SSC 2010: The Looming Strap, by Discipline155

So, this was it. Mary, my leathery-faced Seventysomething Texas LadyLawyer told me that she'd call me when the Final Appeal came in. Every day for the last six weeks have been nail-biters. I was convicted in Royal Court of Accessory to Fraud, and was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Of course, I appealed. The law is clear: when and if your Final Appeal is Rejected, off to jail you go. If it was good news, Mary would have told me. Why call me in for a meeting? But, called in I was.

I sat down whole Mary finished a telephone call. Avoiding eye contact and looking serious, Mary handed me the postcard: FINAL APPEAL DENIED: All Appellate opportunities. Exhausted. Report to Incarceration Station #3....

"So, young man", Mary began with that raspy, smoky-voice West Texas grunt, "This is it, I'm'fraid". Yeah, so was I: afraid.

Silence. Then, Mary resumed, looking very uncomfortable. "It's time we talked turkey about somethin'", she said. I knew and I did not know what to expect next. Mary looked more uncomfortable with each second. "Situiation's tough in thar", Mary said, meaning: It's pretty dangerous in there, inside Riverview State Prison for Men. "They maintain purdy strick law'n'order in thar", she continued," and I gotta be frank wid'ya", Mary said with a pause, "no way to beat around it, no, uh joke intended"-and here she chuckled---then she shifted gears.

"Boy, ever git yer ass beat?" she said. I thought that this might be coming. I paused. "You mean little schoolyard bouts?", I asked.

"Nooooo", Mary said looking bemused," I do not", she said," I'm talking about getting' yur bee-hind strapped up with a leather belt and getting' taken over the knee". That pause again. I replied: "Well, my Grandmother once spanked me over the knee", I said. That laugh again from Mary." No, boy: this ain' yer Grandmomma's spankins", she said. "This state uses discipline in jails in three ways", she said. My mind immediately went to: Okay, how can I outmaneuver, manipulate and jigsaw around all three?

"First, ya git it and git it good when you first go in there, and that's what we have to face today", Mary said. All frivolity was gone from her voice now. "The second is if you mess up with rules in there. Not a good thing, tsk tsk tsk", she said and waved her finger in the 'Don't-Be-Naughty' style. "Third thing is if someone in authority takes a shine ta ya", she said. I asked: " You mean, some sort of attraction thing?" Mary smirked: "Yeah,'Some sort of attraction thing' you could call it, and that's likely to happen".

Bottom line, Mary said: I will get the leather fanny-strapping of my life on Day One. Mary did not spare the details. As I enter the prison now, I know what to expect. The fear overwhelms. I soldier on..."Inmate 5776-09 NEXT!", I heard. That was me. My stomach tightened, my mind's eye went wild.

Kris email

I think this was an attempt to build tension in one of our favorite ways: through talking about an impending spanking. I liked some of the details, such as Mary being all leathery faced. The main character is obviously intentionally invisible, so the reader can insert themselves, which gives whatever details we can garner about everything else a greater impact. I think the story could benefit greatly from Mary's dialogue focusing more on the juicy details of various punishments; she says she's going to be frank, but contradicts that by stating that he's going to "git it", and then moves on to the fact that it's dangerous to let someone in power "take a shine to him" without coming out and out saying what she means. The author is either implying that the narrator is going to be somebody's butt-buddy, or, possibly, that by letting someone in power take a shine to him, that he'll be strapped more. Either way, the story does not benefit from Mary failing to come out and say exactly what she meant; certainly if the second theory is true, it would be more pertinent to a spanko themed story, and could have tagged the ending with the narrator knowing that not only is he going to get the strapping of his life on his first day, but that he might be further strapped by someone in power, or even other inmates, just for their amusement. 'Cause, you know, it's a kinky prison.

Crimson Kid email

Well, this narrative clearly fits in the "Imbalance of Power" category--clearly a convicted prisoner has very little control of his circumstances. What I enjoyed most about this first-person story is the way that the septugenarian lady Texas lawyer is portrayed, as a person of old-fashioned, country-style knowledge presumably gained by long, hard experience; she certainly didn't 'pull any punches' or try to minimize the ordeal that her client was going to face while incarcerated, making it clear what was going to happen to him even via backwoods-type language: "No, boy: this ain't yer Grandmomma's spankins."

The author does a good job of building the dread anticipation of a fairly common staple of spanking stories, the mandated introductory dose of institutional corporal punishment that a newcomer is unavoidably going to undergo. Of course, the narrator's lawyer has already given him more bad news regarding potential future leatherings, so he has that possibility to worry about as well (but in the back of his mind) just as his number is called.

Finally, I was amused by the typical 'lawyerspeak' of the old country attorney: "...and that's what we have to face today." "We," hmmmmm? So is this elderly woman going to be bending over and baring her seventyish backside for the strap right alongside her client? Didn't think so..."