A Day With Mark and Kevin

by Dingbat

This story is a work of fiction, all characters and plot lines are fictional. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
A Day with Mark and Kevin remains the property of the author. The story or characters may not be reproduced or republished elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the author.

Mark was almost 11, and had a vivid imagination. When playing with his friends, whether they were the same age, or close, or if they were the teen aged friends of his older brother, Ronnie, he was never Mark, but a frontiersman trying to avoid Indians on the warpath; an Indian trapped deep in enemy territory; a young cowboy run afoul of outlaws; or, in more modern times, a kidnap victim being held for ransom by desperate kidnappers.

"Mark, snap out of it!" his brother said, as he grabbed the young boy by his shoulders, and shook him. "You're gonna daydream your life away!"

"Sorry, Ronnie," Mark said, as he came out of his semi trance. "I was just thinking about . . ."

"About being Israel Boone, and being held captive by Indians," his brother finished.

"How'd you know?" Mark asked.

"What were we watching on TV yesterday?" Ronnie said, answering Mark's question with a question. "It was kinda obvious."

"Yeah, I guess so," Mark replied. "I was kinda zoned out."

"But I tell you what, little bro," Ronnie continued, "if you wanna pretend to be Israel Boone, when I get back, I'll pretend to be an Indian, and tie you up and gag you."

"That's OK, Ronnie, you don't have to do that," Mark answered.

"It's no problem," Ronnie laughed. "Anything for my little brother."

The brothers finished dressing, ate breakfast, and were about to go their separate ways. Mark had plans to spend the day with his best friend, Little Kevin; while Ronnie was off to see his best friend, Charlie, and Charlie's cousins, Allen and Scott.

"Watch out for your little brother," their mom chided Ronnie. Ronnie frowned and mumbled something under his breath, but nodded, and once the two boys were out the door, Ronnie looked at Mark, and growled "Stay outta my hair today, termite!"

Mark laughed, and said, "Save the act for your friends, big bro."

Ronnie smiled, and tousled his brother's hair, and said, "Bring Kevin over later. You two can both pretend to be Israel Boone."

"Kevin's part Indian - a 32nd, I think,” Mark answered. "I'll pretend to be Israel; Kevin can pretend to be Little Beaver or Pokewah."

Ronnie laughed, and said, "Yeah! He can wear those buckskins he got from his cousins out west."

The boys split up; Mark arrived at Kevin's house, and was greeted with "Hi, Mark. Wha'da'ya wanna do today?"

"Hi, Kev. Ronnie gave us sort of a backhand invitation to come over to Scott's and Allen's house later," Mark replied. "Ya think we oughta?"

"If we do, ya know there's about a 110 percent chance we're gonna get tied up. And probably gagged, too," Kevin answered.

Mark came back with "Yeah, but there's also a 110 percent chance we'll get to tie and gag Ronnie, Charlie, Scott, Allen, and probably Doug, too. Ronnie said it's almost like Doug and Scott are 'joined at the hip,' whatever that means.”

"It means they are almost as close as Siamese twins," Kevin told him.

"That makes sense," Mark. "I don't often see one of them without the other being right there with him."

The ringing of a doorbell interrupted the conversation, and Kevin went down to answer it. At the door, were Big Chris, 12, and a just turned 13 Red Jeff.
"Damn!" Kevin said. "I forgot all about you guys coming over today!" The newcomers were invited in, and taken to Kevin's bedroom, where Mark waited.
"Sorry, Mark, I forgot all about Chris and Jeff coming today. I'm 'sposed to teach them some Indian knots I learned from my cousins.”

Mark laughed. "Hey, just like last week, when you were teaching Doug and Scott. You teach, and I'm just here in the background."

Kevin laughed, and agreed. Then, he extracted promises of secrecy from Jeff and Chris, to which the two agreed. Red Jeff had a qualm or two, and asked, "What about your promise to Ronnie that you wouldn't teach Mark?"

"I never promised that I wouldn't use Mark to teach others." Kevin grinned.

"I guess that's OK," Jeff said.

"OK, Mark. On the bed with your hands behind you!" Kevin ordered. "You, too, Jeff."

The two boys did as ordered, and Kevin looked at Chris, and said, "I'll tie up Mark. You watch, then do what I do, to Jeff."

Mark felt the rope tighten around his wrists, then watched, while Kevin tied his ankles together. "See how I made three wraps across, and then made three more, up and down?" Kevin asked.

Chris said "Yeah!", then proceeded to tie Jeff's hands and feet. "Wha'da'ya think, Jeff?" Chris asked his freshly tied captive.

"Not bad!" Jeff answered. "I probably won't be able to get out."

"When was the last time you escaped from anyone?" questioned Mark.

"You should talk!" Red Jeff snapped back. "You couldn't escape from a wet paper bag with a pair of scissors!"

Chris and Kevin snickered at the bickering between the two. "Almost like they were brothers!" laughed Chris.

"I know exactly what they need," Kevin replied, and produced a pair of blue bandanas. He rolled one, and gave the other to Chris, and in a second, the tied prisoners were securely gagged.

Several minutes later, Red Jeff broke, pushing his gag out with his tongue, and complaining that he wasn't going to learn anything, laying on the bed, with his hands and feet tied, and his mouth gagged. Kevin agreed, but told him that he owed both of them three penalties each. "You pushed out your gag, you talked, and you couldn't get loose. That's three!"

"What about Mark?" Jeff asked.

"OK, if you insist. You owe him three, too." Kevin grinned.

"What?!?! Why?!?!" sputtered an exasperated Jeff.

"Well, he didn't push his gag out, and he didn't talk. And besides, he's just ten years old, and still a cub scout. He's not expected to get free from a boy scout's knots!"

Red Jeff didn't like it, but knew that he'd catch a whole raft of crap if he said any more, and accepted the decision. Besides, now, it was his turn to tie Chris, and if nothing else, maybe Chris would do the same thing, and at least the penalties they would owe each other, would cancel out.

Mark, having been untied and ungagged, waited for the new round to begin, and, with his eyes, and an almost imperceptible smile, conveyed his thanks to Kevin for the three free ties on Red Jeff. Kevin acknowledged with a slight nod, then told Mark to get face down on the bed again.
"OK, Jeff," he said. "Watch how I tie Mark, and you do the same to Chris."

Sure enough, after both boys were tied and gagged, Big Chris pushed away his gag, and asked to be freed. The same conditions were demanded by Kevin, and Chris reluctantly agreed.

Kevin grinned at Red Jeff and Big Chris, and said, "I'm gonna give my penalties on you guys, to Mark."

"Why?" Jeff asked.

"Because if I tie you up, you won't get out, and you'll wind up owing me more penalties than I could take in a year!" was Kevin's answer. It was a subtle way of telling them that his teaching them, and some of the others, that even though Mark had been around more than once during the lessons, nothing had rubbed off, and Mark was nowhere near as good as Kevin, at tying up his captives.

Jeff and Chris knew Little Kevin was right, at least for the moment. Chris was a regular sized 12-year-old, who wore boys 12 regular (26" x 26") jeans. But give Red Jeff another year, and he had the potential to be like Doug, Scott, and Allen. He wore 14 slim jeans, which were 25" x 27", and if his adolescent "growth spurt" hit, and graduated him to a student size 25" x 29", or 26" x 30", he had the potential to be every bit as good at escaping, as the troop's resident Houdinis, and might even surpass 15-year-old Wayne Sommers, something of a living legend, who not only could get loose, but was better than Mike Hayworth, at tying up his captives.

The boys went another two rounds, each time, with Kevin tying up Mark, and Big Chris and Red Jeff trading ties with each other. When they were done, the two thanked Kevin, and asked when they could come over for more lessons. Kevin said that he'd get back to them.

"Did you learn anything?" Kevin asked, and Mark replied that he thought he did, but without someone to practice on, he couldn't be sure, and if he tied his brother or Charlie, and was significantly better, they might suspect something.

"I'll get Doug over here," Kevin said. "He won't know the difference, and besides, he likes getting tied up."

"He's a show off," Mark said. "He doesn't like getting tied up. He likes showing off how good he can get loose."

"You're probably right, but I still think he wouldn't know the difference. And neither would Scott," Kevin answered. Mark nodded, and said they ought to call Doug and invite him over. Kevin agreed, and was about to call, when the doorbell rang. Kevin answered the distraction, and was quite surprised when he opened the door, and there stood Doug and Scott.

"Me and Mark were just talking about you guys!" Kevin sputtered.

"Well, Scott and I were just talking about you," Doug replied.

Kevin snickered, and said, "Great minds think alike."

"What about me?" Scott asked.

"You have a mind like a sieve, and ought to be tied up and gagged!" Kevin joked.

Before Scott could protest, Doug cut in, and said, "If you guys are gonna tie up Scott, I suppose you better tie me, too. I wouldn't be much of a best friend if I didn't get tied with him."

Scott shot Doug a questioning look, but said nothing. Kevin pulled Mark aside, and whispered, "Remember how I did it with Chris and Jeff. Watch what I do, then you do it."

Kevin expected that he would tie Doug, and sure enough, Doug asked Kevin to tie him. Mark watched, as Kevin bound Doug's hands behind his back, then picked up a short piece of rope, and tried to tie Scott the same way.

Obviously, Mark had much to learn, as Scott pulled off a rare upset of his best friend, and escaped a full 30 seconds before Doug. Doug was annoyed, and demanded a rematch, and got the same result. Then, it dawned on him that he's been tied by Kevin, who was quite good, while Scott had been tied by Mark, whose skills still needed some work.

After the pair of them escaped, Doug pulled Kevin off to the side, and asked, "How come you don't teach Mark how to tie better?" Kevin replied that he wanted to, but he'd been forced to promise Ronnie that he wouldn't.
"There's a way around that!" Doug said. "Want me to tell you how?"

"Sure!" Kevin excitedly replied.

"Tie us up again. Since tied up prisoners have to do what their captors tell them, you can order us to not tell anyone that you've been teaching Mark, and we'd have to obey!"

Doug and Kevin rejoined Mark and Scott, and switched off, with Mark now tying Doug, and Kevin tying Scott. When the two teenagers were safely tied and gagged, Kevin announced that he was going to teach Mark, despite his promise to Ronnie, and that Doug and Scott would not say anything about it.

Tied and gagged as they were, Doug and Scott "mmppfff'd" a weak protest. The standard response, was for Kevin to threaten them with being hog tied, and given to Mark's den of cub scouts, for them to use for knot tying practice. Doug shook his head, and Kevin and Mark forced the two of them on their stomachs, and made good on the threat to hog tie them. Once hog tied, the two captives acceded to Kevin's conditions.

Mark was elated, and made an off color remark about Kevin taking weasel lessons from Doug. "He's a good teacher." Kevin laughed, and beneath his gag, Doug grinned at the complement Kevin just paid him.
Scott thought Doug was a certifiable nut, but justified it by considering that, first, Doug was a "cool kid," and his best friend, and second, that if Doug was going to go off and get himself in silly situations, he was going to need a friend to stay with him, look out for him, and share the danger with him, whether that danger was imagined, or real.
"I can't think of anyone who needs me for a keeper, any more than Doug does," Scott thought.

Doug and Scott made good their escapes, and this time, Doug freed himself well before Scott. "Because we got loose, we earned the right to tie up you guys up!" Scott announced.

Kevin and Mark conceded the point, and allowed themselves to be bound and gagged by their older friends. When they were finished, Scott motioned Doug out of earshot of the two tied captives, and said, "Ya know, Doug, if you REALLY want to be a class A, USDA approved, top of the line, first class, dirty, underhanded, rotten weasel, now that we have 'em tied and gagged, you could tell them we're not going to honor the promise we made when we were tied, and there's nothing they can do about it."

"Yeah, we could," Doug said. "But do we want to stick it to these two, or stick it to Ronnie and Charlie?"

"Tough decision," Scott answered. Then, almost in unison, both boys said "Ronnie and Charlie!", followed by laughter and grins.

Left alone, Kevin and Mark got themselves back to back, and loosened each other's knots. By the time Doug and Scott rejoined them, they were free, and had a new idea.
"We're gonna get with Big Chris, and form the "Pre Teen Terrors."

"And you guys are gonna go up against me, Scott, Allen, Charlie, Ronnie, Red Jeff, and a half dozen others? And there's three of you? Are you nuts?" Doug wondered aloud.

"We'll pick 'em off one at a time!" Kevin said. "When there's three of us and one of them, there's no contest!"

"Well, thanks for letting us know!" Scott shot back.

Doug laughed, and said, "If it's a challenge you want, go ahead and get Big Chris. Me and Scott and Allen and Charlie and Ronnie will all volunteer to be your captives. All you gotta do, is catch Red Jeff before he frees us, or we free ourselves!"

"Piece of cake!" Kevin snarled. "How about in the woods, Saturday, at 10?"

"Deal!" Doug responded. "Me and Scott'll get Charlie, Ronnie, Allen, and you guys get Big Chris."

"And one more thing!" Kevin demanded. "If we win, we get to take you through the portal with your hands tied behind you, and your mouths gagged!"

"Done!" said Doug.

As they walked back to Scott's house, Doug asked if Scott thought they ought to purposely blow the contest. Scott again gave Doug a funny look, and asked "Why would we ever do a dumb thing like that?"

"Just to see what they would do," Doug answered. "We can find out just how much Kevin has learned about being a weasel."

"Some trade off," Scott joked. "Kevin teaches Mark how to tie better; you teach Kevin how to be a major league weasel; and Charlie and Ronnie get the short end of the stick!"

"Yeah!" Doug laughed. "And the best part, is that we can sit back and watch it happen, and nobody will even suspect that we had a thing to do with it!"

END

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