It was an accident. Sort of.
Jessica was a huge fan of detective novels and had just finished one in which the victim was found hanging with his hands tied behind his back. There was some speculation as to whether it was suicide or murder.
But how could someone tie his or her own hands behind his or her back?
In the novel, the medical examiner explained that it could be done using a form of double knot or slip knot. When properly tied, the knot would tighten once the hands were placed behind the back and then stretched by extending the arms. Much like those Chinese finger-thingies Jessica played with as a kid, except that presumably the rope could not then be loosened by bringing the arms back together.
Jessica still wondered if it was possible. She didn’t have rope in the house but she did have clothesline. She decided to do an experiment.
Having never been a sailor nor ever in any circumstance where she would have gained experience with knots, Jessica tried various configurations with the rope. She finally discovered that she could loosely tie the rope around one wrist and then form a slip knot into which she could wriggle her other wrist after putting both arms behind her back. Then she pulled her arms apart.
It worked! She was now tightly shackled. She pushed her arms together and the knots did not loosen. Excellent!
( ….. )
Well, crap. Now she had to figure out a way to get herself out of this predicament without having to call 911. How embarrassing would that be? And even if she opted to go that route, how would she make that call with her hands tied behind her back?
***
The ball is now in your court, folks. How did Jessica extricate herself? Write your solutions in the comments section below – the more outlandish, the better. This will be fun for all of us – but please, don’t anyone be as silly as Jessica and decide to recreate her experiment. I surely don’t wish to be responsible for starting some new stunt trend.
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Image by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalieStudio
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
Maybe she could sit down and wriggle her arms in front of her so that she could use a kitchen knife to saw through her bonds.
Or
Wait until her husband got home and just hope he didn’t think it was some way of spicing up their marriage
Or
Dunk her wrists in the cat food bowl and call kitty to come and nibble away at that and the clothes line at the same time?
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All good solutions (except I don’t think Jessica is married or livign with anyone), but that last one is amazinigly in line with the one I wanted to use – somehow spreading the ropes with peanut butter and letter her hamster eat through. I always knew you and I thought alike.
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Hehe. Good to see a post from you.
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The peanut butter “solution” calls for a number of puzzles to be solved, all while the hands are tied behind her back:
1. Opening the pantry door if the handle is above waist height.
2. Taking the jar off the shelf if it’s on a shelf above waist height.
3. Opening the jar with hands tied behind back.
4. Transferring jar content to the rope.
5. How does she extract the hamster from its cage?
If being tied up prevented her from dialling the emergency number, then I suspect the steps outlined above would equally challenging. The same would apply to manipulating scissors in such a way as to be able to cut the rope. She’d have more luck with a knife
My solution: Bang her head against a wall until it is a little sore. Then kneeling down, place the saw, serrated edge up between her knees with the blade pointing behind her. Then rub the the rope along the saw blade until it is cut through (I’m not sure if it works with American English, but in Kiwi English, “sore” and “saw” have exactly the same pronunciation).
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Barry, I love your solution. That might actually work so long as she has wooden walls and not just drywall. I don’t think drywall would create sharp enough edges when broken.
Your comments on my solution are valid. Anything requiring use of hands would fail unless, like some of my other friends have pointed out, she could somehow get her hands in front of her.
Thanks for playing along!
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If she’s limber enough, she can slip her arms down behind her and around her feet to get them in front. Not being so limber, I’d back up to the gadget drawer, feel around for a pair of scissors and cut the rope.
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Good responses, Dan. I’ll let Jessica know. LOL
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Go to a neighbor’s house and claim a terrible mishap while practicing to teach the nephew knot-tying for a scout merit’s badge, CM. Good thing stools and heights weren’t involved in her curiosity, for gosh sakes.
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I think she’s trying to avoid getting help from anyone, even with a great story like yours. And, of course, it might be difficult (but certainly not impossible) to open the door with her hands tied behind her back. And then to either knock on the neighbor’s door or ring the bell.
There was no stool involved in that detective novel she read, but the victim was found hanging from a balcony – so good thing Jessica doesn’t have a balacony.
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