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    Jerry Quick-Step, all star shortstop for Rosie’s Coyotes was scared, very scared. One second he was loading his baseball stuff into his car, the next second something hard had exploded against Jerry’s head. Then he saw stars, and then blackness, and then—

Then he was here, but he didn't know where here was. There was some kind of cloth tied over his eyes and some kind of ball had been stuffed into his mouth. Jerry’s tongue didn't like this strange ball. It took up too much room inside Jerry’s mouth so his tongue kept pushing against it, but the ball was so tightly lodged between Jerry’s teeth that his tongue couldn't move it. It could only slip off the hard intruder again and again until the ball was all wet with Jerry’s spit.

And then there were the ropes, tight ropes wound all around Jerry’s arms and his hands and his body that were hugging him in a way he didn't want to be hugged. And then there were the rough hands and cruel voices. The rough hands moved him around and turned him this way and that and the cruel voices were laughing at him and that hurt almost as much as the ropes.

“So this is the great Jerry Quick-Step,” one of the cruel voices said.

“Have a seat, Jerry.” The cruel hands pushed him down onto the hard floor.

Then Jerry could feel their hands all over him again as they pushed and pulled his body whatever way they wanted it. And then Jerry could feel more of the biting ropes being wrapped tightly around his ankles and his wrists until he was sitting like an Indian and hardly able to move his hands or feet at all.

Then those hands suddenly tore the cloth off of Jerry’s head and the bright lights of the room stabbed into Jerry’s eyes. He had to blink several times before he could see anything at all, and then he saw the two men standing over him. Both of them were big beefy characters that looked about seven feet tall from where Jerry was sitting. And they both looked like the kind of men who enjoyed hurting people.

“Hello Jerry, my name is Spatz and this is Felix,” one of them said. “We don't mind if you know our names because you're going to get to know both of us real well.”

“We want to talk to you about your game Jerry,” the other one said. “You've been playing real well lately; batting average .302, fielding percentage better than 97 percent. We think it’s time you went into a slump.”

“Slump…?” Jerry slurped behind the slippery ball in his mouth.

“That’s right,” the one called Spatz grinned down at Jerry. “We'd like for you to strike out more.”

“Or you could hit a lot of grounders to second or short,” Felix put in.

“Yea and you need to get a real case of butter-fingers for awhile, drop the ball a lot, and that kind of thing.”

“Or you could throw it away sometimes. That’s always good for an extra base or two,” Felix laughed.

“I can't do that!” Jerry tried to squawk past the slippery ball-stopper in his mouth.

“Told you he wouldn't cooperate,” Felix sounded disappointed.

“That’s too bad,” Spatz sympathized. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

Jerry Quick-Step couldn't believe it! Did these guys think he was going to start throwing ball games just because they asked him to? Maybe Jerry was only good enough for semi-pro ball now, but he still had dreams of maybe getting a minor-league contract. And even if he didn't, Jerry had never cheated in his whole life.

“Okay Jerry, you're going have to wait here while we get something out of the truck. One piece of advice; the quieter you are while we're gone, the less lumps you'll get when we get back.”

“Yea and we really like giving out lumps!” Felix laughed.

Jerry watched the two bruisers go out of the room in a complete state of shock. Who were these guys? What did they want to hurt him so much? Then Jerry realized that he had better not be here to find out the answers. Somehow he had to get loose and get running before they came back.

But Jerry soon discovered that wanting to get loose and actually being able to get loose were two different things. Whatever else those two guys might be, they were both really good at tying knots. Still there had to be a way!

So Jerry twisted and squirmed and fell all over the floor, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't get his hands or feet free. He only made the tight ropes tighter. And then more trouble came Jerry’s way. Somehow in all of that rolling around on the floor, his pants had come loose, and now Jerry was feeling a definite draft as his pants slipped down lower and lower on his thighs.

Then Jerry heard a queer rumbling sound accompanied by the two bullies grunting, groaning and laughing. And then Jerry squirmed around on the floor until he could see something that he didn't believe. The two goons were rolling a pitching machine into the room! What were they going to do with that?

And then Felix noticed Jerry’s bare moons and his lucky pink jockstrap and burst out laughing. “Hey Spatz! Look at that!”

Then Spatz saw the sexy jockstrap and started laughing, too. “Hey Quick-Step, is that jock what they call regulation?”

Jerry started to blush. It wasn't bad enough that he almost naked. Now these two bozos had seen one of his most closely guarded secrets. The guys on the team didn't laugh at him. They all had their own lucky charms that they didn't want people laughing at. But these two guys—

The one called Spatz plugged the pitching machine into an outlet and then loaded a big bucket of balls into the hopper. “Okay Jerry, here’s the pitch—“

Felix broke up.

“Quiet Felix! This ain't supposed to be funny. I'm trying to be serious here.”

Jerry’s eyes became very big and his heart almost stopped when he saw Spatz turning the pitching machine until its maw was pointed right at Jerry’s defenseless body.

“I know you want to be stubborn about this so we're going to give you some time to make up your mind.”

“Yea, three strikes and you're out!” Felix started laughing again.

“I'm going to start you off with some change-ups, but if you don't come around pretty quick, I'm going right to the fast balls. Batter up!”

Jerry watched the machine come to life, saw the pitching arm pick a ball out of the hopper, and then the arm whirred forward and the ball shot out of the maw and headed right for Jerry’s—

THE END

Jerry Quick Step played by Mike

Photography by Caitiff

Date of Production: 10/15/2009