by LSF Publications
by Steve Timmons
Sarah Jane was completely distraught. After all the years of lies and half-truths, of broken dates and broken promises, after everything she had done to hide her shameful secret, it was all about to come crashing down on her and there wasn't a thing she could do about it!
As she paced about within the confines of her bedroom, frantically trying to think of some way to stave off the inevitable, one thought predominated all others: Why oh why had she been so foolish? She knew her strict, super-conservative and overly-protective parents would be furious with her if they found out about last night, but she'd gone with her girlfriends anyway and, of course, her parents had found out, in the worst possible way!
Alright, people in this town didn't approve of such things but, damn it all, it's the twenty-first century, she had a real job, she paid her own way, she was twenty-one, or would be in a couple of months anyway. She was an adult, even if she was still living in her parents' home and sleeping in the same bedroom she'd had since she'd turn thirteen! If she wanted to go out for a couple of drinks and dinner with some of the girls from work, why shouldn't she? Stupid question, she knew the answer and that's why she was pacing around in her bedroom, waiting. Waiting and raging at the cruel twist of fate which had been her undoing.
The Road House was three towns away, all the way over in Carroll County. No one knew her there. She'd gone with three of her friends, safety in numbers. A couple of drinks and dinner, everyone raved about the food at the Road House. Then, home safe and dry by 9:00 PM. That had been the plan, anyway. But the band had been hot and the place was full of single men who all seemed to want to dance with Sarah and her friends. It had all been so... so exhilarating!
Then the fight broke out.
It didn't even involve her little group, just a couple of guys who'd had too much to drink and gotten up in one another's faces. Even that wouldn't have been so bad but each of those guys was with a bunch of good old boys and what started off as a two man fight quickly became a general melee! Sarah and her friends were cut off from the exit and could only hunker down behind a partition and hope they wouldn't be clobbered by any of the flying furniture.
The owner called the Sheriff and soon the place was swarming with deputies who began herding the combatants into separate corners. That seemed like a good time to clear out so Sarah and her friends started edging toward the exit. They were almost in the clear, but just as they got to the door, they ran into the reinforcements from Clark County, led by none other than Deputy Jimmy Benson!
Well, he'd gotten them all safely out of there and Sarah safely home to her parents. Safely, that was ironic. Once her father found out what she'd been up to, home was anything but safe!
Sarah had known Jimmy forever. He was four years older than her and a friend of her brother, Bob. Back when she was a kid, he used to tease her whenever he came to the house. She didn't mind, she was happy for the attention. Even as a seven-year-old, she'd had a huge crush on him. With that age difference, she was a high school freshman when he was a senior but that didn't matter to her, she was still crazy about him.
After high school, Jimmy joined the Army where he became an MP. He returned home during her senior year, and soon got on the Sheriff's Department. He graduated from the training academy a month before her Senior Prom, and when he came round to the house in his uniform he looked so handsome that Sarah almost... well, you know.
The very next day, with her heart in her throat, Sarah asked Jimmy to take her to the Prom. She'd nearly fainted with joy when he said he would be happy to escort such a lovely young lady! That was almost three years ago and they'd been together ever since. Together, in spite of all the times she'd broken dates and changed plans at the last minute because she just couldn't let him discover her awful, shameful secret. And now, he was on his way over and there was nowhere to hide and no way to keep him from finding out.
Her father would be knocking on her door at any moment. When he did, he'd be carrying that dreadful strap she knew all too well, had known far too often since first encountering it's fiery sting shortly after she'd become a teenager. It was a knowledge she'd striven to keep secret, just within the family, but when Jimmy arrived and saw her tear-stained face, it would all come out.
Then she had the most horrible thought of all. What if he arrived while it was still going on and heard her crying and screaming like a little girl as her father's strap raised welt after flaming red welt on her bare backside while she lay twisting and squirming across her bed? What if her father had even planned it that way to maximize her humiliation? After all, he'd never before delayed her punishment a full day. That must be it, she realized in utter despair. He wanted Jimmy to know what a silly little girl she really was! And then... and then Jimmy would never want anything more to do with her!
It was all just too much to bear and, in utter misery, she collapsed on her bed and sobbed her heart out.
Unbelievably, she realized she must have fallen asleep, for when the dreaded knock finally came, over an hour had passed. A little disoriented she sat up and whispered, "Come in."
Not until the second knock did she realize she'd not been heard. Usually that didn't matter to her father who generally opened the door immediately after knocking.
"Come in," she repeated, louder this time.
Sarah Jane's emotions ran the gamut from surprise to hope to relief as Jimmy stepped into her bedroom, and then to dismay and embarrassment when she realized Jimmy was carrying her father's strap. Trembling, she rose unsteadily to her feet to face the man she loved above life itself.
A glance at Sarah's stricken face was all it took for Jimmy to abandon his well thought out game plan. Instead, he dropped the strap on the floor and opened his arms to her. Sarah tumbled in, resting her face against the tall man's broad chest. As she felt his strong arms enfold her, she broke down, sobbing over and over, "Oh Jimmy, Oh Jimmy."
After she'd settled down a bit, he led her to the bed. As they sat down together, Jimmy scooped the strap up from the floor and laid it on the end of the bed. Sarah looked at it and then at Jimmy before saying, "You know... Oh lord, I'm so embarrassed!"
"Yes," he confirmed. "I've known for some time."
"How...?"
"When you began canceling dates and it seemed like you were avoiding me sometimes, I started discretely checking around to see if there was another guy. When I couldn't turn anything up, I had a word with your brother and he told me."
"Oh," she said softly as she dropped her eyes, no longer able to meet his gaze.
"You could have told me yourself, you know," he chided her lightly.
"I was too embarrassed and afraid."
"Afraid of what, Sarah?"
"Afraid you'd think I was still a kid and wouldn't want me anymore."
"Why on earth would you think a thing like that?" Jimmy asked her, completely baffled.
"Well you're four years older and I was worried you might think I was too young for you if you knew my daddy still strapped me when I did something wrong."
Shaking his head in amazement, Jimmy said, "Look at me, pretty one."
She fixed her eyes on his and smiled in spite of everything, because she really loved it when he called her that.
Taking her hands in his, Jimmy went on, "I love you, Sarah Jane, and I'll always want you. That's why I got this," he concluded as he fished the small, blue velvet case from his pocket, opened it and placed it in her trembling hands.
With a quaver in her voice she asked, "Does my father know? What did he say?"
With a grin, Jimmy answered, "He knows and he said 'what took you so long?'"
Tears of joy welled up in her eyes as she whispered, "Oh Jimmy, yes, yes, yes!"
With incredible tenderness, he used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her eyes. Then he kissed her, warmly, softly, deeply. For a while they just held one another until, at length, Jimmy said, "Now, Sarah, we have to talk."
Riding an emotional roller coaster, Sarah listened as Jimmy told her of his activities in the previous twenty-four hours.
"When I brought you home last night, the look on your father's face told me what was in store for you. I hated to leave, knowing what he had in mind, but I had to get back on duty so I quickly told him I'd be back tonight, that I had something very important to discuss with him and I asked him not do anything until after we talked. He promised he'd wait."
That answers one question, anyway, Sarah thought.
"This afternoon, I went out and bought this ring. When I got here about an hour ago, I showed it to him right away and said that, with his permission, I planned to ask you to marry me."
"Oh, well done, Jimmy," Sarah reflected silently. "Dad must have loved that."
"Your father thanked me for showing him that respect," Jimmy went on, unknowingly confirming Sarah's thoughts. "That's when he asked what had taken me so long so I explained that all the broken dates and canceled plans had me wondering about your true feelings about me until Bob told me what was at the bottom of it all. Your folks said they were glad I'd not let that put me off and how happy they were at the prospect of having me as their son-in-law. That's when I decided to take a chance."
"What chance, Jimmy?"
"I asked your dad not to whip you for being at the Road House last night!"
"Oh Jimmy, thank you, thank you!" Sarah squealed in great delight as she threw her arms around her fiancé in a fierce hug.
Jimmy enjoyed the embrace for a few moments before he brought her back to reality.
"He agreed, on one condition."
Sarah's sudden change of expression told him she'd already guessed what the condition was.
"That's right," he said confirming her unspoken supposition. "He told me he'd leave it to me to give you your whipping. Said he thought it was the best way to let you know that being married to me wasn't going to mean you wouldn't be punished when you got out of line. You know, Sarah, in some ways he's really a very traditional man."
"No kidding," she responded with a roll of her bright blue eyes.
Even as she said it, her insides were turning flip flops. What Jimmy didn't know, what was still a secret known only to her, was that she'd helped herself get through more than one of her father's whippings by imagining that it was Jimmy who was actually swinging the strap!
"Listen here, Sarah Jane," Jimmy admonished her. "Traditions can be a good thing, especially if they help a married couple maintain harmony in their home.
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