| Chapter 1 Copyright 2009 by Rod Harden All rights reserved | ||
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Calico Forney was not enjoying this. Her roommate, Goldie, and Goldie's boyfriend, Frank, were testing the latest fad: a Ouija Board.
"You sure you don't want to ask it something, Cali?" asked Goldie. Cali shook her head. She was in no mood to participate in silly parlor games. "Be that way," sighed Goldie, turning back to Frank. "She's such a spoil sport. Let's ask it something for her." Goldie and Frank sat facing each other with the short edges of the rectangular board on their knees, spanning the gap between them like a bridge. On the face of the board were the words "Yes" and "No" in the upper corners. Across the center, in an arched patterned were all the letters of the alphabet, and below these were the numbers one through zero. At the bottom in the center were the words "Good Bye". Despite her nickname, Goldie had jet black hair that fell below her shoulders. Today she had it tied in a simple ponytail. She wore hip-hugger bell-bottom jeans and a tie-dyed T-shirt. Frank had tousled brown hair and a scraggly beard. He was dressed in jeans and a tie-dyed shirt as well. Seated across the room from them, the redheaded Cali was still in her work clothes, a snug tan skirt that fell just above the knee, and a turquoise blouse. Looking up from the board, Frank scowled at Goldie and said, "You don't really believe this crap, do you, baby?" His fingers were poised on the edge of the heart shaped pointer. Goldie's fingers lay upon the opposite edge. After asking the board a question, the pointer would supposedly float upon its three felt-tipped legs "all by itself" and spell out an answer. "No," replied Goldie. "I mean, I guess not." Frank shrugged. "Well, I think it's stupid, but go ahead and ask it a question." Goldie grinned. "This is for Cali, the spoil sport. How does Mr. Ingersoll feel about her?" "Hmph!" grunted Cali. The "Mr. Ingersoll" in question was her boss, a private investigator, named Paul. Cali was crazy about him, head over heals, starry-eyed even. And she was sure the feeling was mutual, especially since the time she and Goldie had helped him solve a case a couple of weeks before. Not that he had asked for or needed their help, but Cali had wanted to prove she could do more than secretarial duties, and had dragged her reluctant roommate along on an ill-advised adventure that came within seconds of backfiring disastrously. For her part, Goldie was convinced Ingersoll was just using her roommate and tried to warn her against getting romantically involved. He's a committed bachelor, she had told Cali. Don't expect him to want to settle down with you or anything. Cali did not appreciate the advice. She knew what she saw in Paul's eyes. Plus, he had actually acknowledged that she could be useful as an "assistant" not just as a secretary. The only downside to that was his insistence that Cali get regular practice at "getting out of scrapes", as he called it. It wasn't her fault that she spent most of the time during her first adventure tied up like a calf at a rodeo, but Ingersoll had made her "promotion" to assistant contingent on regular practice sessions wherein Goldie would bind and gag her and she had to escape. Of course, Goldie was only too happy to go along with the arrangement, even after Cali insisted that SHE should get to tie up Goldie as well. Somehow, Goldie always seemed to get out Cali's rope work in short order, whereas Cali would struggle for hours without success. In fact, the main reason she now acted as spectator to the The Great Ouija Board Experiment, was because she was bound and gagged. Inescapably, so far. She was seated in one of the kitchen chairs, with its chrome tubular frame and blue vinyl padded back and seat. Her wrists and elbows were tightly bound behind her and her legs were lashed together at the ankles, knees, and thighs. Goldie had also secured Cali's waist to the chair with several additional courses of rope, and the gag consisted of a clean wash cloth stuffed in her mouth, over which Goldie had smoothed several pieces of duct tape. So all Cali could do was tug vainly at the ropes once more as Goldie announced her question. As she glared at the smugly smiling black-haired girl, the pointer began to move across the board. "You're pushing it," complained Frank. "I am not! You are," exclaimed Goldie, whose surprise appeared to be genuine. "It's not me," insisted her boyfriend. "Well, somebody's gotta be moving it." They both fell silent as the pointer came to rest over one of the letters. "S," intoned Goldie in a dramatic voice as the pointer began moving again. She continued calling out the letters as it came to rest over each. "I... L... L... Y... G... I... R... L! Well, I'll be," she laughed turning to the helpless redhead. "The Great Magic Ouija Board says Mr. Ingersoll thinks you're a silly girl, Cali." Cali felt her face flush hotly as she shot an angry look at her mocking roommate. "He does not!" she mumbled through her gag, as if the board's answer were conclusive proof. "Oh, it's just a stupid game, Cali. Don't take it so serious." "I dunno," said Frank. "I swear I really wasn't pushing that thing. It was moving all by itself." "We moved it subconsciously." "Really?" "How should I know? Come on," said Goldie, abruptly taking the board and setting it aside. "Let's go. The movie starts in twenty minutes." Frank remained seated. "You sure you want to see something called 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'? What ever happened to 'the beautiful'?" Goldie laughed. "That'll be Clint Eastwood's next one." At last he stood, but paused and glanced at the bound and gagged redhead. "Can we just leave her like that?" "Sure," said Goldie brightly. "What's the problem? She'll be fine. And," she added with a wicked wink at Cali, "you can bet she'll still be there when we get back." "Well, all right... If you say so." Cali huffed defiantly as she watched the two of them stroll casually out the door. I'll show HER, she told herself, redoubling her efforts to get free. But after five minutes of writhing and groping blindly for a knot to loosen, she had gotten exactly nowhere. Gosh darn it! she thought. How does she DO it? There's gotta be a trick to it. Or maybe I tie really crummy knots. Just then, she noticed that Goldie had left a pair of scissors out on the coffee table. Something sharp would certainly help. Then again, it could be pretty dangerous trying to work with scissors with her hands still tied. Oh fiddlesticks! she thought. What am I worried about? I'll probably kill myself just trying to get across the room.
Cali Forney and the Go-Go Girl Caper, Chapter 1
With that, she began wiggling and shifting her weight trying to get the chair to shimmy toward the table. "Mmm!" she moaned aloud as she strained to make some progress. But all she seemed to accomplish was a minor left-right oscillation without any forward movement at all.
She relaxed and puffed heavily through her nose to catch her breath. This would be easier if Goldie hadn't sealed my mouth shut, she told herself. After a minute's rest, she tried again, this time concentrating more on shuffling along in a single direction.
But all she accomplished with that strategy was turning herself around.
Crud! she thought. She turned and looked longingly at the scissors. They were only about ten feet away. But even such a negligible distance was as good as insurmountable lashed to a chair.
"Mm-mm-MM!" she grunted in frustration, rocking herself as if she were seated in a rocking chair. Suddenly she found herself on her feet, bent forward, with the chair still tied to her waist but completely off the floor. She squeaked in shock and stopped all movement as she took in her new situation.
It was definitely awkward, and the chair lay heavily against her back, but there was enough wiggle room in her ankle bonds that she might just be able to shuffle over to the table like this. She took two quick, constricted steps and halted again. The chair's weight threatened to pull her backward, back to the seated position again, but she strained against the weight, leaning even further forward.
Yes, she thought, I can do this!
After only a few more hobbled steps, she was actually in position to grab the scissors. Giggling with excitement, she turned herself around so she would be able to reach the cutting implement with her bound hands once she set the chair down again.
Except something went wrong. As she turned, one of the rear chair legs got caught against the coffee table. In her eagerness, she didn't notice at first, and continued to try turning, but now when she shifted her weight, the stuck chair fought back, knocking her off balance and sending her crashing, sideways, onto the floor.
"Aaaahhhh!" she screamed through her gag. Gasping in shock, she found herself now lying on her side, still in a seated position with her body still attached to the chair by the snug rope around her waist.
"Oh great!" she huffed aloud. Now what do I do? "Errrr!" she screamed, thrashing in frustration until she had to stop, winded and panting through her nose. Gosh darn that Goldie for being so gosh darned good at tying knots!
With a weary sigh of defeat, she realized she was truly stuck now. The scissors were only an arm's reach away and yet there was no way to even turn herself in the right direction anymore. Trying not to let herself cry, she "sat" sideways on the floor for a while, wishing she had stayed put and hoping that the Clint Eastwood movie wasn't a long one.
Every now and then, she made another half-hearted attempt to free herself, but she had long since realized the knots were too tight and too well hidden from her groping fingers. She was doomed to just lay there, wretched and helpless, until Goldie returned to gloat and finally let her loose. And, of course, she would be sure to report Cali's failure to get free to Mr. Ingersoll the next day.
Fiddlesticks!
What will he say this time? Cali wondered. Probably the exact same thing he'd say if he were here right now. And with that thought, her mind abruptly took off on its own, spinning a fantasy she was as powerless to control as she was to wiggle out of these ropes.
She imagined her boss standing over her at that very moment. Well, he was more than just her boss now of course. He was also her "boyfriend." Except she never called him her boyfriend. It just didn't seem to suit him. But they WERE an item. After months of what she thought was indifference from him, he had finally noticed her.
Anyway, he reeling brain pictured him there. He was shaking his head in mocking disappointment. "You really look pretty pathetic right now, Cali," the imaginary Paul sighed. "How did this happen?"
"I tipped over!" she moaned aloud. Her muffled words emerged as "I diffed oafer!" and she almost laughed to hear them.
But the image of Paul was not amused. "Sounds like you were quite clumsy, young lady. I can't believe I promoted you to be my assistant."
"I'm sorry, Master!" The last word came out as clearly as anything she'd ever managed to say while gagged.
She had started using that term sarcastically, because he was such a slave driver, but somehow it had become almost a term of endearment now. She liked calling him that. And she liked the power it implied he had over her. More than a boss and definitely more than a "boyfriend." When she said the word she never failed to melt inside.
And now she imagined him kneeling next to her. She would have to be punished for failing him, but he always took a moment before punishing her to simply touch her. Sometimes he was rough, other times, gentle. She dreaded the gentle touch more because it usually meant the punishment to follow would be worse than usual.
Except she didn't really dread any of it. She craved it, all of it, more than she dared admit, even to him. As she contemplated what awaited her tomorrow at work, her already soaked panties became even wetter.
Just then, her eyes widened. At that very moment, she became aware of one of the knots that secured her wrist binding. Somehow it had come within reach. If she plucked it just right, she could loosen it and possibly free herself.
But instead, she commanded her fingers to be still. With a rush of self-imposed humiliation, she settled down for the duration and prepared herself to be discovered exactly as she was.
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