The Pickett Family Holiday, Part 06

Via an upside down view through her parted legs, Stephanie watched her father take the strap off its hook on the wall behind her. He held it in his hands and stared at the dark leather with a frown. Stephanie caught a glint in his eye from the side and it pained her much in the same way the leather would soon pain her naked butt. The disappointment he felt burned into her shuddering chest. She closed her eyes.

Stood against the door frame, Todd asked, “What did she do this time?”

Dad turned his body to squarely face Stephanie’s bent form. “Would you like to explain why you’re getting a spanking?”

Stephanie glared through her legs at her father. Her face shined red from the embarrassment spinning around in her head. She knew the question was not actually a question at all, but rather an order for her to explain her position to Todd. Part of her knew the answer her father expected and yet the rest of her raged against it because the reason remained unreasonable in her mind.

Dad’s foot tapped on the creaky floorboard. He expected an answer and quickly. The strap bounced off his pant leg as if a warning of his intentions should she remain quiet much longer. Todd, for his part, waited in patient silence undoubtedly wondering which of the two Pickett family members was the more stubborn.

“I,” Stephanie said, her voice strained with the effort of speaking upside down, “dropped my bath towel on my bedroom floor while I got dressed this morning.”

Todd laughed.

Stephanie twisted her head to glare in his direction though all she could see of him was his lower half.

“Wow,” Todd said. He shook his head looking down at Stephanie. “You must really miss these little sessions out here in the shed while you’re away.”

Dad nodded agreement. “I’ve been thinking the very same thing.”

Todd kept his focus on Stephanie. “Are you behaving so badly out in California that the first thing you do when you get home is figure out the fastest way to get your butt tanned to appease the guilt?”

“It was a stupid mistake,” Stephanie said. She wasn’t sure if she was talking about the towel or the reason she knew she really did deserve to be butt up in the shed. The embarrassment coloring her cheeks began to mix with the red heat of anger. Most of it was beaming out of her eyes in Todd’s direction. It wasn’t fair, he had done nothing wrong, but blame can often be more about presence than culpability and Todd was present.

Dad said, “That much we can agree on.” The strap dangled beside his leg as he stepped into position and turned his back to Todd. He raised the limp leather into the air with a clear path leading downward and forward to Stephanie’s naked buttocks.

Her eyes locked on the strap while her father hesitated, most likely taking careful aim. A breeze outside the shed rustled the leaves on the lawn. She felt the skin on her legs and buttocks turn tight and dry in anticipation. Her lungs filled with air and she gripped the wood frame of the horse turning her knuckles white. She wished to close her eyes, but like passenger heading into a head-on collision her eyes opened wider.

Dad swung.

The unmistakable clap of leather impacting flesh echoed inside the shed, resonating in the wood flooring and the sawhorse. Stephanie blinked. The center of her butt exploded with a fierce sting and a simmering burn. Her legs pressed against the frame defying the instinct to kick wildly behind her. The strap returned to the height where she could easily keep her eyes focused on it.

He swung the strap again.

Stephanie’s head jerked upward an instant after the impact. Her wide eyes stared straight down at the floorboards while tears sprouted. The sting emanating from her butt grew stronger. Her hips pushed against the sawhorse. She kicked the air with her right leg. The burn grew warmer. Breath gushed from her lungs and she slipped tensely back into the proper position over the sawhorse. The strap dangled within her view once more.

Todd watched Stephanie squirming with a smile on his face. “I’m glad to see you getting your kicks while you’re home.”

Dad swung the strap.

Stephanie kicked both legs into the air. “Ow!”

Todd chuckled.

The sawhorse scraped against the wood planks of the floor as it slid an inch forward under her bucking. She gasped for breath. Tears spilled from the whites of her eyes running up the sides of her face into her hair. She clenched her hands into fists and closed her eyes while her body shuddered through the increasing sting and burn resulting from the strap’s repeated kisses. Just as she opened her eyes the strap connected again.

“Oh!” she cried.

Dad paused with the strap in the air, waiting for her wriggling body to fall still once more. “Are you going to break any more rules while you’re home?” he asked.

Stephanie remained quiet and focused on the pain throbbing outward from her naked posterior until she realized her father was actually expecting a response. Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember the question so she went with the safest response she knew. “Yes, sir.”

The strap sailed through the air, striking her buttocks with even greater intensity than before. She bucked against the sawhorse and kicked into the air with everything she had. More tears dripped up her face and into her hairline. Had it been possible, she might well have launched herself off the sawhorse and gone running for the nearest lake to cool her bottom.

Todd laughed. “Nicole is always saying how smart you are, I just didn’t realize she meant smart-mouthed.”

Dad nodded. “That she is, but I’ve found the cure though it’s often only temporary.”

“A smarting ass?” Todd asked.

Dad nodded. “Works every time.”

Stephanie’s cheeks blazed red listening to them talking about her. Her thoughts spun in a confused circle trying to understand how she’d gone wrong by agreeing with her father. What had he said? What had she agreed to? The only obvious answer was that she had agreed to the need for her sore bottom to be sorer.

The strap sliced through the air three times in such quick succession Stephanie could do little more than puff out air and tears between their respective impacts. She kicked her legs against the sawhorse’s legs and wiggled her butt in the air. The stinging and burning sensations refused to diminish. The muscles in her neck and shoulders went limp leaving her head to hang downward with her hair bouncing off the floor in tune with the crying that was wracking her body against the sawhorse.

“Still feel like breaking rules?” Dad asked.

Stephanie shook her head from side despite knowing her father couldn’t see her head. “No, sir,” she said and sniffled.

Todd said, “I imagine she feels like a silly little girl right now.”

Stephanie could think of no response to Todd’s statement that would be of any benefit. She focused instead on calming the flow of tears from her eyes and breathing through the intense discomfort the strap had caused her bottom. The strap remained just within in her sight and firmly gripped in her father’s hand. She doubted she had felt the last of its touch.

“Whose fault is it that you are getting spanked on your first day back home?” Dad asked.

Mom’s, Stephanie thought, but when she found the air to answer, she said, “Mine.”

Dad nodded and swung the strap with high velocity another three times in quick succession followed by a fourth that caught the lower curvature of her buttocks as she kicked both legs into the air. The sawhorse screeched forward again, scraping on the floor. He took a half step to his left to keep his distance constant from Stephanie’s blazing rear.

“Ow, ow, ow, OW!” she screamed in response to the flurry of spanks. Her chest heaved up and down as new sobs racked her body and the fiery sting of the strap shook her from head to toe. As her head relaxed back down, she looked up through her spread, trembling legs to see the dangling strap taunting her. The spanking wasn’t over.

Todd said, “I’m sure she’s ready to behave herself and do everything she’s told for the rest of the day.”

“Is Todd right?” Dad asked. “Are you going to be a model daughter for the remainder of the day?”

Stephanie let go of the sawhorse leg and wiped her face free of the affects of heavy crying long enough to give an answer. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Dad nodded. “Let’s just make sure that attitude sticks for the entire long weekend.”

He swung the strap and she kicked her legs high in the air.

“Stop making such a fuss,” Dad said. “You’ve got fifteen more coming, but every time your feet leave the floor, I’m going to add two more. Understood?”

Stephanie blinked at the floor as tears rolled out of her eyes. “But it hurts,” she said.

Todd laughed. “Your butt is supposed to hurt. It’s called a spanking.”

“Am I understood?” Dad asked, his tone clearly conveying his dislike for having to repeat himself.

“Yes, sir,” Stephanie said. She squeezed her legs tight against the wood legs of the sawhorse and took a tighter grip with her hands as well. Her eyelids clenched shut and she took in a deep breath.  “Just make them quick, please,” she said.

He responded with three quick strikes against her buttocks.

Her butt bounced and grew redder by the strike, but her legs stayed down. “Ow, ow, ow!” she cried.

Todd said, “That was one, right?”

Stephanie’s eyes flew open wide. “Three,” she said as loud as she was able while still breathing heavily, “it was three, three, three.”

Todd laughed.

Dad said, “You had better stop yelling and show some respect before I decide it was just one.”

Stephanie fumed at the upside down world. Her butt burned, her cheeks burned from embarrassment and anger and all she wanted was for the entire event to be over and done. Teasing came with the territory of getting spanked, it was nothing new, but normally it didn’t start until the spanking was already finished.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Dad nodded. “Better.”

Todd smiled and chuckled. “I guess it can be three then.”

Stephanie bit her tongue rather telling Todd where he could go and what he could do when he got there. The strap connected with her bottom another three times sending flames of near-electric sting throughout her body. She focused on keeping her toes on the ground and breathing, letting the tears flow freely from her eyes. Just as her body stopped shaking through the discomfort, her father laid on another three starting the process all over again, but still she kept her toes on the floorboards.

“Maybe you can follow instructions,” Dad said.

Todd chuckled. “It looks like you’ve gotten to the bottom of the problem.”

Stephanie shuddered as a goosebumps chill of shame shot through her body. The realization of how exposed she was to their eyes came as nothing new, but the embarrassing way they spoke about it as if she couldn’t even hear them made it all the worse. Her cheeks flushed hot with blood, her buttocks went taunt with shame, and her nipples hardened with the chill of exposure. She wished her father would simply get the spanking over with and yet she was not brave enough to ask for it.

Dad swung the strap fast for a full flurry of the final six. The noise of the contact echoed off the walls of the shed drowning out Stephanie’s cries until they faded into silence. Her legs stayed in place, her toes remained in contact with the wood floor and the sawhorse sat still and stable under her weight. She wanted nothing less than to jump to her feet, grab her burning butt and hop around in a circle, but she knew she had already pushed things too far with her father. Risking him adding a few more because she didn’t wait to be told it was over simply wasn’t worth the risk.

Dad said, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

“Very instructive,” Todd said, “but perhaps I could try swinging the strap myself and you could give me some pointers on technique.”

Stephanie tried not to panic at the thought of Todd giving her a strapping on top of the one she had just received from her father. It was all a tease. It had to be. Her father wouldn’t let Todd punish her. That wouldn’t be fair. And besides, she’d learned her lesson and taken her punishment. It would probably be safest to assert the fact, she decided. “Yes, sir,” she said, “I learned my lesson.”

“Stand up,” Dad said.

She eased herself up, using her hands to push her torso upward until her feet were full on the ground and she could easily balance herself upright. Her hands flew instantly to her burning butt, cupping the hot globes in the palms of her hands. It was instinct more than helpful and if she’d thought about it, she might have better placed her hands to preserve some semblance of modesty in front of Todd. He remained to her left side, but there was little to interfere with his full view of her profile including a red buttock and naked breast.

“Now,” Dad said, “I’ve got some chores for you to do and if you do a good job and behave yourself while doing them, I might just let you get dressed again in time for dinner.”

Time for an Update

I'm sorry for making you wait for part 6 of The Pickett Family Holiday. Unfortunately I suffered from technical problems over the weekend and I took some time to enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends prior to that. With a little luck, I'll have part 6 ready for posting tomorrow morning or Wednesday morning at the latest.


For those waiting on emails from me, I promise I'll get to those as well in the near future. And for those of you who are wondering; yes, The Jade Runner will be returning soon, as we can't just leave our heroes hanging from a cliff forever. Even their arms get tired sometimes. lol

The Pickett Family Holiday, Part 05

Stephanie thought about calling out to her father and reminding him that she was ready and waiting for his parental attention, but it just seemed too unlikely that he had actually forgotten. Day turned to night and night turned to day and day turned to night again as she waited for eternity to pass. Of course, in reality day and night were really just the blinking of her eyes as she looked at her naked, upside down self and wished for the embarrassing situation to come to an end, even if that meant she’d have trouble sitting for the remainder of the day. She took slow deep breaths to keep herself calm and feigning patience while listening to the sound of her father continuing to chop wood.

In the aftermath of another split piece of wood, she heard the sounds of her father gathering the pieces, but more disturbingly she heard the sounds of approaching footsteps, crunching the dried leaves laying on the grass. It was the sound boots made, not the heels her sisters and mother would be wearing. The only question racing through Stephanie’s mind was whether it Todd or Jason. She felt her face explode with the hot rush of scarlet embarrassment knowing that one of the two men would now be a witness to her punishment. The footsteps drew closer until she was certain the owner had to be right outside the shed with a clear view of her and then they stopped.

“Charlie,” Todd said, “I thought I’d see if you needed a hand, but it looks like you’re about done.”

Stephanie twisted her head to get the best view she could out the shed’s open door, but all she could see of Todd was a sliver of black pant leg. She shuddered on the sawhorse making it rattle back and forth twice and squeak the floorboards beneath her. Her face flushed hotter and her nipples grew painfully stiff at the thought of Todd looking over her from his discreet distance. The grin on his face, likely only existing in her imagination, caused her to pray for a freak gust of wind to slam the door closed.

Dad laughed. “There’s more work to be done, but I’ve already got a volunteer. Besides, Victoria frowns upon me making our guests do hard labor.”

Todd chuckled. “She sure didn’t waste anytime putting Nicole to work in the kitchen.”

Stephanie imagined her Dad nodding and smiling. He said, “That’s different, Victoria doesn’t often care what makes me frown.”

Todd said, “We’re not really guests anyway and if you can’t take advantage of family, who can you?”

“Perfect strangers are my preference,” Dad said, “especially those who’ll give me money.”

“The business is going well then?” Todd asked.

Dad said, “Sold three rocking chairs and a porch swing just this last week.”

“Coffee?” Todd asked.

Stephanie imagined him holding out a steaming cup from the coffee house in the local shopping center. It was a rare day when Todd didn’t stop there for his morning cup of java.

Her father must have taken the cup. “Thanks,” he said. “I hardly ever get a cup of this good stuff. Victoria still thinks she makes the best coffee and I don’t have the heart to tell her the truth.”

Stephanie wished she had a way of recording her father. If nothing else it would have proved great for blackmailing her father into forgetting all about the spanking she was due. Unfortunately, it’s hard to hide a recorder, or anything else for that matter, when completely naked. The idea was silly anyways, her father probably didn’t care if her mother knew he didn’t like her coffee and her mother probably wouldn’t care either.

Todd said, “Actually, today’s the first time of been there since last week’s embarrassing incident.”

Stephanie imagined an eyebrow shooting up on her father’s face. She listened carefully, eager to hear someone else’s most embarrassing moment since she was living hers.

“What happened?” Dad asked. “Did you spill hot coffee all over that pretty girl behind the counter?”

Todd chuckled. “I wished. No, I stopped in like I usually do and ordered my normal. Celia had it all made up for me and when I got the counter I opened up my wallet to pay, only it was empty.”

Dad laughed. “I guess Nicole’s been rubbing off on you. She used to spend her allowance so fast, she’d swear I didn’t pay her some weeks.”

Todd said, “Well that was just it, I had stopped at the ATM just the night before and I hadn’t gone anywhere or bought anything until right then.”

“Someone picked your pocket?” Dad asked. “Did you call the cops?”

Todd chuckled. “I dug through my pockets and found enough change to pay Celia. She was so nice about it and even offered to let me just pay her the next day, but I don’t like doing things that way.”

Stephanie imagined her father nodding.

Dad said, “Right, I know how you feel.”

“So,” Todd said, “I went straight back home thinking the money might have slipped out on the floor or something. But then I get home and Nicole is coming back with a bag of donuts and coffee of her own. She looked shocked to see me which was no surprise since I should have been well on my way to work.”

Dad laughed. “I think I know where this is going.”

Stephanie imagined her father shaking his head from side to side.

“Todd said, “Then she asks me why I’m back and I tell her about my empty wallet. Her face goes from the palest white I think I’ve ever seen to full on red. Would you believe she just lifted the forty dollars out of my wallet?”

Stephanie nodded her upside down head remembering an incident from her teen years. Nicole had lifted some money from their mother’s purse which resulted in a room by room search the inevitably led to the money being found under a mattress. Of course, it wasn’t Nicole’s mattress, but the truth came out eventually although not in time to save the two innocent daughters from getting reddened bottoms. All that made it tolerable was getting to watch while Nicole got her own bottom reddened for the theft and then twice more to make up for her sisters getting it.

“Believe it or not,” Dad said, “it’s not the first time Nicole’s been caught doing something like that.”

Todd chuckled. “I imagine that’s why her cheeks went so red.”

“We don’t take kindly to stealing around here,” Dad said.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. Stealing, wet towels on the floor, messy rooms, bad grades, incomplete chores, coming home late, and so much more than she wanted to think about could be added to the list of things not taken kindly. She didn’t take kindly to being made to wait while everyone else was doing whatever they wanted to do. Now if only that meant as much as when her parents didn’t take kindly to something, then life would start to approximate something known as fair.

Todd said, “Well I supposed I could have taken a hard line with her over it, but she had asked me to get some money for her and I’d just forgotten. So, I guess you could say we were both at fault.”

Stephanie imagined her father shaking his head. He said, “Still, taking money out of your wallet without asking and not bothering to tell you she took all your money before you left the house was not acceptable behavior. I’d have made sure she knew it too.”

Todd chuckled. “I’m sure you would have. I’ve only used that paddle you gave me once and it’s my intention to save it for the big things, not minor mistakes and misunderstandings.”

Stephanie imagined her father putting his arm on Todd’s shoulders.

He said, “It’s your house and that means it’s your rules. Just remember that the more little things you let Nicole get away with, the more bigger things she’ll try to get away with. That’s just the nature of girls.”

Todd laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. So, who is this volunteer you found? Surely not Amanda’s latest boyfriend?”

Dad clapped his hands together. “No, no, I don’t think he’s even here yet. Our volunteer is waiting inside the shed and if she’s finally figured out how to follow instructions she should be undressed and bent over the horse by now.”

Stephanie blushed even hotter though she was unsure how that was possible. The entire time of their conversation she felt certain they were each as aware of her as she was of them. Her whole body trembled with the shame of her position and her skin felt electrically charged in the cool damp air of the open shed. She wanted to close her eyes, but the prospect of being observed by Todd and her father while she was unaware kept them wide open. Even upside down she could see her body’s natural curves and all the wobbly bits betraying her by swaying in the open air and calling attention to themselves for any who might happen by to see.

Dad said, “Let’s go see if she’s ready for her spanking.”

The Pickett Family Holiday, Part 04

The shed smelled of sawdust and old paint. Stephanie waited just inside the door taking a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim light from the single incandescent bulb mounted on the ceiling. Memories of previous visits played themselves out behind her eyes. The sawhorse stood in the center of the wood planked floor. Past it, up against the far wall, the workbench featured the familiar plastic basket where she could temporarily store her clothes without them collecting an abundance of dust and dirt. The small window above distorted the view to outside with year of collected dirt and smearing from improper cleaning.

She sidestepped past the sawhorse and stood in front of the workbench. The knots in her stomach tightened to the point of sending quivers throughout her body. Deep breaths did nothing to ease the tension and knowing exactly what to expect, even the knowledge that the pain and embarrassment would pass and fade, failed to make her task any easier.

Her fingers found the zipper on the back of her dress. She pulled it down and the dress went limp on her body, ready to fall to the floor with the simplest of moves. Her head twisted to look beyond her shoulder at the open shed door. There was no one watching, her father had returned to the business of chopping wood as if she were not there at all. Somehow his inattention served to enhance the disappointment she knew he felt. A tear spilled from her eye onto her cheek and she looked back to the wall and the window. Her dress slipped from her body and pooled on the floor at her feet.

The thin material of the dress offered little protection from the elements, but in its absence the air felt infinitely colder. Goosebumps sprouted over her pale flesh and a shiver ran down her spine causing her to wrap her arms across her chest. The dirty window offered a reflection that made her feel even more ridiculous. She breathed out and reached up behind her back, unfastening the strapless white bra covering her breasts. It fell easily away into her hands and she dropped it in the plastic basket without bothering to fold it. Her nipples, already hardened from the chill in the air, grew stiffer as the reflection in the window blushed in the embarrassment of exposure.

A noise behind Stephanie, made her jump and cover her breasts as best she could with her hands. It took a moment for realization to come, but the sound had only been the splitting of wood under the swing of her father’s axe. She shook her head at herself and the reflexive action. No matter how many times she found herself exposed for punishment in the presence of family, it still left her feeling ashamed and deeply embarrassed. Her cheeks grew redder at the mere sight of her father’s sleeve through the open shed door as he picked up the pieces of split wood on the ground outside.

Her head drooped downward. Only then did she notice her dress remained on the dirty floor and worse, her jumpiness had resulted in her standing on it. She stepped out and off of the dress. Her lips pursed as she knelt down and picked it up off the floor. She held it up in the dim light brushing dirt and splinters off the fabric with her hand. Satisfied, she folded it in neat thirds and laid it gently inside the basket.

Wearing only white panties and a pair of strappy heels, Stephanie leaned on the front edge of the workbench, staring at her face’s ghostly reflection in the window. Her mother had grossly overreacted to the towel thing. Nothing anyone could ever say would change Stephanie’s mind about it. Being punished over it should have felt oppressive and mean, but it didn’t. Partly, because her father wasn’t really punishing her over the towel but more over her attitude toward her mother and partly, because Stephanie knew she deserved punishment. Not for the towel, probably not even for her attitude, it was after all a response to her mother’s own attitude, but rather for a bad deed her parents knew nothing about and with luck, they never would.

She knelt down again, this time focused on her shoes. Her fingers found the zipper on the back of the heel and pulled it down, first on the left foot and then on the right. She stood back up and supported herself on the edge of the workbench bringing each leg up in turn to pull her shoes off and drop them in the basket. Standing barefoot on the wood floor she instantly rose up on her tiptoes to avoid the pressure of dirt and splinters against the bottom of her feet. She heard the sound of another piece of wood being split outside from the swing of her father’s axe and instantly covered her naked breasts again despite knowing he couldn’t see her any more than she could see him.

Stephanie turned her back to the door again, more for the sense of privacy it afforded than the actual existence of it. Her hands found their own way to the waistband of her panties. It was all she had left to do before bending herself over the sawhorse and waiting for her Dad to get around to spanking her bottom. She stared at her reflection and silently reminded herself that the longer she put off the inevitable the longer it would be before the spanking was over and she was dressed again. That wouldn’t have mattered on some days but with it being Thanksgiving there were guests coming and a good likelihood two of them, males no less, would be coming out to spend time with her father while the ladies prepared the evening meal. Stephanie preferred not to be naked when they arrived and even more than that, preferred her spanking to be long over as well.

Her hands trembled and she took a deep breath attempting to steady her nerves. Spanking always hurt. There would be tears and she would feel the sting long after the spanking came to an end. Throughout the entire day, she would be reminded with every step she took, every time the tight fabric of her dress rubbed against her bottom she would have to suppress a wince and every time she sat she would have to smile pretending the urge to express her discomfort in the form of a single word or whimper never existed. The only comfort came from knowing her spanking was the only punishment due for the day. At least it would be over when the last spank fell. She would not spend the remainder of her day doing mindless chores with the proof of her bad girl status nakedly displayed for all to see as poor Amanda had spent the previous day. It was a small thing to be thankful for, but Stephanie was thankful for it. She pushed her panties down her legs and stepped out of them, dropping them in the basket to wait for her return.

Stephanie looked over her shoulder once more and watched her father’s sleeve until it disappeared from sight after he finished collecting more split pieces of wood from the ground. She turned fully and walked on her tiptoes to the other side of the sawhorse. Her father would expect her naked butt to be visible from the door and she had no intention of disappointing him in that manner. She had done so once in her high school years and it had served as one of her more embarrassing moments when he had made her rise up and bend over it the right way under his watchful eye. It was much better to do it right in the first place.

She stepped up to the sawhorse and rested her hands on the top edge that would soon have her butt bulging out toward the ceiling. Her feet moved to the outside edges of the sawhorse’s feet and she bent down slowly adjusting her weight on the sawhorse until the top edge was tight against her pelvis and her hands were gripping the opposite side of the legs from where her feet rested on tiptoes. She looked behind her through the open underneath of the sawhorse and between her spread legs at the wall behind her. Three implements hung on hooks in perfect upside down view from her position. She wondered which her father would choose or if he’d use more than one of them as he had on certain past occasions when she’d been particularly difficult. The thick old yardstick was the mildest while she feared the worn and wide leather strap the most, but it was the oak paddle with five holes in the middle of it that had seen the most use.

Stephanie tried not to think about the implements too much though it was difficult to ignore their presence in plain sight unless she closed her eyes. The unfortunate side effect of turning her attention from the implements was that it left only two other focuses for her attention. Either she thought about her position, the embarrassing exposure of her butt and more to anyone who would stand in the doorway, the way her breasts hung down toward her face swaying with every breath she took, or she thought about the reason she was there. As time stretched past with only the sound of her father splitting wood to mark its passage, she thought about all three things until her whole body was flushed pink with the embarrassment of the situation.

The Pickett Family Holiday, Part 03

Stephanie left the house through the back door. She had stayed in her room dreading the trip to see her father so long that morning was giving way to afternoon. The air remained cool despite the brilliantly blue sky over head and the bright sun shining down. Pink, peach and golden brown leaves rustled on the grass of the backyard in the light breeze as she walked along the stepping stone path leading from the porch to the shed.

The shed stood at the edge of the property line on the northwest side of the house. Her father had built it shortly after they had moved into the house to store tools, a workbench, and firewood. Stephanie remembered it well though she’d only been about five at the time. In those days, she’d always been eager to lend her father a helping hand. She almost smiled at the memory, particularly at the realization her help had probably made the project take twice as long as it should have. She had insisted that the shed needed to be painted in bright red with white trim just like a traditional barn and rather than argue, her father had bought the paint and handed her a brush. It hadn’t been painted in all the years since, but the colors were still there, just faded.

Dad stood outside the shed, swinging his old axe, splitting wood for the fireplace. Seeing her approach, he rested the axe against the side of the shed and picked up the wood on the ground, adding to the neat stack he’d built adjacent to the shed. Finished, he pulled off the worn leather gloves from his hands and wiped the sweat off his forehead with sleeve of his brown, black and cream flannel shirt.

“It seems you’ve managed to upset your mother,” he said, turning to give Stephanie his full attention, “again.”

Stephanie’s lips curled upward in a half smile. “What can I say?” she said with a shrug. “I’m just a bee in her bonnet.”

Dad said, “Your sister warned you about the towel.”

“I know,” Stephanie said, nodding her head.

“And yet you dropped it on the floor anyway,” he said, shaking his head.

“I didn’t think Mom would come barging into my room,” Stephanie said.

“Is that what they teach in your criminology classes?” Dad asked. “It’s okay to break the law just as long as you don’t get caught?”

“I didn’t break a law.” Stephanie kicked at the leaves on the ground. “I just broke one of Mom’s stupid rules.”

“That attitude isn’t doing you any favors,” Dad said.

Stephanie stopped kicking and looked up into her father’s face. “Sorry.”

“Laws and rules aren’t so different,” he said. “If you break them there are consequences and it doesn’t really matter whether you agree with them or not.”

She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t even on the floor fifteen minutes.”

“It shouldn’t have been on the floor at all,” he said.

“What was I supposed to do with it?” she asked. “It’s not like I’ve got a towel bar in my bedroom.”

“There is one in the bathroom last time I checked,” he said.

She shook her head and shrugged. “So now I’m supposed to walk back to my room naked after a shower.”

“Have you ever heard of a bathrobe?” he asked.

“I left it at school. It’s too bulky to take back and forth,” Stephanie said.

Dad shook his head. “Sounds like you’ve got an answer for everything except why you can’t just follow a few simple rules while you’re at home.”

Stephanie said, “I didn’t go on a crime spree, I dropped a wet towel on the floor while I was getting dressed.”

“Exactly,” Dad said, “you did the one thing you knew would irritate your mother more than anything else if she found out. Your only excuse seems to be that you thought she’d never know.”

“It’s a stupid rule,” Stephanie said. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Let’s see,” Dad said, holding his chin in his hand, “you could have draped the towel over the foot board on your bed or over the back of your desk chair, you could have folded it up and laid it on top of your clothes hamper. Heck, you could have used one of the empty hangers in your closet to hang it up or hang it on your doorknob. Any one of those solutions would have avoided breaking your mother’s rule and kept you out of trouble.”

“I’ll remember that for tomorrow,” Stephanie said, shaking her head at the sky.

Dad took a step closer to his daughter. “What’s going on with you?”

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “Other than being home less than 24 hours and about to get a spanking, nothing.”

“That’s just it,” Dad said. “Every time you’ve come home from school in the last year, you’ve managed to find some way to get yourself a spanking within three days at the most. It’s almost like you’re bending over backward to give us a reason.”

Stephanie blushed and kicked at the leaves again. “Trust me,” she said, “I’m not.”

“I’m just trying to understand,” Dad said. “You were warned, you knew Amanda had just gotten in trouble over the very same thing yesterday, and yet this morning your very first impulse is to drop your wet towel on your bedroom floor.”

Stephanie shrugged. “I made a mistake.”

“And it was either deliberate or careless,” Dad said. “You’re a lot of things Stephanie, but careless is not a word I usually associate with you.”

“I’m not denying that I did it,” Stephanie said.

Dad said, “I want to know why you did it.”

Stephanie tilted her head back to stare at the sky before looking into her father’s face. “Because it’s a stupid rule. Because I thought I could get a little bit of revenge on Mom for always making such a big deal out of nothing and she would never even know about it. It would have been perfect too, except Mom can’t mind her own business and had to come barging into my bedroom.”

Dad said, “I know you and your mother have your differences, but you sound downright angry with her. Why?”

Stephanie shook her head at the sky. “Why shouldn’t I be? She’s grounded me for the whole first week of my winter break and as if that wasn’t enough she’s sent me out here to get a spanking today, on Thanksgiving no less and all of this over a stupid wet towel that didn’t harm anything or anyone.”

Dad said, “That’s the consequences of breaking your mother’s rule, but you were obviously angry with her before any of that. You said you did it to get revenge. Revenge for what?”

Stephanie sighed. “I already told you. Can we just get this over with? I’d really prefer it if things could be more or less back to normal by the time Nicole and Todd arrive not to mention this Jason.”

Dad said, “I’m sure you would and if you tell me the reason your so angry with your mother, I’ll do what I can to make your preference a reality. However, if you’d rather keep that information to yourself, I see no reason why I should do you any favors.”

“Why isn’t the fact that it’s a stupid, anal retentive rule enough of a reason to be mad?” Stephanie asked.

“Maybe because it’s been a rule for as long as you’ve been taking showers and for you all of the sudden to get brazenly angry over it smells more like an excuse than reality,” Dad said.

Stephanie said, “I’m mad because the only person Mom shows any respect to is herself. It’s like none of the rest of us matter. Everything is always her way or no way and I’m sick of it. You want to pin it on one specific thing but you can’t. It’s my whole life and she’s always the thundercloud hanging over my head and ruining every fucking day.”

Dad’s hand sailed through the air between them impacting her cheek like thunder. “I don’t care how angry you are, you don’t ever use language like that to me or your mother.” He wagged his finger in front of her bulging eyes even as the white of her cheek turned red with his hand print. “Do you understand me?”

Her hand grasped at her stinging cheek and tears watered her eyes as she took a step back from her father. “I’m sorry.”

He said, “You want respect? You have to earn it and that means working hard and following rules, even the rules you don’t like or don’t agree with. If you think disciplining you and your sisters when you fall short of expectations is disrespecting you then you better be just as angry at me as you are at your mother. This our home and you’re our daughter and that means we’re going to raise you the way we think is best and if you don’t like our methods, you’re certainly old enough to take on the world without our help.”

Stephanie wiped the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s like this Stephanie,” Dad said, “your mother sent you out here to be punished. You’ve admitted to deliberately throwing your towel on the floor despite knowing the consequences if you got caught. You clearly think it’s unfair that you got caught and somewhere in your head you’ve developed a twisted strand of logic that has convinced you that this act of rebellion was justified. Whatever it is that is truly bothering you is either as much a mystery to you as it is to me or you just don’t want to share it with me. Either way, I think we’ve wasted enough time talking because we’re clearly getting nowhere. So you’ve got a choice, you can go on into the shed, undress and bend over the sawhorse for your spanking or you can go back to the house and find a friend or a hotel room to take you in until you go back to school.”

Stephanie looked at her father. Nothing was going the way she had expected and instead of making things better she had only achieved upsetting her father which was the last thing she wanted. It wasn’t the first time she’d pushed him into offering her a way out that meant leaving home and just like before it was a choice she was not prepared to make. She lowered her gaze to the leaves on the ground and took the first step toward the shed. The rest came of habit and much more easily than the first until it seemed she had made her choice without a word and only the slightest of hesitation.