Silenced in the Mall

They came walking along by the fountains at the center of the mall, the woman and the man. Both of them around 30, she a little taller than he, and you could be forgiven for thinking at first that she had him in a headlock.

It looked like the woman had the man in a headlock, her right arm around his neck as she walked just behind him. As if she was marching him along in front of her, holding him in a headlock. But if you looked more closely, you would see that actually the woman was holding the man with her right hand clamped firmly over his mouth.

This woman with her long wavy light brown hair. This man, black hair, his mouth locked in the firm grip of her silencing hand. Her beautiful hand, a shapely smooth but large womanly hand with carefully tended terra-cotta nails. The woman looked angry. The man's eyes, above the woman's stern silencing hand, looked sheepish and embarrassed.

For the woman was making a public spectacle of the man, marching him through the mall with her hand held over his mouth.

Most people sitting there by the fountains at the center of the mall weren't even watching. Or if they did notice the woman holding the man's mouth, it didn't catch their attention. It's surprising sometimes, how something as odd as a woman gagging a man with her hand right out in public won't even excite the attention of a random bystander.

But some noticed. Some high school kids sitting by the fountain noticed, and laughed, and pointed. One of them called out, "Hey! Why's she got her hand over your mouth?"

The man's eyes glanced over sideways, above the woman's covering hand, with a mortified look.

Another of the high school kids said, "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

A third went, "Mmmmmmmmmmhh! Hmmmmmm mmmmmm hhhmmmmm! Awww, he can't talk!" Then they all laughed.

Now the woman was walking the man, slowly but with determination, down the east wing of the mall. For a few seconds her hand slipped down a little, so that it was gripping the man's jaw and his lips were visible. Then the woman corrected her grip, and she clamped her palm back in place tightly over the man's mouth, her terra-cotta tipped thumb loosely across the bridge of his nose.

The man was reaching up with his right arm, tugging and pulling at the wrist of the woman's mouth holding hand. But he couldn't get any leverage, and he couldn't even begin to pull her hand away from his mouth.

An elderly couple walking the other way craned their necks and stared at how the woman was holding the man's mouth. The older man said, "Well, now if that don't just beat all..."

The older woman said, "Ohhhh... She's holding his mouth..." In a scandalized tone, as if to say, this younger generation is so corrupt and dissolute, you never know just what they're going to be doing next! As if to say, a woman holding her hand over a man's mouth in public is just the height of scandalous risque behavior!

Now the woman, long wavy light brown hair, stopped at a stand out in the middle of the walkway, a little stand whose proprietor had a variety of cell phones on display. She stood there with her large smooth womanly hand clamped tight over her man's mouth, inquiring about various cell phone plans.

Finally the proprietor of the cell phone stand made so bold as to ask her, "Say, I couldn't help but notice, you're holding your hand over that man's mouth."

The woman took this bold observation in stride. "Yes, he wouldn't behave himself while we were out shopping, so finally I said, 'Okay, no more shopping for you today,' and I clapped my hand right over his mouth to shut him up."

The proprietor gave an approving but slightly nervous chuckle, as if to say bravo in the presence of a woman who seems like a man-eater.

The handgagged man went, "Mmmmmmmmh, hmmmmm mmmmmmm!!!"

The woman: "No, just you shush!" With that, she squeezed her large beautiful silky-smooth hand visibly tighter over the man's mouth.

The proprietor of the cell phone stand shifted his chuckle into a louder but more nervous key. The woman said to him, "I may check into one of your plans some other day. Right now I've got to get this fellow out to the car--"

"It looks like he's not breathing very well..."

The mouth holding woman turned on the cell phone man as if she'd like to snap his head off. Or clamp her other hand over his mouth. "Oh, he can get enough air if he tries. But he can say the most shocking things if I leave his mouth uncovered!"

With that, the woman turned and began marching her man along again, as if holding him from behind in a headlock, with her big smooth feminine right hand fastened firmly in place, engulfing the man's entire lower face.

Marching him past the food court, now drawing in sight of the doorway out of the mall. Several people eating at tables in the food court noticed and stared at the woman marching the man along with her hand over his mouth. Once again the man was reaching up and tugging at the woman's wrist, and he was twisting and turning his head from side to side, as much as he could in her handgagging headlock.

Two young women at a table, and one was heard to observe to the other, "Well, that's one way to deal with your man when he gets mouthy!"

A female mall security guard was standing near the doorway. She saw the woman walking the man along, handgagged, but with a knowing smile she just stood there and did nothing.

And the woman with her hand clamped over the man's mouth walked out of the mall, walking him out into the parking lot with her hand still fastened tight over his mouth.