From the Top Shelf - Hide in Plain Sight, part 1

Today we begin a story by Rollin Hand, set in the southern US half a century ago. I hope you enjoy it.

A letter found in an old box somewhere……

June 15, 1957
Dear Sally,

They told me not to write but I’m writing anyway. We get to come to town on Saturdays and if I dress like the rest of them, in these long dresses and bonnets, I blend in and nobody can pick me out. These clothes suck. It’s some religious thing I guess. I even have to wear these stupid bloomers. Anyway, when nobody was looking I dropped the letter in the PO box. They say it’s for my protection, because of what I saw. I have to testify eventually, but until then I’m stuck out here where they can’t find me. So at least I’m going to write to my best friend. Just don’t tell anybody I did. I’ll get in trouble with Raylin.

You remember the story, I guess. I was with Jean and Sue and we had been downtown shopping. I left my purse in the store and had to go back. I took a short cut through the alley and that’s when I heard a gun go off and saw the guy who fired the shot and killed that man. They say he was a big time hoodlum in the Dixie mafia, whatever that is. Sorry that I sort of disappeared without telling anybody, but that’s why.

I’m here because of that deputy marshal. His name is Raylin Higgins and I hate him. That’s too bad because he is really handsome in that sort of rugged cowboy way. Gives a girl goose bumps, you know? But everything I want to do, he says no. No calls, no visits, not even letters. I can’t go home, etc, etc. Meanwhile he stays in a cabin nearby somewhere keeping an eye out while I stay here. Where is here? Well, I’m not supposed to tell, but it is a farm somewhere south of Nashville and it is the middle of nowhere. The farm is run by this woman Raylin calls Aunt Jolene. She is a big stout farm woman in her forties and has three daughters. Two of the girls are a little younger than me at 17 and 18. Kate, the oldest is 23. She also takes in boarders, like girls who are homeless. I think some state bureau or something places them.

The deal is, this woman is Raylin’s aunt, and Raylin told daddy that the best way to protect me until this whole mess is over with was to hide me in plain sight, that no one would look for me here and he’d guard the farm himself while I was there. The district attorney said ok, so here I am. And let me tell you, it is sticksville. Not only that, this woman, Jolene, runs this place like an army camp or something. I mean there’s all these rules. They are posted on a board in the kitchen and if you break one, a tick goes by your name. They cover everything from doing chores to keeping out of other people’s stuff to smoking, swearing—you name it. I don’t know what happens when you get so many ticks, but the girls, there are four others besides me, seem concerned about it. I’m not because, it doesn’t apply to me. Raylin argued with his aunt about this, but she finally told him that I’d have to obey the rules just like everyone else. Raylin said I was different, and he’d be responsible for me. I felt like a child, them arguing over me like that, and I gave them a piece of my mind. Jolene looked hard at Raylin and he took me aside and told me to behave. I told him this was not my idea in the first place to be out here in Dogpatch, but I’m not a child and not to worry. He let it go and went back to his cabin.

More later,
Mary Beth

June 20, 1957
Dear Sally,

I do see Raylin regularly. He comes to supper. We talk about this and that. He’s not so bad when you get to know him, I guess.

Well now I know what happens when you get five ticks next to your name! It happened yesterday when me, Cheryl and Linda got into a fight. We were arguing over whose turn it was to clean the bathroom upstairs and I guess it came to scratching and hair pulling, at least between Linda and Cheryl. Aunt Jolene came running and pulled us apart. She sat us down and chewed us out and then announced that they, Linda and Cheryl, were each getting five demerits-that’s what the ticks are. Linda said what about me, but I don’t get demerits because Raylin fixed that with Jolene. They got real quiet then. I didn’t know what that meant until supper when Dot, Jolene’s youngest, whispered to me that they were due a “licking”. I wanted to ask her what she meant but then supper was over and we all went into the parlor.

Aunt Jolene pulled out a chair and sat down in it. She called Cheryl and Linda over and had them stand in front of her. She scolded them about the fight again and when she stopped, she turned to Kate her oldest and told her to go fetch “it”. I didn’t know what “it” was, but Cheryl and Linda looked at each other wincing at this news, and shifted from foot to foot. Finally Kate walked back in carrying this big black flat-backed hairbrush and gave it to Jolene. She tapped it in her hand and told Cheryl to go to the corner. I finally figured out that these girls were going to get spankings! This is something that never happened to me. Mommy and daddy have never in my life raised a hand to me in that way, but here was Aunt Jolene about to give Linda and Cheryl a real spanking.

She told Linda to stand at her side and raise her dress, which she did, blushing like all get out. Then she ordered her across her knee and Linda went right across Aunt Jolene’s lap, bottoms up. Aunt Jolene put the brush down on her back and to my utter amazement slipped the girl’s bloomers down, baring her bottom. I’ll have to say Linda has a very shapely seat as far as I can tell. It’s round and firm without being too big. Then without further ado she picked up the brush, announced “39 spanks, girls”, and raised her arm.

Of course I’d never seen a spanking either, but this one, I’m sure was very thorough, and I’m glad it wasn’t me on the receiving end. She brought that brush down right on poor Linda’s bare fanny and it made a terrible crack. Linda cried out and raised her head and kicked, but Jolene just tucked her arm around her real good to hold her tight. Then she commenced to dish out a real honest-to-gosh bare fanny spanking like I’d heard girls talk about but had never experienced. She smacked her bottom over and over again-sometime three or four in a flurry, sometimes one after another, very slow and deliberate. It amazed me the way Linda’s fanny wobbled as the brush hit it, first one cheek then the other. It turned pink, then deep rose, then flaming red. Linda bucked and whimpered, begging for mercy, but Aunt Jolene just ignored her and kept smacking her bouncing bottom until all thirty nine licks had been dispensed.

Well, by this time Linda was in tears, blubbering about how sorry she was and how she’d never do it again. Of course she’d say that, taking the licking of her life. Aunt Jolene stood her up and sent her to the corner. Then it was Cheryl’s turn. If anything Cheryl was less brave than Linda. She squalled and kicked as that brush smacked her little hind end to a cherry red, but she got all thirty nine spanks too. They both got sent to the corner then, hands on head and no rubbing.

The next morning Cheryl and Linda still could not sit down and had to eat breakfast off of the mantelpiece in the parlor. Whew! I’m glad I’m not subject to this-because I’m a state’s witness and all. They need me, so I get the kid glove treatment and that’s a good thing.

Later Alligator,
Mary Beth

How long do you think Mary Beth is going to get the "kid glove treatment"?