I wait a minute, letting it sink it.  I see her eyes soften, trying to figure it out.

                “What?” she says finally, coming out of the haze.  Time to milk it for all it’s worth.  I’ve had my eyes wide open for the last few minutes, so I can feel them watering, and turning red for this next part of the act.  Here goes…

                “I’m sorry!”  I blurt out, and close my eyes, letting the water in my eyes flow out like tears of fear before sniffling hard.  “I didn’t mean to… I mean, I’m sorry!  I’m sorry!  I just…  Oh, God, please… please… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say…” I blubber. 

                I feel like a heel right now, but with all this build-up, it’s going to pay off; it has to.

                “What?  NO!  NO!  NO!  Jack!  Stop it.  Stop it.  Stop it!  You’re okay.  It’s okay.  It’s okay… just, just…” she says, unsure of how to react yet again.  She rolls me off into one hand, and with the other one quickly begins caressing my back and shoulders with her fingers.  It’s crude, but I can tell she’s trying.  “Just STOP it, Jack!  Stop!  Now!  I, I, oh, Jack, I’m sorry.  Please stop doing this…” she says.  By this time, I’ve abandoned all hope of dignity in this little conversation, and begin to dry sob.  It’s a little fake sounding, but I don’t think she can tell because she’s so surprised at my less-than-normal reaction.

                “NO!  Jack, you can’t… I mean, it’s okay!  I’m not… what are you doing?” she says, still not quite sure of what to do.  She closes her fingers up around me like in a little cage but keeps the top open so she can keep kneading my back with her other hand.  I lunge out and wrap my arms around her thumb in a hug, something I’ve never done before.  This seems like a good a moment as any, now that I’m this far. 

                “I’m just…” I start, clutching around her thumb as hard as I can.  “I’m don’t want you to be mad…” I say, and then hide behind her thumb so she can’t see my face.  Then I bury my face as hard as I can into the flesh of her thumb. 

                I reflect on what I’m doing.  If I manage to pull this off alive, maybe I’ll be an actor when I get out of here…

                “But why would I…” she says.  The top of her thumb folds down, covering the top of my head, the small folds of her thumb flesh pressing down on me ever so slightly.  “I wouldn’t be… I mean, why would I…” she says.  She’s calmed down now that I’m talking, but she still sounds perplexed at my reaction.

                “Well, I don’t know… I guess, after yesterday, it was just…” I say.  This was the other part of the plan.  We figured as long as I’m trying to get on her good side, I also might try to convince her to tone down the punishment a little bit so that ALL five (six?) of us get out of here without a single bit of Julia’s stomach acid on us.

                “Yesterday… but I…” she says, and now she gets what I’m trying to say.  “I mean, I would NEVER have done… well, I wouldn’t have done anything to you, Jack.  You know that, right?”

                I peep out from behind her thumb, and wrap my legs around it like a monkey on a bar.  “I guess so…” I say calmly.  “I was just afraid that you might… I don’t know.  You’re not mad, are you?” I say.

                She smiles pretty big.  “No, of COURSE I’m not mad.  I mean…” she says, and with her other hand she brushes her fingers through her hair.  Primping herself.  “You… you really think I’m… pretty?”

                I hide behind her thumb again.  Now that I’m hanging on pretty tightly, she fists the rest of her fingers up, leaving her hand in a thumbs up position, essentially to make sure I don’t let go of her thumb.  She’s obviously enjoying the fact that I’ve placed myself in a place of submission and slight risk instead of her having to hold me like that.  With such a drop, I pretty much need to hang on for dear life with all my limbs to her thumb to ensure I don’t fall off.

                “Well… yeah…” I say, sheepishly again, from behind her finger but loud enough so that she can hear me.  I feel her hand rising and she turns her hand around so that she can see my face on the other side of her thumb.  She’s absolutely beaming.

                “Thank you very much, Jack.  You’re very sweet,” she says, and she grins again.  This is going much better than I expected.  Obviously, I knew she wouldn’t really try to inflict punishment on me for saying all this, but I expected some suspicion on her part.  But she’s eating it all right up with barely any effort from me.  It occurs to me how well this will fair for me for at least the rest of the week, because I’ve probably bought myself enough brownie points to avoid any sort of repercussion for anything I do wrong short of making an escape attempt or yelling random insults at Julia. 

                Unless I’m caught. 

                That thought keeps coming back. 

                If I’m caught in this act, I really don’t want to imagine where I’ll end up.