Dwaine heard her crying again in her sleep, and he looked in her room. Jaylee was tossing about wildly, her hands tightly balled into fists. This was the third time this week, and he was unsure of what to do. For as long as he'd known her, fifteen or so years, she'd had nightmares off and on, but it had been a long time since she'd had a streak like this.
"G'morning, little one. How are you?"
"Fine," she answered quietly, pouring some juice.
"Uh-huh. Let's try again. I know you had bad dreams again last night. Why don't you tell me about it."
"It's nothing. Doesn't matter. I'll be okay."
"Darlin', I know you'll be okay, but you'll be okay much faster if you tell me about it."
"Just leave me alone! I don't have to tell you every little thing. Drop it. Forget it. I'll handle it on my own. No one gave you the right to always be interfering. You always think you're so smart, but it doesn't matter!" And with that she slammed the back door, as she went outside to sit on the bench.
Dwaine followed her by a few seconds, and walked to the bench and stood in front of her. "I will not tolerate outbursts like that. Go to my office and wait on me."
"No. I told you leave me alone!"
"I'm not going to tell you again, young lady. You are on very thin ice with that tone of voice. I don't know what is bothering you, but you may not speak to me like that. Go to the office...NOW!"
Jaylee stubbornly stayed parked on the bench, wearing a defiant look.
One look at her expression and Dwaine took a deep breath, leaned down, and scooped her up to a standing position. In one motion, he put a foot up on the bench, pulled her over his raised knee, and swiftly lowered the cutoff jeans and panties to her knees.
"Since you don't seem to want to go into the office like I told you to do, I guess you don't mind getting spanked in the yard where anyone can see you having your bottom bared like a bratty little girl."
And with that he started a burst of spanks on the full part of her cheeks, and continued with another on the undersides, where it was most tender. Jaylee's feet were off the ground, and she began kicking and squirming, and trying to avoid his hand. It was in vain of course, and the more she wiggled, the more likely he was to hit an extra tender area. After ten or so minutes, when she had a thoroughly reddened bottom, was sucking air and crying like a well chastised little girl, and her fighting had stopped, he gave her three more swats and stood her on her feet.
Once on her feet, the fidgeting continued until he hooked one finger under her chin and raised her head to look him in the eye.
"You will not act like that young lady. Now I suggest you get into the house and up to your room before I send you looking for a switch."
"Yes sir. I am sorry." And with that she retrieved the clothes she'd kicked off while he'd had her turned over his knee and practically ran into the house and up the stairs.
Although Dwaine couldn't see her, he could just imagine her rubbing her bottom all the way up the stairs, and immediately diving onto her bed, bottom up, to recover and regain a little composure. He'd give her awhile, and then they'd resume the discussion of the nightmares.
He finished cleaning the kitchen and moved into the living room. As he picked up her backpack to carry it upstairs, a letter fell out. When he retrieved it from under the couch, he noticed a New Mexico postmark from about a week ago. Privacy had been a big issue for them. Neither made it a practice to read the others US Mail, email, or any other personal correspondence. As he held the letter, he debated. He'd never read her mail without consent, but he just had a feeling something in this letter was behind her bad dreams and outbursts.
Inside the envelope was a short note from someone named Mrs. Hamrick, and a newspaper clipping about a woman from the small community who was recovering from a severe car accident. The note simply said, "Jaylee -- Thought you'd want to know. Mrs. H."
"Hmm..." Dwaine thought. I guess I was wrong. The name Hamrick was vaguely familiar to him, and he knew at one point in her childhood, Jaylee had lived in New Mexico. "I guess it was just a coincidence," and he put the note back in her backpack.
Jaylee emerged from the bathroom a short while later, looking refreshed but still subdued.
Although she was quieter than usual, and Dwaine missed her usual chatterbox tendencies as they did the routine Saturday chores of grocery shopping, car washes, lawn mowing, and weeding, the day passed without incident.
Before the 10:00 news was over, Jaylee announced she was going to bed. Dwaine kissed her, and told her he'd be in later to tuck her in. He thought to himself that SOMETHING was wrong for her to go to bed without being told, and to go to bed before curfew was another sure indicator.
At midnight, he climbed the stairs and stuck his head in her room. She was sleeping, but was crying in her sleep again. Not a good sign. She started mumbling in her sleep. "It's all my fault. I don't want to go to jail. It was just an accident. I didn't mean to."
Over and over, she said "Nooooo".
Dwaine went in, sat on the edge of the bed, and gently shook her. "Jaylee...Jaylee...Jaylee"
"What? Oh hi. Did you come to tuck me in?"
"Yes, but we need to talk first m'girl, and I'm not going to let you avoid talking to me."
"Oooo-kayyyy. I guess you found that parking ticket I got earlier in the week. I'm really sorry, and I'll get it paid on Monday. I know you don't approve of tickets and it seems like I've been getting a lot of them lately, and I knew you'd be mad if you found out, so I was just going to pay it and maybe tell you later." Jaylee talked hard and fast, and then looked up at him.
"A ticket, huh? No, I didn't know about that, but it sounds like something we may need to discuss at a later date. Right now, I'm more concerned about these bad dreams, and something tells me it isn't a ticket that's causing those dreams."
"I told you, it's nothing."
"And I told you I don't believe that, so start talking. Does this by any chance have something to do with New Mexico?"
Jaylee's head shot up, and she started nodding and crying almost immediately. Dwaine scooted her over in bed, kicked off his boots, and held her to his chest tightly.
"It's Darla Kay, and it's all my fault. She could have permanent damage," Jaylee said softly.
"I saw the article, but I fail to see how you could be responsible for a car accident that happened hundreds of miles away, unless there are some supersonic speeding tickets you haven't told me about."
"It's a long story..."
"I've got all night, so start talking."
"The article said she had a broken leg, and a concussion. And that the concussion was worse 'cause she had one before when she was a kid, and that she might have some permanent damage."
"Mmmhmmm...go on," Dwaine reflected upon how much newsier the small town paper had been, to the point it had told what the woman had been wearing at the time of the wreck and where she'd been shopping.
"See, I lived in Eunice for four weeks of fourth grade, and part of fifth grade. Mrs. Hamrick, the lady who wrote me, was my fifth grade teacher. Darla Kay lived across the alley from me and she was in my class," Jaylee began her story.
"During the summer, we were playing at her house. It's hard to describe, but there was this cellar, and it had a cast iron cap on the vent pipe that weighed about 50 pounds. Her brother was pushing on it with a broom handle and somehow it fell off onto my foot, and I broke my foot..." the story continued with details of the cast and trip to the hospital and learning to use crutches.
Dwaine patiently held her, knowing she needed to talk about the easy things before getting to the part that bothered her.
"A couple of weeks later, Darla Kay and I were playing in my backyard. My dad had this rule about how we couldn't play in the carport. There were a lot of birds' nests out there, and he read something about how it was dangerous to inhale bird droppings or something. Anyway we weren't supposed to go there. Darla kept trying to run under there daring me to catch her, but I couldn't 'cause of the cast, even though usually I could run faster. I told her not to do it, because I didn't want to get in trouble, but she kept doing it. Finally she came too close to me, and I shoved her down and we were fighting on the ground. She started to get up and I grabbed her. She fell and hit her head on my bicycle. It dazed her and when she quit being dizzy, she told me she wouldn't tell about my hitting her and making her hit her head if I didn't tell about her getting in the carport."
"So little one, you think that had something to do with now?"
"Yes, it said a previous concussion and she was really dizzy for a long time."
"So was she ever unconscious?"
"Well, maybe for a minute or so, but not very long."
"Jaylee, how many concussions have you had?"
"I don't know…maybe five..."
"And every time you've been knocked out cold."
"Yeah…"
"I suspect you did make her dazed, but I don't think if she had been really hurt she would have been in a position to make deals with you and keep on playing the same day. And even if she had been really hurt, you don't know that was the previous incident the paper referred to."
"But I made her hurt her head, and I shouldn't have been fighting."
"No, you shouldn't have been fighting. There were better ways you could have solved the problem. How long has it been since you've seen Darla Kay?"
"1975...February. When we moved to Arkansas."
"Twenty-five years, huh. Since you were 10?"
"Yes...."
"Okay. Let me see that article, and let me make a couple of phone calls. I want you to stay here in bed, and I'll be back in a little while."
Dwaine went down to his office, and called an old friend from when he had been a police officer. Thirty minutes later, thanks to a series of law enforcement courtesies, he was on the telephone with the hospital in Hobbs, NM, and had ascertained Darla Kay was doing much better since the article had appeared in the local paper, she would make a full recovery, and the previous head injury had been from an ice skating mishap when she'd been a senior in high school. Relieved, he went back upstairs to talk to Jaylee.
He found her sitting on the bed, knees tucked under her chin, still looking apprehensive. Dwaine sat in the overstuffed chair in the corner, and patted his lap for her to join him. She came over, long tee shirt and panties, and perched on his lap while he held her and explained what he'd learned.
"So it really wasn't my fault?" she whispered.
"No, m'girl, it wasn't your fault. BUT, I do think we shouldn't let that fight go unpunished. What would your dad have done had he known back then?"
"I would have gotten a spanking, probably, or maybe grounded. That was the summer he quit spanking me and started taking away privileges, so it kind of depends."
"Well, I think a spanking will let us get it over and done with. The only question is whether to do it tonight or tomorrow…and I think tomorrow would be better. I think you'll sleep okay knowing the accident wasn't your fault, but a little anticipation will be good for you."
"Can't we get it over with tonight?"
"No, little one. It's almost 2:00 in the morning, and you need to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning will be soon enough."
The next morning, Jaylee woke up feeling mostly relieved, but immediately rubbed her bottom knowing what would be happening soon. She pulled on a fresh tee shirt, a pair of cutoffs, and her favorite tennis shoes and went downstairs to find Dwaine making breakfast. They ate in relative silence, until he said, "I think you should go wait for me in the office, in the corner, bottom bared, no arguing."
Jaylee just nodded and went into the other room. She went to an all too familiar corner and unzipped her shorts, dropping them along with her panties, and holding up her shirt as she'd done a thousand times. He approved of her position when he came in, noting the not so little girl curves to her hips and backside as she stood bare from the waist down.
He called her over to him, and pulled her over his lap for a firm hand spanking, turning her bottom cheeks a rosy color as he talked to her constantly.
"Young ladies do not resort to rolling around on the ground like ruffians. I will not have you fighting. In addition, you could have hurt your foot more severely than it already was."
As he spanked, it was like she was 10 again, bare-bottomed, getting punished by strong hands for acting like a child, and she began crying softly.
Satisfied her bottom was beginning to sting, he landed a few more swats until she was squirming a bit more.
"Fighting is a serious offense young lady. I think perhaps...oh say...10 with my strap will remind you," and then he lifted her off his lap and propelled her toward the desk.
Jaylee's shorts and panties were in a puddle near the chair, and she didn't even reach for them as she approached the desk. She wanted to argue, but knew better, and quickly bent over the edge of the desk.
Dwaine wanted her to know he was really there for her, even though he was spanking her, and as always, laid a hand across the small of her back so she could feel the soft physical contact with him as the strap fell across her backside. He saw her twitching nervous cheeks, and lay the strap across her upturned cheeks before starting.
"Count."
He almost never made her count, and she knew it was to make her focus and to make her more aware of the position she was in, but it was hard to do it.
The 10 swats were nowhere near as hard as his usual punishments, but the emotionality made up for the difference. As she said 10, she turned around and fell into his arms, crying into his chest, and feeling the safe protecting arms around her.
"Jaylee, m'girl, this is OVER. I don't want to hear another word about this. No more guilt, and no more fighting. And if I ever catch you rolling around on the ground fighting, I'll spank you from the outside all the way up to your room and keep going. And no more bad dreams about the sand of eastern New Mexico. The only sand in your evenings need to be the Sandman helping you go to sleep."
Jaylee giggled a little, knowing the chances of her fighting were next to nothing.
"I don't think you need any more corner time for this. Get dressed and go enjoy the day."
As she finished dressing and retying her shoes, Dwaine put his arms around her. "Enjoy the day little one…and Jaylee, we'll talk about that parking ticket after your bath tonight."
And with one playful swat, he sent her on the way to enjoy the day and wonder if her bottom would be pinker than the parking ticket when she went to bed that night.