The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Ella dreamed fitfully through the night. Monsters breaking through the door, chasing her down the street, but she couldn’t run, or even scream; only dance. The closer they come,the faster her feet tap and step, bringing her closer rather than farther away. One monster opened her (Ella knew it was a ‘her’) massive jaws and rolled out her tongue like a wet red carpet, and Ella pranced her way into her mouth, closer, closer...

She awoke with a start, thinking at first she had a foot cramp, but then realized it wasn’t her feet; it was her shoes jerking back and forth, the right one just a little faster than the left. There was a note on her chest. She picked it up and read it, eyes going wide as the sleeper’s haze cleared, making way for panic. “Fuck!", she said, leaping off the bed and tearing off her clothes in the hallway before reaching the shower.

Ella knocked over the assorted shampoo bottles trying to grab the type she used quickly and put it in her hair. Scrubbing with her fingers furiously, she rinsed the suds away under the stream of the cold waterand jumped out of the tub, remembering to turn off the water only after she ran out of the hallway, naked and furiously toweling herself dry. Fifteen minutes, she thought. Ten at least, I have to have ten, I wasn’t in the shower TOO long. She closed the door to her room and ran to her vanity, turning on the hair dryer and blowing her hair dry with one hand while applying makeup with the other. ‘Pretty and presentable, flirty and feminine” were her instructions for proper appearance this morning on the note left on her face when she awoke this morning. Her feet stayed where they were on the bed until she completed the note. It said 30 minutes. It was six a.m when she woke up, which meant by 6:30 a.m her shoes would dance her to the living room to await instructions. Ella looked behind her shoulder at the alarm clock on the desk, which said...

“Six twenty NINE? FUCK!” Ella jumped off the chair and rushed to the closet, tripping over herself before getting in arms reach of the clothes on the hangers. She reached for a pair of light blue culottes [Pair of what?] directly in front of her and felt a sharp pain on her left calf before she could touch them. “Damn it,ok.” she said to her right shoe, who wouldn’t budge on its opinion that women wore skirts below the waist, and that’s that.[Below the waist? And it happened before?] Ella started looking again for clothes when she realized...“Panties,fuck!” She ran and yanked open her underwear drawer and bra drawer, pulling out one of each without looking and hurriedly stepping into the panties. She started to unfold the bra when she felt the familiar heaviness in her shoes, followed by tapping and the now familiar ‘ripple’ from her feet to her body, controlling every action. In the last twoseconds of free will she had, Ella dropped her bra and reached out her arm to her closet, closing her hand on a hanger and pulling something out before her hands went to her hips as she smiled and tap danced downstairs to the living room.

Once she reached the ‘spot’ in the living room, the shoes assumed their waiting position: heels together, toes pointed out at 45 degree angle in a proper ‘first position’ for a ballet dancer. Ella, arms now free, quickly took the dress off the hanger and pulled it over her head. She started to tug it down, but felt constricted. It was tight, whichever dress this was. Finally getting her arms through the sleeves, she grabbed the hem with her hands and furiously shimmied and tugged down, feeling like she was being packed like a sausage in this thing. Down as far is it could go, Ella looked down and saw what she was afraid of: it was too short. The hem didn’t quite cover the bottom part of her panties when she stood straight. Did she grab a shirt by mistake? The left side of the closet is where she kept all of her...

“Well, good morning, little miss. I should go get my purse, so I can buy some cookies from you. Ooh, and you got the babysitting merit badge, too. You must be proud.” Looking down again, Ella turned beet red with shame. She had grabbed her Girl Scout uniform, last worn when she was 11. Ella self-consciously scrunched herself up as much as she could, her hands at the hem of her dress trying to pull it down, unable to look Freida in the eye. Finally, to break the painful silence, Ella said, “So, uh, you’re up early.”

“Yes, well I had to let the vampires out before the sun came up, you know. Oh, and my broom needs a tuneup, so I’m flying it to the hardware store today. So, I see you took a shower wearing your shoes. Probably hoping to ruin them in the water and break the spell, huh?”

“No, um, I didn’t...”

“ExCUSE me. Address your elders properly, young lady. You’re in uniform, after all.”

Ella gritted her teeth. “Yes...Ma’am.”

“Well, I suppose it’s my fault for not telling you, then. You may remove one shoe at a time for washing or changing without penalty, but I wouldn’t take too long, since the shoes are best friends after all; they miss each other. So, I suggest when you take your shower, that you first put your right foot in...”

Ella caught herself from falling over as her right shoe launched itself ‘in’, towards Freida, who unfortunately noticed. “And then you put your right foot out.” Braced for it, Ella still nearly went off balance as her right shoe went ‘out’ behind her. Freida started to giggle. “You put your right foot in, aaaaaannnd...you SHAKE it all about,” Freida said, laughing out loud now at Ella’s shaking right shoe in the air.

No, not this time, Ella thought. I won’t do it. Fight it, Ella. She screwed her face up, summoned all her inner strength, determined not to...

“Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around...” The hokey pokey, as interpreted by Ella, or her shoes, she wasn’t sure which, involved a slow turn with sashaying hips, pouty lips and a generously protruding behind, just like it did when she did it last, at age 10. She ended her turn with an enthusiastic “That’s what it’s all a-BOUT!” and a clap of her hands, followed by a quivering chin and tears of shame and failure.

Freida clapped her hands in mock applause at Ella’s dance, then laughed out loud again when Ella rushed forward and stood straight and rigid a foot away from Freida. Freida pinched Ella’s nose and said “Honk!” Ella did not move a muscle, but tears still rolled down her face. Freida straightened up her own back and said “Saaaaa LUTE!” and Ella’s right hand shot up to her forehead in a perfect salute. “Now, hup, two, three, four, hup...” and Ella’s legs pumped up and down as her body stayed rigid, hand still saluting and eyes forward, tearing even more now. Freida ran to get the video camera and left Ella alone, still marching in place. In less than a minute Freida was back with her video camera trained on Ella’s marching form.

“Now, right, FACE!” said Freida, and Ella immediately turned 90 degrees to her right, never missing a step of her standing march. “Left, FACE!,” Freida said, and Ella turned back to her original position, still marching. “OK, so how do you say to march faster?” Freida said mostly to herself, to which Ella sharply responded “Ma’am, you say ‘double time march’, Ma’am!” “Why, thank you, Junior Scout Ella.” Freida said, reading a patch off Ella’s uniform. Ella’s face stayed emotionless, but inside she was screaming in anger for her self-betrayal.

“Double tiiiiimme, MARCH!” Freida said, and Ella’s legs pumped up and down twice as fast as before as her left arm moved back and forth by her hip and her right hand stayed glued to her forehead. “C’mon, get those knees UP!,” Freida said, and Ella’s march step immediately jumped up, so that her thigh was parallel to the floor with each step without slowing down. “Around the coffee table, march!” Freida barked, and Ella obeyed, marching her high step quick march in little laps around the coffee table, again and again, never faltering her step, posture, or salute as Freida recorded with her camera, Finally, Freida said, “Junior Girl scouts, Freeze!” and Ella stopped immediately mid-step, so that her left thigh stayed where it was in the air, parallel to the floor, with her calf and toes aiming straight down. Freida put down the camera on the chair so that it still pointed towards Ella, then approached her slowly.

“Well, aren’t you a perfect little scout girl?”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am!”

“Do you like marching for me, Ella?”

“Ma’am, no Ma’am!”

“But you have to, don’t you?”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am.”

“Why?”

“Ma’am, the shoes make me, Ma’am.”

“No, little girl, the REAL reason why you have to dance to our tune.”

“Ma’am, cause you all hate me and are jealous, Ma’am!”

“Hmm...well, you’re not in the way of the TV, so you’re fine here. I’m going back to bed. Somebody’ll be up by 9 or so. It is Saturday, after all.” Freida turned and started back to her room. “Ma’am, I was bad, Ma’am.” Freida kept walking down the hallway. “I’m a bad girl Ma’am.” Freida opened the door. “Help me be good, Ma’am!” Freida turned around and walked back slowly. “You don’t think you mean that, little one. You think it’s just a matter of time till we give this up. But we are helping you. And having fun while we’re at it. Release.”

Ella’s straight posture and limbs became mush as she fell onto the floor, exhausted, gasping for breath, and sobbing. After a minute, Freida extended her hand to take Ella’s and pull her up, but Ella pulled it away. “I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!”

“Gosh, and here I thought we were making progress. UP!” Freida said, clapping her hands. Muscles screaming in protest, Ella shot upwards onto her feet, once again at attention. “Now, you will go upstairs to your room and change into the proper uniform for a girl scout. That means the blouse under the dress, the necktie, the cap, the sash, and some knee socks. Remember, one shoe off at a time. Be back down here in five minutes, so you can begin your mission for today.”

“What’s that...Ma’am?” Ella said, nowused to saying ‘Ma’am’ but still hating it.

“Doing what girl scouts do best: sell cookies. Now go.” And Ella’s shoes rushed her up to her room, releasing her feet once inside so she could assemble her proper uniform. Rushing between her closet, drawers, and unpacked boxes, Ella found everything she needed. In short order she pulled off her dress and put on the white blouse and necktie, then donned the dress, sash, and cap. Grabbing her knee socks from the drawer, she sat down on the bed, quickly removing her right shoe and putting on the first sock. Ella moved to replace the shoe onto her foot, but hesitated. Maybe, maybe THIS is the psych out, she thought. What if all this time, I could have just taken them off and walked away? What if I’m going through all this for no reason? Ella flexed the instep of her left foot, making the left shoe pop out of the heel, only to dangle on the toe. Looking at the time, Ella panicked and hurriedly replaced the shoe, took off the second shoe and donned the other sock. Both shoes back on, Ella considered whether to walk down on her own or wait till the shoes made her when the decision was made for her; the shoes decided to bunny hop her downstairs this time, complete with hands curled in front and back hunched over a little.

Arriving downstairs, Ella’s shoes hopped her to the spot, where she saw that Helen was now awake and sitting by Freida on the couch. “Oh. Oh my, you are so ADORABLE! Oh, you are the cutest widdle girl in da whole world, yes you are, oh yes you ARE. That’s a compliment, really.” Helen said, the last in a mocking imitation of Ella’s voice, as Ella once again stood at attention at the spot, now outfitted as a proper girl scout should. “Oh, oh, do ‘I’m a little teapot’ for me.”

There was a mirror directly across from where Ella stood, allowing her to see the childish grin now on her face as her hands went to her hips and she began to sing and dance:

“I’m a little teapot, short and stout

Here is my handle and

Here is my spout

When my tea is ready,

I will shout:

Tip me over and pour me out”

She performed the dance perfectly, from the bobbing of the knees at ‘short and stout’, to the perfectly shaped ‘handle’ and ‘spout’ she made with her arms, to the rising to her tip toes at ‘shout’, to the bending over sideways at ‘pour me out’, never once faltering with her smile. Ella straightened from her ‘poured out’ position and bobbed a curtsy, still smiling like a little girl hoping her big sisters liked her dance. Freida and Helen both clapped their hands in applause, causing Ella to rush up to Freida, then turn to face Helen, then turn again to face Freida. Seeing her dilemma, Freida and Helen slid to opposite sides of the couch and continued clapping, forcing Ella to jump back and forth, barely having time to get to attention before rushing off again to obey the other woman’s clap. They clapped faster, forcing Ella to turn in circles between them like a human top. Finally, Freida said “Release” and Ella went down, the room spinning around her. The women on the couch stayed silent as Ella regained her bearings. Ella’s right shoe tapped on the floor impatient with Ella’s meandering and wanting to be up. After a minute or two, Ella stood back up on her own, her left shoe moving behind the right, seemingly shy in the face of their loafing around.

Helen broke the silence first. “OK, now do the dance again, this time like a robot.” No sooner did she say the words then Ella felt her body stiffen and harden. Her voice became mechanical and staccato as she repeated the lyrics: “I. Am. A. Little. Teapot. Short. And. Stout. Here. Is. My. Handle. Here. Is. My. Spout.” Seeing herself in the mirror, Ella seemed to herself like a mannequin being moved by invisible hands, face expressionless, eyes wide.

“Ooh, me next, me next. Do it like you’re really drunk.” Freida said, not even waiting for the robot dance to end. Instantly, Ella’s vision blurred and her legs felt wobbly, barely able to hold her weight. “Ahhh, Immma little teacup...POT! I’m a teaPOT, and I’m short and stout. I, uh, have a handle and I like to pout.” Ella’s limbs gesticulated wildly trying to replicate the children’s dance as she tried to keep her balance, finally toppling over when she attempted to ‘pour about’. Unable to get up again, Ella lay on her back and hiked up her dress in an approximation of a curtsy.

“OK, now do it like a sexy seductress. A lesbian sexy seductress.” Ella felt herself rising to her knees, her vision clearing and her muscles back to normal. Putting her palms on the floor, she adopted a kittenish posture and looked up at Helen, lips slightly parted and eyes narrowed. “I’m just a little teapot. I’m very short and stout,” Ella said slowly and seductively, slowly crawling on all fours towards Helen and never breaking eye contact. “THIS..is my handle,” Ella said, sliding her right hand up Helen’s bare leg, “and THIS,” Ella said, giving Helen’s thigh a slow kiss, “is my spout.”

Ella crawled up to Helen, nestling herself in Helen’s lap and nuzzling her breasts with her face. “My tea is always ready, and I will shout,” Ella said quietly, forehead now touching Helen’s. Bringing her lips to Helen’s left ear, Ella whispered, “Tip me over, honey. Pour me out.” Ella kissed Helen just behind the ear and straightened back up. The dance over, Ella’s eyes went wide realizing what she’s done. “Eeeewwwww!” Ella said, jumping back away from Helen and turning to run away. Freida let her get to the front door before saying “Come back here, Ella,” causing Ella’s shoes to trot her back to where she was. Ella folded her arms and pouted as her shoes moved her, looking like a toddler being carried away from the toy store. Ella wanted nothing more than to take a shower, to scrub the filth of that encounter away from her. A long shower, for maybe a year or so. Even so, it does figure Helen would rather SHE do that than Freida. If Freida’s supposed to be the ‘girl’ of the relationship, then Helen didn’t exactly hit a bullseye when she picked her, Ella thought with a bitter snark.

“OK, ladies, enough fooling around. Ella dear, your job today is to sell some delicious cookies. You know how to do that, don’t you?” Ella started to nod, then shuddered in panic: They were going to make her go door to door in her too short girl scout uniform and these ugly shoes and sell cookies and probably dance the whole way. Oh dear God, this was bad enough but out there, the humiliation...She couldn’t bear it. She was cold with fear.

Ella dropped down to her knees, her left shoe giving way from the floor to allow it, but the right one sticking fast to the floor, making Ella lose her balance. The right shoe then released its hold, leaving Ella on her knees and forearms, crying now with fear and dejection. “Pleaseplease PLEASE don’t make me do this. I’ll do anything you want, anything at all. I...I can get you things, nice pretty things. Money, jewelry, whatever. I date lots of rich guys and they buy me whatever I want. Just let me get them for you. Don’t make me go out there like this. I’ll do ANYTHING YOU WANT!”

The women considered the crying girl on the floor before them. Ella’s rear end was sticking up in the air now, and both Helen and Freida moved to the sides of the couch to get a better view. Looking at each other at the same time, they seemed to have realized how silly being surreptitious was here and now. “Ella,” Helen said, sitting up straight and slapping her leg, “come here and bend over my knee. This willfulness of yours needs to be spanked out of you.”

“No, no, no...” Ella said even as her shoes lifted her up off the floor and delivered her to Helen’s lap, forcing her to bend over until she was laying across the sofa and both Helen and Freida’s laps. Ella’s shoes hooked onto the arm rest at the end, locked in tight like they were tied. The shoe’s ‘ripple’ went directly to her hands, forcing them to grip the other armrest, unable to let go. The rest of her body could move, but now it was nothing but impotent wiggling.

“No, please...” Ella whined as she felt the back of her little dress being pulled up, exposing her bright canary yellow panties. “Yeowch!” Ella said as fingers pinched her thighs and cheeks. She struggled harder, thrashing up and down to jerk herself free, only to be rewarded by a sharp swat on her behind. “Enough of that, little girl,” Helen said. Ella realized that, right now, there was simply nothing she could do to resist them. She was completely at their mercy, so it was probably best to give them some reasons to have any.

“I..I know what I have to do, now. I know that you own me. You won, I lost. I’m your toy, your plaything. When you clap your hands, I’ll come running. And when you whistle a tune, I’ll come dancing. And I won’t resist anymore. In fact, I’ll try harder to be a good girl. I’ll smile and curtsy like a proper servant, a dutiful slave. You don’t have to teach me anymore lessons, ladies. I’ve got my diploma in humility. So please, Helen, Freida...command me. So I can show you how well I can obey.

“Whacha think of that, Helen?”

“I think she’s full of shit. Pretty shit, but shit.” Helen spanked Ella. Then again, then again, and again. And Ella cried. Cried from shame, cried from despair, and cried from knowing there was no hope,no rescue. She was whatever they wanted her to be. And they want her to be a clown, a sex doll,and a dancing marionette, rolled into one. Forever.

“Helen, give her your cell phone. Ella, you probably think t’s just a matter of time till we slip up, till you can get away and tell someone what’s happening to you. So let’s cut to the chase: Call someone, anyone. Not 911, but anyone else. Go on, no tricks from us, just call. Oh yes, you may let go with your right hand to use the phone.”

Not hesitating,Ella opened up the phone and dialed the first number she thought of: Patrick, the jock she’d been dating last month. Kinda a lunkhead, but the thought of him kicking in the door and carrying her out of the house made her almost swoon. The phone picked up. “Hello?”

“Pat, it’s Ella.”

“Oh, hey Ella! Wanna grab breakfast? There’s a special today at the Super Buffet, all the sausage links you can eat. I’m doing Atkins again, so...

Pat,this is important, I have to tell you something.”

“OK,what is it?”

“Limericks rhyme in Irish time, but prose is a rose in the garden of woes.”

“Huh?”

“Ophelia owned the order of opaque omniscience.”

“Ella, are you all...”

“If bats sleep with the sun, do they have daymares?”

“OK, I’ll call you sometime. Bye.”

Dropping the phone on the floor, Ella’s arms grabbed the armrest again, gripping tightly as Helen’s spanking continued. Ella felt pain; not physical so much as a soul pain. The pain of seeing a hope found then lost again before it could even be wishful thinking, but just a wisp of a dream. And as Helen’s hand continued to tenderize Ella’s behind, Ella felt something else, too. A feeling she didn’t recognize, but couldn’t say was entirely unpleasant. Helens hand spanked her a different way now, lower down the middle. And the feeling grew...

.Helen clapped her hands, bringing Ella standing up again before her, stiff and straight. Ella was relieved, but the slightest bit disappointed, and she wasn’t sure why. “Ella, " Freida said, “you have a cookie quota. Sell enough, and you’re done selling for the day. And as a bonus, you can begin right here in the house. Ask Tom and Gary and Rob and Gina if they want to buy cookies. Go on now.” Ella’s shoes did not move her this time, but the left one did move back and forth on it’s toe, mimicking the gesture of a shy girl. “But they’re still asleep, maybe I should...”

“If you don’t want to ask them now, you can go outside and start asking the neighbors.” Ella dashed towards Rob and Gina’s bedroom. She knocked on the door and heard Rob’s voice say “Go away, I’m fucking here.” Ella started to leave, but remembered what awaited her if she didn’t come away with a sale. “Um, I’m selling cookies. You want any?”

“Ella?” Rob said. Ella looked back and saw Freida and Helen looking at her. If she was going to be humiliated, she might as well do it herself. “It’s Junior Girl Scout Ella, Sir, selling cookies. May I come in?” Rob said to come in, and Ella entered the room. She found Rob and Gina on the bed together, Gina face down, naked, blindfolded, spread eagled, tied to the bedposts and listening to something on her MP3 player that sounded like either Death metal or Yaks vomiting. Knowing Gina it could be either one. Rob was on top of her, behind her, and inside her,and also naked. “So Ella, what kind of cookies have you got this year?”

“Um, well,” Ella said, unable to make eye contact, “we have lots of kinds. Any you want. Please. PLEASE buy some.” Gina stirred under Rob, and Rob took off her earphones. “Who’s there?” Gina asked.

“Oh, it’s a cute little girl scout selling cookies. You need some lube, we’ve been going at it a while.”

“No dear, it’s ok. Hey, could you get some white chunk macedamia nut? I love those. Oh, and my nipple clamp slipped off, put it back?”

“Sure, sweetheart. OK, two boxes of white chunk macedamia, and one peanut butter. You need some money, let me get my wallet...”

“NO! I mean, no need to get up, sir. You can pay me later. Uh, thank you for supporting the girl scouts.”

“No, thank you, Ella. I was starting to slack off, but seeing you straightened me right out, didn’t it, honeybunch?”

“Yes, dear, yes, yeessss....” Ella let herself out and closed the door,hoping to someday unsee what she just saw.

Ella walked down the hall to Tom and Gary’s room, not sure what she’d find there but afraid to find out. She had to sell them cookies, though, so she tried to think of cookies that were shaped like a penis. Well, she could look it up online later when she put in the...order? I’m not REALLY a girl scout, how the hell do I get them cookies? Ella arrived at their room and knocked at the door. “Come in.” she heard Tom say. She opened the door very slowly, peeking through the crack to make sure she wouldn’t be a witness to messy man-love or something. She saw Tom and Gary fully dressed, bed made,and room spotless. Fags, she thought to herself. There’s just something not right about a man who makes his bed willingly.

Gary was sitting on the edge of the bed, eyes closed. Tom was sitting in an office chair opposite him. " How many moons does Jupiter have, Gary?”

“Sixty three, Tom.” Gary said in a quiet voice, eyes still closed.

“And the largest of the moons are....”

“Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto.”

“Discovered by...”

“Gallileo.”

“Good, Gary, That knowledge is burned into your long term memory, never to be forgotten.” Tom looked at his watch, then addressed Ella without turning his head from Gary. “Memory retention is something Gary’s needed help with, so I using hypnosis to help him create new metaphors for learning and keeping new things. In this case, astronomy. Do you need something, Ella? Maybe you’d like to try a session yourself.”

“Nah, I don’t believe in hypnosis anyways. So we got all kinds of cookies and...so, Gary’s really hypnotized, right now?”

Tom turned to look at Ella. If he thought it was strange that she was dressed in a too short girl scout uniform[,] he didn’t express it. “Yes, he’s an excellent subject . Goes very deep very quickly. I’ll take a box of coconut cookies, and he’ll have those M and M chocolate chip ones.”

“OK, great. Um..can you make him do something? Like,something he wouldn’t do usually?”

“Gary loves and respects me, Ella. His deep trance is partially a testament to that fact. He trusts that my best interests are his too. So yes, I suppose I could.”

“Oh, that’s neat. Make him cluck like a chicken or something for me, just once.”

“Ella...”

“OK, that’s dumb, how about, um...make him play hopscotch! Yeah, and make him suck his thumb while he does it! Say, does your phone have a camera?”

“This isn’t a game, Ella. Gary isn’t here for our amusement, and...

“I’ll give you your cookies for free if you do.”

“OK then. Gary, listen to me. Ella here is about to give you a command. Whatever your natural instincts are, you must put them away. Your dignity, your aplomb..they’re gone now, locked away. You can’t touch them.”

Ella was excited now. Little girl Ella, huh? We’ll see who’s a little girl, asshole. “Gary, you are going to play hopscotch, just like a little girl. And you’ll suck your thumb, like a little girl. And you’ll talk like a baby girl,and you’ll whimper and cry, and you’ll...”

“No, Ella,” Gary said, standing up, “YOU will, now.” Ella tried to say no, but found her left thumb in her mouth before she could. Ella tried to walk out of the room, but found herself hopping and skipping back and forth, over and over. Ella tried at least to curse and scream, but could only manage to take her thumb out long enough to sniffle and babble nonsense. “You see, Ella,” Tom said, “Gary was opposed to giving you the shoes all along. He went along with it for me, but never approved of punishing you this way, with humiliation. Till now, anyways.” Gary pinched Ella’s behind, making her jump up in surprise before resuming her game. “Ga ga goo.” Ella replied.

“Let me know when the cookies will arrive, so I can have cash on hand to pay for them. Goodbye.” Tom said, leading Ella by the arm to the door and closing it behind her, leaving her to skip and hop back to Freida and Helen, thumb in mouth and crying, once again. Upon seeing Ella this way, they howled with laughter, causing Ella to jerk her thumb out of her mouth and angrily retort, “Goo goo boo boo ba haha!” then resume her game.

Freida clapped her hands, bringing Ella to attention in front of her. “OK, Pippi Longstocking, give me the orders you got.”

“Ga ga ga. Goo goo boo boo. Lala yaya shupft.” The women laughed again for a long time before finally allowing Ella to speak English again and give the order while Helen scribbled down something on a notepad. Finally, she ripped off a page and handed it to Ella. “OK, Ella, here’s your shopping list. The supermarket should be open by now, or you can go by the convenience store, but they’re more expensive, likely. Better remember your purse.” Helen said.

“Huh, what? What am I doing?” Ella said, very nervous now.

“Say, Helen,” Freida said, “Your grandma still works at that bakery, couldn’t she hook us up cheap?”

“yeah, that’s right,” Helen said. “Change of plans, Ella. Behind the house is a trail. About three miles into it is a red farmhouse where my grandma lives. Give her this list, and she’ll give you the stuff for cost. Then you can hurry back here and begin.”

“Begin what?” Ella asked.

“Baking, of course. Cookies don’t make themselves. OK, here’s a basket for the supplies, and a red sweater in case it’s still chilly out. OK, skip along now.” Freida held the back door open as Ella’s shoes skipped her out of the house and across the back yard to the trail, basket in tow. With her free hand, Ella put on the hood of the red sweater and, with a little difficulty, buttoned it up.

“Oh crap.” Ella thought dejectedly, skipping through the woods to grandma’s house.