An Unusual Courtship, Chapter 5

Copyright Mael DelaVara


Michael's khaki's slipped down easily to his knees to reveal a bright red pair of briefs and clear evidence of sexual arousal. For a fleeting instance, he entertained the illusion that Audrey would not notice, but he saw her lean back as if she feared her eyes were about to be poked, and his face immediately flushed with the color of his underwear.

Audrey found herself caught between a giggle and a frown. The image of a fire truck with its ladder extended was accompanied by an inner monolog full of questions and anxiety. Was it possible that Michael derived some kind of sexual satisfaction from a spanking. And if he did, how would that be helping him. In applying discipline was she in danger of aiding and abetting his bad habit. And shouldn't she call it for what it was--an addiction. And then there were those briefs. They looked brand new. But had he put them through the laundry before wearing them for the first time. She grimaced. He might even ejaculate while lying over her lap.

Audrey stood up abruptly, grabbed Michael by his left shoulder, and shuffled him into the opposite corner.

"Clasp your fingers behind your neck," she ordered. "And I want your elbows touching each wall." Michael edged forward a few inches. "Now stay there until I say otherwise, and think about what's going to happen to you."

Not that Audrey knew herself. She went into the kitchen to enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee and to consider at length what she should do next.

Audrey have never spanked anyone, but she had wanted to for as long as she could remember. As a girl, her favorite book was Little Women, but her favorite story was "Cupid and Chow Chow". How she and her mom would roll around giggling as they read it out loud to each other. Louisa May Alcott could be such a silly writer. The story was about a pretty boy whose mom called him Cupid because he loved so easily and was loved in return; and it was also about his little cousin Chow Chow, so named because she was a mixture of sweet and sour. Chow Chow dominated Cupid, she "rode over him rough-shed, quite trampled upon him in fact; and he bore it because he wanted her to like him." He was her "slave" and her "martyr," but he just wanted to be her husband.

One day Cupid suggested "Let's play house." So the two of them built a "palatial mansion" out of chairs. Then Chow Chow commanded, "Now, you must go off to your business while I tend to my work." Cupid obediently left the room.

And then came the sentence that gave the young Audrey such furtive excitement. All these years later she could recall it word for word, and she found herself silently mouthing:"Mrs. C bestirred herself at home in a most energetic manner, spanking her nine dolls until their cries rent the air, rattling the dishes with perilous activity."

"Spanking her nine dolls under their cries rent the air." Audrey remembered how, as a child alone in her room, she'd enact that moment from the story again and again. She'd line up her dolls and chastise each in turn, for they were always so willful and disobedient, and never learned their lesson.

The children's section of her library had only one other book by Mrs. Alcott--Little Men--and that didn't seem interesting at all. After all, everyone knew that boys ate cooties. So one day she ventured into the adult section. There she found lots of books by the woman who wrote the best book and the best story ever. All the volumes were shelved way above her height, so she had to jump up and snatch at whichever one she could catch. It was an old dusty copy of Alcott's Journals. The young Audrey flipped through it, surprised by how easy it was to read. It was like a very ordinary diary. And then she came to the entry for January 1884.

Now a grown-up, Audrey was reading the same entry, fortified by a cup of steaming coffee. She'd found a copy of that very volume in a used book store a few years back, and she did not even need to look at the words that were burned into her soul:

New Year's day is made memorable by my solemnly spanking my child. Miss C. and others assure me it is the only way to cure her willfulness. I doubt it; but knowing that mother's are usually too tender and blind, I corrected my dear in the old-fashioned way. She proudly says, "Do it, do it!" and when it is done is heartbroken at the idea of Aunt Wee-wee's giving her pain. Her bewilderment was pathetic and the effect, as I expected, a failure. Love is better, but also endless patience.

"My child" was Lulu, the daughter of her deceased sister May, a child Alcott took dotingly into her care. Miss C was Miss Cassall. "Aunt Wee-wee" was Lulu's affectionate name for Louisa May Alcott.

Audrey slammed down her coffee cup and tears began to well. Was Michael another Lulu, asking for a whooping. "Do it, do it!" And was she another Louisa May Alcott, willing to oblige. And would the outcome be resentment, bitterness, bewilderment--and failure.

With reluctance, Audrey went to check on Michael. He had stayed in position. In fact, he seemed preternaturally calm. Before she realized what she was doing, she had yanked down his briefs and returned to her seat on the couch. Michael gave no sign of alarm. He had clearly entered a zone of acceptance.

He must exercise, and a lot, Audrey thought, as her eyes tracked Michael from his feet to the area she had just bared. What's he involved in, she wondered. It couldn't be cycling: there's too much muscle. And it couldn't be running: those calves are over-developed. Maybe he plays soccer. Or maybe he's a hiker.

But who cares, she corrected herself. That is one panty-moistening bottom. And she found herself smiling as she wiped away the last traces of her tears.