by Carl Hamlin
“It’s very different physically and psychologically. A session with the paddle has always seemed to bring me back into line. When I was a kid, and I know it wasn’t that long ago, I was a school kid getting into one type of trouble or another. I would just bend over the desk or bend over out in the hallway, clench my teeth and take it. Something about the sudden intense sting of the paddle always had that effect on me.” Aubrey began to laugh. “I just never expected to experience it as an adult.
“I still remember quite vividly how getting spanked was so entirely different. The pain was more gradual in how it intensified. It always seemed to give me time to think about what I was being punished for. And it was always more personal and more intimate. I got spanked well into my teen years, but my parents did it because they love me, and they knew it got my attention. Oh, did it ever get my attention!”
Aubrey looked up at Mike and winked at him. “Of course, I must say that having you give me a spanking may serve a dual purpose.”
“So, if I were to give you a spanking tonight…”
Aubrey shook her head back and forth emphatically. “You mean, WHEN, you give me a spanking tonight. Deep down inside, I will probably enjoy it, yes. For the last couple of years, from time to time I have felt the craving to be spanked when I was feeling mixed up, or guilty, or horny. And right now I’m feeling all of those things. In any case, I will feel squared away about what I did.
“But, I never liked getting the paddle. The funny thing was, sometimes I needed it. One time I was mad at myself for something I said to a couple of girls in my class about the dresses they had worn to a dance. The next day, I apologized to them. But I was still really upset with myself, so I purposely got caught smoking in the restroom. The principal really worked my butt over that time, but then I was okay.
“Of course, Mr. Powell, I understand that you were quite experienced in using the paddle.”
“Yeah. But it was a part of my job I could have done without.”
Aubrey scooted off his lap and knelt next to him, then began to dramatically rub her bottom. She leaned forward and kissed him. “In any case, you are certainly proficient with it.”
Mike laughed. “Is that a compliment?”
Aubrey leaned forward and kissed him again. “Just call it a conclusion based upon personal evaluation.”
They embraced in another kiss, but this one was deep and lingering. Mike began to run his fingers through her red hair. “I don’t want you to rush into anything. You’re still very young.”
“And I’m not very experienced. In fact, I’m not very experienced at all. There was just one weekend of bad judgment on my part….”
Mike placed his fingers over Aubrey’s lips. “Nothing like that matters. We are all vulnerable right now, and I just don’t want to take advantage of you. So please, don’t ever feel any pressure for anything from me.”
Aubrey laughed. “You mean unless you get orders to paddle me again.”
Mike exhaled a deep sigh. “Remember…”
“I know… stay… out… of trouble. Because, I have no doubt that if that happened, my behind would be bright red for a couple of days.”
Mike slowly stood and helped Aubrey up. “On that note, I think I’m going to go out and look for Watson to see if he needs any help with anything.”
Aubrey glanced out the window to see that the gentle rain was still falling. “Not much you can do outside, is there?”
“He seems to be having this gut instinct that people may start getting extra edgy, sitting around in a quiet house with time to remember everything and miss people. We are all in that situation, but we have to look out for each other.”
Aubrey’s green eyes began to fill with tears. “I know whenever I start thinking about my family, I almost go crazy with worry. I would give anything to know that they were okay.”
Mike ran his fingers across her cheek. “Now that we’re settled in, I want to look into putting one of the generators just outside one of the doors to the gymnasium. We can set up a phone charging station, and since the satellites might allow us to call overseas, maybe we can start linking up with other displaced people. I don’t know how many of us in North America survived, but others elsewhere have to be having the same thought. Marlene told me that there were a couple of short wave radios among you. We can try to tune in the BBC for news that might be of help to us.”
Mike kissed Aubrey again before he started to walk away. “And what are you going to be doing today?”
“Sewing and mending. I never knew how to sew, but I’m learning. Marlene keeps dropping off clothes to be fixed. She also found some nice fabric in an abandoned house. I think I’m going to make myself a cute skirt. In fact, maybe I can learn to make some things for the other women, to boost their morale. I know that putting something pretty on can do wonders for a woman. And, I know what can do wonders for a man.”
Mike took hold of the door handle and pulled it open. “And just what would that be?”
Aubrey looked at him and winked. “Taking pretty things off of a woman.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. So, should I make something pretty for myself?”
Mike turned to step out into the hallway. “You can just read my mind.” He walked down the corridor and then outside into the soft, gentle rain. It was not much more than a drizzle, but it had been going on for so many hours he knew that the crops would be getting an excellent start.
He decided that he would go to look for Watson and Marlene to discuss his idea for charging the phones and activating one of the world – wide band radios. He began to stroll down the sidewalk to look around when he heard a commotion down the street.
He saw a man run out of a house holding a rifle, and then a man and a woman came out, calling out to him. As Mike hurried to the scene, he was able to hear the couple pleading with the man who began to hold the rifle with the muzzle pointed toward his chin and his finger on the trigger. He was yelling unintelligible, fragmented sentences and sobbing as he kept crying out a series of names over and over again.
The man fell to his knees and pressed the end of the rifle barrel into his mouth as he sobbed. As people came out of their homes to see what was happening, Mike slowed to cautiously approach the man in an attempt to calm him down. But when he was within fifteen feet of the distressed man, the rifle discharged, resulting in screams as onlookers turned away, but too late to have avoided witnessing the bloody death.
Most of the new residents of Dragos Falls had seen countless bodies of epidemic victims along the way, or before having left home. None of that prepared them for the scene before them. Most stood in stunned silence, and some rushed back into the houses. The couple with whom the man had been residing in a tiny dwelling quickly went inside and returned with a sheet with which to cover up the body.
Mike walked over and took the sheet from them just as Watson appeared. The older man walked quickly toward the body, then suddenly halted. He took two more steps and knelt next to the mutilated man. His head dropped as he shook it, then all could see that he was wiping tears away.
Mike knelt next to him and waited. “This is Tommy Branagh. He lived about a mile down the road from us. Sometimes we would go fishing, and when we would see each other in town we would stop and shoot the breeze for an hour or two. He was a good man.”
Mike put his hand on Watson’s back. “He was crying; calling out names.”
Watson nodded. “What names were they?”
“I think I heard Miriam… Larry… Marcia.”
Watson grunted. “His wife, her name was Miriam. She was in town when the epidemic swept through. Larry was their son, and Marcia was Larry’s wife. They had met Miriam in town for lunch that day.” Watson looked up, and then scanned the remaining onlookers. He turned to Mike and spoke in a quiet voice: “There’s going to be more of this you know.”
They covered the body and then gently rolled the corpse up in the sheet. Suddenly, another of the residents
drove up in a pickup truck. Several of the men placed the body on the back of his truck and then stood talking with Watson and Mike.
There had been a handful of deaths along the way to Dragos Falls. A protocol had been established; so Watson decided to continue with what had become the custom over the recent weeks. Those present gathered around as some offered prayers. Next, the impromptu burial detail rode in the truck to the cemetery next to a tiny church at the edge of the village, where a grave was hastily dug, and the shrouded man placed in the ground.
Mike stayed behind and stood in the rain talking to and trying to comfort the couple with whom Branagh had shared a house. The rain picked up slightly in intensity, washing away much of the red stain on the roadway next to them.
Mike felt ill and disheartened after witnessing the suicide. He began to walk slowly through the town, and as the rain returned to nothing more than a constant drizzle, he began to wish for a downpour to wash away the images he could not push away from his psyche.
For a while, he did not even realize where he was walking. If he had happened upon any of the villagers, he had not noticed or greeted them.
He walked to the falls, then stripped and walked into the stream. He stood beneath the torrent that had poured over the rocks there for thousands of years. He began to cry, not so much from the death he had just witnessed, but fear of what could still be to come. He tried to force himself to collect his thoughts, and he stayed beneath the heavy spray, paying no heed to whether anyone else was around.
Standing beneath the soothing falls finally had the desired effect. After standing under the cleansing waters for half an hour, Mike slowly walked to the bank, covered himself with his wet clothes and then headed back toward the school building.
As he entered the building, and he held his breath in the hope that he would not encounter anyone, for he felt totally incapable at the moment of talking to anyone. He made his way to his room, and then stripped off his wet clothing.
He found an old first – aid poster in a closet and taped it over the window in the door. He sat down on the sofa for a few minutes to relish the isolation and then began to look around to fully absorb the environment of his new home.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to rise from the sofa and put on some dry clothes. He picked up the small pouch of tools he had borrowed from Marlene the previous day, and set about removing the arms from the sofa. It was still far from being a comfortable bed, but at least he would not bump his head or feet any longer.
He had been so unnerved by the events of the day that he had actually forgotten for a little while that Aubrey intended to share his narrow bed with him that night. Suddenly, he was having pleasant thoughts again as he tried to make the sterile and functional room look a little less institutional.
He spent most of the afternoon sitting on the sofa with a legal pad and pen. After numerous attempts that resulted in crumpled sheets of paper in the trash can, he was able to put together a written plan for setting up the gasoline – powered generator that would provide the electricity for the station for charging cell phones and operating radios. He also made up a suggested protocol for priority use of the system, and suggestions for how residents could have fair access to attempts at communications.
When the afternoon grew late, Marlene knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to join her, Aubrey and the Watsons for a meal. They all gathered in the lobby of the principal’s office, sharing tins of Vienna sausages, crackers and some rice cakes that had been snatched up from an abandoned market in a small town just as they crossed the border into Texas.
Their conversation was at first subdued on the heels of the dramatic events of the day. Watson began to reiterate his concerns about how the refugees would adjust to a new life in Dragos Falls, considering all the uncertainty regarding separated family and friends, coupled with the grief over those they knew had passed on.
As the meal continued, the atmosphere began to lighten up. Marlene complemented Aubrey on her rapidly growing skill with repairing and making clothing. For his part, Mike was highly appreciative of Aubrey’s first attempt at being a seamstress. She was wearing the new skirt she had made from a set of curtains Marlene had taken from an abandoned home in Oklahoma. The flowered skirt was light and brief in length, displaying the alluring legs that so added to the physical attractiveness of the young redhead.
Telegraphing their thoughts to each other about the upcoming evening, Mike and Aubrey attempted to be subtle in their exchanged glances. However, the door to the inner office was sitting open, the sheet still hanging across the desk over which Aubrey was bent when Mike had given her the paddling. Mike could not help but notice that, from time to time, Aubrey would glance into the room and her cheeks would flush from embarrassment.
After they had finished eating, they sat and simply chatted for a while. The rain had ceased, and they all spoke of their good fortune in having the rainfall just after planting the gardens. The soft rain was soaking into the ground in a gradual fashion, in the most advantageous manner.
However, the looks of the sky had promised a continuation of the weather. Watson said at least twice during the meal that he wished he could have gathered up all the alcohol and hid it away until the sun came out again.
As darkness fell that evening, Mike was back in his room doing what little he could to make it look a little more homey for the special company he was expecting. That was when he heard laughter and voices on the sidewalk outside the building.
He pulled back the blind to see a parade of women and children heading for the falls with towels and small plastic bags carrying what he assumed to be soap and shampoo. He laughed to himself as he gazed at the scene: there was no reliable electricity, they were virtually isolated from the rest of the world, but they had plenty of canned foods, soap from abandoned homes and he was able to brush his teeth every day.
Fortunately, as the caravan of refugees had explored empty houses and businesses, they had made it a point to gather up candles, matches and lighters. Word had been spread in the village that any surplus candles should be brought to the school cafeteria to be picked up by anyone who needed them.
When Mike left his condominium in Arkansas, he had the good sense to bring food, guns and flashlights. But he had not thought of bringing the two candles he had kept in a closet for emergencies. Now three of the donated candles were providing a soft and flickering ambience to his makeshift living quarters as he stripped and put on just a pair of jogging pants.
He pulled back the blind to glance outside, and saw that the rain was falling a little heavier. For the first time during that spell of rain, he saw lightning flashing in the distance. The lightning’s flash was followed by a low rumble of thunder, just loud enough that he was not able to hear the soft tapping on his door.
He walked away from the window, then finally heard a quiet tap…tap…tap to the glass window of his door. He opened the door, and was greeted by the provocative sight of Aubrey standing in the dark hallway. With a meek but playful smile, Aubrey strutted into the room as the shadows and the flickering flames made her seem to be in several places at once.
She was wearing only a long tee shirt, obviously made for a man, and emblazoned with the logo of a seed company. She could not have looked more alluring to Mike. And after the recent weeks, Mike had the temptation to believe the moment was nothing but a mirage. But as he reached to close the door and took Aubrey into his embrace, he ran his hand over her back and down her hips, and feeling that she was wearing nothing beneath the shirt, he knew that his heart would have broken had he just awoken from a dream.
Mike took her by the hand and guided her to the sofa, where she sat down next to him. They resumed their embrace, their kisses becoming more passionate and urgent. Mike began to kiss her neck and nibble at her ear, and at the same time his hands roamed, fondling her small, firm breasts through the fabric of the shirt.
Finally, Mike felt Aubrey begin to free herself of the arms that
had been tightly wrapped around her. Even in the dim candlelight, the enchanting green eyes seemed to provide their own light as she gazed at Mike. Then she nodded and moved away to kneel on the sofa, before kissing him, and then beginning to lower herself across his knees.
However, Mike took her by the shoulder and gazed into her eyes. “You still have me a little confused. Is this foreplay or is this punishment?” Aubrey placed her finger over his lips to silence him, then planted a kiss on his forehead and whispered, “Yes and yes.”
With a quickness of motion that startled her, Mike took her by the shoulder once again and forcefully laid her down over his lap, causing her to emit a nervous giggle. The next thing that she felt was his warm, open hand caressing the backs of her thighs where the rise of her uncovered bottom began, and Mike heard her murmur in appreciation.
In the course of her movements the shirt had already slid up to her lower back, and Mike rested his left hand there and pressed down firmly. He began to run his fingertips in circular motions around the lower sections of her bottom cheeks, then spoke in a theatrically stern tone. “Now, my little Aubrey, I recall that when I applied the paddle right here, you seemed to take exception. Did you find that uncomfortable?”
Aubrey began to squirm from an arousing mixture of anxiety and anticipation, and responded in an exaggeratedly high-pitched voice broken by laughter. “Please sir, I find that area to be extremely sensitive.”
Mike continued the teasing movements of his fingertips. “You seem to like this.” In response, he heard a quiet moan and witnessed more squirming. “You may or may not like this.” His hand rose and rapidly returned with a CRACK that echoed through the small room of block walls and a concrete floor. The resulting squeal that emerged from Aubrey’s lips also reverberated in the confined space.
Mike heard Aubrey nearly whisper: “Ouch… ouch… ouch. You didn’t sneak a paddle in here when I wasn’t looking, did you? That really…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Mike surprised her by landing an identical smack to the same area. He then patted the burning spot, then leaned forward to continue the teasing. “I suppose I could go get the paddle, if you would like. What you are feeling is nothing more than my hand.”