Dragos Falls

by Carl Hamlin

  “After we get them cleaned up, Constable Hastings is going to deliver them here. I think I’m going to ask Aubrey to help me with this. I don’t think that a little more reinforcement about bad behavior can do her any harm.”

  Mike nodded. “I’ll be in my room finishing up the plans for the charging and communication efforts.”

  Thirty minutes later, Mike heard a tap on his door, and Marlene looked in. “All ready for you.”

  He slowly began to follow Marlene down the hall toward the office, and just as he arrived there, he looked down the hallway to see the constable standing next to a dark-haired woman in a short and colorful sundress facing the wall. Her hands were tied behind her, and Mike could see that there was a strip of cloth tied around her head to serve as a gag to keep her from speaking.

  They walked into the lobby of the principal’s office, and a red – faced Aubrey, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt, handed him the paddle. Marlene spoke in a quiet voice. “We were lucky nobody got killed during this little escapade. I told her she was getting ten swats. People are really upset about what happened. We just found out that there were several bullets lodged in the side of the house on the other side of the street. So don’t feel any sympathy for this woman, teacher or not.”

  Mike slapped the paddle against his open palm, causing Aubrey to jump, bringing some amusement to Mike. He and Marlene began to walk toward the inner door, but suddenly Mike halted. He leaned towards Marlene to whisper to her: “I know there is nothing funny about this. But I have to say… I had a couple of teachers who worked for me, that I would have liked to…” He shook the paddle in front of them to emphasize his point, causing Marlene to break out into a grin.

  They opened the inner door and walked in. As was the case when he had paddled Aubrey, the miscreant was concealed by the sheet from the waist up. She was bent over the pillow, her panties wedged into the crack of her bottom, and a pair of black slacks lay crumpled around her ankles. This time he was going to have a wider and more substantial target.

  Marlene looked at Mike, then took a deep breath and walked around the other side of the sheet. Mike could barely hear the quiet conversation: “Are you ready?”

  There was a trembling response: “Yes… I want to get this over with.”

  He heard Marlene’s voice once again: “And how many are you getting?”

  The trembling voice spoke once more: “Ten… I think that’s what you said.”

  Marlene reached toward the woman put her hand on her shoulder. “Okay. We’re going to do it now. It won’t even take more than a minute.”

  Marlene walked back from around the sheet, and then looked over at Mike. “Go ahead.”

  Mike took a couple steps forward, and then pressed the paddle up against the woman’s bare bottom. When the cool surface of the paddle touched her skin, the woman audibly sucked in her breath.

  Mike drew the paddle away, and it returned with a loud WHAM. There was an immediate yelp from the other side of the sheet. A few seconds later Mike brought the paddle down on the very same spot, and the woman reacted with a high-pitched squeal.

  Not wishing to prolong the punishment, Mike quickly administered the third smack, again landing in the same zone of tender flesh, and significantly enhancing the level of sting the woman was experiencing.

  As he had done when paddling Aubrey, Mike landed the next smack lower, to begin the process of ensuring that she would not feel like sitting down for the rest of the day. And as was also the case with Aubrey, that territory proved to be much more tender and vulnerable to the pain of the paddle. Very quickly, another landing of the paddle occurred on the very same lower portion of her bottom, and this time her shout of pain dissolved into loud crying.

  In rapid-fire fashion, Mike administered three more hard smacks to the same tender territory. Now the woman was sobbing uncontrollably, but staying in position. Mike quickly landed the ninth smack of the paddle, then several seconds later gave her the tenth and last one, albeit with an extra bit of velocity on the downward swing of the board.

  Marlene nodded to Mike that he was finished with this individual, and to the sounds of much crying and discomfort, he left the inner room to walk back to the lobby. Standing there was Aubrey, her green eyes as large as saucers, and brimmed with tears of sympathy for someone who had received double her own punishment.

  She looked at Mike and whispered, “Marlene says I have to help with the next one. I am not looking forward to it.”

  Mike handed the paddle back to Aubrey. “You’ll be okay, but I have to go back to my room and wait for Marlene to come and get me again.” He left the principal’s office and went back to his own room, shaking his head at the twist and turns of circumstances.

  A few minutes later, Marlene stepped through his open door and crooked her finger for him to follow. They walked into the principal’s lobby once more, but this time when they went into the inner room, Aubrey went along.

  Once inside the room, Mike saw the bottom half of the attractive lawyer bent over the pillow on the desk. Her sundress was pulled up and away, but tucked under her bound hands that stuck out beneath the sheet. A pair of bright yellow panties was wedged into the crack of her shapely bottom.

  Marlene signaled to Aubrey, and they walked around to the other side of the sheet. Marlene spoke to the bound and gagged offender: “Do you understand that you are getting twelve swats with the paddle?”

  In response, there was a muffled “Uhmph humph.”

  “Now you understand this is going to hurt a lot. There is a very strong man who is going to be using a large wooden paddle on you.”

  All that Mike could hear in response was a stifled squeal of “Eeeuughh.”

  Marlene was obviously wanting to provide some extra anxiety to the woman who had started so many problems during the night. She called out to Mike: “Perhaps we could think of something more painful.”

  “Uummph?”

  Mike responded: “May be I should use the flogging whip on her bare bottom.”

  “Nooeeeugh…Uughmph…Noouughh!”

  Marlene spoke once more. “I think the paddle will do. Aubrey, you know how much this hurts, and she’s getting a dozen, so help me hold her in place.”

  “Uummph.”

  Mike walked over to his target, as Marlene pulled the sheet sideways so that she could witness the paddling but also help Aubrey hold the woman in place. Without any notice or warning, he brought the paddle back and returned it with more force than with any of the smacks he had administered to Aubrey or the earlier offender.

  A high-pitched squeal resulted, but just a couple of seconds after the first, the troublemaker was treated to yet another meeting of the board and her bare bottom. The third and fourth cracks generated similar cries through the fabric gag she was wearing.

  Mike hesitated for a moment, and then took aim at the lower portion of the upturned bottom. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Each collision between paddle and flesh resulted in a panicked and desperate but muffled squeal interspersed with sobs. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! He placed the paddle on the desk, and once Marlene gestured to him to verify that they were finished, he turned slowly and left the office and walked back to his room.

  He sat down on his sofa to try to wind down from the surreal events of the morning. He decided to try to calm himself by finishing up his work on the communications plan, but just as he picked up the legal pad and pen, there was a tap on his door and Aubrey stepped inside. He patted the sofa next to him, and then set aside his work as Aubrey sat down next to him.

  The young woman was pale and obviously distressed. “That was scary to watch… I mean I couldn’t see her getting paddled…”

  Mike shook his head and put his arm around her. “But you went through that. And last night, you got all turned on by being spanked.”

  Aubrey closed her eyes and shuddered. “But remember… I told you how the paddle is so different to me than being spanked. That’s why it always tended to get me back under contro
l.”

  “I don’t understand, Aubrey. Are you afraid of getting paddled again?”

  She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “Yeah… when I was getting dressed this morning… I don’t know what was going on inside me. I was thinking about what I was going to be seeing this morning, but at the same time I was having those old impulses.”

  “What do you mean? You mean those impulses to steal something?”

  Aubrey got up and began to pace the floor. “When I was a teenager my counselor said something about maybe I had some compulsive disorder. Whatever the case, it never really leaves me. Sometimes it just seems to come out of nowhere. And it has never been about stealing something I really needed or wanted. I guess I just had this need for experiencing the thrill of doing it, and seeing if I would get caught.” She walked back to the sofa and sat down. “Mike, I know you understand what I’m talking about. But you have to promise me. If I lapse again, no special favors. No special treatment. As Mr. Watson says… as Marlene says… as you say… life is different now.

  “Excuses, and talk about childhood complexes are not going to cut any slack. I have to condition myself… I slip up again… I pay the price. But in any case, I want you to understand. I’m the only one in Dragos Falls who can put a stop to this. Except for the one thing you can do for me. You keep that paddle nearby in case I screw up again. I trust you will use it on me again if that happens.” Without another word, Aubrey got up and walked out of the room.

  Chapter 6

  It was still too wet in the gardens to attempt to go to work plucking out the tiny weeds that had also taken advantage of the ideal gardening weather. Any person of normal size who stepped onto the cultivated ground would have sunk several inches.

  As a result, Mike had a difficult remainder to the day. He was very worried about Aubrey, then chastised himself for not paying close enough attention to the things she had told him about her past. He reminded himself that he had met her in the process of disciplining her for theft, and in their first lengthy conversation she had been candid about her compulsion.

  Mike chided himself for allowing his physical attraction to make him sublimate his awareness of the problem. On the other hand, regardless of that one dark corner of her personality, she was in all ways a delightful, kind and warm person. He told himself that attraction is not always logical or explainable.

  He found himself staring out the window so intently that he jumped when Marlene knocked on his open door. She looked at him with a warm smile. “Have some time to talk?” He set the legal pad aside, and gestured for Marlene to sit down on the sofa next to him.

  The older woman looked at him sympathetically. “Are you okay after everything the last couple of days? Witnessing a suicide so up – close and personally… paddling two more grown women, regardless of how deserving they may have been… and probably making love to a very complicated but wonderful young woman? And I know that last part was horribly insensitive on my part, and really none of my business. But I brought it up anyway, didn’t I?”

  Mike laughed and looked down. “That’s okay, Marlene. No real secrets there. You seem to have the situation pegged. She is quite confusing. I know that she’s troubled; I know that she’s young. Still, I… I just mean that…”.

  Marlene looked at Mike with a subdued expression. “I think she’s already hopelessly in love with you.”

  Mike considered the comment. “I know this is against all logic and reason. But I think the only reason neither of us has used the word love is because it would seem too premature.”

  “But Mike, you’re thinking in terms of conventional times. None of the old rules are likely to apply. I tried to deny it, but I think that our thought processes have been scrambled by too much tragedy and uncertainty. What I’m trying to say, Mike… I care about you, and I care about Aubrey. I feel somewhat protective of her, even though I decided to make sure she got her bottom paddled good and hard. That was part of my protecting her. There is just that one side of her that needs that reassurance that if she steps out of bounds, she’s going to endure a harsh penalty.

  “You see, Mike… I’m not trying to talk you out of a relationship with Aubrey, quite the contrary. You are just the kind of person she needs. Perhaps she is dealing with some form of kleptomania. Sometimes people develop a deep-seated need to act out in some way, just to bring on some form of punishment. That punishment serves as a form of reassurance that someone is there to watch and protect.

  “Whatever this quirky problem is that she has, it will not be tolerated in the way the world is today. It is a dangerous thing, and whether she can help it or not, the only way she is going to survive is for those around her to be convinced that she can be trusted, or convinced that she is going to be adequately punished for such behavior. So I’m not saying you have to stay with her for that reason, but if you truly love her as much as I’m convinced she already loves you, you can protect her by providing that discipline, and assuring those around her that it is being provided.”

  Mike did not respond at first. Marlene stood up and took hold of the doorknob, then turned and looked at Mike once more. “If I shouldn’t have said any of that, you have my apology.”

  Mike responded with a content smile of relief. “Actually, I can’t thank you enough. And Marlene… I do love her. In just a few days, I’ve come to love her very much.”

  Marlene nodded. “Okay. By the way Mike, good job this morning.” She reached back and placed her hands on her bottom. “I know I’m certainly going to behave myself as long as you are around.” She winked at him and walked away.

  Mike sat quietly for a few minutes, replaying his conversation with Marlene over and over in his mind. She was correct in reinforcing to him that all of the standard rules of life and society just may not apply in a community of refugees who barely escaped the mass epidemic.

  That was a threatening concept for a man who had almost always acted in a way that would never have brought embarrassment to his family or employer, and had typically been thorough in evaluating the possible ramifications of any life events. It was simply not within his normal life pattern to fall in love with a much younger woman upon meeting her, especially a woman with such issues to be dealt with.

  He got up and walked toward the door. He suddenly had a strong desire to talk to Aubrey.

  He reached the room that Aubrey shared with Marlene and tapped on the door. Aubrey called out, and as he stepped in Aubrey was sitting on the floor and hastily closing up a small plastic shopping bag.

  “Now what are you working on?”

  Aubrey quickly set the bag aside and smiled, but her cheeks revealed a touch of embarrassment. “Oh, you’ll see it later.”

  Mike laughed. “Some girl thing?”

  The blush on Aubrey’s cheeks deepened. “In a special way… yes.”

  Mike crossed his arms and leaned against the door jam. He decided to continue teasing Aubrey. “So is this something you’re going to show me?”

  Aubrey smiled meekly and shoved the bag behind her back. “When the time is right… that is when you get to see it.”

  Mike laughed, then walked over and knelt down next to her. “Feel like going for a little walk?”

  A smile began to radiate across Aubrey’s face. “Love to. I see the sun is starting to come out, so how about I put on the new skirt I finished making a little while ago? It’s short, very short.”

  Mike rose, and then helped her up. “Then I can’t wait to see you model it. I’ll be waiting outside.”

  Mike leaned down and kissed her, then walked out of the room and made his way to the front door of the building. He walked outside and part way down the walk toward the street. He was relieved to hear voices, and see that people were outside talking with each other and tending to their adopted dwellings.

  He heard the school building door open, then turned to see Aubrey approaching. She was dressed in her red tee shirt, over the new skirt she had made from the curtain materia
l Marlene had found. It was a colorful floral pattern, and just as short as she had warned Mike it would be.

  As she neared, Mike shook his head and emitted a wolf whistle. “Pretty skirt. But your legs are absolutely beautiful.”

  Aubrey leaned up and kissed him. “Thank you for both those comments.”

  Mike took Aubrey by the hand as they began to walk the sidewalk toward the center of the village. Aubrey seemed a bit surprised by his actions.

  “Are you sure you want to be seen in a public display of affection with one of the village troublemakers?”

  Mike shrugged. “You paid your penalty. I assume everyone knows you got a good paddling for that.”

  Aubrey began to laugh. “I never did tell you about the wisecracks I heard that evening when some of us were showering under the falls. I may have gotten paddled in the morning, but my cheeks were still rather pink that evening, and one of the women said she could see the outline of the paddle. I think that last one you gave me produced the lasting imprint. But those other two women got it harder than I did.”

  “What you did, didn’t put anyone in danger. And you did not wake people up in the middle of the night when they needed to sleep.”

  They walked in silence for a minute before Aubrey finally spoke. “I don’t know what causes compulsions. My father has a gambling problem. His father was an alcoholic, and I have this occasional compulsion to steal, so maybe there’s something in the family DNA.”

  Mike stopped and turned Aubrey toward him. “I wish you didn’t have this problem to deal with, but that’s how we met. It’s a problem with you… but it’s a problem I’m willing to live with. For the rest of my life even.”

  Aubrey’s green eyes betrayed a sense of surprise. “I don’t want you feeling obligated to look after me. Of course, I’m sure you can tell that I don’t mind your company. But I don’t want you to feel that you are compelled to be with me because we had a good time in bed.”

  Mike put his arm around her. “Actually, I feel compelled to be with you, because that’s what you want to do when you love somebody.”