From: hammersmith@aol.com (Adrian Hammersmith)
Subject: A Test of Patience {story, M/f]
Date: 24 Apr 1995 16:16:42 -0400
"Daddy, would you please stop making so much noise in there?! I'm trying to study!"
I was cooking dinner, after straightening up the living room, after doing the shopping, because Kelley had a big test the next morning and was cramming like crazy for it. But I was not known for monklike patience, and mine was wearing thin...
I went over to the door of her room. "Sorry, Kelley, I'm just trying to get dinner ready, and dropped a pan. By the way, dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes."
"Fine. I'll be there when I finish this chapter."
I grit my teeth and went back to the kitchen. Kelley was not easy to be around when she had a paper or test due. Not much attention, not much conversation, except about her stupid professors and stupid assignments and boring lectures and ... I counted the days til her graduation -- I thought I could make it that far...
The pork roast seemed done enough and so I put generous portions on the plates along with steamed potatoes and a green salad nearby. I lit the candles and called Kelley into dinner. I sat down and waited. And waited. "Kelley," I said, "dinner's getting cold out here."
She came storming out of her room. Uh-oh. "Look, Dad, I am concentrating in here. I said I'd be out when I finished the chapter, OK? Sheesh! Can't you give me a moment's peace around here?!"
I'd had enough. I stood up, walked over to stand very close to her, and said as calmly as I could. "That's enough, Kelley. I have put up with enough of this out of you. If you didn't leave your studying to the last minute all the time, you wouldn't have to cram so much at the last minute. Just last weekend you were at the beach with your friends for most of the time and I don't recall your taking any books along."
"Oh, well, I guess you expect me to study every minute or something. Look, Dad, I'm trying to study, right? Isn't that what you always tell me to do? So I'm doing it and you won't let me. It's just one noise after another around here, and..."
That did it. I took her arm, pulled her around and gave her left bottomcheek a hard swat through the tight jeans. "Ow, hey, what was that for?!"
"Kelley, those noises were from me straightening up around here after you, letting you study instead of having you do it yourself as you should have, picking up the groceries that you were supposed to on the way home from school, cooking dinner, washing up after dinner, and so on and so on. And in return all I've had out of you is complaining and treating me like a servant, when in truth you have brought on this pressure about your test on yourself by leaving everything to the last minute. And I've had enough, finally, Kelley."
"Oh, just leave me alone!" and she stormed back into her room and slammed the door.
I was very very angry. I guess I could have stormed right in after her and had a big confrontation. But I was too worn out at the moment. She wanted to act like a spoiled brat, let her take the consequences.
I ate my dinner, then wrapped up Kelley's from her plate, which was getting cold anyway, and the leftovers, and put them in a plastic container and into the freezer. I cleaned up the kitchen, went into the living room, and put on the game, quietly, to not disturb Einstein in the other room. I had a drink, and read the paper. After awhile I'd calmed down. And about an hour later, Kelley came out and I heard her go into the kitchen.
Then she came out to the living room. "Hey, where's dinner?"
"It's in the freezer, Kelley. You are not having dinner this evening. In fact, you are to stay in your room for the rest of the evening."
"What? Daddy, what's going on?"
"Nothing at all, Kelley. You acted like a brat, a very spoiled one, and so you are going to bed without dinner. No TV, no computer, no music, study as long as you want, then to bed."
"But Da-aaddd, I'm so hungry!"
"You should have thought of that an hour ago, young lady. I am too tired to argue or fight right now. But I'll tell you one thing. When you get home tomorrow from school, you are to go right back into your room, and stay there til I get home. Do you understand me?"
She gulped. "Daddy, nooooo, pleease.... Not a spanking!"
"You've treated me like a servant, no, worse than that, these past few days, Kelley Lynn. You wouldn't even come to dinner when I called you, and yelled at me for "disturbing you." So now you are getting what you asked for, in two ways. One, no one will disturb you as you are confined to your room. Two, you have been asking for a spanking and you are going to get one. Tomorrow evening when I get home. Now, get to bed!"
With a cry, Kelley ran back into her room and shut the door hard. Bad move. I got up, went into my bedroom, picked up the hairbrush from the dresser, and walked right into Kelley's bedroom, where she was laying face down on the bed crying in frustration.
She turned and looked at me, saw the brush and caught her breath. "I don't like your attitude, young lady. You'd think someone who was going to get spanked for being such a disagreeable brat would have the sense not to slam her bedroom door behind her." And I sat on the bed, pulled her over my lap, and began to spank her jean clad bottom very hard with the hairbrush.
Kelley was howling before the first minute was up. I spanked her long and hard. "This will give you something to think about while you are sitting there taking your test tomorrow, Kelley Lynn. And I've changed my mind about spanking you tomorrow night. I am going to cane you instead!"
"Dadddyyyyy!!! Noooooooo..." she wailed, as I set down the brush, picked her off my lap, and set her on her feet. She did a war dance rubbing her bottom furiously to relieve the sting of the hairbrushing. Finally I took her by the shoulders and looked into her tear-stained face.
"Kelley, I think I've let things go too far this time without spanking you. Your behavior has been just abominable. You have been really a pain to live with lately. I want you to know that I love you and always will, but you are in disgrace, and tomorrow night you are going to wish that you had been better behaved. Now, good night." And I kissed her on the cheek, and left her room.
It was about 2 in the morning, I heard the bedroom door open. It was Kelley, standing there in her nightgown, a very sad look on her face. "Daddy," she whispered, "can we talk for a little bit?"
I got out of bed, threw on my robe, and padded out in the hall, and followed my daughter into the kitchen. She sat down at the table and so did I. I could see she was upset and had been crying. "Daddy, I couldn't sleep, I'm afraid about the test, and I'm afraid about the caning afterward, and I know I deserve it, I've been terrible, and I just want to know you still love me..."
She had blurted it out so fast, I was taken off guard. She was biting her lip hard, to keep from crying I guessed. "Oh, Kelley Lynn..." I managed, stood up and opened my arms and she was in them about as fast as possible. The floodgates burst and Kelley was crying hard on my chest. "Dear, I know, you have been under a lot of pressure with that test..."
"Oh, Daddy, it's just that I want to do so well. It's not true what you said about not studying for it, I have all semester, and if I get an 'A' I graduate cum laude. I want that so bad, I want to make you proud of me..."
I don't know if I could have loved her more than I did at that moment, but I held her, and said how I was already proud of her, no matter how she did on that test. But I now saw how much it meant to her. "Kelley, I love you, we all do, and if you don't graduate cum laude we will still love you. But I want you to go for it! You deserve it! Now get some sleep, young lady" I smiled and she smiled back. I could see her relief. The pressure was off now. Now it was just a matter of going for it and maybe getting it, instead of having to and worrying about it.
At her door, she stopped and turned around, shyly and looked at the floor. "Daddy, you're still going to cane me tomorrow night, right?"
"Yes, Kelley. That is separate from the test you know. You really misbehaved and earned it, and you have to be punished for it. You know that, I think."
"Yes, Daddy, I was just making sure. I think I'll feel a lot better about everything when you cane me for it, it'll be like it is all forgiven and over with... I can't stand the waiting for it though" she said with a little rueful smile.
I patted her on the bottom and said we'll talk about it more tomorrow, and told her to get to bed. I headed back to my own bed but couldn't sleep. About an hour later I got up to check on Kelley. Her door was ajar, and I could see she was fast asleep, a very peaceful look on her face... Then I knew I could sleep too, and did.
In fact I slept too well and overslept the next morning. Kelley was already off to school. When I got home she was already in her room, as I'd told her to be, waiting for me.
I opened her door and got a mild shock, not only was she waiting, but in position over the chair, skirt up, and panties down. The cane was on the bed.
"Daddy, I am so sorry for how I behaved the other day. I was horrible and really deserve this, I know." Then I got another surprise. She looked back over her shoulder at me, her eyes were moist, and there was a big smile on her face, like she couldn't contain it. It was then that I knew. She'd gotten her A; she had done it!
But there was the matter of her punishment first. I pretended not to know. "Back in position, young lady. This is going to be a very painful caning, and you are going to be very very sorry for the way you behaved this weekend..."
"I know, Daddy. But not too hard, please?" she added in a quiet voice.
I stood to her left side, tapped her bottom with the cane, and it whistled through the air to lay a burning stripe right across the middle of her bottom, bisecting the deep divide between the cheeks. Kelley's breath hissed through clenched teeth, but she didn't move. I gave her four more strokes like that, an inch or so apart, puffy whitish welts raised across her bottom. Her foot would kick up, and her knuckles were white as she gripped the chair seat.
I took my time, and after 12 strokes, the last two crisscrossing across the parallel tracks in an 'X' Kelley howled in distress, and was now sobbing continually. A small pool of tears was forming below her face on the floor; I couldn't see her face as her long hair hung down. Her bottom and upper thighs were livid red, ridged and welted.
I set the cane down. "Stand up, Kelley." She did so, stiffly, and when she saw that I'd set the cane down and it was all over, she fell against me, still crying, and began to rub and stroke her punished backside. Again I held her, and as her legs were unsteady, sat her down on the bed next to me. "You were very brave, sweetheart. And it's all over. I hope you've learned a lesson from it."
"Oh, Daddy, I have, I have, and really I am so glad you punished me for it, I feel a lot better that you did, I treated you so badly and I really am sorry... and, Daddy?"
She was beaming, even though her eyes were red and half open, and her face tearstained... "Yes, Kelley?"
"Daddy, I did it! I made cum laude!"
"Oh, Kelley, way to go! I am so proud of you. Hey, we all have to celebrate tonight!"
And we did. We all went out for sushi, Kelley's favorite food. And like she'd done only a few hundred times before, she sat down hard on one of the hard wooden chairs of the restaurant with the same obliviousness to the consequences that she always had... Maybe the other customers thought it was some samurai yell or something, but I saw more than a few shake their heads in bewilderment when our table dissolved in giggles.
[the end]