Amanda opened the garage door for her parents as they walked in with bags in their hands.  Amanda grabbed one of the bags from her mom.  Amanda greeted her parents with a hug and a kiss each.  Sure Amanda wished they didn’t come back so soon but it was good to see them again. 

“Hi mom, hi dad, how was the trip to Florida?”

“It was wonderful.  The weather was perfect down there.  We were thinking of staying a couple of more weeks but then we remembered we needed to get back.”

If only they stayed a couple of more weeks.  Then Brad could have stayed longer.

“MOMY, DADDY!!”  Ashley shouted as she ran into their hands and gave each other a hug.  “I missed you.”

“We missed you too, sweet heart,” her dad said.

“We got each of you something,” their mom said as she reached into one of the bags.  “Where is it…”

As their mom search through the bags their dad said, “So I’m assuming everything went ok while we were gone?”

Amanda glanced at Ashley who smiled back and said, “Yep!”  Amanda let out a mental sigh of relief.  She wasn’t sure if Ashley would tell on her.  She made a mental note to give Ashley five bucks just in case.

Their dad smiled, “I knew I could trust you two alone.” 

“Here it is!”  Their mom pulled out a few bags.  She pulled out some clothes and gave them to Amanda; there were a few tee shirts and a new swim suit.  In her other hand she gave Ashley a new swim suit also but instead of a shirt she got flip flops. 

At the same time both of them said, “thank you.”

“Sooo how was your weeks,” her mom asked with enthusiasm. 

Ashley said, “It was ok.  A little boring.”

“Same,” Amanda replied.

“Well, maybe we should go out and eat to make up for such a boring couple of weeks?  How about that new restaurant that opened a couple of days ago,” their dad proposed.

Amanda smiled at that and Ashley jumped up shouting, “CAN WE, CAN WE, CAN WE?!?!”

Their mom looked at them both and said, “Sure.”

Ashley hugged both her parents again and told them how much she loved them, and ran up to her room with her new stuff.  Amanda helped her parents unpack as they talked about what they did at Florida.  Before Amanda was done her dad asked her a serious question, “Did Brad come over here?”

Amanda didn’t want to lie.  She loved her parents but she knew that her dad could tell when was hiding something.  It was almost like he had the special powers and not her.  She did her best to think of something and knew she should tell them the truth, “Yeah.”

She looked down at her feet ashamed of herself.

“I’m glad you told the truth, but you know the rules.  No phone for a week and you’re grounded, after we go to dinner.”

Amanda was a little upset but she thought it was worth it.  Not wanting to risk more punishment for arguing she agreed and picked up her new clothes and went to her room.  She would have to wait a week to call Brad.

Ashley was the happiest girl alive.  Not only did she have a new toy but she got new clothes too.  She ran up stair to try on her new flip flops for dinner.  She placed them down on the ground and slipped her feet in.  They felt extremely comfortable as she walked around her room.  She quickly put on clothes suitable for going out and eating when she remembered about her new toy.

You rubbed your arms where you were still sore from the abuse you received from Ashley.  You couldn’t believe that she would do this to you.  Granted you never really talked to her that much but she seemed like such a nice person.  Your perspective of her has done a 180.  You wish there was some light so you could see the damage done to you from her finger but alas with you in a shoe with a pile of clothes over them and a bed and with the room lights off there won’t be any light for you at all.  It was like you were trapped in a cave filled with a horrid stench, and the cave was getting warmer from the stale air in it.

You didn’t know what to do; the shoe was just big enough to keep you from climbing out and if you could there was a pile of clothes on top of that.  You were stuck and had to wait for Ashley to return.  Hopefully her mood will be better now. 

After what felt like hours to you, there was a creaking then a door closing.  It was Ashley’s.  You braced yourself for what was in store for you.  There was some movement in the room and then there was thump signaling Ashley dropping on her knees to pull you out from under her bed.  The pile of clothing was removed and the light shinned in hurting your eyes again.

Ashley looked down at you with a stern look on her face.  You had to get her to return you to normal or at least get away from her.  The only problem is you knew she wasn’t happy with you so you need to apologize and get on her good said.  Then find a way out latter.

“Hey Ashley,” you fake a smile.  “Look I’m really sorry about trying to run away.  I got scared of the dark and panicked.”  You put on the saddest face you had and said, “Could you ever forgive me for being bad?”

Ashley thought about it for a few moments then asked, “Are you really scared of the dark?”

“Yeah, but don’t tell anyone ok?”

She smiled at you, “Ok, it will be our little secret.”

“Thanks.”  Ok step one complete now you have get her to trust you.  “Soooo, are we going to play dolls, I’m looking forward to seeing if Barbie gets to go out with Ken.”

“No me and my family are going out to eat soon so we can’t play now, but when I get back we can.”

A thought popped into your head.  “Do you think I could come along?”

Ashley thought about it.  She didn’t have any pockets on her and then another thought came to mind.  She knew exactly where to put her toy.

“Sure.  This is going to be soooo much fun; I just know you’re going to love it.”

Bingo.  When she least expects it you will make your escape to get help.  You couldn’t help but grin when Ashley picked you up out of her shoe.  You were so grateful to be away from that horrid smelling shoe.  Things are starting to look up for you.  Well until you were being moved downward past her waist.  In one movement Ashley took her right foot out from her flip flops and placed you down on them in the middle.  You only had time to say “Wait” before her foot slide back in crushing you into the foam material that made up the flip flop.

Ashley felt her toy squirm under her foot making her giggle at the tickling feeling.  She took a step to make sure her toy didn’t break under her weight.  She felt the resistance of the toy pushing up against her foot but didn’t hear anything break.  Prefect, she thought as she quickly walked down stairs.

You felt crushed.  Imagine a building falling and landing right on top of your face.  That what it was like every time she took a step.  The only upside is that the flip flop was new so there was no smell except the new shoe smell, of course Ashley’s foot didn’t smell like it and it will only take time for her to cover you and the flip flops in her own personal smell.  You could already smell the faint odor of her foot creeping in on you.  Your legs, arms, body, and head were pinned under the arch of Ashley’s foot forcing you to inhale the sole of her foot every time you had to breathe.  Considering every step she took forced the air right out of you, you had to breathe a lot.  You swear your lungs collapsed and the only thing that kept you breathe was Ashley’s foot doing CPR on your body. 

Your plan to escape just became infinitely more difficult, with a multi ton weight squeezing the life out of you on top of your body.  You prayed that the torture was over sooner then you expected because if not… well you may become a permanent part of Ashley’s flip flop. 

Ashley couldn’t have thought of a better way of hiding her toy.  Not only was it close by at all times, but it also felt so good under her foot.  Each step felt like her toy was hugging the bottom of her foot.  She got downstairs and waited for the rest of her family to get ready for dinner.  While she waited she wanted to test her new flip flops to see how comfortable they would be if she did anything other than walking.

You were starting to get use to the constant pressure of Ashley standing on you.  Not to mention her walking.  Things turned from uncomfortable to disastrous when you felt a little more weight put on you then you were weightless in air.  You had a split second to realize you were in the air because Ashley was jumping.  Her foot came crashing down on your already sore body.  You let out an agonizing scream, which was muffled by the skin of her foot.  You felt tears stream down on you as your bones almost turned to dust from the pressure exerted on your body.

Ashley let out a soft owww.  Her toy hurt the bottom of her foot.  She made a note to herself to teach him not to do that again.  She didn’t like the way the flip flops felt when she jumped so jumping in flip flops were out of the question.  What else should I try, she thought.   Skipping!  She put all her pressure on her right foot, the one with you under it.

You felt your world flatten you into a pancake.  Your noise was pushed into your face to the breaking point and you knew Ashley was either about to jump or was leaning on one foot.  Your tears were still falling from your eyes and you knew this was how you were going to die, under a little girls foot. 

“Hey sweetheart, loving the new flip flops?”  Ashley’s dad just came down stairs before she started to skip.

“Yeah dad,” she said stopping herself from jumping.  Her dad didn’t like it when she ran or skipped in the house.  She would have to try it out latter.

You barely heard what was said when the weight was released ever so slightly letting you catch your breath.

Next Ashley’s mom came down stairs in a dress, “You like your new shoes?”

“Yeah they feel great.”

“Alright, now we’re just waiting on your sister and then we will be off,” Ashley’s mom said.  A couple of more minutes and Amanda came down stairs.  “You ready?”

“Yeah,” Amanda said.

You felt your heart skip a beat.  No it wasn’t from the lack of air, but the sound of the one person who may be able to help you.  Even in the worst situation her voice was like an angle’s; Amanda was your angle and you had to get to her no matter what. 

Yet as you thought about trying to get to her, who was so close yet so far away, you felt Ashley take another step toward the door.  Together as a family they got into their car and drove off to go to the new fancy restaurant, ‘The Alamo’.