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            “What the hell am I paying you for?”
            The sudden appearance of Mr. G really surprised Sammy, but Sammy thought he was a tough guy so he immediately went on the offensive.
            “Hey, I'm just taking a break, you know.”
            “How can you take a break when you haven't done any work yet?  You think you can come into my house and just hang around and I'm going to pay you?”
            “You can’ talk to me like that.  You know who my Father is?”
            “Yea Sammy, I know who your Father is.”  All of a sudden Mister G. grabbed Sammy and spun him around.  Then Mr. G’s rough carpenter hands grabbed Sammy by his arms and pulled his arms together behind his back.
            “Ow!  You're hurting me!”  Sammy whined as he struggled to get free, but Mr. G had spent more than thirty years pounding nails with his hammer and he was a whole lot stronger than he looked.  And the next thing Sammy knew, the old carpenter had a roll of that duct tape and he was wrapping it all around Sammy’s wrists tighter and tighter until Sammy was gasping a little with each turn of the tape.  Then Mr. G spun Sammy around to face him.
            “It so happens I know your Father really well, and you know what he tells me Sammy?  He tells me that you got a main malfunction.  You know that malfunction is Sammy?  Too much mouth!”
            Mister G. hammered Sammy’s breastbone with a big knuckle on each word while Sammy retreated back toward the step ladder.  “Well, I can fix that!”
            The next thing Sammy knew one big gnarled hand was gripping his face really tight and closing his lips together while Mr. G’s other calloused hand was wrapping layer after layer of the strong duck tape around over his lips and cheeks and neck and chin until poor Sammy couldn't move his mouth at all.
            “Down on your knees, Mouth!”  Mr. G pushed Sammy down onto the floor.  “And don't go nowhere.  I ain't done with you yet!”
            Sammy was hurting and he was scared.  No one had ever dared treat him the way Mr. G was treating him now.  Sammy tried to remember what his Father had told him about Mr. G, but he couldn't remember anything.  Maybe Mr. G was one of those guys you didn't talk about; one of those guys who just did “little jobs” for Sammy’s Father and then disappeared again.  Sammy had heard about guys like that.  You didn't never want to cross them.
            Then Mr. G returned with a couple more rolls of the shiny tape.  He set the tape down and then turned around and captured a few of Sammy’s chest hairs between his fingers.  “Come on, Mouth.  Up!”
            Tears jumped into Sammy’s eyes and a little whimper was muffled by the layers of tape covering his mouth as he struggled to get his feet under him.  Then Mr. G twisted those hairs between his fingers as he backed Sammy up to the ladder.
            “You ain't going to use this ladder the way it’s supposed to be used; maybe I can show you another way to use it.”

            Sammy felt the hard rungs of the ladder pressing against his soft butt and shoulder blades, but he didn't dare move.  He just shook the tears out of his eyes and then held real still while Mr. G began wrapping lots of that duct tape all around Sammy’s legs so that each of his spread legs were being hugged tighter and tighter to the hard ladder.
            “You see, Mouth, your Father ain't been too happy with you lately so he sent you to me.  He thought a little work might toughen you up.  But, if you don't want to work, I know some other ways to fix your malfunction.”
            Sammy shook his head from side to side and moaned behind his tape-clenched lips.  He didn't like the sound of this.  He didn't like the sound of this at all.  Then Mr. G’s big hand grabbed him by his taped face again and pulled him close.
            “One way or another, I'm going to make a different man out of you.  Now let’s see what we got to work with here.”
            A soft moan made its way up through Sammy’s throat as he felt Mr. G’s rough hands ripping open the buttons of Sammy’s coveralls and then pushing the sides of the old cloth back to bare his chest.
            “No muscle tone at all and look at all that flab!  Tell the truth, Mouth.  Have you ever done a hard day’s work in your life?”
            Sammy closed his eyes and hung his head.
            “Yea, well I can fix that,” Mr. G promised.
            Then Mr. G began hugging Sammy hard while he wrapped more layers of the strong tape around over Sammy’s bare chest and the hard ladder until Sammy could feel that ladder trying to force its way into his body.  Then Mr. G stepped back.
            “All right, Mouth, struggle!  Come on, you can do better than that!  Try to get free ‘cause I ain't going to give you another chance.”
            Sammy twisted and pulled and grunted until he could feel cool sweat trickling all down his chest and his back and his legs, but there was no way to get free from the strong tape that was holding his body a prisoner against the hard ladder.
            “Pitiful, just pitiful,” Mr. G sighed.  “Well I know a few ways to toughen you up.”
            What ways, what was he going to do, Sammy worried?
            “But I'm not going to have you looking at me like some dumb basset hound while I'm doing it.”
            Mr. G. pulled Sammy’s cap off and tossed it into a corner.  Then Sammy saw the old carpenter coming at his face with the roll of duct tape.  Not knowing what the tough old bird was going to do, Sammy flinched his head back as far as it would go and then closed his eyes.  Then Sammy could feel Mr. G’s strong fingers as they smoothed a wide strip of that sticky tape all over his closed eyelids and face.  And then Sammy discovered that he couldn't open his eyes any more.  He couldn't see anything!
            But Sammy could feel Mr. G’s strong fingers on his body as they moved down over his open coveralls, spreading it wider and wider, and then that big hand closed over his shorts.  Sammy screamed behind the tape and threw his head back, but Mr. G just ignored him while his fingers coaxed Sammy’s trouser mouse out into the open.
            “Tsk, tsk” Sammy heard the old man murmur.  “Looks like your get-up-and-go got up and went, Mouth.  Well I can fix that too.”
            Mr. G let go of Sammy’s XXXX mouse and poor Sammy almost fainted with relief.
            “Now you wait right here, Mouth.  There’s a few things I have to get.  Now where did I put those candles?”
            Candles…!  What did he need candles for?  Sammy didn't know, and he didn't want to know.  He just wanted to get out of here!
            But the layers and layers of strong tape wrapped all around his body wouldn't let him go!  He was stuck here!  And, like it or not, Sammy the Mouth’s training was about to begin.
 

THE END

Sammy played by Chris

Photography by Caitiff