe bury Mickey to his waist. In a matter of seconds the deed was done, and it was Mickey’s turn to laugh. When he stopped laughing, he wriggled and clawed sand away much as Jackie had done, and got out in a minute less than it took Jackie.
While Mickey was having fun escaping Farina finished digging his hole to waist depth. He watched Mickey’s efforts, and then immediately jumped into his own hole. No more than fifteen seconds later he was buried neatly up to his waist. He made similar motions as the others, but being smaller his efforts weren’t quite as effective, so it took him a couple minutes longer to extricate himself. He didn’t mind in the least.
Next it was Joe being buried up to his chest while sitting up straight. It took him a few minutes to get loose, and then the other three underwent the same experience. Jackie laughed the most because the sand tickled his tummy. When he was out he declared, “I have to do that standing up.”
“Me too!” echoed Farina.
The boys worked on enlarging and deepening two of the holes. In a few minutes one was ready, and Jackie jumped in and was quickly buried to his chest. This time it took several more minutes to get out, but he was having a blast. When it was clear he would get out soon, the other hole was deepened enough for Farina to drop in chest-deep, which he did just as Jackie finished climbing out. He was careful not to ruin the hole so that it could be deepened further without too much extra trouble.
Of course Farina was promptly buried up to his chest. He waved his arms in mock distress, and began working on freeing himself. It was slower going, but he was methodical as Jackie had been. It took Farina fifteen minutes, and he loved every second of it. None of the boys would be done for some time, though.
The next round featured each of the four being buried one at a time in a sitting position with sand being pushed up to their necks. It felt good, as did the whole experience of breaking loose. Then Jackie asked, “Can you bury me standing up to my neck?”
There were no dissensions, and again they made the two holes Jackie and Farina had been in wider and deeper. It was assumed Farina would follow Jackie again, but Farina resolved to see how Jackie did before putting himself in the same situation. In a few minutes Jackie’s hole was deep enough and he jumped in. The others gleefully pushed the sand in. Jackie kept his arms raised so he would be able to use his hands in the ensuing escape. He laughed again when the sand came up against his armpits and tickled him some more. Soon the sand covered his shoulders and he rested his forearms on the surface.
“Can you get out of there?” asked Mickey.
“This feels so neat, I want to stay here a minute,” Jackie answered.
Two minutes later began his escape. It was much like before, only naturally taking longer starting from the greater depth. In about three minutes he had cleared the sand to his chest. Farina reasoned it was now similar to the last time, and he couldn’t wait for his share of the fun. He ran and jumped into his hole, excited that he could only see over the edge by a few inches. He kept his arms raised as Jackie had done while Mickey and Joe filled in the hole while grinning.
And then to Farina’s surprise, Joe tromped hard on the sand around Farinas, circling him twice.
“Hey what are you doing?!” Farina belatedly realized that he might have been set up.
Joe’s compacting of the sand lowered the level to Farina’s chest, so Mickey pushed more sand up to Farina’s chin, covering his shoulders and upper arms as Farina had unthinkingly lowered his hands a bit, and Joe stomped on that layer of sand as well. Farina looked over at Jackie, who had by then cleared the sand down to his waist. Jackie was laughing hysterically and pointing at Farina, confirming that Farina had been indeed set up.
Farina scrabbled at the sand surface, which was difficult to dig in its now-compacted condition.
“I can’t move my legs or body at all!” complained Farina, who felt as if he was snugly encased in rock. “You turned the sand into sandstone!”
Jackie was still laughing hard as he braced his hands against the sides of the funnel-shaped hole he had created, ready to push himself up. Then to his shock, Mickey and Joe were pushing sand back into Jackie’s hole, covering him up to his neck again.
“What are you doing? We’re supposed to get Farina!”
Joe tromped hard on the sand around Jackie now, and Mickey pushed more sand in, which Joe stomped down hard on again.
While trying hard to keep a straight face, Mickey explained, “Jackie, that was a mean trick you had in mind for Farina. You need to be taught a lesson.”
Farina raised his hands, laughed, and cheered. “That’s telling him. So you’re going to leave him there and dig me out?”
Joe sauntered over to Farina and looked down. Struggling to keep his own straight face, he replied, “Farina, you trust Jackie way too much and need to learn a lesson, too.”
Joe and Mickey stepped back to look at the two heads, could no longer keep their straight faces, and burst out laughing. They slapped hands in a high-five, congratulating themselves on their well-played prank.
Jackie and Farina were trapped fifteen feet apart, angled so that they could see each other by turning their heads forty-five degrees. Their faces expressed bewilderment, but Joe and Mickey’s laughter was infectious and spread to the buried two. When they had stopped laughing, Farina asked,
“Okay, you got us good, what now?”
“Why don’t you see who can get out faster?” answered Joe.
With nothing better to do, Jackie and Farina tried. It was possible to clear a few inches of sand from the surface, but then the sand was compacted too solidly to dig with bare fingers. After half an hour, Farina had managed to clear the sand just to the bottom of his chest, and Jackie an inch or two further. At least it made it easier to breathe, and in fact take some deep breaths, but it was clear they weren’t going to do any better. Not surprisingly, all the digging tools, like the jagged boards and some sharp seashells and coconut half-shells, had been left a couple feet out of their reach. They had to give up.
“Do you think they’ve learned their lessons, Joe?” asked Mickey.
“Doesn’t look like it to me,” replied Joe.
“Me neither.”
Then Joe’s stomach growled. “It’s time for lunch.”
“What about us? We’re hungry too,” said Farina.
“Yeah. If you don’t feed us and someone finds our skeletons here, you’re going to hang,” added Jackie.
“That’s a good point,” conceded Mickey. “Come on Joe, let’s get lunch for everybody.”
Mickey and Joe returned to the hut and collected some bananas and returned to the beach.
“Here you go,” offered Mickey as he handed some fruit to the prank victims.
“You mean you aren’t going to dig us out? We have to eat stuck chest-deep in the sandstone?” asked Farina.
“Would you rather starve?”
“No!” Farina snatched the fruit and devoured it. Jackie did likewise moments later.
Mickey and Joe took their time eating, close to half an hour.
“So how are you doing down there?” asked Mickey when he was done.
Farina wanted to display toughness while still answering honestly. “Okay, but it’s a bit hot in here. Kind of like I’m being baked. I wish it would cool down.”
As clocks on the mainland struck noon, a cool breeze from an approaching weather front blew by. The respite was temporary, but suddenly dark clouds appeared on the horizon.
“If you’re not going to unbury us, can we at least have some digging tools?” asked Jackie.
“We have to discuss this,” answered Mickey.
Joe was grinning, and after a brief consultation, said, “In one more hour.”
Then some drops of rain fell, and it started raining more heavily. Farina heaved a sigh of relief, as the raindrops were refreshingly welcome.
“Wow, Farina, did you make it rain?” asked Jackie. “Do you have magical powers?”
“I don’t think so.”
The rain fell more heavily, and its refreshing aspect wore off.
“Can you make it stop?”
Farina raised his arms, and called out, “You can stop raining now.”
The rain increased in intensity and was now a moderate downpour.
“No point in all of us getting drenched,” announced Joe.
“Yeah, you two are getting soaked anyway, and it will take Joe and me too long to dig you out, so we may as well go back to the hut. And we can collect rainwater to drink so we don’t have to go all the way to the stream every day. If you get thirsty, just look up and open your mouths.”
Mickey and Joe ran back to the hut just before the storm intensified to a heavy downpour. They did move a barrel outside where it would be sure to collect a lot of rainwater.
Farina tried a couple more times, “Can you stop raining please?” and then “Can you make it rain harder?” but the rain kept on coming down hard, possibly a little heavier.
“Okay, you don’t have magical powers,” conceded Jackie.
“Yeah. If I did I wouldn’t be stuck in this sand.”
Jackie and Farina were left helplessly stuck in the heaviest storm either had ever seen.
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