Aftermath

She jumped from the bed and opened her door ready to go in for a fight. She thought better of that and slammed the door shut as hard as she could.

Downstairs dinner conversation stopped when the whole house shook from the door slam and a loud "ARRRGH" came from upstairs. Nina wondered if there was a monster in the house. And perhaps there was.

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Mason Marshall had lived in town all his life. He married his high school sweetheart and moved into his current home soon after. His plan had been to move away from town after graduation from high school but that never happened. An opportunity to play ball at the local college kept him in town for four more years and it wasn't long before he found himself getting married and buying the home he still lives in today.

Today he is happy about the decision he made years ago. He loves watching his daughter, Emma, grow up in the same town, experiencing many of the same adventures that he had years ago.

Tonight, like many other nights Mason stood at the window of his first-floor office. It was the only place in his house where he was allowed to smoke the after-dinner cigar that he was so fond of. And like many other nights Mason watched the house across the street, looking for some sign of life.

Ten years earlier a family from the north had moved into that house. Mason was immediately intrigued by the beautiful young mother. From the moment they moved in Mason found himself looking for opportunities to see her and talk with her. He had always been, and always would be, faithful to his wife. In his mind however he saw himself making love to this woman that he could never remove from his thoughts.

Fortunately, the new family had a little girl who was the same age as Emma. As children Emma and Jaime had become close friends, playing together constantly at one or another's house. This gave Warren the excuse to stop by and chat with Marta when the kids were together. It also allowed the two families to become friendly

The light that appeared in an upstairs window caught his eye. A sign of life, he thought. Mason had never seen anything that he shouldn't have in all his years watching the house, but it hadn't stopped him from looking. Occasionally family members would be sitting on the front porch, and he would look for Marta. Or sometimes he caught her getting into her car in the driveway. But tonight, all was quiet except for the light in an upstairs bedroom. Mason studied the window but there was no movement behind the closed curtain.

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Not unexpectedly Jaime had visits from each of her parents that night. Her father came first and sat on the side of her bed. He wanted to know how she got in trouble and what was going on in her life that would send his almost perfect child to be punished. Jaime really didn't want to talk about that, so she walked him through the events leading up to her paddling with as few words as possible.

As always, Dad listened and didn't judge. He did start in on her hitting her brother, though. He had his usual "use your words not your fists" speech. All she could think about while he went on was why didn't the school use words instead of a big wooden paddle.

Also, and not unexpectedly, mom arrived soon after with a tray carrying some dinner and two more ibuprofen. She broke the news that Billy had a bruise on his face from hitting the table.

Trying to make light of it, she said, "He's going to be all right but I'm going through my ibuprofen pretty fast." Jaime wanted to laugh but at the same time she didn't want her mom to think everything was better, so she just rolled over in bed and asked her to leave the food.

As she lay in bed feeling the heat in her bottom, Jaime thought about other times when she had been hurt. She remembered falling from her bicycle just over a year ago; how she scraped up the whole side of her right leg and hip as she slid across the asphalt. She tried to remember the pain but couldn't bring back the feeling. She remembered crying; she remembered plucking out little stones that were embedded into her skin.

In many ways those bruises were the same as the one she had right now. But at the same time this felt very different. That was an accident. For some reason this hurt more because it was a punishment. This pain was applied to her body as payment for a misdeed.

The next morning Jaime lay quietly in bed enjoying the fact that she didn't have to be woken by an alarm. She loved Saturdays. She lay peacefully for a while thinking about the day ahead. She was excited about the pool party at Emma's. Everyone would be there and there would be great food. She thought about her new bikini and imagined sitting by the pool knowing that guys eyes would be on her.

She moved to the side of the bed and sat up. As she did the pain reappeared in her bottom. Yesterday's events all rushed back to her. The soreness had lessened but certainly not gone away. She couldn't believe that it would still be painful a day later. She jumped from her bed and flew to her door.

She dropped her pjs and turned her back to the large mirror. The bruises were still there, large as ever. At that very moment she realized that she wouldn't be wearing her new bathing suit to the pool party today.

Jaime was crushed. This was the first big pool party of the year. Everyone was going to be there. If she wore her new bikini everyone would see her bruises. She couldn't have that. She dug through her drawers looking for some swimwear that might cover her marks but found nothing. Frustrated, Jaimie sat down hard on the side of the bed only to feel the pain rise from her bottom.

"Arrggh" she yelled aloud.

Either no one heard her or her whole family was sick of listening to her. No one came to her room. No one asked what was wrong. Jaime felt very alone.

Jaime hung out in her room for a while. She could hear the rest of her family downstairs but didn't want to deal with them. She was still angry with her brother for outing her punishment but also felt badly for hitting him.

And then there was Mom. She would just give her more pills if she came down in a bad mood. Shouldn't she have asked to see the bruises? Shouldn't she have been so angry about what happened to her daughter that she charged into the school office yelling and screaming? Jaime decided that her mother just didn't care about her.

When she finally dressed and made her way downstairs, she tried to hide out in the kitchen and get something to eat. Unfortunately, both Billy and Nina were there playing games on their phones. She tried to ignore them, but she couldn't help but stare at Billy's cheek which was truly bruised from slamming his head into the table the night before.

"Sorry about last night," she mumbled in his direction.

Billy didn't respond as she expected. Instead of accepting the apology, Billy started railing on her. "Thanks for messing up the whole family last night. Everybody was upset when you rushed from the room. You know how much mom likes family dinners."

"I said I'm sorry."

"Sorry is not going to cut it, kiddo. Look at me. 'Cus of you I have to go to the party with this black and blue on my face."

It took every bit of control for Jaime not to start smacking him again. She was visibly shaking when she responded.

"You're worried about your face?" She screamed. You're worried about your black and blue? Well, this is what I'm worried about!"

With that she turned her back to her two siblings, pulled down her pants and leaned forward to show off her naked bottom. Nina let out a loud scream. Billy stood there dumbfounded with his mouth wide open. With her pants still down around her knees she turned and looked at the two of them. She felt sorry for Nina. She didn't deserve that show. As for Billy, she couldn't tell if he was more surprised by her bruises or the fact that she had dropped her pants and showed him her bare butt.

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Jaime did go to the pool party with her family that afternoon. Her new bikini stayed behind, and she wore a pair of cutoff jeans that managed to cover all that needed to be hidden. She also wore a much too revealing top that on any other day her dad would have not allowed. But today he wasn't going to cross her, and she knew it. It was her only victory in the last two days.

Mason saw the family coming across the street toward their pool and hurried to the gate so that he could greet everyone, especially Marta. He loved having them visit mostly because it gave him the opportunity to see Marta in her pool attire.

He shook hands with the men and then greeted Marta and her daughter with hugs welcoming them to the pool. Jaime liked hugging Emma's father. He was strong and muscled and he always had a wonderful smile.

"Let me look at you." he said to Jaime, pushing her away from him but holding her shoulders. "You sure you aren't old enough to start buyin' life insurance?" Jaimie saw his eyes move down her body and pause on her breasts. She knew that the sexy top was having an effect and liked the feeling of him looking at her that way.

Perhaps for the first time since Friday afternoon, she smiled. "No sir, not yet," she responded, giving him a little wink that may have been a bit too sexy for Emma's dad.

As if by nature the family split up. Her dad was with the men folk; mom was with the ladies and Billy and Nina did their first cannonballs into the pool to announce their arrival. Jaime should have gone to sit with her friends but instead wandered back to one of the lounge chairs where she sat brooding about the fact that she wouldn't be able to swim.

She watched Emma in her rose-colored bathing suit with guys practically drooling over her. That should be me, she said quietly to herself. She felt invisible except for the fact that people kept staring over at her. "Why didn't she have a swimsuit on? How come she isn't over here with us? "

She imagined them saying "Did you hear she got whacked yesterday? What did she do to deserve that?" Jaime closed her eyes and pretended not to be worried about them and what they thought.

When she opened her eyes again, she was pleasantly surprised to see Emma's dad sitting in the chair next to her. As she felt his deep blue eyes on her, a warmth came over her body. She tried to keep herself from blushing

"I heard you got in a little trouble at school," he said.

Jaime was both embarrassed and surprised. Perhaps everyone knew about her paddling. She blushed and shook her head, unable to speak.

"Those wooden paddles hit your bottom pretty hard," he continued. She looked away. Talking about her bruised bottom with Emma's hot father was too much. She felt the heat in her face competing with the heat that continued to radiate from her bottom.

"You may not believe it, but I've been there. Had that same punishment at that very same school long long ago. I'm sure the paddles haven't gotten any softer over the years.

Jaime had to ask, "Did you cry?"

"Nope, had to be a man about it. It was expected that I would tough it out and I did. But you want to know a secret? He paused, waiting for an unnecessary answer which they both knew was just to get her talking

"Yep."

"When I got home that day. I cried like a baby. I think I cried for the whole weekend. "But guess what?" Another purposeful pause.

"What?" Jaimie responded, now getting up enough courage to look into his lovely blue eyes.

"I got over it and soon it was all behind me. And I became a better man for it. I never got in trouble again and ended up graduatin' top of my class. Now you just enjoy the rest of your day here young lady. Rest and relax and don't let anything or anyone bother you, OK?"

The big man stood and started to walk away then turned back. With little thought he touched her shoulder. "Oh, and don't you ever tell Emma about this. She doesn't know about the paddlin' and I wouldn't ever want her to know about the cryin'. That just isn't right for a father."

Even when he withdrew his hand and started to walk away, Jaime could still feel his touch. It had been almost 24 hours since her paddling and her bottom was still burning but it was slowly being replaced by the warm memory of staring into Emma's dad's lovely eyes.

Jaime had spent most of Sunday with Emma. They started in Jaime's room and then at lunchtime they moved to Emma's where her dad greeted Jaime with a warm smile, and a finger to his lips silently reminding her not to share their little secret with his daughter. Jaime loved having a secret with Emma's dad.

The two didn't do anything all day. Jaime talked about her punishment, and they talked about both the physical and emotional pain that she went through. There were a few tears on Jaime's part and Emma made a solid vow never ever to get into a situation where she would be paddled.

By Monday morning life was much better for Jaime. While the bruises still showed on her butt, the radiating pain was just about gone. She felt a little warmth when she sat on the wooden chair in the kitchen at breakfast with her family but not enough to be bothersome.

She felt badly about her brother and his bruised face. He'd go to school and would have to answer questions about who beat him up. Billy was good at that though. He would make up a story about a fight and how he beat the crap out of someone from another town that no one knew.

Jaime met up with Emma and Lucas outside Emma's house and the three started off for school together. Jaime apologized to both about how she had acted on the walk home Friday and, of course, they both fully understood. Jaime promised to make today's walk a happy one and the three found themselves giggling over shared jokes and fun stories about people at school.

As they walked up the stairs to the front door, Jaime started to feel a little ill. Her stomach hurt and her legs were shaking. Not enough for the others to notice but she wondered what was going on. Once inside she let Jaime and Lucas go off to their first classes and she stopped in the hallway. Across the hall was the office. Jaime peered inside and saw that nice secretary talking with a student. Behind her she could see the door that she now knew was a private bathroom. Tears started running down her cheeks as she heard her own voice in her head yelling, "TOO HARD! TOO HARD!"