Witness to a Spanking

  [Warning: Contains parental discipline of two young girls.]


  I remember it like it was yesterday...

  "Ashley! Rebecca! What the Hell do you two think you're doing??" My friends' mother shouted as she re-entered the living room from the garage. At the sound of her voice, the two girls jumped up in horrific surprise, abandoning their pokers and paper in the forbidden fireplace. We had been enjoying burning small bits of paper, using the brass pokers to hold them over the flames like marshmallows...They hadn't heard their mother open the garage door, like I had.

  Knowing we weren't allowed to so much as open the fireplace without supervision, I had immediately retreated, returning to my previous spot on the couch, just a mere five or six feet away. Thank my lucky stars for my superb hearing and quick reflexes; I just barely made it back to the couch in time. I was the lucky one of the three of us. I escaped the inevitable future.

  "M-Mommy!" The older of the two, Ashley, shouted as she jumped up. She didn't even have time to think up a good story. Little Rebecca was too scared to say even that much.

  "NO! I don't even wanna hear it!" Her mother snapped back, advancing forward with a certain air of doom about her. Just the sight was enough to make me swallow the worried lump in my throat. Without missing a beat, the woman ever-so-smoothly grabbed up both of her daughters by the ear, dragging them off towards their room at the back of the house. They fought and struggled, of course, but they were no match for the much-stronger adult.

  It was then that she at last stopped to somewhat glare dawn at me. My eyes widened in fear, and I swear I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. "Susie..." She started coolly.

  "Um...Y-Yes...?" I nervously replied, too fearful of my own fate to look her in the eye.

  "Wait out here for me, ok? I'll be out to take you home in a moment, but I need to have a little 'talk' with THESE two, first." She emphasized the word 'these', with a sharp tug on the ears in either of her hands. The girls teared up and started pleading in response, begging that she let them go and promising to be good, but of course, she wasn't buying it. With my timid nod of confirmation, she continued on her way, lecturing my unfortunate friends about how dangerous the fireplace could be to small children.

  When they reached the end of the hall, she pushed the two of them into their bedroom and closed the door. Everything was muffled, after that. I could hear an unsettling mix of shouting and crying, but I couldn't really make any of it out. Then I heard a vaguely louder shout, followed by a disturbingly familiar sound.

  SMACK!

  Hearing that, I instinctively clapped my hands over my mouth to hold in a gasp, my entire face going beat red in no time flat. But...Surely I had to be hearing things, right? I mean, it couldn't actually be a--

  SMACK! CRACK! WHAP!

  Nope. The sound of my friends' pained cries confirmed it...A spanking. My friends had just been drug back to their room to get a spanking..! I couldn't believe it. Before now, I'd always been escorted home if my friends got in trouble for something. But not this time. This time, I had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting just down the hall in the living room, listening to every smack in flustered horror.

  And not just horror, either. There was also guilt. I had been doing the same exact thing, burning the paper right along side them...But I didn't get caught. Now they were taking the punishment that I should've also received. The combination of that guilt and the fear of also being found out and punished was starting to make me tear up as I sat there, waiting to be taken home.

  Finally, after several, grueling minutes of trying to think of absolutely ANYTHING else to keep my mind off of the events going on in that back room, I heard the bedroom door open. Unable to keep from craning my neck to look around the corner, I could see the mom close the door behind her, something drooping from her other hand. As she turned to walk my way, I was able to make out the item that had just caused the faint crying still coming from the other side of the door; A leather belt.

  Oh, did that ever scare me silly! Sure, I'd been spanked a few times before by my mom, but only with her hand. Never before had I received, or even audibly witnessed someone receive the belt...Now I was truly paranoid! My guilty conscience was already starting to nag at me. "You're gonna get found out..." It taunted me. "She's gonna find out you were also naughty, then YOU'LL get the belt before she takes you home to Mommy for round 2." At this point, I was frozen stiff with fear.

  "Alright, then...Susie." No response. "Susiiie...Hey. Earth to midget..." The mother's hand waving in my face finally snapped me out of my paranoid trance, blinking a few times before quickly looking up at her.

  "S-Sorry...I was just...." My eyes almost instantly wandered down to the belt still in her hand, causing me to hesitate and scoot away slightly. "Thi-inking about something..."

  At my hesitation, she raised an eyebrow and looked down at the belt, before shrugging and placing the item of my discomfort on a nearby counter. "Come on, kid. Time to take you home for the day." She waved me over, making her way toward the front door. I nervously stood and walked over behind her, exiting the house before she closed the door.

  As we crossed her yard to the sidewalk, my curiosity got the better of me. Worriedly fiddling with the end of my shirt, I stared at the ground as I walked, and spoke quietly. "Um..."

  "What's up?" She inquired as she looked to make sure no cars were coming.

  "It's just...A-Am I in trouble..?"

  "Huh? No, of course not. Why would YOU be  in trouble?"

  "W-Well..." I swallowed hard, crossing the street with her to my house. "Ashley and Becca...Th-They both got in trouble, so...."

  My comment must've been annoying or something, judging by the sigh she gave in response. "No, No...Ashley and Rebecca purposely did something that I've told them over and over again to NOT do. So, since words obviously weren't enough, I had to use a different method."

  Opening the gate to my yard, I still didn't look up at her, too worried to even think of doing so. "But...If I'm not in trouble, then why am I getting sent home?" A completely obvious question to most, but not in the eyes of a six-year-old. I was being taken home, so I must have done something wrong...Right?

  "The girls are grounded for the rest of today, and probably tomorrow. Meaning they can't have any friends over."

  Oh...Duh. Hearing that, I just gave a small 'ooooh...', before finally reaching my front door. It being MY house, I didn't really think anything of it when I opened the door and walked right on in. My mom, who was sitting on the couch with one of her books, just looked up in confusion. "Oh. Hey, sweetheart. You're home early." She gave my friends' mom a questioning look, silently asking for information.

  The other began to explain the situation, but I decided not to stick around for that. No, at the time, the solitude of my bedroom seemed much more comfortable. At least there was no-one in there to talk about such...unsettling topics.

  After about a week or so, the guilt and paranoia of getting caught finally started to die down, though it never fully disappeared. Or at least the guilt didn't, anyway. No. To this day - a good 14 years later - I still can't help but remember that day, wanting so bad to simply take the punishment that I equally deserved, and set free said pent-up guilt. It'll happen one of these days, I'm sure. But until then...To all of you naughty readers out there: Keep your butts out of trouble.

  -The End!