Knots to be Trusted by Soft Touch
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You can call me Boot because I’m brand new in the Navy and I don’t know nothing about nothing nautical.
That’s why when that big piece of equipment slipped off of the rope and crashed down to the floor and our Chief screamed “Who tied that knot?” I had to put my hand up.
“Very well, Boot” he sneered at me. “You can see me in the Paint Locker after chow!”
“Aye, aye Sir,” I answered like they taught us. Paint Locker…? What the hell was a Paint Locker? I had to ask some of my new friends and they all kind of laughed at me because some of them had been down in the Paint Locker before.
It turned out that the Paint Locker was down in the basement under our barracks. It was a creepy old place with lots of junk everywhere and maybe a rat or two hiding out somewhere. I went down the old steps and found our Chief waiting for me down there. He was going to teach me my knots if it took him all night.
I was still looking at the ropes he had in his hands and trying to figure out what he was going to do with them when I realized that now both of my hands were tied behind my back and there was this cruel rope harness all around my stomach and over my shoulders.
“This is a sheet-bend. It’s good for tying two lines together,” the Chief went on in his raspy sing-song voice. “And this is a square knot. It’s good for tying limbs and braces together. Don’t never let me see you tying no Grannies.”
Tying up Grannies…? What was he talking about? I never tied up anybody and I surely wouldn't tie up somebody’s Grandmother.”
“Wait a minute Chief…uh…Sir. I don’t think you can tie me up like this. I’m not sure, but I think it might be against the U. C. M. J—Mmmph!”
All of a sudden he plastered this big strip of Navy gray duct tape all over my mouth. I tried moving my lips but now they were all stuck together with sticky tape and now all I could do was grunt and hum while the Chief looked at me with a big smile.
“And this is duct tape. It’s just the think for keeping young ducks like you from quacking too much.”
It was right about then that I started to get a really sick feeling in my stomach. Here I was all tied up so I couldn't move my arms at all, and now I was trapped down in this dark basement with a crazy Knot Man and I couldn't even yell for help. He could keep me down here forever! Who would know?
He pushed me down onto a chair. “Don’t go nowhere. We need more rope.”
As soon as his back was turned, I began struggling against those sheet-bends and square knots, trying to pull my hands and my arms free from them, but it was no good.
“Studying those knots Boot?” The Chief was back with a lot more rope. “On your feet!”
He pulled me to my feet and then wrapped some more rope over my chest and arms. Then he turned me around and pushed me back against this big upright and went on wrapping rope all around my thighs and calves. Quicker than somebody could sound “Liberty Call!” I found myself tightly tied to that upright and standing at Attention.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all and I tried to tell him so with every kind of grunt and hum I could make behind that sticky tape, but he just laughed at me.
“All right, I’m going to bed down the rest of the flock. You study up on those knots, you hear?”
I watched him go back up those creaky steps. Then I strained and I struggled as hard as I could, but no matter how hard I tried, those ropes just got tighter and tighter. And then he was back.
“You're a regular wiggle worm. Okay worm, down on the ground!”
Next thing I knew he had me down on that cold hard floor and he was wrapping and tying more ropes around me. Now my legs and my ankles were all tied up together. Then he XXXX off my hat and pushed me over onto the floor.
“Study those knots Boot. I'll be back.”
I struggled around for a bit, and then I tried rubbing the tape on my mouth against the floor, but that didn't work. And then I saw the door. I didn't know where that door led to, but it had to go somewhere. If I could get through it, maybe I could find some help.
“I was wrong Boot. You're not a worm, you're a regular snake. Well, I can fix that,” the old Chief growled at me.
First he bent me almost in half and tied a lot more rope around my wrists and my ankles and then more between the two until the weight of my legs was trying to pull my poor shoulders out of their sockets. Then he tied another rope around my legs and lashed it to that big upright like a doggy leash.
This here is a bowline, Boot, remember that. It’s just the thing for tying things down or keeping slippery snakes like you where I want them to be.”
Then he disappeared again. I tried in every way I could think of to get myself free from those ropes. I tried pulling on them, I tried letting them go really slack, and I even tried picking at the knots with my fingers, but nothing seemed to work. Then way off in the distance somewhere I could hear the faint sound of a bugle blowing Taps.
Then the Chief’s heavy steps came down the stairs to me. “You hear that, Boot? That means lights out so I'll see you again in the morning. Oh, and if you hear some of those little skittering sounds, that’s just our rats. They generally come out after Lights Out to see if I've left them anything to eat.”
Rats! I grunted and hummed and really moaned behind my taped lips for the Chief not to leave me this way. But he just laughed as he went back up those creaky stairs. Then all of the lights went out. And then I heard all of these little skittering noises somewhere out there in the darkness all around me.
THE END