At first, she wasn’t squeezing that hard with her legs, and I concentrated on trying to get my arms free. A moment later, I felt a crushing pressure on my waist, and I presumed that she must have locked her ankles behind me and applied a scissors hold on my midsection.
She was hurting me, but not that badly, and I had time to wonder if she might already be applying all the pressure she could with her legs. The next few minutes showed how wrong that notion was.
Now that I was in her trap, Nancy began to smile at me. It was a gentle smile that told me that she was in control. I was jerking my arms back and forth under the grip she had on my wrists. The thing was, she was permitting it. Her grasp was tight and she was content to give me some freedom of movement, knowing that I couldn’t use my arms to attack her. Her casual inattention to my arms was infuriating me. But my main difficulty wasn’t the way she was holding my wrists……the real problem was my vulnerability to her body scissors. My own legs were free to kick and flail, but it got me nowhere. Her legs were wrapped tightly around my middle.
“You were thinking I was ready to submit to you, weren’t you, Marie?” Nancy said gently. “Well, the shoe’s on the other foot, isn’t it? Now, you are the one who’s going to say ‘Uncle.’”
“Never,” I said, twisting and pulling in my struggle to get free. “Never in a million years, Nancy.”
“Oh, no?” Nancy said, smiling into my eyes. “Well, if I squeeze a little tighter, you might change your mind.”
With that, she did. Nancy tightened her powerful little legs around my waist and applied more pressure. A feeling of nausea passed through me, causing me to gasp out loud. I just had to ride it out until I could find a way to escape. I figured that she couldn’t squeeze any harder and I just had to wait until she couldn’t maintain the pressure any longer.
Nancy was looking deeply into my eyes, a gentle smile on her little pixie face. Hating myself for it, I dropped my eyes from her gaze. It was humiliating and infuriating to be held helpless by a smaller girl. Now, I could appreciate the angst that bigger girls in our wrestling club felt when going up against me. I thought of the three girls I had actually defeated…..how they must have felt in losing to a small girl like me in front of their friends. It had to have been mortifying for them…..and now it was mortifying for me.
When Nancy saw that I was unable to look her in the eye, she giggled merrily. The sound of it made my insides hurt almost as much as the scissors lock. She said:
“All you have to do is say Uncle, and I’ll let you go, Marie.”
“No!” I cried.
“Not yet?” she smiled. “Well, let me squeeze just a little bit harder and see if you feel differently.”
She did, and the resultant increase in pressure made it hard for me to breathe. I was growing frantic; the pain and the humiliation were gnawing at me. I kicked my legs and strained my arms harder than before, but I was making no headway…..and my body was growing weaker.
How can I describe the shame and embarrassment I was feeling? It’s horrible to be held helplessly in place by anyone. But to have it done by someone so much smaller than you is a feeling that makes you want to crawl away and hide……except you can’t because she won’t permit it.
But I couldn’t submit to her, especially by having to cry out the humiliating word “Uncle.” And, making it even worse was the casual way Nancy was enforcing her mastery over me. She was handling me so effortlessly! Her face and voice showed that she didn’t have a care in the world. It was if she knew all along that she could defeat me at any kind of athletic contest, even fighting. As if reading my thoughts, she said:
“Gosh, Marie, maybe you can’t beat me at anything, huh? Poor thing!”
I cast a quick look at her and saw the glee in her eyes. She bent toward me, placing her face within an inch of mine. I had no idea what she intended to do….. and then she compounded my humiliation by kissing me lightly on my nose.
That did it! I couldn’t stand any more. I kicked and strained as hard as I possibly could; my teeth gritted and my body whipping back and forth furiously. But it made no difference; Nancy had me immobilized and my efforts were to no avail. I was sweating profusely, even as Nancy was cool as a cucumber.
As she tortured my body, she worked on my mind:
“I’ll tell you what, Marie. If you submit to me right now, I’ll let you leave the gym and you won’t have to bow down before me. Go ahead now……say ‘Uncle.’”
“No!” I cried, flailing hopelessly. Nancy shrugged, as if in regret for what she was about to do to me. And what she did was to squeeze even harder. I can’t believe she possessed so much strength in her small body. I groaned piteously. I could barely breathe now, and worse……much worse…..tears had sprung to my eyes. I didn’t want to cry, I didn’t want her to see me cry……but I couldn’t help it. The right side of my face was pressed against the floor….and my tears were pooling on the mat. Seeing this, Nancy’s delight increased.
“Are you going to quit now?” she taunted. “If you don’t, I’ll humiliate you even more. Don’t think I can’t squeeze harder than this.”
I shook my head in negation, the tears still flowing from my eyes.
Shaking her head in mock sadness, Nancy said:
“Okay, Marie, you’ve blown the chance to get out of this gracefully. Let’s see; how can I punish you even more? I know! I’ll squeeze you even harder! First, you’ll say ‘Uncle.’ Then, I’ll stand above you and you will get down on your hands and knees and kiss my feet. Then, I might……just might…… let you leave this room. But only if I feel like it. Your fate is in my hands.”
I had just about reached the end of my endurance. My heart was refusing to quit, but my mind was telling me to get out of this hopeless, helpless situation by suffering the ultimate embarrassment and submitting to this tiny girl. I looked directly at her, ready to speak the dreaded words. But when she saw my eyes fixed on her, a joyous, carefree smile appeared on her face. She leaned toward me again……and kissed me full on the lips, tenderly but mockingly.
Between the sharp pain in my midsection and the sinking feeling in my heart, this was a gut-wrenching experience in every respect. By the time she broke the kiss, I was humiliated beyond comprehension; I would never live this down. I opened my mouth, but not to submit. Instead, I issued a breathless, agonized scream of pain, defiance and fear.
Nancy’s attitude changed. She scowled in anger:
“You stubborn bitch.” she said, the first time I had ever heard profanity from this sweet little girl’s lips.
With that burst of fury, Nancy tightened her grip one more time. Her leg muscles rippled as she grinded her powerful thighs and knees against my middle..... and I thought I might die. She pounded her legs up-and-down against the mat, lifting and dropping my tortured body with them. She whipped me back-and-forth, making me feel as if my internal organs were being crushed. The pain was unbearable; it was torture, plain and simple. My mind was churning and I worried how I was going to be able to face her every day at gymnastics practice after this. Still, I had no choice…..it was over.
“Uncle.” I whimpered softly, hating the whining sound of my voice.
Nancy heard it and the grinding of her legs ceased, although she kept the pressure on my body.
“You’ll have to be more emphatic than that, Marie. Say it as if you mean it.”
“Uncle!” I said, sobbing, barely able to choke the words from my tortured body.
“One more time….with feeling.” Nancy sang, delighted with herself.
I could no longer control my emotions and I started to beg.
“Uncle! Please let me go, Nancy. Please! Please! Please! UNCLE!
UNCLE!”
The sound of her gentle laughter hurt my heart to the depths of my being as she released me.
“Okay, Marie, I’ll stand before you and you’ll kiss my feet.”
I nodded in shame, but as soon as she allowed me to stand, I stumbled to my feet and ran. I headed for the door as quickly as I could in an effort to leave the building. I knew that my actions were dishonorable, but I didn’t want to kiss her feet. I just couldn’t stand to suffer any more indignity. I needed to escape while I could.
Except that I couldn’t. Nancy caught me at the door and, grabbing me from behind around the waist, dragged me backward toward the gym mats. I struggled furiously, but to no avail, as my bare heels scraped the hardwood floor and she easily pulled me back to her chamber of torture.
She threw me to the mat and I turned over to find her standing before me, smiling, her hands held imperiously on her hips in a position of ultimate supremacy. With nothing of my dignity left to salvage and with the recognition that I would be groveling before a little girl who was clearly my superior, I crawled on my hands and knees, kneeled before Nancy, and kissed her feet…..one at a time. My tears fell on them.
She then allowed me to get up and leave the room; the sound of her laughter following me all the way out the door.
