Melissa swallowed. She knew that tone of voice, and it was not to be disobeyed.
“Dear Principal Gardener, please excuse Melissa from school this coming Friday. She violated her Curfew last night by two hours, and as such will be spending two days in the families front stocks, please alert all her teachers that they may give her any assignments and homework she would have received Friday that she will not find herself behind at school come Monday. Sincerely Mr, & Mrs. Walter Donnelly” Her father had initialed after her mother’s name, giving it the full weight of his authority.
“But, I…” she began.
“But, you did.” Her father interrupted in a matter-of-fact tone.. “And don’t glare at your brother like that, your mother was already writing this letter when he told us this morning that he had put himself to bed last night. Honestly, I had expected better of you. And you did this full well knowing the consequences of your actions. We discussed it when you started seeing your friends in the evenings, especially once they started to get cars of their own. A hard eight o’clock curfew on school nights, no exceptions. You yourself agreed to one full day in the stocks for each hour or part thereof you were late.”
“But, I never thought…”
“That I would be a man of my word, well I am, and I have done better for the family because of it. And I expect my daughter to be a lady of her word as well. So you will take this letter to your principal, and come home with all of your homework this afternoon, and prepare yourself for this. And come 6 AM tomorrow morning you will be in those stocks for 48 hours straight, and come Sunday morning, when you are my daughter again, I expect you to clean yourself up, put on your church dress, and come to church with the family, as I expect you will have some confessions to make.”
As her father spoke, a chill crept into her cramping stomach, her father meant it, it was going to happen, no appeals to Mom, no being sick in bed, nothing would stop it from happening.
School that day was awful. Principal Gardener took her note, and made a copy of it, he placed the original in her file, and instructed her to show the copy to all of her teachers. Half of them made her read it in front of the class. By the noon it seemed like everyone in school knew what was going on. The only person who would sit with her at lunch was Tanya, and she was actually kind of thankful for that.
Tanya had been put in her families stocks three times that she knew of, and the first time, she had gotten pregnant from one of the landscapers who has been fucking her all day, they didn’t know who the father was, but the kid had dark brown skin, and straight black hair, which was going to be strange on a kid with a last name of McGuire. It turned out that the second time Tanya was put out, it was when she was pregnant with the kid, her doctor had ordered her to have bedrest, but Tanya had snuck out with a friend to see a movie. Her Dad had rented a special punishment bed for the day, Tanya told her it was kind of like a gyno doctor’s examination table, but it strapped her down on her back, keeping her from moving, yet still gave anyone who wanted, access to,her, and he had taken it out of her allowance. The third time, wasn’t really that bad, she told Melissa, her boyfriend came by after school, and had fucked her most of the afternoon, which was kind of funny, because she had been put out because she had been caught fooling around in her room with him. Her dad had gotten angry after he got home late from work, and had made Tony leave, and he he had whipped her with the strap he used on the help, but she said it was still fun. She leaned forward to whisper in Melissa’s ear.
“I actually kinda got turned on when my dad was whipping me, maybe it was because I was so horny from my time with Tony, but the next night, I used my hairbrush handle to frig myself twice thinking about my Dad, and him whipping me.”
Melissa was shocked, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Thinking about her own father like that was just flat out wrong, but using being put out as a way to finally have sex with your boyfriend was interesting, but uggh she could never be so public and open about it like Tanya, she also quietly filed away the part about the hairbrush handle for later thinking, she had several hairbrushes, and suddenly, their shapes were new and interesting in her mind.
When school was over she found herself reluctant to leave, she sat in algebra as the rest of her class filed out after the last bell, she could feel their stares, hear their whispers and comments, it had been going on all day long. She had wanted this day to be over so much, but now each step home took her closet to her fate. She seemed locked into her desk, dreading, what she thought would be the end of her life.
“Worried about tomorrow dear?” The voice was right in front of her. Ms. Olivia, her algebra teacher was standing right in front of her, Melissa hadn’t even noticed her approach. She looked up, her round eyes glistening with tears. Melissa wanted to spill out all her fears, that Marcus would never have her back, never love her again, never marry her, that everyone would shun her, that she couldn’t live with the shame. She tried to speak, but couldn’t, her words tied themselves in knots and came out as a moaning sob.
“That’s okay Melissa, what you are feeling is normal, that this is the end of the world for you, that you’ll lose the respect of your friends and family, and so on. But remember, this isn’t happening to you, Melissa Donnelly, it’s happening to someone else. When you are put into this kind of punishment, as long as you are under a man’s authority, he has the power to declare you a Stranger for the duration of the punishment, and everything that happens, whatever people do to you, whatever you do, or feel, you remember that it’s not you, it’s a stranger doing and feeling these things. It’s happening to a stranger in the eyes of God, the Law, the public and your family.”
Melissa knew all this, had known all of this, but hearing it from someone else made her feel a little better.
“Plenty of young women have been put out for their transgressions, and have gone on to land fine husbands, others have found that they like being that ‘Stranger’, They find it liberating and exciting, and they contract themselves into periods of anonymous, absolute servitude, becoming what we call ‘The Help’,” continued Ms. Olivia, “Oh, I could tell you some stories about the girls in high school when I was your age!” She eyed Melissa sharply for a moment, “Some you might find extremely interesting, Melissa Donnelly.” The way Ms. Olivia said her name, with a peculiar emphasis, made her look up and study her teacher in a way she had never seen her before. She had always thought of Ms. Olivia as “older”, but she realized that she was still rather good looking, with a fit and trim body, maybe she spent a little too much time in the sun for her complexion, she wasn’t really tan, but covered in a fine spray of freckles, and her straight black hair was always pulled into a tight bun. Melissa realized that Ms. Olivia was of an age with her parents, and they had always chatted for what seemed like forever whenever there was any kind of parent/teacher get together. Melissa wondered just what she was talking about, what she knew about Mom and Dad.