by R.G. Chilton
Tammy Nelson bit back a smile, knowing that it wouldn't do to sound happy. Being raised by a working single mother had its good points and bad ones, but if you went looking you could find enough good points to outweigh the bad ones. This was a case in point - Tammy knew that if her mother was a stay-at-home one then she wouldn't be able to get away with her latest game.
For once her mother's erratic hours were working for her. Sure, her mother might have missed countless plays, recitals, and other events, but everyone knew her mother could be home any time from four to seven, just as they knew her mother did a lot of traveling while working. It wasn't quite a door to door job, but her mother often had to visit clients in their homes so she could be almost anywhere at any time (something that Tammy had learned to her sorrow more than once), which was the second reason the plan worked.
And it was such a simple plan! It was barely even hers. Last Christmas she had seen a particular old movie for the umpteenth time, and one of the scenes had stuck in her mind. It was the one where the narrator had said a filthy word and while he was sucking on a bar of soap he had lied about where he had heard it, saying he had heard it from a friend and not his father. The boy's mother had called the friend's mother, and after the lie was passed on the mother listened while the other woman closed in on her own son and started smacking.
Spanking wasn't that common in Tammy's neighbourhood (she for one had never had her tail even swatted), but there were some families that did spank. That night, trying to fall asleep as her sugar high warred with her exhaustion, Tammy found herself thinking it was a shame that the time of a phone call like that one was decades past, when it hit her: did it have to be?
A few weeks after that, Tammy thought about it again. One of the witches (with a capital B) in the neighbourhood had seen Tammy doing something that she shouldn't have done and called (actually called!) Tammy's mother to let her know about it. While her mother droned on and on (giving her a good talking to), Tammy couldn't help but mentally compare the call with the one in that movie. It was basically the same thing happening, only the call hadn't been based on a lie and Tammy wasn't getting her butt smacked. But if Tammy's mother had believed in smacking butt then that brief phone call might have left Tammy with a sore behind.
All it would really take was a phone call to the right person, but Tammy knew her mother would never go along with it. An adult reporting misbehaviour was one thing, tattling was another. Growing up, Tammy had learned that the fastest way to get into trouble was to tell on her brother Brad, just as he had learned not to tell on her. If either of them tattled and it wasn't a matter of life and limb then both would share the resulting punishment. No, her mother was out, but maybe...
It had taken months of practice with a recorder to get it down right, but finally Tammy had her mother's voice down pat. The hardest part was choosing words that her mother used; Tammy was forced to expand her vocabulary and change her manner of speaking, but by summer she reached the point where she could mimic her mother.
The first test was a nothing, just a call to a friend's mom, nothing more than:
"Hi, I hate to do this, but can you fit Tammy in your car when the girls go for swimming lessons? Thanks!"
Then it was just a matter of Tammy telling her mother that she was getting a ride with that friend. The thrill of doing it, of impersonating her mother and no one suspecting a thing, was wonderful! She could only use the house phone to make the calls - Tammy knew that caller ID was probably helping her with the act, that if you pick up the phone and expect it to be Mrs. Nelson then that was who you heard, but however it worked, it worked! The hardest part was remembering to refer to them by their first names and not Mrs. Whatever.
After a few more dry runs, of nothing calls that proved that she could do it, Tammy got the opportunity to make a real call. Ted Clavin had done something in full view of half the neighbourhood (where Tammy's mother could have seen it if she'd been driving past) and he'd even joked that if his mom ever found out she'd tan his tail for it.
It had been hard keeping the excitement out of her voice, but Tammy had managed as she did a carefully rehearsed, "I hate to tell you this, Tina, but..." speech to Mrs. Clavin. Mrs. Clavin had sighed, complained a bit about how hard it was to keep track of kids, and thanked Tammy's mother for passing along the info. Tammy hadn't actually heard the start of the spanking, but the next day Ted had complained to Tammy about her mother telling on him, rubbing at the seat of his pants while he did it.
The thrill that had given Tammy made the 'I impersonated mom' one go pale by comparison. It wasn't so much that Ted had gotten spanked (hardly a month went by without that happening), but that he gotten it because of her actions. She had gotten him spanked just as surely as if she had been the one dishing it out. His butt might still sting, and if it did then it was all because of what she had done! And since it had worked this time she knew that she could do it again, that any time she wanted to she could call Mrs. Clavin and Ted would be spanked. The feeling of power grew even more when Tammy remembered how in the movie the call had been based on a lie - that she could even lie and Ted would get spanked for something he hadn't done.
Then a little voice nagged at her. Tammy knew that when she got in trouble for something she hadn't done, that she didn't let the matter rest, and days later she would still be complaining. If Ted was like that and complained enough and Mrs. Clavin decided to check to see if Tammy's mother was 'really, really sure' that Ted had done that, then Tammy's mother would say that she had no idea what Mrs. Clavin was talking about, and that would start a search that would lead them to...
So I'll only tell on real stuff, Tammy told herself.
Her next phone-call got someone grounded, but Tammy didn't find that as satisfying as getting Ted spanked. What were a few less hours of TV compared to a sore butt? She started asking around as diplomatically as she could, but she couldn't ask too many questions without sounding ghoulish. Tammy's list of those whose butt paid for their misbehaviour was a short one. There was Ted Clavin, of course, and Kristian Williams, and the Brooks girls. Tammy knew there had to be other kids who got it, but those were the only ones she could discover, and Ted was the only boy on the list. She thought about asking her brother about it (she was sure that Brad would know about more boys who were spanked), but she couldn't find a way to ask him that wouldn't sound weird.
While getting people grounded wasn't as much fun, Tammy knew that if 'Mrs. Nelson' only called those three families then someone might think something weird was going on, so she made sure that other parents got phone calls. And sometimes those calls worked out for Tammy, like the time Shelley Evens got grounded and suddenly there was an extra seat in the car and Tammy took Shelley's place on an outing.
It wasn't easy, but Tammy forced herself to ration the phone calls. It wasn't like her mother was always zipping through the neighbourhood and could see everything so she couldn't call every day, but Ted's spankings increased from roughly monthly to roughly weekly.
As summer went on Tammy's only disappointment was that she wasn't witnessing any of the havoc she was causing. Oh, she had spotted a bit of colour when one of the Brooks girls' swimsuits rode up, but that was all, and Tammy had seen things like that before she'd started causing spankings.
Then came the day when all that changed.
Tammy was on the phone with Mrs. Williams, telling her about something that Kristian had done.
"...I'm sorry to have tell you about this, Hope, but I thought you would want to know. I know I would if Tammy had done it," Tammy said.
"Of course. Could you hold on for a second?"
Tammy froze; she didn't have a carefully rehearsed script for that question. Luckily, Mrs. Williams put the phone down without waiting for a reply.
Tammy was wondering if she should hang up when she heard voices approaching the phone. She thought she could make out Kristian saying, "But Mom..." and that decided things for her. If Kristian was going to claim innocence and Mrs. Williams wanted confirmation then Tammy knew she had to stay on the line.
Tammy heard someone fumble with the phone.
"Hello? Gloria? You still there?"
"Of course," Tammy answered.
Then she heard a smack land and a yelp from Kristian. Tammy almost dropped the phone when she realized what it meant - that Kristian was being spanked right there and then!
"Well, I had a little chat with Kristian, and there's something I think you should know," Mrs. Williams said as she gave her daughter a few more smacks.
Tammy could hardly concentrate on Mrs. Williams' words, what with all the smacking going on. That, and Kristian's ignored protests.
"Um, yes?" Tammy said.
"That your Tammy was right there when it happened! I don't know how you could have spotted mine and missed yours," Mrs. Williams said as she spanked away.
"Um, but..."
"But you'll have a little talk with Tammy and it will be just a talk, right?" Mrs. Williams said, resignation in her voice.
Resignation or not, Mrs. Williams didn't halt the spanking. Tammy didn't know what to say, so said nothing.
"Well, I thought you might want to hear a bit of the talking to my daughter is getting," Mrs. Williams continued, still spanking. "And since you're becoming the eyes and ears of the neighbourhood, I was wondering if you were holding your kids to the same standards you're setting for others. If you feel like sending Tammy over I'm sure the room can hold another set of glowing buns staring out from the corner."
Mrs. Williams finished that sentence with a particularly loud smack on Kristian's backside. Tammy's mouth went dry. Her mind was blank.
But Mrs. Williams didn't pause for a reply.
"No? Just remember that not everyone has the same type of talks with their kids, and that bit about glasshouses. Sure, kids act up, but unless it's something serious I'm not sure I want to hear about it. Just think about how Tammy must feel, knowing that Kristian blames her mom for this spanking."
"Um..."
Obviously not in the mood for a reply, Mrs. Williams hung up before Tammy could finish that word.
"Wow," Tammy said to the dial tone. "Just... Wow!"
She could barely believe what she had just heard. Knowing that Kristian would be spanked and actually hearing it. Before now Tammy couldn't believe that two things could be so different as those two were.
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