"Okay girls," Ffrances interrupted, grabbing Gabby's hand and pulling it back. "You need to give Tess a turn as well, don't you?"
Gabby pouted, but reluctantly stopped tickling her cousin. She'd caught her, she felt, so she had earned the right to tickle her mercilessly. But Ffrances was the grown-up, and she had the power to send them back inside, so she wasn't going to argue. And anyone looking into her eyes would see the intent there; after Tess caught her, it would be her turn again, and time for another tickle-fest.
That was something Tess was willing to put up with as well, once she had got her breath back. She stood beside Ffrances for a few seconds, panting, while Gabby fled to the far corner of the big garden.
"Is this as much fun as you hoped?" Ffrances asked. She seemed a little concerned, but Tess was still smiling.
"It's better. I never imagined anything like this. Thank you." She hugged Ffrances without a second thought, grinning like a child with a new toy, and then sprinted off to catch Gabby again.
Tess was ready for a long chase, but Gabby barely ran. She only took a couple of steps away, maybe hoping that Tess would slip on a bunch of yellow leaves that she'd pushed together on the lawn.
"Okay, my turn again!" Gabby pronounced, with the biggest smile on her face. Tess wiggled her fingers, and Gabby just laughed. "I'm not ticklish, see? So you might as well start running and let me– Aaah!"
When Tess started tickling her Gabby quickly fell to the ground, and tried without much success to keep Tess's hands away from under her arms. But it didn't make any difference at all; there was nothing she could do to make it stop. In seconds she was lying on her back, legs waving in the air and hands flailing randomly as she desperately tried to stop laughing. There was nothing she could do to stop it, and Tess was laughing almost as much when she realised Gabby still didn't understand why.
It wasn't long before she let up again. As much fun as it was to torment her cousin, she didn't want to be mean. It was only fun if it was some kind of game.
"Okay, your turn again. And I bet you anything it takes you longer to catch me." She blushed again as she realised how childish that sounded. She was just like a little kid, younger than she'd wanted to be, but it was still kind of fun. She was only little, she didn't need to care about how old she was now. And Tess had always been happy to laugh at misfortune, her own as much as anyone else's. She was happy to keep on playing at this age.
"Oh, I'll catch you right away," Gabby smirked. "You won't run far. You're only six now, Tess, and you're getting clumsy like a little kid. You're going to trip and fall down every time you go from the path to the grass, and you'll be having too much fun to think about good places to get away."
Tess's eyes went wide, and she realised that she was going to be a lot littler than she'd wanted now. But if she said no that would be like giving up; admitting that Gabby was the winner. She wanted to keep the game going until Gabby understood why what she was doing didn't work, and that meant running just a little bit more.
She turned around just in time, and ran. She stumbled as she crossed onto the paved part of the garden, but managed to keep her feet under her. And then she was back on the lawn as Gabby raced after her, but her feet shot out and she landed on her knees. She picked herself up as quick as she could and then ran off, with Gabby only a few inches behind her. At least, that was, until Gabby's face landed in a muddy puddle on the flower bed. Everything she did was catching both of them, and she just wasn't seeing it. Tess couldn't stop laughing, and that was her mistake. Because a second later she was caught, pinned down on the grass again as Gabby tickled her more than she'd ever been tickled before.
It seemed to go on forever, before Ffrances demanded that Gabby stop with the torture.
"We're only playing!" she protested. "And Tess tickled me! You can't let her be mean to me and say I can't!"
"She stopped," Ffrances insisted. "So now you stop. You know how to take turns, don't you? Or perhaps I need to make you a little younger again, so you can be that sweet little kid you were talking about?"
Before she even stopped talking, Gabby was vigorously shaking her head. And a few seconds later, Tess was relieved when the tickling stopped. She took a couple of deep breaths, and grasped blindly behind her until she managed to get her hands on the ground and lift herself up.
"Are you okay, Tess?" Ffrances asked again, and led her to the path down the side of the house again. Opening the kitchen door, she quickly produced a damp cloth and wiped some of the dirt away from the little girl's face and hands. It was amazing how filthy she had gotten just running around in the garden; she even had bits of flowers in her hair. It wasn't going to be easy to get her clean, but Ffrances already knew that. She just quickly dabbed away the worst of the dirt, and gave Tess the choice if she wanted to carry on playing a little longer. Tess thought about it for a long time, but she was still having fun, and she didn't want to interrupt the afternoon when Gabby was having so much fun.
She ran out again, and started chasing her cousin. Gabby was really competitive now they were a bit younger, and it took a lot of effort to catch up with her, but Tess knew she had to keep on trying. She could do it, and it was so much fun as she kept on trying. Running after Gabby and trying to catch her made Tess feel alive, and she thought she could understand why her cousin wanted to be littler. Unfortunately, she thought she was getting clumsier as well. She kept falling down, just like Gabby had said, but she was lucky that it was never on the paved path, where she might have got hurt. She was getting grass and plants all over her now. Ffrances would probably clean her up again before the next round, but her sudden clumsiness would have made it impossible to win if Gabby wasn't falling down just as much. Finally she stumbled at just the right time, and Tess could pin her down on the ground. Now her fingers were perfectly placed for a little tickling; just to make it clear who had won this time.
"Meanie!" Gabbie yelled, after Tess tried tickling her for a couple of minutes. She hoped that it was enough to prove that she had won this time, but it was Gabby's turn again, so Tess was already getting ready to run. "You always tickle me too much."
"You started it," she pouted, and she couldn't stifle a little giggle when she realised how childish she was acting. She just couldn't help it, and little outbursts like that were slowly convincing her that she had to know more about this hypnosis thing, and what else it could make her feel. But perhaps more importantly, she knew that it had to be powerful enough to help her with her recent problems. Even if it was hard to talk to Ffrances, she knew that she had to do something if she was going to escape Gabby treating her like a baby for the next year.