This short story is an entry in the 2001 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments
Category: Adult
One Minute to Midnight
By
Starship <starship_64@yahoo.com>
The bell over the door rang pleasantly as Vasek entered the small print shop. "Why aren't you packing?" he demanded, frowning. "The train leaves for Danzig in just over an hour."
"I told you I'm not going," the short, raven-haired woman behind the counter replied sharply.
He sighed. "Alzbeta, we've no time for this." He marched over to the woman and grabbed her by the arm. She squawked and tried to pull away as he dragged her out from behind the counter and back through the door that led to her tiny flat behind the shop. "Now pack!" he ordered, giving her a push in the direction of the bureau. "Everybody is waiting for you."
She spun around and slapped him hard across the face. "You're not my father Vasek," she shouted, "and you're not my boss. We're partners on a newspaper, nothing more, and I'm not going to leave Prague just because you say so."
"Enough!" Vasek roared. Grabbing Alzbeta by the wrist, he sat down on the bed and yanked her across his lap. "I have had enough of your stubbornness," he thundered as he began bringing his hand down hard on her upturned rear. "You're getting on that train, and that's final!"
"Ow! Stop! You're hurting me!" Alzbeta yelped as she squirmed futilely in Vasek's grip.
Vasek paused the spanking, but did not release her. "Are you going to be reasonable now?"
"Why are you so insistent that I leave?" Alzbeta responded.
He sighed. "You know why. Czechoslovakia is collapsing. The Sudetenland; Ruthenia; Slovakia--all gone. There's just two provinces left now, and we both know that weakling puppet President Hacha is going to give even those to the Germans before the week is out."
"But..."
"No buts. You heard what happened to the socialist newspapers in Austria when the Germans came. They'll do the same thing here."
"That's why we have to fight!"
"We will fight," Vasek insisted. "But we'll do it as writers. From Danzig we can take a ship to England and there, perhaps, we can do some good."
"It's cowardly."
"It's realistic!" Vasek shouted, then took a deep breath. "There is a great darkness coming," he said, lowering his voice. "We've all felt it. It's as if Europe is just one minute away from a terrible midnight. I can't fight it from here; none of us can. But neither can I go to England and leave behind the woman I love."
Vasek released Alzbeta and she scrambled to her feet, then turned to face him. "You love me?" she asked him softly. "But you never said anything."
"I wasn't sure how you would respond," he told her. "But now that you know, I..."
"Shh," she whispered, quickly putting her finger across his lips. "Now now. There's no time."
"But..."
"Tell me later," she said as she turned to the bureau and began pulling out clothes. "First you have to help me pack. We've got a train to catch."
The End
© Copyright Summer, 2001
Reviews
Louiza <louiza(at)home(dot)com>
Very nice, classically romantic story, the kind if told in a movie back in the 1950s, they would've kept the spanking scene in. Cary Grant might've played Vasek. :)
Pablo <Pablo(dot)Stubbs(at)newsguy(dot)com>
Structurally solid and deep, this story loses nothing if the spanking is taken out, and yet it fits seamlessly and adds yet another layer. Some slightly over-expository dialogue, but it doesn't get in the way of a vivid sense of place and mood. A really nice piece of work.