From the Top Shelf - Retirement Day, part 1

Retirement Day, a short story by Martin Kenway, is quite a fantasy. It's Matt's last day at work, so anything goes! When you read the opening paragraphs you will realize that this story was written decades ago, when computers were very new

Matt Preston picked up a document from his In tray, glanced at it, made a marginal note and put it into his Out tray.

The firm mouth under the neatly trimmed grey moustache twisted briefly in a sardonic smile. He knew well enough that the note would be ignored, his initials taken for granted. What he was doing was make-work, paper-shuffling.

Not that it mattered. After today it would be over. The firm of Mulprods Ltd where he had spent most of his working life would know him no more. As he had done so often over the past month Matt tried to analyse how he felt about the prospect. To depart had certainly come as a shock at the time, though he realised that the warning signs had been clear enough. The installation of the new computer a year ago had meant drastic staff reductions in all departments, but somehow Matt had taken it for granted that he would work on for another. Heather Caldwell, a plump extrovert blonde in her early thirties was Mulprods' Personnel Manager and an old friend of Matt's. She had done her best to break the news gently but there was no way to sweeten the discovery that the work which had hitherto occupied Matt throughout an industrious week could now be performed by the computer in seventeen minutes. 'I suppose,' Matt had said bitterly, 'the computer couldn't use a reliable man to go round with an oilcan and a polishing cloth?'

But the computer, it seemed, had its own acolytes, fluent in the jargon of bytes and ROM and the rest of the techno-jabberwocky.

No place for Matt.

'At least,' Heather had said, 'the board are making you a generous offer for early retirement.'

It was generous enough. Full pension as though he had worked until the normal retiring age, and a lump sum which was, if not quite a golden handshake, at least handsomely gilded. Perhaps one or two of the older directors had recalled uneasily that Matt had been useful during various crises in the earlier, struggling days of the firm, and undoubtedly knew where some of the bodies were buried.

A couple of days after his chat with Heather, Matt had been moved from the main office to the one he now occupied. A private office, albeit a small and isolated one was glibly explained as a privilege due to his seniority and experience. In fact, as he admitted without rancour, his presence among the other staff had become something of an embarrassment. Better, he thought ironically, for him to occupy his 'condemned cell' until it was time to go.

Someone arrived twice a day to fill and empty his desk trays. Otherwise he saw few people, though he was aware of the busy life of the firm going on around him. What was he to do with his empty future? He had been married once but the divorce was twenty years in the past. There were no children and he never had a fancy for keeping pets. Matt resolved that it would be better to look for a part-time job, no matter how low paid, rather than end up as a sour faced crank writing rambling letters to the local paper.

There was a brisk rap at his office door, which opened before he could respond. Matt's face brightened as he recognised his visitor. Julia had been his assistant in his former office. Despite the age difference – Julia was twenty-two – they seemed to have a lot in common and had worked well together. She had dark, curly hair and an attractive, intelligent face. Her figure was a delight to the masculine eye and a temptation to the masculine hand, and her excellent legs were enjoyably revealed by the short skirt of her scarlet dress.

'Mr Preston,' she smiled, 'you know I've been organising the collection for your leaving present. We've bought the things you suggested and there's still some money left over. Is there anything else you'd like?'

That innocent question could have been asked a thousand times in other circumstances with no dramatic result. But Matt's usual prudence had been badly shaken by the mental and emotional turmoil of recent events. Fantasies and secret dreams which had long been concealed by a bland appearance and amiable manner overcame any thought of discretion as Matt impulsively answered, 'Yes! I should like to put you across my knee and spank you soundly!'

Julia's lovely face was a picture of astonished dismay. 'But – but I thought you liked me!' she gasped. 'What have I done wrong?'

'Julia, my dear, I do like you very much!' Matt assured her. 'And you haven't done anything wrong – at least, not recently. I didn't say that you deserved to be spanked – just that I should very much enjoy doing it!'

Julia's look of consternation was replaced by a relieved grin. 'Oh, you would, would you? Don't you think I'm too old to be spanked?'

'You're just the right age to appreciate it!' Matt declared. 'Have you ever been spanked, Julia?'

Julia shook her head. 'More than one boy friend has threatened it, but none of them had the nerve to do more than talk.'

'You sound almost disappointed,' commented Matt.

'I have sometimes wondered what it would be like' she admitted. Mischief twinkled in her big brown eyes. 'I suppose it would be better for it to be done by someone more mature, more experienced. I take it you are experienced?'

Matt nodded. 'Enough to give me many pleasant memories.'

Julia laughed. 'To think I worked with you for two years and never dreamed you were into S and M!'

Matt shrugged. "That suggests people in black leather with spiked collars, cracking whips. I think of my – er – hobby as CP or correction.'

'It's just spanking, is it?' asked Julia. 'Nothing else?'

'I have used a cane,' said Matt. 'And a tawse.'

Julia looked puzzled. 'What's a tawse?'

'A leather strap, my dear, divided into tails at one end. Very effective in warming a naughty girl's tender bottom.'

Julia's eyes widened and her hands went to her shapely seat as though she was imagining the impact of tough leather upon tender feminine curves. 'Oooh! I'm glad you haven't got one here – or a cane.'

'Sometimes,' said Matt, 'one can improvise. But a spanking can be very effective, just using the open hand.'

He knew he was being reckless. It would be absurd to have his final day spoiled by complaints of sexual harassment. But Julia showed no sign of complaining. She looked at him steadily, her cheeks flushed, briefly biting her lower lip.

'I like you and I trust you,' she said, 'or I wouldn't be talking to you about something like this.' A pause, and then, 'Do you spank hard?' she asked.

'I do,' said Matt. 'Playful spankings are for boys and girls in love-play. A man of my age should spank thoroughly if he spanks at all.'

'Ouch!' said Julia, making a rueful face. 'Still, I suppose there's no point in doing it unless it's done properly.'

Matt could hardly believe that this beautiful creature was actually considering letting him spank her, but he sensed that to show any lack of confidence now would ruin everything. 'I'm ready when you are,' he said, as calmly as he could.

Julia giggled nervously. 'I'm tempted!' she said. 'It's crazy but I'm really tempted. Only – I can guess what I'll be like when you've finished spanking me, breathless and dishevelled and weepy. How can I go back to the office like that?'

Matt looked at the clock. 'Everyone will be going to lunch in a few minutes. You needn't go back to the office for an hour. That will give you time to regain your composure and wash away the tears.'

'So while the other girls are enjoying lunch, I'll be across your knee having my bottom smacked!' pouted Julia. 'Which means I'm going to spend a hungry afternoon trying not to wriggle on a very sore seat!' Again her hands went to her shapely rear, caressing it as though in consolation for the ordeal with which it was threatened. 'I'll have to go to the loo first,' she said.

Matt nodded. 'I was about to suggest that.'

As soon as Julia left the office Matt leaned back in his chair with a self-mocking smile. Of course she wouldn't come back. She had found it exciting and amusing to play along with him, to discover a side of his personality she had never suspected, but she could not really mean to let him spank her...

He did well, therefore, to conceal his surprise when Julie walked back into his office a few minutes later. There was something different about her, and after a few moments he realised that her legs were bare.

'I thought you might take my tights down to spank me,' she explained, 'and I'd rather have them off altogether than dangling round my knees.'

'I see,' said Matt. 'Did you take your knickers off while you were at it?'

Julia blushed vividly. 'Oh no, please, it's not going to be a bare-bottom spanking is it?'

'Of course!' said Matt, amused. 'Why not?'

'But it will be so humiliating!' wailed Julie.

'That,' pointed out Matt, 'is quite intentional. I don't suppose your knickers would offer you much protection, but their removal will make it clear that you are being punished, not played with.'

He pushed his chair back from the desk and patted his thigh. 'Come on, Julia, over you go!'

That very apprehensive young lady meekly obeyed, keeping her balance with her hands on the floor in front and stretching out her long, lovely legs behind. Matt turned up her brief dress and gazed with delight at the beautifully proportioned bottom so revealed. Julia's panties were, as he had surmised, a mere wisp of floral patterned fabric but he briskly pulled them down her warm white thighs, while the red-faced young beauty squirmed with shame and unhappy anticipation.

'It's not fair!' whimpered Julia, as Matt's appreciative hand stroked and patted the warm, springy curves of her vulnerable posterior. 'I haven't done anything! I don't deserve to be sp-spanked!'

'Don't you?' said Matt. 'While you were learning your job under my supervision, you made a number of silly, careless mistakes. I covered up for you, I kept you out of trouble, I was very patient with you. But now, my dear, I am going to do what I often felt like doing then and give you a bloody good spanking!'

He delivered a resounding smack to Julia's left bottom-cheek and she let out a yelp of mingled pain and astonishment as the stinging impact gave her painful notice of what to expect. Matt whacked her right cheek, grinning with pleasure at the incomparable sensation of the firm, warm curve of feminine flesh vibrating under his hand. Then he settled down into a steady rhythm of solid, stinging slaps, determined to make Julia's first spanking a truly memorable experience.

Matt had a fair amount of experience to assist him in his joyous task of roasting the luckless Julia's squirming seat, but most of the bottoms he had smacked in recent years had been those of professional ladies who had charged high fees and firmly insisted that the spanking should stop once a certain degree of discomfort was reached. This was a different matter.... it was up to Matt to decide how long the spanking should last, and he was resolved to show Julia just how thoroughly a richly deserved punishment could be inflicted with the open hand upon a young woman's naked buttocks.

He could tell that Julia was beginning to realise just how much and how often Matt had been exasperated by her misdeeds while she was under his authority. With the cheerful confidence of inexperience, she had probably thought of the threatened spanking as an adventure rather than an ordeal, assuming that it would end after ten or twelve smacks had made her tingle enjoyably. By the time each tender bottom cheek had endured twenty resounding slaps she realised only too well what she had let herself in for. Gasping, squealing, wriggling helplessly across Matt's lap, Julia could surely not hold back for much longer the tears which would complete the bitter shame of having her bare bottom soundly spanked. The fiery stinging in her shapely rump was worse than anything she had imagined possible, and still the punishing hand descended again and again with remorseless regularity.

'I can't take any more!' she wailed. 'Please, sir, that's enough!'

'Nonsense!' said Matt, cheerfully. 'You're just getting nicely warmed up. Another five minutes at the very least, I think.' The methodical impact of punishing masculine hand upon bare, burning female buttocks continued with, if anything, even greater vigour. And now the big, hot tears came at last and Julia sobbed out her heartfelt repentance for her past misbehaviour.

'So far so good,' said Matt, approvingly. 'But of course I've got to make quite sure that you've learned your lesson. My word, your bottom does look sore! Let's try a change of target.'

Julia's tears flowed more lavishly than ever as Matt started to smack the back of her thighs with the same vigour with which he had tanned her bottom. Regardless of her frantic pleading and protesting the punishment continued until the tender flesh was scarlet half-way to her knees.

'It's lucky you came to work in black tights,' observed Matt. 'When you're back in the office, no-one will be aware of your smacked legs.' 'I will!' sobbed Julia, wriggling in abject misery across his lap.

'Which feels sorest now, Julia, your bottom or your legs?' asked Matt.

'My legs! No, my bottom! I – I don't know! Please, Matt, please!'

'Let me help you to make up your mind,' said Matt, and once more to Julia's blubbering dismay, her shapely buttocks endured the correction of a vigorous spanking.

When Matt eventually stopped he glanced at the clock and realised that a little over ten minutes had passed since Julia had gone across his lap. No doubt it had seemed much longer to Julia.

'I think that will be enough for now, Julia,' said Matt, relaxing his grip on her. 'Get up, my dear, and wipe your eyes.'

When Julia rose to her feet with tears streaming down her face it seemed the most natural thing in the world to take her in his arms. She made no objection; indeed, she seemed to find the masculine embrace comforting. It was extremely pleasant to feel her clinging to him as she sobbed out her reaction to the punishment.

'Oh, my poor bottom! And my legs! I'm so sore and the smacking hurt so much and – and – I felt so awfully in disgrace to be punished like that. Did I really deserve such a spanking?'

'You did!' said Matt, firmly. 'You've had nothing that you haven't deserved over and over again!'

'If you say so, sir,' said the meek, tearful voice in his ear. 'But if you're going to punish me over and over again, I shall have to visit you at home.' 'That,' Matt reminded her, 'is where I keep the tawse and the cane.'

'Yes sir – I know!' said Julia, wriggling.

The warm, submissive body cuddled up to his was arousing sensations of an intensity which Matt had not experienced for years. He permitted himself one kiss on a flushed, tear-wet cheek and then, using every ounce of willpower, he released her.

'I think you'd better put your knickers and tights on again Julia,' he said. 'Then go and wash your face and try to make yourself look –'

He broke off, unsure how to finish.

'Unspanked?' suggested Julia, wryly. She had stopped crying but the expression on her face as she gently rubbed her suffering bottom showed that she was still vividly feeling the physical and emotional effects of the spanking. 'I'm not planning to tell everyone that I've had my bare bum smacked for being a naughty girl! If anyone does guess, I suppose I'll just have to say that I asked for it!'

When she had left, Matt looked thoughtfully at the papers on his desk. The idea of continuing with the futile work he had started earlier seemed ludicrous. He picked up his In tray and emptied it into the waste paper basket. The contents of the Out tray followed. Then he sat back in his chair, put his feet up on the desk and waited to see what would happen next.

What do you think happens next?