From the Top Shelf - Hide in Plain Sight, part 4

Here is the final letter from Mary Beth to her friend Sally. To refresh your memory, the other letters are here, here and here.

August 9
Dear Sally,

Oh my God. What happened to me was just awful. I’m standing here writing this (more on that later). I’m at home now by the way, and the reason I’m writing is that I’m grounded, I think forever. They won’t let me even call my friends. Daddy is so mad and I am completely humiliated. Me! a grown up girl of twenty. Well, I didn’t feel so grown up yesterday, I can tell you that. I’d never been so embarrassed and shamed in all my life.

It started when Raylin showed up at Jolene’s farm. He drove up and told me to get my things together, that I was going home. I asked him what had happened and he said that that man they had in jail had been killed by another inmate. There would be no trial and I was no longer in a protected status. Jolene came out and we all went into the house. Jolene said she was relieved, but wanted to know how come those men had traced me to her farm and Raylin said he didn’t know. Then he started asking me, did I call anybody, did I tell anybody I was here? I guess I’m not a good liar and he kept asking so I finally admitted I’d been writing these letters to you. He swore and threw his hat on the floor and Jolene said that she knew I’d done something like that. Jolene said I should be taken out to the woodshed and given the strap for being so damn foolish.

When Jolene said that, Raylin looked hard at me, and I got an absolute chill up my spine. He told her to hand him the phone. He dialed up a number and started talking to the person on the other end. It was all about me. After a couple of minutes I realized he was talking to Daddy. He gave the phone to Jolene and she went on about what I’d done, including the fight and the spying incident and the creek. Raylin talked and listened for a bit, nodding his head. Then they handed the phone to me and I heard my daddy tell me he was glad it was over, but before I came home there was the little matter of an overdue reckoning. Well, my jaw dropped. I cried “Daddy!” but Daddy hung up and Raylin took the phone and hung up. He looked at me and shook his head. Then he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me up out of my seat.

Raylin dragged me out of the house and everyone saw it. I was squealing for him to let me go, but he had his jaw set and just looked straight ahead as he pulled me along. Pretty soon everybody else saw what was happening and they all followed us across the yard. It was like a parade. I finally realized where he was taking me-it was to that woodshed. I dug my heels in, but I’m just a little 120 pound blonde girl and Raylin is six feet tall and all muscle.

He opened the door and dragged me inside and slammed the door behind him. Then he stood over me and really let me have it. He said I’d put everyone in danger by sending those letters, that somehow the gangsters had seen the postmarks and had figured out where I was, all after he had specifically told me no letters. On top of that my behavior had been awful and I’d gotten away with all of it, but that was going to end right here, right now. He said my daddy had given him permission to deal with me-“appropriately” as he put it. He also added, Sally, that he had asked Daddy if he could call on me and that Daddy had said yes.

Well my head was spinning, but before I could even think about that, he sat down on a stump they use for chopping, lifted me up, and put me right over his knee. I realized that he was going to spank me! Me! Mary Beth, a twenty-year old Vandy coed. I struggled and kicked but he just gripped me with that big strong arm of his and held me face down over his knees. Then to my horror, I heard the giggling. I looked around and could see eyes peering through cracks in the boards. All the girls were going to see me get my spanking.

But the worst was yet to come. He lifted my dress in back and threw it over my head. Now my bloomers were exposed to his gaze. Horror of horrors, he put his fingers in the waist band and pulled my bloomers down until I was bare from my back to my knees. I felt him rest his hand on my bottom. Sally, you don’t have any idea what that feeling is like, a man resting his hand on your bare bottom, knowing what he intends to do in one short minute. I was blushing head to toe and yelling my head off, demanding he stop.

All he said was, I had this coming and he was going to give it to me.

That first hard spank took my breath away. It landed right across the middle of my bottom and stung like nothing I’d ever felt. Then he smacked me again. Then he smacked my poor bottom a third time, and what had tingled now felt like a hot sting. He took off then and landed spanks on one side then the other. I wasn’t keeping track, though. It was just this hot blazing barrage of spanks that kept coming, and it was lighting a fire in my seat. It was relentless. He spanked my blazing fanny like that, a steady volley of spanks, one piling up on top of the other, until I thought my seat was surely on fire. I was kicking and squirming and shrieking like a scalded cat. I lost all dignity and begged him to please stop. I promised to be good. I said I was sorry. Tears were running down my face and I pounded my fists on the dirt floor, but he kept right on, delivering smack after smack to my little bare fanny until I just broke down and cried big salty tears. I was all done in. I sagged across his knees, all my fight gone. I wasn’t Mary Beth the hot shot coed, I was Mary Beth, the naughty little girl who just had her bare bottom soundly spanked.

I guess when I let go sobbing, he stopped. He gently pulled me to my feet and said it was over. I hugged him and cried on his chest. He patted my back and said he was sorry but my daddy had told him to do it, that I did deserve it. Outside it was silent. I forgot who all had been watching but the giggling had stopped. Later they told me they were just transfixed with the way Raylin had handled me. They said it was the most awesome shellacking they’d ever seen. It was like they were in awe of Raylin. In fact Debby allowed as how she almost wouldn’t mind a spanking from a man like Raylin if he loved her up later. I got to thinking about that and got a feeling in my private parts, you know? We got up and were about to leave when Jolene burst in.

To my dismay it wasn’t over. Jolene said that I deserved additional licks for putting her girls in danger like that. I had got off scot free at the creek, but now I should pay. To my own amazement I said I agreed with her. I had felt guilty about the creek thing and thought maybe this would clear the air with the other girls if I stepped up and took my medicine like the rest of them. Raylin put his arm out and asked her to hold off just now. So I got a reprieve until morning. It was too late to go then anyway. I was spending another night at Aunt Jolene’s. All the girls were sympathetic because they knew what was coming in the morning.

Well, after breakfast we made that long march back to the woodshed. I felt like Marie Antionette on the way to the guillotine. All the others came along. Once inside, Jolene pointed to the log and I pulled up my dress and assumed the position. I even slipped my own drawers down. I suppose Jolene let me off easy on account of my already sore bottom. I got only six licks with the strap, but they were scorchers. She took her time and delivered the licks slow, with a lot of time in between so I’d get the full benefit of each one. Each lick is etched into my brain now and I don’t think I’ll ever look at a leather strap again and not think of Aunt Jolene.

So the reason I’m standing here writing this is I can’t sit down yet. The whole thing is over and I’m grounded, but Daddy is letting Raylin call on me Saturday night. I’m excited and terribly embarrassed at the same time. This is awful. I mean, he has seen me naked and paddled my bare butt! I have one question—what should I wear?

Your best friend,
Mary Beth


August 12, 1957
Dear Mary Beth,

I was amazed to receive your letter as I had not heard from you in months. I never got any of the other letters. We had some thefts from our mailbox over the summer. I want to hear all about your new beau, but so far reading about what he did makes my insides go all butterflies. I feel flushed and need to lie down. Please send details and don’t leave anything out.

Your best friend,
Sally S

That's going to be a hot date!