Let's Go Play at the Adams'

More foolishness. All right, she would go. More than anything else now, Barbara wanted to

get this thing over with quickly. She looked at Freedom Five and made her only sound:

"Umnn?"

"OK, stand up."

She tried and found that she couldn't do it without the fear of falling forward. "Ull m.mnn,"

she said.

They looked at her blankly. All her sounds sounded the same.

"UH mmnn ! "

"Help me," Dianne translated. ·

Obediently, John and Dianne took her bare arms and helped her to stand. Briefly, she

recorded the fact that they were much stronger than she would have guessed. Then Bobby

gave a timid tug on the rope around her neck-it worked as he had said-and she

turned and followed him, the rest coming behind. ·

The trip down the hall was a mile and a half long.

Barbara was hobbled just above the ankles, and Bobby had tied his loops too tightly. When

she stood up and put her weight on her legs, they swelled and the ropes cut in. Moreover,

he had hobbled her too closely so that she advanced only by short little slides no more

than nine or ten inches a move. Finally, her feet finished each step nearly in line so that it

was like walking a tightrope. She was afraid of falling and kept her right hand out to steady

herself against the wall as they went.

When the slow procession reached the bathroom at last, Dianne told the rest, "You can't

see," and let Barbara slide in ahead. The whole time afterward, Dianne stood inside against

the wall near the door, her gaze primly averted.

"Well, we'll have to feed her sometime." John was sitting, elbows on table, heels hooked

over the rung of a kitchen chair. He chewed while he talked, and in front of him lay part of

a sandwich Dianne had made.

33

"How'll we get the gag back in her mouth if she doesn't want us to?" Cindy said. "She

might bite."

"First of all, what if she starts yelling, you mean?" "That's easy." Paul gave a twisted shrug.

"Let John have a pillow, and if she does, he wraps it over her face."

"She'd smother," Bobby said.

"Just for a little while, while we open the chloroform, and then we put her to sleep."

"How about the gag though?" Cindy persisted. "Same thing, stupid."

"I'm not stupid. You stop calling me that!"

"Why don't you leave her alone, Bobby?" John sighed.

"Somebody better stand guard and watch the road in case anyone drives in when she isn't

gagged."

"You want to do that, Cindy?"

"No, I want to watch." She lazily ate the icing oft

a piece of cake she had wheedled out of Dianne.

"I'll stay out here," Bobby said. "No, we might need you." ·

"I'm only out here, for godsakes. Besides, it's Paul's tum to do something. If he wants to

chloroform her, let him try it for a change."

"Finish your sandwich, Paul. Hurry up"-Dianne was already straightening up-"It's getting

late."

"Yeah, and I want to go swimming after my · hour," Cindy licked her fingers slowly.

The kids approached Barbara more familiarly now. She was back in her room but sitting in

a chair to which they had tied her-amid endless debate and engineering discussion-over an

hour ago. It would be obvious to an outsider that half the rope would have done the job,

but that was not the point. The more they used, the safer they felt.

This was apparent in the way they lounged around while Dianne explained about the pillow

over the face and the chloroform and the lookout to watch the road. "Now, will you be quiet

if we take your gag out?"

34

Barbara nodded solemnly. Her jaws ached from being spread.

Since the boys never offered to touch Barbara unless they had work to do, Dianne removed

the adhesive tape. As usual, Bobby had used enough to set a broken bone, and it took a

long time to come off strip by strip, each one protested by Barbara. When they were finally

gone, balled up and discarded with the paper trash to be burned, Dianne reached in the

older girl's mouth and pulled out the damp terry-cloth wad. Barbara swallowed

immediately and painfully, and extended her tongue to touch her dry lips.

"Can I have a glass of water?"

At the sound of her voice, John and Paul stiffened slightly. This, clearly, was the beginning

of danger.

"I won't scream," Barbara said carefully.

Don't lose your head when they ungag you, Terry had said in her phantom conversation

this morning. Talk to them. Be calm.

"I'll get some," Cindy buzzed out.

"Turn on the TV-loud," John yelled behind her.

He was still quite nervous.

"I won't scream," Barbara repeated in a low, steady voice. When no one said anything, she

added, "You can put the pillow and bottle down. I know. I won't make any trouble."

Dianne, also tense, seemed to relax. "All right, then. I'll get you something."

"What?"

Dianne turned and left the room. "Cereal," she said over her shoulder.

"I want more than that!"

"That's all you're going to get." Paul instantly picked up the bottle again; the cloth was

visible inside it, and his fingers were on the lid. "You're on a prisoner's diet."