“Let’s be pirates!”, I enthuse. “No! Let’s be princesses!”, Maria pleads as she stands right next to me, purposefully brushing up on me like a sleek little kitten. “Okay”, I say, “Let’s be both! I’ll be the pirate queen and you’ll be the princess I’ve kidnapped and taken to the high seas. After you’re all dressed-up, I’ll tie you up to that attic beam, just like a pirate would do to a princess on the deck of the ship. You’re my prisoner until the ransom is paid the royal family!”
Maria squeals with delight at my idea for the evening’s dress-up game, and the two of us get to work finding things to wear. We have fun trying on different bits of old clothes, sometimes sneezing from the attic dust, until I tell her how cute she looks just in her pink Disney princess pajamas. We add a glittering tiara, some fancy white gloves, slippers, and a tutu, and I tell her she is the prettiest princess in the land. She is beaming and ready to start playing as I hastily throw on some boots, a big belt, and a floppy hat with a big feather plume over my own pajamas.
I lead the excited girl over to the strut on the east side of the attic where the roof leans at a slant to the floor, and using sashes and cords for some sort of curtain set that I find in the chest, I tie Maria tightly to the beam standing there, with her arms bound behind the beam, and her ankles bound to the beam near the base. She is also bound around her waist and then as a finishing touch, I tied her neck to the beam, so that she can't even barely move her head! The whole time, we are role-playing as pirate and princess, with me telling her she is an ocean-going captive aboard my ship, sailing off to sell her as a slave to some rich Arab sheik. Maria for her part is having a blast, playing up her role by begging and pleading for me to let her go, while straining and yanking at the cords, allowing me to double-check them, and tighten them where needed, so that I can have her genuinely at my mercy for the next hour or two, all alone with just her up in the attic, for some tickle torture I’ve long dreamed of with my best friend’s kid sister.