It was an absolutely beautiful late October Saturday morning in south Alabama. The tempature was in the forties for the first time this Fail and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, I felt tike garbage. My school's football team lost the night before, 28-13 and that eliminated us from playoff contention. My two field goal kicks and extra point attempts were all good. But I really wanted to go back to the playoffs as a senior, as we did for our junior year.

Claire was still in the hospital and I thought I might cheer myself up by going to help cheer her up. She liked the company. There isn't much to do just lying around a hospital room. When I got there, her doctor had just left and had good news. She was doing really well and could prepare to go home in the next couple of days. One thing that was different this time compared to my visit a couple of days before, was that she now had a roommate in the semi-private room instead of having the whole room to herself.

Jeannie was in the other bed. She was a blonde, near 40 years old and talked rather sophisticatedly. She was in town on business from Gary, Indiana. She had suffered a tailbone injury resulting from a traffic accident earlier in the week. She was expecting to be in there for a couple of weeks, having to spend most of the time continuously on her stomach. She seemed in good spirits despite the ordeal. Claire and her were getting along quite well. They seemed glad to have some company and Claire immediately said how sorry she was about our team losing.

Initially I thought it would be most difficult to get to play with Claire's bare feet again with someone else right there with us. I came to sit on the front end of Claire's bed. Her legs were not covered by any sheets. I lifted her legs, sat down, then placed her feet in my lap. I was only planning to massage them at the time.

"Oh no Claire." Jeannie said. "He's got you now. He might start tickling your feet. What are you going to do?"

Claire leaned back as if to brace herself. "Why did you say it?" She replied. "That's exactly what he is going to do." She found herself grabbing for her pillow again as I crossed her ankles and placed them between my left arm and my side.

As I began playing with each of her toes causing, her to cover up the sound of her laughter, Jeannie was laughing out loud at the sight of her new-found being driven nuts. "Let her have it." Jeannie cheered on. "Get her insteps. That should drive her wild. She loves It. Come on, Claire. Tell us the truth. You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" I paused from the tickling for a moment to let Claire breath normaIIy again.

"Not fair." CIaire protested to Jeannine. "Sure, you tell him to tickle my feet. That's easy for you to say." Her giggling resumed as I started grasping around her toes once again.

"Go ahead." Jeannie said with a smile. "She's recovered. Give it to her again. Tickle her feet. Tickle her good. She can take it. I know she can. Drive her wild. This is fun. I could lay here all day and watch this."

After a few minutes of running my fingers all over CIaire's lovely soles and watching her shake her head and shoulders back and forth, I eased off again. She kept her toes wiggling pretty constantly as she looked towards Jeannie and noticed how much she was enjoying all that was going on. "Oh, you're having a great time." Claire said. "You get to relax, while watching somebody else get driven out of her mind. I bet it's fun while he keeps tickling my feet. Nobody's tickling your feet. You get to stay comfortable. Nobody's tickling your feet yet. You know, we could be really careful and really gentle. If she doesn't get to moving around much and we can keep her back straight, we might have a little revenge here. She's already got a pillow by her mouth to shield the laughing bursts. Let's take a look and see what we can do here."

Jeannie's smile dropped instantly. "You wouldn't." She said nervously. "You wouldn't dare. You wouldn't tickle my feet when I'm defenseless in this position, would you?"

I got on a stool and sat diredly at the foot of her bed. I slowly pulled the sheets up and saw her own lovely bare feet. "Hey, I like your feet." I told her. "They're really cute. Just like Claire's. And they're also just here waiting for a nice little tickling. Maybe a few strokes up and down your own insteps and a little fiddling around with your toes. Why should Claire have all the excitement? These nice feet are just calling out for some fun. What size shoe do you wear?"

Claire was laughing out loud as she slowly walked with her cane to the front of her roommate's bed. She was going to help be sure that Jeannie didn't toss around too much and risk hurting herself more. "I wear a size ten" Jeannie answered. "And I know that my feet are big. They stay swollen a lot because I always wear six-inch heels when I'm out on business. But please, no. I can hardly move. I won't be able to stand it if you start tickling my feet." I began to gently massage her feet while trying to decide what to do to her feet first.

"Oh, we can"t let only me experience all of this kind of fun." Claire said, while patting her friend on the back. "We'll take it easy, sort of. Now, just keep laughing in the pillow and enjoy all of the same fun you just saw me having."

Before Jeannie could protest anymore, I began to slowly stroke each of my index fingers down each of her insteps. I could easily hear her muffled laughter as I started stroking upward. I didn't want to make her move around too much. But I did enjoy having access to her bare feet, even in such an unusual situation. After a dozen strokes, 1 gave her a moment to recover.

"Isn't it great?" Claire jokingly asked. "I know that you're having the time of your Iife. This is just so much fun watching you have the same kind of fun I was just having. I guess it's time for him to start playing around with your toes. I know you can't wait to start enjoying that You'll just love going bonkers."

It was as good of a time as any. So, playing with each of her toes, I did. That got her feet shuffling pretty good. After a couple of minutes, I paused before finishing with a few more soft strokes across her insteps. That seemed to be enough fun for one day under such conditions.

As Claire returned to her bed, I was able to take her by the ankles again before she could get her legs up and under the sheets. "No, wait a minute." She said. "You got me already. You're not gonna tickle my teet again? Please. Not again!" I spent the next minute or two scrambHng my fingers all over her soles. Jeannie smiled in approval. I was afraid she might fall out of her bed, so I turned Claire loose and let her recover.

I stayed a while longer, before heading home. Despite no playoffs, I felt much better. I went in hoping to play with one set of wonderful bare teet and ended up playing with two. They both said that they enjoyed my visit. I know I did.