Sandy was 15 and the neighborhood bully. There wasn't any 2 or 3 of us that could take this bully on. The worst part of it was that Sandy was a Tomboy. She could take on most of us 9 to 12 year olds without much trouble and seemed to take pleasure in doing so, just to show she could. I was 10. There was nothing that created more fear in the "hood" than to know Sandy was having a bad day. It seems her Dad was always on her about something and she in turn, would take it out on the rest of the kids.

One summer day one of the braver, or perhaps more foolish kids, (he was 12) figured he could take her. He was way wrong. In a matter of seconds he was on his back, getting his butt whipped, while 5 of us watched on. Enough was enough and with a lot of courage and talk, we decided to help. A mad rush across the street, bodies flying, Sandy went off of him buried in the weight of 5 small guys. It didn't take long however, to figure out that even 5 of us were in real trouble. She scrapped like a wildcat and we were losing control of her. Once she got loose we would pay for the interference.

I found myself trying to hold her kicking legs. It was only then I noticed that she was wearing shower shoes on her feet. No need to form a plan. The answer was right in front of me. I managed to get out from under her legs and pin her knees with my shin. I put one of her feet across my thigh and held her ankle. Then I tried to remove her flip-flop. She crunched up her toes to help hold it in place but, being soft rubber I simply pulled back on the heel, exposing the sole of her foot and tickled. Her toes straightened out and the shoe came off. Then the fun began.

I started to stroke the sole of her foot with my fingers. At first she mearly wiggled her foot, then started to grunt like a pig, gritting her teeth and squirming like crazy. "What are you doing??????" She grunted.

I said nothing. "Stop that!!!"

She screamed. "I'll kill you when I get up from here!" Then her attitide began to change as I kept lightly tickling her foot. "OH no, don't do that, please." Now she was starting to giggle. I increased the presure of the tickle and she really started to squirm. "Oh God!!!!!! Don't do that.....NO.......No...AUUUGGHHH!" She began to scream and laugh.

Everyone else didn't know what was going on yet, but she began to buck and fight to get free, but her efforts were unfocused. She wasn't able to try to fend off one or two guys at a time. Now she just thrashed about. "I know how to beat her." I said. "Hold her down and don't let her get away. I'm tickling her foot."

At that she screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, no fair tickling!!!!" I pressed on and she lost all control. She tried to cover her bare foot with her other one, but all that did was loose her other shoe. She screamed and yelled, laughing and unable to restrain herself. After about 2 minutes of tickling her, I stopped. She was so weak from laughter she could bearly breathe.

"Roll her over on her back!" I said. And she was too tired to fight it. Two guys sat on her arms streached above her head, one on her hips and one on her legs, I sat across her ankles. She began to plead and beg to be released as she caught her breath. But I told her no, not yet. Then I started to tickle her foot again. The short rest gave her the breath to begin laughing hard and strong anew. She was going wild, but was unable to move. The laughter erupted from her lungs like lava from a volcano combined with begging, pleading and threats. Another 2 minutes of tickling and again I gave her a rest. She was already spent, tears were flowing down her cheeks. It was, I thought, the end of the bully. She looked beaten and I was begining to feel sorry for her. So I offered a way out. "Promise to leave us alone and stop picking on us and I'll let you up." I offered.

Her breaths were comming in rasps, her chest heaving, but she said, "When I get up I'm gonna beat the crap outta you!" Wrong response! Again I started to tickle her foot making sure to cover every inch of it and noting where she seemed most ticklish. I was in heaven. She was in hell. Over the next 5 or so minutes I started to feel bad about how much I was tickling her, the screams, the shortness of breath, but then she would go back to threats and it firmed my resolve to break her. I wasn't even sure that it could really be done and in her case if not, I was in BIG trouble. After 5 minutes or so of tickling, I made her the same offer and got pretty much the same response. I started tickling the other foot which seemed to make her laugh even harder. This continued, changing back and forth between feet 4 or 5 times with short breaks in-between. She could hardly laugh let alone talk, but refused to give in. The only weakness she showed was at the start of the tickling sessions when she would beg for me not to tickle her any more. She had been tickled for over 30 minutes now and I was getting scared that either she'd never break or that I might tickle her to death. (I had heard of that but wasn't sure it could really be done.)

One last attempt I thought. "This is your last chance, Sandy. Make the promise or I'll tickle you until you do. No more rest breaks." She semed to be thinking it over. I played with her toes while she caught her breath. Finally she caught her breath and pleaded, "You have to stop. I can't stand anymore of this. You are killing me, listen I can hardly breathe or talk."

"All it takes is your word." I said.

"Never!!!! I'll get all of you for this!" She screamed. I started with her right foot and again she erupted in laughter. After a minute or more I started in on her left foot at the same time and much to my surprise she started laughing even harder. Now both of her feet were being tickled and she was screaming for help. (I can't explain why none of the neighbors ever came out to see what was going on, or if they did, they didn't interfere.)

Then, finally, someone said, "Hey, my Mom has tickled my ribs." So someone began to tickle her ribs and if possible she laughed even louder and harder.

"Armpits!!!" Said another, and one of her armpits were tickled. Then the other. Words could never describe the reaction from her being tickled in all these places at once. It was too much after a few minutes. She was begging and promising with all her heart that she would never bully us again. But we wouldn't let up. We continued to tickle her for several more minutes. Finally I got everyone to stop. I waited for her to catch her breath and get composed. She was a mess, her hair, her eyes, and sweat glistened on her body.

"So now you are ready to agree?" I asked.

She looked at me with a very evil look and said nothing. I touched the sole of her foot and she screamed, "Yes, Yes.....I promise!!!"

"Promise what??" as I touched her toes.

"I'll be good, I'll never bully you guys again. I swear!" She said.

"If you bother any of us, you'll get this again and even worse. You understand that?" I said.

"Yes, now please, please let me up." she begged. We all looked at each other and nodded. She was too tired and tickled out to do anything to us anyway, so one by one we got off of her. Even when everyone was off her she was too worn out to move. Her eyes closed, she could only lay there.

We had won but, before I could leave I had to do it one more time. I reached down and tickled her foot. She jerked it away and screamed, "NOOOOO!!"

"Remember that." I said. We all walked away. It was a leason well learned for she never bothered us again. If she even looked at us the wrong way we would just make tickling movements at her ribs and she'd back off real quick. The only down side of this story is that It would be 6 years before I got to tickle another foot.

More Tales to Come!

PS. These are true tickling tales. I have tried not to embellish them in any way. Each and every tickle that is worth the effort gets recorded in a journal so I have a clear memory of it.