by John Chard
Pajama clad, Shelly Brooks crept quietly on bare feet into the den of her parents' house and turned on the computer. It was 1:00 AM. The rest of the family had retired for the night three hours earlier and were now sound asleep. At least she fervently hoped they were sound asleep.
A 19 year old sophomore at the state university, she was currently home visiting her family over a long holiday weekend. They were glad to have her back, even if only for a few days, for Shelly was, in most respects, a parent's dream. She had been an honor student in high school as well as a star athlete, both in volleyball and on the cross-country team. Her talents were ultimately rewarded with a scholarship to the state university where, now in her second year, she continued to excel both athletically and academically.
She was pretty too, five foot eight with long chestnut brown hair and blue eyes, and the firm solid body of an athlete. Yes, she knew her parents couldn't be more proud of her.
Of course, that made her even more self-conscious about her little early morning raid on the family computer. She just knew if they found out about her strange personal proclivities they would die, and yet she yearned to talk to someone about it, especially her mother with whom she had readily shared all of her other secrets, even the sex stuff.
Her mother had always been understanding, open minded and non-judgmental during their talks, but she feared that this strange fixation with spanking would just be too weird for her parent's suburban, upper middle-class sensibilities.
As the computer booted, each little sound it made seemed thunderous to her. She was seized by the irrational fear that someone would hear and come to investigate. Of course that would be no big deal at this point. She could just plead insomnia and say she was going to play games or e-mail a friend until she got sleepy. Soon though, she would be committed. Once she was into her favorite spanking story sites a sudden interruption could prove very embarrassing.
She let the computer boot fully then accessed the internet. At this point she stopped and went back into the hall just to make sure the others were all still sound asleep. Satisfied, she slipped back into the den and logged on to her favorite site.
The next two hours were spent devouring one story after another. She even printed a few that she really liked so she could read them again in the security of her room. Yawning, she looked at the clock and was shocked to see that the display now read 3:00 AM.
Oh shit, how did it get so late? she thought. She shut down the computer and returned to her room. Soon she was fast asleep.
Shelly's slumbers were ultimately interrupted by the sound of her mother calling for her younger brother.
"Bill! Bill Brooks, are you in this house?"
Shelly turned bleary eyes towards the digital clock on her end table. The big red display showed 09:00 AM. She got out of bed and padded to the door.
"Mom what's wrong?" she asked, still rubbing sleep from her eyes.
Her mother turned to face her still looking distracted. "Oh, I'm sorry, Shelly. I forgot you were still sleeping."
Shelly stretched and ran her fingers through her thick chestnut hair. "It's OK, mom. I should get up now anyway. What did Bill do?"
"Oh he's been looking at naughty web sites again. He's at that age you know."
A cold chill ran down Shelly's spine. "What was he looking at mom?"
Mrs. Brooks pursed her lips and shook her head. "I just don't know what to do with him, Shelly. I already grounded him for two weeks last month for this and just this morning I was clearing the temp history files and there were all these kinky sites on there. He must have been up half the night looking at that smut."
"Kinky?" asked Shelly, her stomach starting to churn.
Mrs. Books lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Oh they were sites about people spanking each other and I'm not talking about disciplining children either," she said.
Shelly's heart sank. She had hoped it would be something else, that her own crime had gone undetected. Now she knew what she would have to do. She couldn't let Bill take the rap. Not for something like this.
"Uh, mom? It wasn't Bill," she said, blushing. She read the confusion in her mother's eyes and wondered how long it would take her to put two and two together.
"Well, if it wasn't Bill -- don't tell me your father was in there last night?"
In spite of the tense, awkward situation, Shelly couldn't stifle a laugh. The thought of her straight-laced father up in the middle of the night looking at spanking sites was just too comical. Sometimes she wondered at the fact that she and Bill had ever been conceived. She took a moment to regain her composure.
"No, mom, it wasn't Daddy," she admitted, finally, turning her eyes toward the varnished, hardwood floor.
"You mean -- you? Shelly, you were looking at these things?"
"Yes, ma'am," she croaked.
Her mother looked at her quizzically, as if she were having trouble comprehending what she had just heard. At that moment, Shelly wished desperately that she could just slip though a crack in the floor and disappear.
Finally, after several seconds of very uncomfortable silence, her mother spoke. "Well, you're an adult now, Shelly, I guess what you look at on the internet is your business, but if you're going to look at things like that on our computer, please clear the history when you're done. Remember your little brother uses it too. I don't need you putting strange ideas into his head." Then, to Shelly's surprise, she turned and started to walk away.
"Mom, don't you want to talk about this?" she asked. "I know you must be a little shocked."
Her mother took a deep breath. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Yes, ma'am," she admitted. "I've kinda wanted to talk to you about it for a long time." She knew she must be blushing from head to toe.
Mrs. Brooks sighed. "Well, okay, sweetheart, but I've got to tell you I'm a little out of my league when it comes to this kinky stuff." She closed the door and they both seated themselves on the side of the bed. "I guess you'd better start, dear."
Shelly, took a deep breath and tried to marshal her thoughts. "Well, for starters, could we please not call it kinky stuff?" she began. "I feel like a big enough pervert right now as it is and that kinda makes it worse."
Mrs. Brooks put a reassuring hand on her daughter's knee. "I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I'm not as shocked you probably think either. The fact is some of my girlfriends have professed to like a little spanking with their love making. It just never occurred to me that my little girl would feel that way. I don't think it makes you a bad person," she said, gently.
Shelly was a bit surprised by her mother's revelation. She couldn't help mentally picturing her mother's usual bridge circle and wondering who the spanko was. "It's not really like that for me, Mom. I mean it's not so much a sex thing like it is for some people."
Mrs. Brooks frowned at her daughter, still struggling to comprehend her strange revelation. "Well, what is it about spanking that has you so fascinated then? You spent a good two hours looking at those stories last night."
Shelly buried her face in her hands. "Oh God, this is so hard to explain. Did you read any of those stories?"
"No, not really," admitted Mrs. Brooks. "I just skimmed over a few to see what they were about."
Shelly reached under her pillow and extracted the printouts from the story site. "I printed the ones that I kinda connected with. Maybe it would help if you read them," she said. Her hand trembled slightly as she offered the pages to her mother.
Mrs. Brooks took the proffered pages. "I think it might be better if I read these in my bedroom and come back. Would that be all right with you?"
"Okay, mom." She watched as her mother exited the room and closed the door. She knew it wouldn't take her long to pick out the common denominator in the stories she had printed. They weren't about sex at all really. They were all stories about mothers spanking their daughters as punishment for some misdeed. It was never cruel in the stories she liked. The discipline was firm, but it was always given with love and there was always forgiveness afterward. Still, she both wondered and feared what her mother's reaction would be when she returned from reading those stories.
Shelly spent the next several minutes fidgeting about her room. She paced the floor for a while then flopped down on the bed and tried to read a magazine article. Finally after about thirty minutes had passed she was startled by a knock on her door.
"Come in," she said. The door opened and Mrs. Brooks entered. Shelly sat up on the edge of the bed again and her mother joined her.
She cast her eyes towards the floor. "Well, I guess you read them."
"Yes, dear. I said I would, didn't I?"
"Do you understand?"
"I think I do," said Mrs. Brooks. She put her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Shelly, are you disappointed that I never punished you this way?" she asked, indicating the printouts. "That I never gave you a spanking like the mothers in these stories did? I mean, is that why you're so curious about all this spanking stuff? Is it just because you've never had one?"
"Why didn't you?" asked Shelly, finally mustering the courage to look her mother in the eye. "I know grandma spanked you when you were growing up. You guys still talk about it sometimes when she's here."
Mrs. Brooks couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh lord, she spanked me all right! More than a few times! I can't honestly say I enjoyed the experience either."
"But, you don't seem to hold it against her. I mean, when you guys talk about it you're all laughing and joking."
Her mother's face suddenly darkened. "Shelly Lynn Brooks! Of course I don't hold it against her. She's my mother and I can honestly say I deserved every one of those spankings. I didn't like getting them, but I never thought it was unfair, and as for laughing about it, well yes, I can laugh about it now, twenty plus years later, but I sure wasn't laughing when I got them," she said with another rueful chuckle.
"So why didn't you ever spank me?"
Mrs. Brooks turned worried eyes on her oldest child. "Well, I hope you don't think it's because I don't care about you. I may not have spanked you, young lady, but I certainly did punish you when you needed it."
Shelly groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh God, the groundings."
"You deserved them, Shelly and you know it!" said Mrs. Brooks, testily.
Shelly took her mother's hand. "I know I did, Mom. I'm not saying I didn't, but do you remember what it was like? The whole time I was grounded I was in a bad mood and I did everything I could to make you miserable too. Do you remember how tense things were between us? And it stayed that way for a while, even after the groundings were over. I hated that I felt that way towards you, but I couldn't help it. It was like I was being tortured."
"And you really think you would have preferred a spanking?"
"Yes!" asserted Shelly. "You'd do it and it would hurt and I'd probably cry and I'd be sorry and then it would be over with. Isn't that how it was with you and Grams?"
Mrs. Brooks slowly nodded as she thought back on those painful sessions over her mother's knee. "Well, I do remember I usually felt better once it was over. Your grandma never mentioned it again. Once you took your punishment you were forgiven," she admitted.
"And now you two can kid each other about it. Grams even talks about spankings she got sometimes. Can you see us in the future laughing about those groundings?"
"No dear, I can't really," said Mrs. Brooks. She looked at her daughter for a long moment. "I understand what you're saying dear, I really do. To tell you the truth there were a few times when I was very tempted to take your britches down, but your father and I had discussed this when you were little and he was dead set against spankings. So were most of the so called experts at the time. Anyway, that's why I never spanked you, but I am your mother and I've always loved you and cared for you. I hope you understand that, Shelly."
"I know, Mom. It's just when I hear you and Grams talking about it - well, I know it sounds stupid, but I feel left out. It's like this big bonding thing between you and now I'm nineteen and I know you and I will never have that."
"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that, young lady," said Mrs. Brooks as she stood up.
Shelly looked into her mother's eyes. She knew that look. Her heart skipped a beat. "You mean you're g-g-g-g-going to..." Shelly couldn't get the words out.
Mrs. Brooks arched an eyebrow as she looked down on her still seated daughter. "Put you over my knee and tan your fanny until it's red as a stop sign," she offered. She made sure to keep her expression stern, but she smiled a little inwardly as she watched the color drain from Shelly's face. "At least that's how they put it in one of those stories you like," she continued.
Shelly took a deep breath. "Are you really going to?" she asked. Her voice trembled noticeably.
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