by Susan Thomas
All was peaceful in our house. Mom was busy making an enormous pot of beef stew. When it was done she'd batch it up and freeze it. She's great at that is my mom. She makes soups, stews, casseroles, and pies in big batches and freezes portions so that we have something 'decent' to eat in the evenings without takeout or 'garbage' food - her words. I was studying as it was my last year at high school. I was seventeen but Mom wielding that big wooden spoon of hers still had the capacity to make me nervous.
When I was younger, and if I sassed Mom, or disobeyed her, that wooden spoon would smack hard across my bottom, and boy did it smart. Mom would not accept any rudeness, sass, disobedience, or laziness. If I foolishly went against those precepts I could likely find myself over her knees having my bottom set on fire. That all stopped when I was older and Mom, for some reason, decided that I was too old to spank so we had screaming rows instead.
Between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, my 'naughty years' as I like to call them, the rows were terrible. Now at seventeen we still had rows, but the evening my life changed forever, all was peaceful, and then the doorbell rang. I looked up puzzled. It was dark outside, and raining so it was not likely to be a cold caller or a religious person. My friends would message me, not call round, so who could that be?
Mom left the kitchen and said, "The stew is simmering. I'll see who that is."
She went through to the living room and out into the lobby, shutting the door behind her I guessed so as not to disturb my study. I went back to what I was doing and gave the front door no more thought. Then I realized Mom had been gone some time, and suddenly panicked. I was just about to go to the door myself when Mom came back in with a man. To me he looked like a cop. I stared at him and then saw Mom was looking very pale and shocked.
Apart from Mom my only other living relative was Uncle David, Mom's brother, and this man had the look of a cop - so had something happened to my uncle? The stranger was about six feet tall, not bulky but athletic looking with a strong face that looked like it had seen things most of us don't see. His light brown hair was cut short and very neat. He was staring at me. I stood up in a rush.
"Is my Uncle David OK? He's not hurt is he?" I asked.
The man replied in a pleasant voice, "No, he's fine. I met him at the airport but didn't recognize him although he recognized me."
"He's got very fat the last year or so and he's going bald. He's still lovely just needs to shed a few pounds," I said.
The man smiled at me and I didn't know what to think so turned to Mom who still had that shocked look. Finally she said in a really strange voice, "Megan, this is your father, Joseph Lancaster."
Now this is true, no word of a lie, I remained very calm and simply said, "Well you'd better sit down. You too Mom, before you fall down, and I'll make some tea for us all."
I made the tea with shaking hands and thought hard. Mom had always been honest with me. She was a very naughty teenager, wild and silly. She'd met a boy only slightly older than her and fallen hopelessly in love. He was going to join the army and made it clear he had no long-term plans, but they became lovers. Mom was blunt that she was careless and got pregnant with me. Had it not been for my grandparents, life would have been very tough indeed.
Even the very house we lived in was courtesy of the inheritance Mom and David shared when my grandparents died young. I took the tea in and we all sat looking at one another.
"Megan," said the man, "I want you to know that I did not know of your existence until David told me. I came straight here having learned about you."
Mom suddenly spoke. "That's true Megs. I didn't know I was pregnant until after Joe went off to the army. I never tried to contact him. I rejected an abortion, considered giving you up for adoption and when you were born, took one look at you, and couldn't do it."
The man who was my father spoke. "Tomorrow is Saturday so you don't have school and your mom isn't working. I thought maybe I'd come over and get to know you."
I wasn't rude, just very firm. He might be my father but I had a life of my own. "No, not possible. I work at a diner on Saturday as a waitress. We finish at four when the diner closes then I'm going out with friends."
He looked disappointed but didn't argue. "OK, I understand." Then to my mom he said, "May I see you, Abby?" Mom nodded and then he said to me, "Will you come back early evening so that we can talk?"
I agreed. My friends are not wild. I'd done my wild thing around thirteen to fifteen. Now I was very cautious. My friends are all sensible and nice because I got scared I'd end up like Mom, a single parent working hard to raise a kid. After work on Saturday we didn't do a lot, just hung out, but it was fun, and Steven Hlavac asked me again for a date. I gave him a kiss on the cheek as I said no. I kept refusing dates with him and he kept asking. The problem was I liked him way too much. He sent exotic tingles through my body and I could easily have ended with him inside me, which is pretty much what happened to Mom.
I went home at eight and could tell everything had changed. Or rather nothing had changed since Mom got pregnant. She was wildly in love with Joseph Lancaster, clearly still was, and looking at him, I could tell he was wildly in love with her. I could also tell, although quite how I wasn't sure, that they had been making love. I don't mean a kiss and a cuddle type of making love. I mean the whole way. Mom had a soft contented look about her and he looked... well pleased with himself somehow. I hoped they'd used contraception because if he disappeared back into the army, mom would be stuck all over again.
Then this man, this stranger to me, who apparently was my father, said, "Megan, your mom and I are going to get married. Until we can do that, and sort out a place to live, I'm moving in. I'll be using the spare room for now."
I did not react well to this. "Oh are you indeed! I am not having you sponging off my mom. She's great with money but there is none to spare for a freeloader."
Mom did not react well to me! She went straight into one of her screaming rages but only got a few words in when he put his hand over one of hers and said firmly, "Enough!" To my astonishment Mom stopped. She never stopped for me but just one gentle hand and one word from Mr. Joseph Lancaster and there was silence!
Then he turned to me and said, "It is to your credit you defend your mom. That's good. You've rushed to judgment about me, but I guess in the circumstances it's understandable, and I forgot you know very little about me. I am not going to sponge, as you put it, off your mom. I shall be picking up all of the household expenses from now on. I've left the army and will be seeking a job in law enforcement. I have plenty of savings and an inheritance from my parents shared with my two sisters."
That put me firmly in my place! I decided I wasn't going to speak to him because I didn't like suddenly being the outsider in my own home. Mom and he were tight and I felt like I was outside the circle. I soon discovered that he was no pussy cat. He might be soft spoken but... I saw it first with Mom; where she might have started ranting at me now she looked at him and immediately toned down. She wasn't afraid of him, it was like at school, where you have strict teacher, and you simply are quieter and better behaved. Mr. Joseph Lancaster was strict with Mom and she loved it.
Mom was like a flower unfolding from the bud and it happened very quickly. She became somehow more feminine, less hard. Her stress levels disappeared. Well not all the time of course. The following Saturday I went out after work and said I'd be back by about seven. I wasn't. We went to the cinema so it was ten before I got home - not really awful for seventeen but not what I'd told mom. He was upstairs in his room, probably filling in a job application, and Mom reverted to screaming at me.
I would have begun screaming back at her. We would have had a good old-fashioned full blooded row but suddenly he was there again. He gave Mom a very stern look indeed and she stopped! I was like... Wow!
"Abby," he said sternly, "that is unacceptable. We have talked about this haven't we."
Mom was so humble it was unbelievable. "Yes Joe."
"Then go upstairs to your room. I'll be up in a minute. You know what must happen don't you?"
There was a very quietly spoken and somewhat nervous, "Yes Joe," and Mom went on upstairs.
Then I got the stern look. "Why are you so late back?"
"Ten is late! I'm seventeen you know."
"You said you'd be back at seven so yes, ten is late."
"We went to the cinema. The Killer Woods II in case you're interested. It's lame, so don't bother."
"And you couldn't text to say what you were doing because...?"
I shrugged. "I could have done but-"
"In future you will communicate so that your mother doesn't worry. Mothers and fathers worry even if you are seventeen. That is not to happen again. I hope that is clear."
I was uncertain what was happening but clearly something had changed in my life so I said nothing. Then he repeated "Clear?" but his voice, although quiet, had more edge to it.
"Yeah sure it's clear."
"Good. Now you are to stay down here while I go and deal with your mother's temper tantrum."
"What are you going to do?"
He looked at me with an odd expression. It sort of implied he was surprised I didn't know. "Do? Why I'm going to put her over my knees and spank her of course. Screaming at you like that does no good whatsoever."
I was shocked. "You can't do that!"
"Yes I can. Your mom understood that about me before I went away and she understands it now. She accepted that way of life along with the proposal of marriage. It's just a spanking, Megan. Nothing serious that will injure her in any way. Her butt will be hot and sore for a while but that's it."
"And you two get in a stress because I was later than I said I'd be! I mean that is kinda major don't you think? Perhaps you should have explained all that." He looked at me hard for a moment so I added, "You're not in the army now you know. You don't just chuck out rules and regulations without explanation."
Not to be reposted, reproduced or distributed, in part or whole.