From the Top Shelf - The Prom, part 2

Last week we met Jane and her three friends, who have all been grounded after trying to sneak into a club with fake IDs provided by Jane's brother. But Jane is going to the prom after all, after receiving a spanking and caning from her Aunt Martha. The other girls think this would be a preferable punishment, so Lynne approaches her mother with the suggestion.

“Mom, I’d like to talk to you about the prom.” Lynne’s mom was making dinner. She quizzically regarded her offspring.

“There’s nothing to talk about. You’re not going.”

“Please hear me out, mom,” pleaded Lynne. The story poured out. Mary Crane listened almost in disbelief to the crazy tale recounted by her daughter.

“So what are you saying? You want to take a…a spanking as punishment so you can go to the prom? No. That’s utterly ridiculous. You’re way too old for that.” But even as she said it, she realized that wasn’t right. The problem was that she was still a child, legally, and that in trying to act fully grown she had committed a crime. Maybe, just maybe, a juvenile treatment like this might be appropriate.

She turned at looked her daughter in the eye. “Ok, Lynne. If you are really serious about this I’ll talk to the other mothers…and Mrs. Hastings-Tyne.”

“Oh, thank you, mom! Yes, talk to them.” For the first time since the whole horrid incident, a ray of hope.

Don’t thank me yet, daughter, she thought to herself. Lynne had never been physically punished, but she had.Mary Crane remembered her mother’s stout hairbrush all too well.

* * *

The conversations with the other moms was eye opening. All three of the friends had told their mothers the same story and when they all got together they tentatively agreed to approach Fiona Hastings-Tyne collectively. Jane had urged her friends to try this and their mothers had apparently agreed.

“Yes,” said Fiona a few days later. They had agreed to meet at the local country club for lunch. “Jane made this request. Harold and I talked it over and we agreed that if Jane would accept this punishment willingly, then we’d allow her to go to the prom. After all, punishment is punishment and one type will work as well as another.” Then she chuckled. “I think after her experience with Aunt Martha she won’t be trying to crash any more night clubs until she’s of age.”

“Who exactly is Aunt Martha?” asked Vicki Terril, Lisa’s mom.

Fiona told them. “Martha Grenly retired here some years ago. She is my oldest sister. For many years she was head mistress at The Crossley School for girls in a small village in Scotland. It was a very private and exclusive school for very wealthy or connected families, but very strict as well. It was a boarding school. There is still this belief among the British upper crust of society that if you’re born into a life of wealth and comfort that you should go through no small amount of hell in the form of boarding school. So Crossley fit the bill. Among other things, corporal punishment was employed there. As head mistress my sister frequently carried it out, so she knows what she is about. When Jane made her request Harold and I both thought, ‘we’ll send her to Aunt Martha’. We certainly had never laid a hand on Jane and wouldn’t know how to begin now. Martha, on the other hand knows all about it.”

It was an animated discussion that followed, but it ultimately led to an overriding question. “Would Aunt Martha be willing to act for all of us, sort of—what do you call that—in loco….parentis, that’s it,” said Terri’s mom, Barbara Boswell.

Fiona said, “I can ask.”

* * *

“So you want me to act in loco parentis for you all? Do I understand that right?” The girls’ mothers were all seated having tea at the home of Fiona Hastings with Martha Grenly. She was a large woman, solidly built, not fat. She was in her fifties with close cropped dark hair showing tints of gray. They’d chatted for a bit and then Mary Crane steered the conversation around to the subject at hand.

“I’ll have to tell you, I was floored when Lynne proposed this, but she had talked to Jane and then the girls talked to each other, and, well, I guess they all want to go to the prom so badly that they are apparently willing to suffer the indignity of a childhood punishment if that means they can go.”

Aunt Martha shook her head. Young girls these days. “In my day we did use corporal punishment as perhaps Fiona told you. I was a matron, then a teacher and finally headmistress at Crossley, and it was certainly the best way to curb girlish shenanigans and foolishness. I never liked to spank the girls but sometimes I thought it was for the best.”

“How exactly did you do it?” asked Barbara.

“There were two levels of punishment. The first could be a simple spanking—this was mainly for the maintenance of discipline in the boarding school— disobedience after lights out, pillow fights that got out of hand, that sort of thing. A more formal punishment was the cane. That was reserved for more serious offenses like insubordination, cheating, leaving school grounds.”

Vicki chimed in. “We understand when Jane was punished she got both.”

“Yes. In my opinion what she did was serious and merited a rather severe punishment—especially one that would allow her to go to all these big social functions. That’s a large bill to pay, given her crime.” she chuckled. “A girl at Crossley might have been expelled for that.”

“What would you propose for our girls, then?” asked Vicki.

Aunt Martha thought for a moment. “It would have to be a rather formal punishment, I should think, given the gravity of the situation. And I think it should be a group event. I’d propose that we all convene right here if Fiona agrees.” Fiona nodded. “The girls would have to cooperate fully. I would take them one at a time and give each a thorough spanking. I’d let them recover from that a bit and then call them in one at a time into a private room or study where each would have to bend and take a good hard six strokes with my school cane. That is what Jane got and I think it appropriate.”

The mothers now were nodding in assent. This was sounding better and better. “How should they be dressed for this, er, little ceremony?”

“I’d recommend proper dresses, not too long, not tight--- to make the adjustment of clothing easiest. Certainly no jeans or other sloppy clothing. This is a formal ritual and should be treated with some measure of decorum.”

“Adjustment of clothing?” asked Barbara.

“Yes. They should be punished on their bare bottoms. Bare always gets the best results,” said Aunt Martha adamantly.

* * *

Now, everything you’ve heard so far was told to me by my sister Jane. We’re twins you know. She tells me everything. I’m Reggie Hastings—hullo. Anyway she was privy to everything the girls said as well as the meeting with Aunt Martha. And when I heard all this, well, you can imagine how my mind was racing. Not to mention some other parts. What a show. I had to see it. These girls were some of the prettiest girls at the high school—real hotties, you know? I knew I didn’t have too much time, but I’m a bit of a tech geek as Jane will tell you.

Where would they do it, that was the question? I figured it had to be the front parlor and the study, nothing else made sense. So with carefully concealed lenses hooked to various recoding devices and remote controls I prepared to film an epic to rival Spielberg.

* * *

Lynne waited expectantly for her mother to return. She knew she had been to a meeting at Jane’s house and she knew why they were meeting. She saw her mother’s car drive up. This is it, she thought. The prom. All her hopes.

“You’d better sit down to hear this, Lynne.” They sat at the kitchen table. Lynne was on the edge of her seat. “First of all, I will tell you that you will be allowed to go to the prom…”

“Yes! Yes! Oh, thank you, thank you!” Lynne was elated.

“Wait,” she said, holding her hand up. “You haven’t heard the rest of it. I was about to say, if….”

“If what?” Lynne was now apprehensive.

“If you cooperate fully and accept your punishment as we have planned.”

“What does that mean? Are you…going to spank me?” Now the reality was beginning to intrude.

“Not me. Aunt Martha. All of us moms have agreed and Jane’s Aunt Martha has agreed to be our, sort of, enforcer.
Just so the punishment is fair and the same for all of you.”

Lynne’s face was a mask of confusion.

“We will all meet at Mrs. Hasting’s house. Each of you will willingly accept a sound spanking from Aunt Martha. After a brief period this will be followed by six strokes with an English school cane. It will be the same punishment as your friend Jane received, so don’t look at me like that. That will wipe the slate clean. But I warn you Lynne, any hesitation, any
faltering, any refusal to cooperate fully and the whole thing is off. You will obey Aunt Martha to the letter. It will be humiliating; it will be painful, no doubt. But it’s now up to you.”

Oh my gosh, thought Lynne. A spanking from a strange woman with her friends and their moms watching and then six strokes with a cane. She’d never seen a cane but Jane said it was like a stout switch. She could imagine what that was going to feel like. But she had to, she just had to.

“Ok, mom. I will accept the punishment.”

“It’s going to hurt, Lynne. You’ll have to be brave.” She smoothed her child’s hair affectionately.

“Yes, mom. I’ll try.”

How brave will Lynne really be once the hairbrush is put into action? I'm aftraid you will have to wait until next week to find out.