Too late, Chalice realizes she has been trapped. Grail has been waiting for her curled up on the divan, her half-smile a sentence dotted by the black mole on her cheek, the heels of her solid pumps exclamations pointed at Chalice.
A pointing finger catches her, then tugs her to the center of their playroom as if by an invisible thread. Chalice pads across the polished wooden floor in her fuzzy blue socks, arranging herself with her hands at her sides so Grail can get a look at her.
Caught off guard, Grail finds her lover in bell-bottoms and a babydoll, her head snuggled into a soft green crocheted cap that looks like a little bell over her head. Grail taps her toes in silent approval, her mouth a soft little smile and a period.
Chalice's face is a smooth white pearl, broken by the wide dark orbs of her eyes and the smaller twin dots of her nose. Her eyelids have settled over the tops of those big eyes, looking at the floor with both nervous impatience and excitement.
Grail raises her arm again, pointing to the far corner of the room. Chalice turns and looks. A long wooden pointer is propped in the corner. She shudders and turns back to Grail, who nods at the stick. Chalice swallows and shuffles over to the corner to claim it.
Chalice can feel Grail's toes tapping behind her. They keep pace as she walks, keeping her from moving too slow. She wraps her fingers around the stick, feeling its firmness, and lifts it, feeling how light. It gives her another shudder to hold it in her hand.
She turns back to Grail, who curls a pointer finger towards herself. Chalice recrosses the room to the divan. Grail opens her palm, and Chalice offers the pointer, trembling in her hand. Her lover's fingers close on it and all trembling stops. Chalice flinches and pulls back her hand as if stung.
Chalice steps back as the angles of her lover's hosed legs slide themselves to the floor, heels clicking onto the wood. Grail points again, and Chalice returns to the center of the room, arms at her sides, facing forward.
Grail drops her finger straight at the floor, rotating her hand in a slow circle. With a gulp Chalice turns herself around, knowing that long stick still lurks behind her. She imagines it flickering through the air. Snap snap! Chalice grimaces at the sound of Grail's fingers snapping.
Chalice turns her head. Grail's pointing hand arcs forward in a delicate dolphin dive towards the floor. Trembling but obediant, Chalice leans forward with her arms at her sides, hands opening around her ass like they are offering a gift.
Chalice hears the soft clicking of Grail's heels across the floor. There are three, and then one loud whap!