1
Two young women stood talking under the sun in a parking lot at Valley College. One reached into her bag, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and held it up as an offering.
"So how bad did you do?"
Alexis did not want to smell of smoke when she got home. Glowering at a distant point ahead of her, the freshman back-handed Larissa her exam paper.
"Not good ...not good at all." Lissa made clucking sounds, then turned her head to give her friend a smile left wanting for human compassion.
"It's not funny. I need to pass this fucking class."
Did she even belong here? Alex was having the familiar feelings. Cars were starting up in the busy lot, the sounds mixing with the animated conversations of real students passing. So cramming for a minute at the last hour wasn't such a good idea. Something floating in her stomach was suggesting she not hurry home.
"It's not the end of the world. You can make it up next time."
"Easy for you to say. Lemme guess. You got another freakin' A."
Larissa winked and pulled out her exam.
"A ninety-effin' three." The score sure looked sweet compared to a fifty-five. "You must've cheated."
Lissa laughed. "Seriously, if you need help, I'm available for tutoring."
Alex rolled her eyes. "I just needed to study but, no, every night you wanna party."
Jon had loosened up on some of the restrictions, and it was about damn time she be allowed to live like a normal adult ...or as close to normal as it was going to get for awhile. So maybe she was falling back into some bad habits. How Lissa was acing the tests, Alex did not know. They had both been getting pretty hammered.
"That's rich," said Lissa. "Like I forced you."
"You sure as hell didn't help."
"As they say, girlfriend, just say, no."
"I ain't turnin' down the Razz." Alex had managed to find her sense of humor. Her drink was Bacardi and Coke.
"You're such a lightweight."
"Yeah... who did Colin have to almost carry to the car and drive home cuz she got wasted on two Hurricanes?"
Lissa did not appear to have a comeback for that, but made a face Alex reluctantly found endearing. The two had met in class the first day and, being new to the area, Alex was glad to make a friend. Lissa was still living with her parents while she attended college.
"This ain't funny, Liss."
"It's cool. Just make a little time and study your butt off."
"Yeah, I know..." She wasn't even taking that many credits.
"If you want, I can stop by your uncle's and whip your ass into shape."
Alex waved her off, and she didn't want right then to be reminded of her "uncle" or her ass. Another bad test was not going to go over well, and if any of the drinking and stuff ever came out ...and shit, the date she had with Colin that night!
A metallic blue Chevy, rumbling low on its wheels, was crawling past her line of vision. A cute guy had his head out the passenger side window."Whassup, ladies? There's a party in here." The girls laughed and told him to fuck off. "Wanksta. This joint is so high school."
"Can I keep this?" Alexis looked again at Larissa's exam. She had an idea.
2
Jon Michaels carried another stone across the yard for the path he was laying. Despite the white collar profession he had chosen, physical labor outdoors had always agreed with him. He found it somehow relaxing. Today he was a little anxious, a feeling remembered from childhood, an attack of nerves the result of having messed up at school ...a note sent home, a bad report card, or maybe worse. It was Friday, and Alexis would get back the results of her big test. He was nervous because she had reached a point where a poor score was no longer to be tolerated.
Despite his dark cloud, the day was a beautiful one as autumn days go. In the valley where he had settled, the summer can persist like a stubborn fever, but this late October sun was a welcome warmth on his broad back. He placed the flat stone in front of the new shed he was building, his ear on the distant sounds of a bustling neighborhood. Over on La Cienega the traffic was stirring up the beginnings of rush hour, and her Saturn should soon be whining somewhere in the mix. He would hear it coming up the drive. Their place was on a fairly good sized piece of land setting it apart from most other properties in this area of town.
He hated waiting. If something was nagging the dark part of his mind, he wanted to grab it by the neck and pull it out into the light. Thinking about Alexis getting herself in trouble again, he turned to fetch another rock off the back of his pickup. She had been reasonably well-behaved since... well, that last incident come to think of it, and he could still see her hunched over on the floor holding her foot, looking up at him with large eyes, could still feel the relief when he realized her problem was nothing more than an incidental injury. The less incidental injury that day had been to another area of her anatomy. Jon had taken on a new responsibility in life since having met Alexis Grace online, and since she had come to live with him while attending college. Unlike most contemporary students, she was to have a modicum of structure imposed upon her and someone to see to it that she was both safe and meeting her responsibilities.
Her car pulled in out front only a little later than expected, and it was just moments after that a pretty head was seen at the back door shouting, "Hi, I'm home." Then before he could say a word, said head had disappeared back inside. Well ...some greeting ...and did she think he was going to forget? She did not seem concerned, so maybe everything had turned out okay. He could hope.
"Well, young lady, do you have something to show me?" He had given her time to get settled before tapping on her bedroom door. He found her laying prone on her bed, feet up, hair a mess, cell phone in hand. She looked like a girl without a care in the world.
"I'm on the phone," she informed him, hand covering where she had been having a conversation that should not be interrupted.
"Yes, I can see that. I'd like you to get off the phone."
"That would be rude of me. Can't it wait?"
"No, it cannot." He did not think it a good sign she was stalling.
Before making her apologies to the voice at the other end, Alex produced a sigh, one that a parent of a teenager might recognize as heroic tolerance. Jon waited, arms crossed, and with equally dauntless patience.
"This is fantastic." She had handed him the exam bearing a proud ninety-three. Snatching the paper back, she crumpled it, tossed it deftly into the wastebasket by her desk.
"It's just a little test."
"Your best in that class." He was both pleased and relieved. "I'd think you'd be ecstatic."
"Ecstatic? It's not like I won the freakin' lottery."
She fell onto her back in bed and lay there with eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"You're in a mood today, Honey. What's wrong?" He thought she should be a lot happier but knew, with girls, it doesn't always work that way, even a girl prepared to administer her large black boot to the good times of anyone doubting her machismo.
"I'm fine, really," she turned her head and smiled.
"If you keep this up, that GPA's going to start looking good."
"Yeah, I'm stoked," she gave him a thumbs up. She wasn't being sarcastic; he was pretty sure.
3
"So what's up, Alex? You don't seem yourself tonight."
Colin was right, but it wasn't like she wanted it that way.
"Nothing. I'm fine." She smiled sweetly. In her new bizarro life, since moving in with Jon, this was the first time she had been allowed out on a real date. Every meeting with Colin had been either at home or over at the park in the sober light of day. Evenings, they were part of a group, the story that she was studying with a friend. "Just messed up on a test," she sighed.
"That psychology class again?"
"Yeah."
"Is it really that hard?" he asked without making it sound like an accusation. He had the eyes, a fact she had been dwelling on from across the candlelit table, and she was no sucker. The restaurant was quiet, considering. Friday night at The Odyssey could be a mob scene, but they had been seated in an out-of-the-way spot on the terrace overlooking the valley below. It was just too damned romantic to be talking about her freakin' schoolwork.
"No... I just need to study."
"Doesn't seem you've had much time since you met Lissie."
"Lissie? Haven't heard you call her that before." She worked at cutting her prime rib.
"I'm just saying she's a bad influence on you."
Alexis looked up to see that Colin did not have that grin on his puss she liked so much. "You're serious? What makes you think I'm not the one doing the influencing?"
"I didn't know you drank like that til we started hanging out with her."
"Well, I did." She played a little with the food on her plate.
"When?"
"Back home. I like to have a few drinks. So what?"
"Nothing... forget it." They went back to their food and to a heavy silence.
He was being serious. She was being moody. The date wasn't going as she had hoped. She had even dressed as close to girlie as Alex Grace was gonna get. Colin was usually so easy going and funny. She snuck another peek over her dinner to see what he was thinking.
"So what do you really think of Lissa?"
It was an innocent question.
"I don't know. Think of, how?"
"Think she's pretty?"
"Yeah, I s'pose."
Okay, not a big surprise there. At least he's being honest. "You know she likes you."
It was an innocent comment.
"What makes you think that?"
It appeared he wasn't much interested in the answer. Playing it cool, and she hated the not knowing. "You had to notice her flirting."
"When?"
"Oh, I don't know... like all the time?"
"She kinda flirts with everyone, Alex. You notice she never actually hooks up with anyone."
"Do you want to hook up with her?"
The look he gave her made her feel two feet tall. She wasn't being fair, but there had been no good judge to restrain her. "I'm sorry. I have no right to ask you that."
"You have the right." He had appeared to consider her question with great deliberation. "We've been hanging out together almost since you moved here," he continued with hesitation, two meals on their table for the moment ignored. "I was hoping we'd have a chance tonight to talk more serious."
She could see he was floundering. "Like about what?"
"You know...like how we feel about each other."
She took a breath. "How do you feel?"
"Can I refill that Coke?"
Startled, she saw their waitress reach for Colin's glass ...another pretty girl she had thought he might be attracted to.
"Sure, thanks." Colin shared a smile with the willowy blonde, and then she was gone.
Where was all this shit coming from tonight? She did not need to be jealous, and it wasn't like her. She needed to stop it.
He said, "I feel like I really don't want to be seeing anyone else right now."
She sipped at her iced tea.
"So what do you think?" He had waited patiently.
Her face was warm, but her eyes were cool. "I'm not sure what you're saying, exactly."
"You're trying to make this hard for me, aren't you?"
Well, yeah, maybe she was.
"I'm not interested in Lissa. I'm trying to say I like you. I like you a lot." He was leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, ready for her answer. She returned the smile, the first one of the evening to make an appearance without requiring her permission.
There were a million stars in the valley. Letting go of the railing, she leaned back, surrendering her weight to her boyfriend, enjoying his strong, warming arms around her middle. "Our houses are down there somewhere," she thought out loud. He had brushed her hair back, had kissed her gently on her ear.
"Over there, he pointed to the West, and she tried to judge the distance.
Colin would not understand. She was sure. He worked for Jon, helping take care of the large property and had been told that Mr. Michaels was her uncle. Colin knew that Alexis was staying with him while pursuing her education and that her uncle took an active interest in his niece's progress. She was expected to work hard for the privilege of free room and board. Her uncle did not approve of smoking or drinking or such vices, and blah, blah, blah. That was close enough to the truth, at least as close as anyone needed to know of it.
One of those million stars. She sighed. She wondered what he was doing right then, the man who owned that house where there were rules she was supposed to follow. *Thinking of me?* It would not surprise her. She sighed again.
She would tell him about the failed exam. Yeah, that was the only right thing to do. So he'd be disappointed. She grimaced. Confession would bring salvation ...and no more screwing around. It was time to crack the books. If you think about it, isn't life but a series of ups and downs? It's about ending on top. She would make it up by studying her butt off. She would make her "uncle" proud.
"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout, baby? Colin kissed her neck this time.
"It's such a beautiful night."
"Sure is."
She wished it could last forever.
4
"Larissa, I'm very happy that Alexis has found such a hardworking study partner." Jon Michael's voice could be heard over the sounds of spoons and forks and four eating at the dining room table. "It has certainly helped her."
Three places had already been set when Colin had called wanting to know if there was enough food for four. He was bringing Larissa. When the doorbell had chimed, Alex was in the kitchen with the garlic bread; Jon's spaghetti with meatballs was still simmering.
"Larissa, Mr. Michaels." Colin had made the introductions.
"How nice to meet you, dear." Jon had tried not to make Alex's friend feel as if she were under the microscope. Truth told, he had been eager to see the girl whose name he had heard often. Larissa looked more harmless than expected.
"Please, for once can we *not* talk about school?" Alex complained as Colin attacked his spaghetti. Jon did not understand why she was so irritable. Had she not been happy at the prospect of having her new boyfriend to dinner? It had been a nice, quiet Sunday around the house, Alex content at her computer or with the new book she was reading, then the two together on the couch watching a movie she had been wanting Jon to see ...they were even having her favorite meal for dinner. He was at a loss. Perhaps another female at the table was providing too much competition for attention.
"Uh, sure, Mr. Michaels," Larissa obliged. "but I can't take credit, really." The girls exchanged looks -- a smirk from Larissa?
Frankly, the two girls did not strike Jon as all that compatible, at least to the extent that he would pick them out as potentially easy friends. But what did he know about young people today? Larissa looked like the popular girl in school, the perky cheerleader, honor roll taken for granted. His Alex always projected the image of a girl on the edge, dark hair sprouting in a confusing fountain around a pale impish face that warned of misbehavior.
"Are you looking towards Child Psychology, as well?"
"Not really. Not right now." Larissa twirled pasta in her spoon. "I'm a liberal arts major. The class sounded interesting, I guess."
"You wanna see Predators tomorrow night?" Alex piped in, her question directed pointedly at her friend.
"Heard it sucks totally... oops, sorry Mr. Michaels," Larissa giggled.
"Who says? ...and who cares?" Alex said. "I wanna see hunters who have now become the hunted." She turned to wink at her boyfriend.
"Can I come? I wanna see too." Colin pinched his girlfriend in the ribs making her squeal, got a hard fist to the shoulder in return. While the two lovebirds shared a moment, Larissa looked Jon's way and made like she was gagging on her finger.
"So you're taking the class just because it sounded interesting." Jon smiled, steering the conversation back to before they were interrupted. "How are you doing?"
"Great. Last week, I got a ninety-three."
He almost said it. My, what a coincidence! To think that Alexis got the exact odd number. Did they copy each other on the test? They would all have a smile about that ...but before Jon could get it out, a little chill ran up his spine followed by a heavy feeling in his chest. Was he wrong to be suspicious?
"That's quite a score," he said to Larissa, but his eyes were squarely on Alexis Ann Grace. So help him, if she...
"I'm really not feeling very well," she announced, setting her glass down and rising. "Sorry everyone..." and Alex was up and heading in the direction of her bedroom. Jon thought to stop her but decided to let her go. Colin looked at him and then followed after his girlfriend. Jon assumed he had no way of knowing that the sudden illness striking was panic, a flight to escape an unbearable situation. Colin would not know that Alexis was right then a little girl in very bad trouble.
"Uh oh... Al showed you my test." Larissa was still seated directly across from Jon, a large bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and her look of confusion between them. She had spoken softly, having found for herself at least one answer to her questions.
"It appears that way." He didn't sound as disappointed as he felt.
"She's going to do better, I'm sure."
"That's good of you to stand up for her. I know she can do better. Unfortunately, something this term is preventing it from happening."
"It's probably my fault."
"How could it be your fault?"
Larissa moved strands of spaghetti around her plate. He waited.
"We've been kind of partying it up lately."
"Partying? How?"
"Shit...sorry..." She seemed to know he wasn't fond of profanity. "I don't want to be responsible for her getting thrown out on the street."
"Is that what she told you?" Jon returned the hard look he was getting. "She's not getting thrown out on the street. If it turns out that living here isn't the best advantage for her education," he explained, "then Alexis will return home. She'll transfer there to a local community college."
"I don't think she wants that. If she just had some more time..."
"I was under the impression that you two were studying up a storm. I see now it was only an impression."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Larissa made a face that didn't quite fit the apology. "You know, it's college ...bad girls just wanna have fun." She flashed him another pretty smile.
"Having fun is fine," he stated, perhaps too sternly, "as long as Alexis keeps her grades up and stays out of trouble."
"Depends on what staying out of trouble means. I'm glad I don't live with a strict uncle," she winked.
Larissa was finding the situation amusing, but Jon was unable to share her enthusiasm for it. Her smile remained a playful challenge as his thoughts drifted to Alexis. He wondered what story she was spinning for Colin, and what excuses might she be searching for to play on her "uncle's" sympathies, but he knew one thing for certain---she was not feeling easy. Unlike her spoiled friend sitting across from him at the dinner table, Alexis had no luxury to make light of her very bad behavior.
The three had made their way to the front door, Colin having returned with an air of helpless resignation. He and Larissa had thought it best to leave early, seeing as Alex was in no condition to be leaving her room that evening to join them.
"So what makes you think things are going to get better?" he asked Larissa and not too hopeful for a hopeful answer. They had stepped out onto the porch to a chilly fall evening. There was no breeze to speak of; the traffic over on La Cienega the gentle stirring.
"Uh, well, I guess that's a good question," Larissa chewed her lip. "I think Alex just needs to watch her drinking a bit...don't get me wrong... she doesn't drink that much... nor do I." She batted her eyes.
"We'd better get going," Colin had his hand on Larissa's shoulder, steering her in the direction of his tricked out red Mustang.
"Tell me more." Jon followed, the intrepid journalist, blood pressure rising.
"What?" Larissa replied over the shoulder being guided. "Not much to tell."
"Wait, Colin... Tell me, Larissa...where have you and Alexis been partying?"
"Uh...around..."
"Around?"
"You know... off-campus parties and stuff." Her back was to him still. Colin had practically pushed Larissa to the car.
It occurred to his razor mind that Colin knew he did not approve of his niece's drinking. They had sure been putting one over on old Uncle Jon. He felt betrayed and had to remind himself that this was not about Jon Michaels. It was about ropes, straws, and camels. To her window, he looked to the light. Trouble had come to visit, and it was spending the night.
5
Her door was locked. He rapped hard three times, hard on his knuckles. "Young lady, we need to talk. Right now!"
The door opened to a click, a little more than a crack, and when Jon burst through, she was returning to what she appeared to believe was the safety of her bed. Alex sat stiff on the edge, still dressed in the fancy cinched top, black jeans and boots she had worn to dinner. A menacing figure, he towered over her. He hated being angry with her, wasn't even sure where to start. She started for him.
"Look...I wanted to tell you... I was really going to, but I just couldn't."
"That's what you have to say for yourself? Is that supposed to make me feel better about your complete lack of respect for me and this house?"
She looked up at him with large eyes, then whispered, "Daddy, I'm so sorry."
"You're sorry you got caught," his voice cold, yet in his heart he knew her guilt felt was genuine. "You were perfectly willing to leave me in the dark. Believe me, you are going to be sorry you got caught."
"Okay."
"Were you drinking? At these parties you've been going to?"
"What?"
Jon could see the panic spreading across her face. "You heard me, Alexis. Answer me, and don't you dare lie about it."
"Just a little. I was careful, I swear."
"Careful? All those late nights, and I thought you were safe and studying."
"I'm sorry." A single tear fell on rose flushed cheeks. "I didn't want to lie. It was a few drinks..."
He stood silent for several moments. There really was nothing worth saying beyond directing Alex to her punishment. "Get ready for bed." The chill in his voice did not reflect the turmoil inside. "Take your bath. Brush your teeth. When I return, I want you in your punishment pajamas and in your chair."
He turned and left the room, shutting her door hard behind him.
6
He blamed himself. Through the plate-glass window in the living room, the moon was a cradle in the southern sky. He stood with regret, wishing he had given her the support she needed, wondering how things might be different if he had watched over her as the parent he had promised to be. He listened to water run for her bath ...her bath, her room, her house now ...and she lived here only because it was where Jon Michaels lived. There had been a warning for everything that had happened. From the very beginning, she had told him straight up that she was a brat, that she would take advantage of every opportunity.
Had he simply been too lazy to check to see what she was doing? To more closely monitor her work from school? To talk with her when she came home at night? Had it all been wishful thinking? He had never been in a relationship like this before, so maybe he should have cut himself some slack. What exactly is the blueprint for raising a wild child like Alexis? In trusting her, he had given her the rope with which to hang herself.
He had plenty to consider, but the task at hand was clear. In the kitchen, he rinsed dishes and placed them in the washer, tupperwared some uneaten spaghetti. Down the hall, he adjusted the thermostat a few degrees to banish the chill. A quick circuit of the house assured that all doors and windows were locked, all drapes and blinds drawn to cover. In his own bedroom, he slid open the last door of the closet, slid coat hangers in a search for an item he had not looked at in several years. Of course, it was still there, right where he had hung it, buckle over hook.
He folded the belt, supple and well-worn, ran it through fingers as one might do if they are plotting redemption. He contemplated the heft and texture of real leather, a narrow length of old-fashioned sizzle. The men's brown belt was an odd bit of apparel he had worn in college to spite the fashion, out-of-style even then, yet suiting Jon Michaels rather well. His father had worn a belt like it, used it the way Jon learned to use it, and Jon knew from experience what his Alexis was in for this cold winter's night. With quiet deliberation he threaded it through each loop in his trousers and pulled the belt snug. It fit just fine.
7
Getting ready for bed was the most familiar chore. She brushed her teeth as she had a thousand times before. Shutting her computer down, undressing and putting up what she had been wearing---she had been barely aware. Bath drawn, her body had soaked in hot water while her mind floated in the mist above. Alex was going through motions since Jon had left her room. There was only one issue to occupy her thoughts. She was busted! Totally. Dazed by how quickly her house of cards had fallen, the face in the bathroom mirror was indeed her own, pale as a ghost, haunted by regret. Guilt and shame lived and breathed inside her, but they had to make plenty of room. In her stomach, through her lungs, and taunting at her very core the threat of what was coming.
When Jon entered her bedroom, Alexis Ann Grace felt like Alexis In Disgrace. She turned her head to look with eyes desperate to convince him.
"Face to the corner. I'll let you know when I'm ready for you."
He sat on the edge of her bed to regard the innocence of a girl seated on furniture far too small for an adult. When not in use, the time-out chair had a place on the floor in Alex's closet, only to be taken out when Jon thought his new daughter needed a little time for humble reflection, to instill in her a sense of her place in the domestic hierarchy, a position that bound her fully to Jon Michael's parental authority. The figure seated in the corner wrapped in banana yellow pajamas did not fit the image of the rock-n-roll brat who had come to live with him. Was this the same Alexis who had been staying out late with her wild college friends? He tried to picture her drunk and irreverent and putting one over on dear old dad. He could not afford that soft spot in his heart that wanted to smile at her youthful rebellion.
"Do you have any idea how disappointed I am in you right now?"
She sighed. "I know... I didn't want to disappoint you."
"You didn't want to? You took advantage. I should never have allowed it."
"It's my fault."
"We're going to deal with what you've done. We're going to establish the rules in this house and my new more strict focus on your behavior."
"I won't do it again." Her voice directed to the corner was tiny.
"You won't do what again? Lie and conspire? Act in the most irresponsible way?" He went to Alex and reached down to take her hand. "I'm going to show you how to prepare yourself for the belt."
Her face a mask, she stood watching as he gave his simple yet exacting instructions. Her pillow was to be placed on her bed just so. He explained how she was to lay on her stomach and where the pillow should be beneath her, how her legs should be straight, her feet over the end of the bed and brought together, and how her hands, palms up, needed to be tucked back behind her under the pillow raising her bottom.
"I guess it was inevitable. That you would need consequences like this. Please assume the position, young lady."
She looked confused, as if the dream she had been having had suddenly turned real.
"Do it now. Do not make this worse."
The pillow was in place. She needed to obey. Jon recognized the moment of her resignation, watched her climb onto the bed and arrange herself so as to meet his approval. He reached down and unbuttoned the back of her pajama bottoms, then pulled the flap down and out of the way. The pillow under her thighs raised a pale moon aglow with expectation. Giving her a moment to consider, he unbuckled the belt at his waist, and then slicing the silence, the hiss of its removal before he doubled the menacing leather.
"I'm afraid this is very long overdue."
Standing over her tall, he whipped the belt down quick, flat and flush, its snap a snakebite, her yelp the echo of the bitten. Low across her cheeks a ripple of impact was spreading, feet kicking in protest, hands reaching back to grab, Alex turning her eyes to plead with him.
"Take your hands away."
"No! Fuck, that hurts!"
He remained calm. "Alexis, you're going to take your punishment without interference and without cursing, or you won't be sitting down for a week. Am I making myself clear?"
For a moment their eyes locked like two gunfighters sizing up a challenge. The moment was brief, a tough young Alex withering under her new father's iron will, hands relinquishing the precious area they had been covering where now one narrow red band blazed branded across her buttocks.
"Face forward, hands back under your pillow. Don't make me tell you again."
As soon as she complied, and with her upturned cheeks for the moment relaxed, Jon Michaels brought the belt down with another bright snap, supple leather painting a second stripe just below the first, and as Alex cried out loudly, he whipped again lower still across her sit-spots. She acted like a girl on fire.
"Why am I punishing you?" He spoke sharply to maintain her focus.
"I didn't study," she gasped, rushing to explain. "I failed my test and used Lissa's test to fool you into thinking I had done well, and I..." He whipped the belt down again, a leather to flesh interjection, then a blur retracing his previous efforts, more whip snaps that cut the air in the room like a saw through timber. Alex, her explanations sliced to ribbons, cried out, groaned, whimpered, hips writhing to grind the pillow, feet a blur to answer the belt punishing her as she had never been punished before. Jon knew how to give a proper spanking ...no flailing away without rhyme or reason, a position and delivery whereby a practiced hand can administer safe and accurate discipline.
"How may times have we discussed your study habits?"
"A lot," she cried.
"Twice?" Snap and crack. "Three times?" he asked with a triple dose of fire. "Those discussions didn't solve the problem, did they?"
She sobbed, a small sound rising from the bed because she had no breath to sustain it.
"And the lies? Let's talk about these parties you've been going to." He whipped the leather down again across two spots plumped for sitting. She screeched, and he waited for her to settle. Against the frame of yellow and flesh the color of cream, angry stripes of scarlet proclaimed loudly where he had whipped her.
"Did you drink alcohol?"
"Yes, Daddy, I know, I know... I sh-shouldn't have!"
"Of course you knew. What happens when you drink, Alex? The rules about that could not have been more clear."
She turned her wet face to him, eyes remarkably steady. "I know I have a problem. I let it get the best of me, but it won't happen again. I promise."
"I've been too lenient with you, and I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about this." Bending to place his hand on her back, raising the belt again, he gave her a final spanking, rapid-fire, centered around her sit spot, not full strokes, but rather a score of relentlessly hot stingers that had her throwing a new tantrum over her pillow. She would not forget Daddy's discipline this night.
8
A college student shifted her weight, the chair on which she was seated too hard to be sympathetic. It was Monday morning, a Sunday evening punishment with the belt now her consequential history.
"What was up with you last night?" Lissa had taken the chair next to her. Their professor was making notes on the chalkboard. A last straggle of students looked for open seats.
"Didn't feel well. No biggie."
"You okay?"
"Yeah ...I'm fine." Alex smiled. She didn't have to lie about that.
"So you really used my test to fool your uncle? That's priceless, Al."
"Yeah, pretty crazy, huh?" she made a good effort at sharing Lissa's amusement.
"You must like it here ...or you don't want to go back home."
"Yeah, I like it here ...present company excluded." She stuck out her tongue.
Alexis did like it here. She missed her friends back home, the jamming with her metal group ...the freedom ...but she was staying, and the concerns she had had about that were no longer troubling.
"Going to Bailey's tonight?"
"Uh, no," she answered without needing to think too hard about it. "Gotta study."
"I sorta figured. Better be hitting those books, girlfriend."
She was not about to tell Lissa about the strict curfew. The idea would have to be sold that her new and more demanding schedule was strictly a self-imposed discipline. She would find ways to make her more frequent calls home no reason for attention. There would be a lot of studying, and that was fine with her. It was time. She had had her fun. Doing the work did not sound so bad. She shifted in her seat again, self-consciously, as if Lissa might guess what had happened to her. It was still an event she herself was digesting. She had been punished ...really punished ...with a spanking, and that sweet humility would be her secret to be shared exclusively with Jon, the only person on the planet allowed to control her.
Under the bright lights of the college classroom, that other world seemed distant, yet it burned inside her. On his lap, in his arms, she had cried like an unabashed child. Forced to full surrender, she had given him her most bitter tears. In return, she had been forgiven, not with hollow words, but in the strength of his embrace and through the power of his judgment. He had left her in her bed, warm and secure, the persistent glow at the open seat of her pajamas a potent fuel to drive her thinking, but when she finally fell to sleep, she remained there long and deep. In the morning she woke to a fresh new start, alive, alert, and cleansed through fire.
Her class was starting, and Alexis Grace felt both relaxed and energized, better than she had felt in a long time if ever. No more wandering aimless. The relief that it was over. Living a lie was more stressful than her conscious mind had been able to appreciate. She was free of that now, and if for what she had done, a price is listed in some divine ledger, then she had paid in full -- and if Daddy's old belt was to exact a price to be paid, she would be spending her allowance more carefully.
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