They locked Elly and me up in a room on the second floor of the place after giving us a couple of sandwiches and a glass of milk. I had no idea of what time it was but suspected it must be quite late. I wondered if they were going to keep us here and what our parents would do when neither of us returned home from the football game. Elly and I were lying fully clothed on the bed and neither of us said anything for a long time.
"Boy, Tommy, are we ever going to catch it when we get home," she said at length. "What will we tell Mom and Dad?"
"You tell me," I said shortly.
She was silent for a moment. Then, "Tommy, are you mad at me?"
"Tell me something," she said, flopping over on her stomach and looking at me sideways. "If they gave you bennies how did you ever get a you-know-what on?"
"Who cares? That's not important now. What is important is what's going to happen to us."
"I don't know," she said, and giggled.
"Shut up!" I cried angrily. "This is no time to be silly. We have to get out of here and get home before we're in bad trouble."
She giggled again. "I guess Mom and Dad are gonna be awful mad at you, huh?"
"At me? At both of us, dopey. You ought to know that much."
"But you were the one who started all this stuff, Tommy."
"Are you going to blame it all on me?" I stared at her in bewilderment.
She shook her head. "No. I guess it was my fault, too."
"Crazy," I said bitterly. "Big deal."
"Why don't you see if you can raise a window, Tommy? Maybe we can climb out on the roof or something and get away from here."
"It's an idea," I admitted. "I'll take a look." She giggled again. "Do you know what Basil called what we did on the bed, Tommy?"
I was up on my feet now, inspecting the window. "No, what?" I asked, hardly paying any attention to her.
"He said it was a daisy-chain. Did you ever hear of that before?"
"No," I said. "Probably something he made up."
She giggled loudly. "I thought it was fun. I liked it."
I didn't bother answering her; I had something more important to do – try to get the window up. I pulled and yanked on it, shoved from underneath, did everything I could think of, but the thing wouldn't budge. It had been painted in, as they say. The paint held it firmly. I walked to the other window and tried that one but with no good results.
"Looks like we're stuck here," I muttered.
"Tommy," she said, looking at me oddly, "I feel real hot. Would you like to do it to me?"
"No, not now."
"We might as well. We can't get out. Why not enjoy ourselves while we can?"
"Knock it off, Elly. I have to think!"
"Tommy, can't you think and do it at the same time?"
She was beginning to exasperate me. "Damn it. We've got to figure out some way of getting out of this place and do it soon because if we don't…"
"Dad and Mom are going to go to the police and tell them we're missing. Right?"
"I suppose so."
She was sitting on the edge of the bed now, her eyes more serious-looking. "Try the door. Maybe you can figure out a way to unlock it, Tommy."
I shook my head. "They locked us in with a key. I heard them turning it in the lock."
"So what are we gonna do, Tommy?"
"Well, one thing we're not going to do and that's what you wanted a moment ago," I growled.
She pouted prettily. "I just thought we might as well as long as we're locked in, Tommy. You don't have to be mad at me, do you?"
I didn't answer her but tried the door. It was locked securely and there was no way to get it open.
"Tommy," she said, giggling once more, "do you suppose our folks will send us off to one of those 'rebilitation' places for boys and girls who do bad things?"
"You mean rehabilitation, don't you? How would I know? I do know this, Elly. If we don't get home soon we're going to be in deep trouble and that's a fact."
"Yeah," she said, her face changing expression again. "I guess you're right, Tommy. I ought to be scared, but for some reason I'm not."
"That's because you got all those bennies in you, silly. I've heard when people have that stuff in them they don't worry about anything."
"Oh…" she said. "Do I act funny, Tommy?"
"Sort of. You giggle at the wrong times. Stuff like that."
"I want to go home," she whimpered. "Take me home, Tommy."
"It's not that easy, silly. We're locked in."
"Kick the door down. You're strong."
"Nuts," I said, disgusted with her. "That's only done on television. I can't kick a door down and neither can anyone else."
"You could try, couldn't you?"
I didn't get a chance to answer her because someone was turning a key in the lock. The door swung open and Basil stood there. He looked at me and then at Elly.
"All right, kids," he said. "Down to the studio again. We got more film now and are going to shoot the straight sibling scene, brother loving sister. Come along."
"Go to hell!" I cried. "We're not doing that stuff again. You can't make us do it, either."
Basil looked up and down. "Why not come along peacefully? No use in starting a lot of trouble – trouble for yourselves, I mean. The scene only lasts about fifteen minutes. Then you can go home, both of you."
"I don't believe you. You wouldn't dare let us go home now. You'd be afraid we'd tell on you."
His eyes shifted about. "That's not true, kid. Our operation here is about to be concluded. We're clearing out right after we get this scene on film. When we're gone you can tell anyone you like. The cops will never find us. We have a perfect hiding place."
"Don't fight with him, Tommy," Elly coming up to me and grabbing my arm, "they'll only beat you up."
"They won't beat me up. I won't let 'em. Besides, they couldn't have me in the film if my face was banged up."
"Don't kid yourself, boy," Basil said. "You'd better do as your sister suggests. She's got sense, this girl."
I shrugged and figured it would be better to be downstairs where I'd have at least a chance to get out of the house. "Okay, Basil," I told him, pretending I was giving in. "Let's go. We have to do as you say, I suppose. We're just a couple of kids and we can't fight four adults."
He glanced at me sharply. "Don't give me any bull, kid. If you're thinking about making a break for it, remember the boys have guns. You wouldn't want your little sister to be shot, would you?"
"If you harm her I'll – I'll…" I was mad now and had to fight to control my temper.
"What'll you do, kid?" he inquired, his face twisted into a snarl.
"Nothing," I said, and looked away from him quickly to make him think I was scared, which I wasn't.
"Downstairs, both of you," he ordered crisply. "They're waiting for us."
We went down the stairs together with Basil in the lead. I glanced at the front door when he came to the ground floor and saw it was closed and more than likely locked. I considered making a dash for the door but rejected it when I saw the two poppers come into the hall, the one named Perry carrying the gun and pointing it straight at me.
"That's just in case you try to run out on us, boy," Basil said, and grabbing my arm with one hand and Elly's arm with his other hand, he steered us into the studio room. The lights were turned on brightly and the bed was prepared. There were clean pillows and sheets on it, and as I glanced about the room quickly, I saw Mrs. Devine over near the camera. She was fully clothed and scarcely looked at me.
"All right, Tommy, Elly," she said, "take off your clothing and get on the bed. I'm running the camera on this one."
Elly giggled, damn her, and I could have smacked her one, but I held my temper again and told her to remove her clothing, which she did, still giggling. I knew I shouldn't get pissed off at her, that she was still high on bennies, but it was hard not to be angry. I took off my clothing, also, and Elly placed her hand in mine.
"We might as well do it, Tommy," she said, grinning. "Anyway, I think I want to."
"Sure," I said. "Okay, we'll do it and get it over with."
It was while we were right in the middle of the sex act that the door of the studio burst open and there stood three policemen, plus my father and mother and Jeanie, the girl Elly had gone to the football game with. It turned out that she had overheard Basil talking to Elly, telling her where he was going to take her for "some fun" and Jeanie had rushed home and told her mother, who had called up my folks and they, of course, called in the police. That's the story, just about all of it. I haven't left out anything in particular but have put it down on paper just about as it all happened.
Big deal.
That old doc gives me a pain.
He claims to know all there is to know about how guys behave. I figured him to be pretty stupid about it, if you want to know the truth.
One of these days, when they get a bit too lenient around here, I'm going over the wall and look Mrs. Devine up or someone like her. It wouldn't be her. I understand they got her locked up someplace, too.
Man, how I'd like a little of that stuff right now – or for that matter, any broad. Looks like it'll be a long time before I get some if I don't go over the wall.
As I said, I'm thinking about it I don't want to end up jerking off to myself like most of these other guys at the school do.
Nuts to that stuff.