Subject: Story: Kate's General Store-Part 5
From: Carolina Jim <carolinajim@greenvillenc.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 23:12:36 -0500
All the hooting and hollering coming from the kitchen as Kate finished getting dressed could mean only one thing - school was closed for the day. It had started snowing early last night and it was still coming down hard. Kate guessed a good eight inches had already fallen. "Guess what, Mom!", Patty screamed when her mother entered the living room while Chrissy, Donna, and Susie stood by with huge grins. "There's no school today!"
"That's terrific!", Kate said, with a grin of her own. "Now all four of you can help out in the store! It's a perfect day for cleaning! We can get the whole place swept and dusted, and all the counters need polishing. We'll get a lot accomplished today!"
Rarely had four smiles disappeared so quickly. "I'm just kidding!", Kate said with a laugh. It didn't snow that often, and she guessed not a lot of people would venture out in weather like this. "I'll tell you what. Susie, you and Patty get breakfast started. Donna, go downstairs, fire up the pot-bellied stove, and brew some coffee. We may not have a lot of customers today, but they'll be cold when they come in. Chrissy, you can help me shovel the sidewalk. Afterwards, all of you can play in the snow out back..."
Two hours later, the last of the snow had been cleared from the sidewalk in front of the store. Kate was spreading some salt when she saw Olivia Stocks' children approaching. "You kids get inside and warm up!", she told them. "What on earth are you doing out in weather like this?"
Jenny, 18, the oldest and a classmate of Chrissy's, herded her little brother and sister inside. "Oh, Mrs. Hollings, we just LOVE this weather!", she proclaimed, warming her hands by the stove. "The snow is so pretty, there's no school today..."
"And we're going to build a snowman!", 8-year-old Andy stated in no uncertain terms.
"The biggest one in the whole town!", Cissy, 10, bragged. "And then maybe we'll have a snowball fight!"
Jenny calmed the two excited youngsters down. "The reason we're here, Mrs. Hollings, is because Mom wants us get a couple of snow shovels. Our old ones are all rusted. And can you put it on our account?"
"Of course I can, Jenny.", Kate answered. "It's a good thing you got here early. We might not have any left later on..."
Olivia had three cups of hot chocolate waiting when her children returned, which the rosy-cheeked siblings took care of quickly. Andy and Cissy finished first and were out the door in a flash, with visions of a huge snowman in their eyes. "I'll get started, Mom.", the tall, blond Jenny offered, taking one of the brand new shovels.
"OK, Dear. I'll be out in a few minutes, just as soon as I get dressed."
Jenny started shoveling the porch steps while her brother and sister rolled up the base of the snowman. "Gee, I wish I could help them...", she lamented. There was still a lot of little girl in her. "Maybe I'll be finished before they are..."
"This won't take long, Jen.", Olivia said, reading her daughter's mind. "Then you can show them how it's done."
Jenny looked up and smiled. She hadn't even heard her mom come out. "That's right!" The picture in the family album came to mind. It showed Jenny, then Cissy's age, standing next to a snowman she built by herself. It had a carrot for a nose and a couple of buttons Olivia donated for eyes. Her late dad stood behind her, hands on shoulders, while her mother snapped the picture. She had never forgotten that day.
Olivia was right; it didn't take long to shovel the walkway or dig the car out. "Ok, Jenny...you can go help your brother and sister now. But I want you to promise me you won't let them throw any snowballs. The snow is beginning to turn to sleet and freezing rain. It's too dangerous."
"I won't, Mother!", the teen replied while trudging through snow that came almost to the top of her rubber boots. Olivia shook her head, smiled, and walked to the house, wondering if she had any spare buttons.
The snow had stopped by the time the snowman was finished. The sleet and freezing rain continued, however, glazing everything and creating icicles on the trees and power line. That mattered little to young Andy, though. While his sisters stood with their backs to him, admiring their creation, the mischevious imp rolled up a snowball and threw it towards them. His aim was true - the snowball hit Jenny squarely on the backside.
"Andrew, you stop that this instant!", the red-faced girl screamed. The snowball hadn't hurt, not with a heavy coat and woolen pants on, but it was embarrassing. "Do you hear me!" Andy's reply was to make another snowball and hurl it. Sure enough, Jenny turned around and was hit again in the same place. "Mother said not to throw snowballs!", she yelled. "If you do it again I'm going to tell! You know what that means!" Indeed Andy did. That effectively put an end to his shenanigans.
Andy, having had enough of girls for one day, busied himself with another project - a snowman of his own. He was about twenty minutes into it when he presented a target Jenny couldn't pass up. Her brother was bent over, retying his boots. Disregarding everything Olivia said, Jenny scooped up some snow and molded it into a tightly-packed ball. "I'll fix him...", she muttered, and heaved it as hard as she could.
Suddenly, Jenny saw everything in slow-motion. Andy stood up just as the snowball left her glove. He turned towards her at the worst possible instant. The 8-year-old never had a chance; it hit him right in the face. Jenny and Cissy stood frozen as Andy let out a blood-curdling scream that could be heard down the street. Instantly, Olivia was out the door and running to her son. Blood ran down his face. "Jenny hit him with a snowball!", Cissy hollered.
"Mother, I didn't mean it!", Jenny pleaded from the other side of the yard. "I didn't mean to hurt him!"
Mavis Butler from next door heard Andy's cries and rushed over. "I think we better get him to Doc Naylor's...", she said after seeing the blood. "Get in our pick-up; it'll handle the roads better than your car. I'll go get the keys from Ned."
While her neighbor got the keys to the truck from her husband, Olivia scooped Andy up in her arms. "Mother, let me go too!", the distraught Jenny begged, forgetting there wouldn't be any room in the cab for her. "Please!"
Olivia eyed her oldest daughter coldly. "Haven't you done enough already? Get in the house and watch your sister. I'll deal with you when I get home."
Tears streamed down Jenny's face as she watched Mavis slowly manuever down the icy street and disappear onto the main highway. "Please let him be all right...", she prayed. "I'll never throw another snowball as long as I live."
"Jenny, I want to go in.", Cissy whined. "I'm cold out here."
"OK, let's go.", Jenny sniffled. The two went in the house. "Go change your clothes.", she whispered to Cissy, barely able to speak. "You're soaking wet."
The next three hours were the longest of Jennifer Anne Stocks young life. She got out of her wet clothes as well, and put on a housedress before making a sandwich for Cissy. As for Jenny, well, she was too upset to eat. All she could see was her little brother standing in the snow, crying his eyes out and blood all over his face. And it was all her fault. "Why didn't I listen!", she scolded herself. "Why did I have to throw that stupid snowball at him!"
Jenny paced back and forth in front of the picture window, her eyes never leaving the street outside. "What's taking them so long?", she asked over and over. All kinds of thoughts troubled her young mind. "Suppose Doc Naylor took them to the hospital?" "What if I took out Andy's eye?" No wonder she was a nervous wreck by the time she saw Mavis' headlights at the end of the road.
"They're home!", Cissy yelled. Both girls ran out on the porch as Mavis pulled into the driveway. Olivia and Andy emerged from the truck, a small bandage under the boy's left eye. Still shaken after the day's events, he held his mother's hand while she thanked her neighbor.
"Andy's going to be fine.", Olivia announced once all were in the living room, and to the great relief of Jenny. "He needed a couple of stitches. Doc Naylor said it looked worse than it really was. He also said Andy was very lucky. If that snowball had been a half-inch higher, he would have lost his eye."
Jenny took a deep breath. "Thank God...", she said softly.
Olivia took off her coat and hung it up. "Jennifer, can I see you in your room, please?"
The room took on an eerie silence as all eyes turned to Jenny. Her complexion turned ashen. She had been so concerned about Andy that she had given her mother's warning of "I'll deal with you later" no thought at all. She swallowed hard and slowly headed for the stairs, Olivia following a few steps behind.
Not a word was said when mother and daughter entered the bedroom. Olivia shut the door and walked to the dresser. Jenny shut her eyes when she saw her mom pick up the hairbrush. The 18-year-old was taken by the elbow and led to the bed. Olivia seated herself, placed the docile Jenny across her lap and the bed, and lifted the back of the housedress. Jenny fought back tears as her panty-clad bottom was exposed, and then felt the nylon briefs being rolled down to mid-thigh.
SMACK! SMACK! The back of the wooden hairbrush seared into her plump buttocks, leaving two hot-pink oval imprints on the milky-white skin. "Oh!", Jenny squeeled, already feeling the heat beginning to rise in her backside. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! She bit her lip, trying not to cry out. The first tears ran down her cheeks. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Bonfires erupted each time the brush exploded on her bottomcheeks. "Oh Mommy please...", Jenny pleaded, "I'm sorry..."
Olivia ignored her daughter's entreaties, and her rapidly-reddening behind. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! There was no lecture, no scolding. Instead, she let the hairbrush do all the talking. Jenny, unspanked for four years, would never do that again - Olivia was going to see to that. If it took a few blisters, so be it.
"OHHHH MOMMMMMY!", Jenny wailed, losing the battle. "AIEEEEE! IT HURTS! NO MORE! AIEEEEEE!" SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Her shoes drummed the floor; her purpling backside twisted over the maternal lap. Still, the spanking continued. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! "OWWWWW! AIEEEEEEE! NOOOOOOO!" SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! "WAAAAAA! WAAAAAHAAAA! WAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAHAAAAA!"
Jenny, reduced to sobs and exhausted from the painful ordeal, just laid there as her mother finished blistering her bottom. Task concluded, Olivia pulled up her daughter's panties over the swollen buttocks and helped her to her feet. She returned the hairbrush to the dresser and started to leave the room. "Mother I'm sorry...", Jenny sobbed, gently rubbing the seat of her underpants.
"Tell your brother that, not me.", Olivia told her. "And after you do, you can go straight to bed, young lady..."
Thirty minutes later, a teary-eyed Jenny made her way to the living room. "I'm sorry for what I did today...", the repentent girl told her brother. "It was an accident, and it was all my fault. I promise I'll never do it again. Please forgive me."
Andy, well aware that Jenny had been soundly spanked, felt sorry for her. "OK, I forgive you.", he replied with his first smile since the incident, and gave her a hug.
"All right, young lady. Go to bed. I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning.", Olivia ordered.
"Yes, Mommy.", Jenny meekly answered. She left the room, unable to keep her hands off the back of her housedress. Nor was she able to stifle a fresh onrush of tears. Climbing the stairs was excruciating; Olivia had deftly raised blisters where the swollen bottomcheeks met welted thighs. Jenny didn't mind missing supper that night...
Luckily for the thoroughly-spanked girl, the roads were still icy enough to close the school the next day. Stiff and sore, Jenny got up at her usual time the next day and took a shower. She stayed in there almost half an hour, letting the soothing water cascade over her black-and-blue buttocks. Not until Cissy knocked on the door did she come out. "I bet you're gonna have to sit on a pillow today!", the fresh-faced 10-year-old told her blushing sister. "Me and Andy could hear Mommy spanking you all the way in the living room yesterday!"
Jenny rushed to her room and shut the door. "Owwww...", she gasped when she sat down on the bed. She quickly got up, both hands on her rear. "Cissy's right, I DO need a pillow...", the grimacing senior moaned. "I don't know what I would have done if school wasn't closed."
Olivia called everyone for breakfast. Jenny slipped into the loosest-fitting pair of slacks she owned and went to the mirror to comb her hair. Out of habit, she reached for the hairbrush. Her hand wavered as Jenny thought about all the damage that brush did to her behind as the other hand massaged the seat of her pants. "I'll just use a comb..." It would be several days before she would brush her hair, coinciding with the time she could sit down with some degree of comfort...
Things were back to normal when Jenny came to the kitchen. Olivia was her usual good-natured self, and Cissy and Andy were excited about another day off from school. Except for Andy's bandage and Jenny's sitting on a pillow, no one would have guessed what the family went through yesterday. In fact, they never mentioned it while they were seated around the table, much to Jenny's relief. Afterwards, when the two youngsters went outside, she and Olivia did the dishes. "Judging by the way you were squirming at the table, I'd say your bottom is still a little sore...", Olivia said in a deliberate understatement.
"Yes, Mom...it is.", a red-faced Jenny replied. "It really hurts. I learned my lesson, though. I never want another spanking like that, ever."
The last of the dishes were being put in the cabinet when the doorbell rang. Olivia went to answer and returned with Chrissy. "Donna's helping out in the store this morning, so Mother said I could do whatever I wanted!", the eldest Hollings girl said. "Do you want to go over to Martha's? We can play in the snow and have a snowball fight, or..."
Jenny shook her head emphatically before Chrissy even finished what she was saying. "No, I don't think so. I've got some things Mom wants me to do around here. Don't you, Mom?"
"Oh, yes!", Olivia, caught off-guard, replied. "I sure do."
Chrissy shrugged her shoulders and started to leave. "By the way, what happened to Andy? I saw a bandage on his face."
"He just had a little accident, that's all. Nothing serious.", Olivia told her. Satisfied, Chrissy was on her way.
Jenny turned to her Olivia and gave her a hug. "Thanks, Mom. I've seen all the snow I want to see this winter..."