Fantasy Friday - Telling Allie

Happy Friday to everyone. This is a big weekend for me - my fortieth high school reunion is tomorrow. Truly an amazing feat for the thirty something I feel like. But I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends and maybe a couple of old enemies, but I think it should be fun.

Cassie has been very busy in my head lately so I thought for today's Fantasy Friday I'd give you a little from the forth book, Cassie's River Living - and of course I want to mention that it's on sale for 99 cent right now. In this story, Allie, Cassie's young neighbor has just found out that Cassie and Tom's marriage includes spanking. This concept is totally new to Allie and she is having a hard time processing it. Cassie realized she is going to have to talk with her about the whole things, but she wonders how to start.

Please enjoy…

Telling Allie

It certainly didn’t take Allie long to come over. I poured her a cold soft drink, nearly shuddering as I did so and then got a cup of warm delicious coffee for myself. We took our drinks to the deck. I like talking on the deck – if you don’t feel comfortable during your talk, you can look out and watch the water.

We sat quietly at first, each waiting, I think, for the other to speak. I know I would have been more comfortable if she had just asked me what she wanted to know, but I can only imagine how hard that would have been for her, so I began first.

“Sweetie, I was in bed last night before it dawned on me why you were so upset. So let me give you my best guess.” I took a deep breath and plunged in. “I’m guessing Ryan told you that Tom has been known to spank me on occasion and I think that’s upset you. I realize now that some of your questions when we were talking about my first husband were really you fishing for the truth to what Ryan had told you. You feel I wasn’t honest with you. So how’m I doing?”

Bless her heart, she was still so upset and couldn’t even speak without crying so she just nodded.

“Oh Allie, don’t look like that,” I pleaded. “You have to understand that when Tom and I were younger and first married, this was a very common practice. Tom didn’t hurt me and I’m certainly not angry with him. Now I knew full well what he would do if he caught me taking the boat out yesterday – of course I didn’t think he’d catch me – but I took the risk with the knowledge he would spank me if he caught me.”

“But, Cassie, that’s just awful. I can’t believe that Tom actually hits you – I can’t understand that,” she told me, her voice still cracking with emotion.

I bristled at the word ‘hit’, but I let it pass for the moment. “First off,” I began. “I can just imagine the picture you have in your mind of what happened yesterday after you left. Let me change that to a more accurate one. Child, surely you’ve seen all the old ‘I Love Lucy’ shows.”

Allie looked puzzled at the change in conversation, but she nodded.

“Well if you’ll remember there were several shows when Ricky took Lucy over his knee when he was particularly exasperated with her, remember?” Again Allie nodded. “Well picture that when you think of Tom spanking me, just an annoyed husband who needs to make sure he has his wife’s full attention.”

I could tell Allie was really thinking. She finally gave me a little smile and said, “That isn’t as bad as the way I was picturing it.”

I smiled at her. Perhaps I was misleading her on the severity of some of the spankings I have received over the years, but that was nothing she needed to know.

“Now, young lady, you said something about Tom ‘hitting’ me. I don’t ever want to hear that from you again. Tom does not ‘hit’ me and never has. I’m sure you’ve seen men yelling at their wife either in real life or on TV. It’s not a pretty sight. My first husband yelled at me – screamed, cursed, called me ugly, foul names and sometimes it went on for hours. Tom never yells at me. But suppose Tom was several houses away when he saw me standing in the road with a car coming. You have to know he’s going to raise his voice to whatever level he needs to give me a warning. So where he is technically yelling – you still wouldn’t say, Tom yells at his wife.”

Allie nodded and I went on.

“That’s the same difference between hitting and spanking. My first husband hit me. Tom would never, ever do that. He would, and does, spank me occasionally to get my attention and keep me safe. But you have to understand hitting and spanking are two totally different things.”

We were quiet for a while as Allie sat pondering what I had said. Finally she spoke, “I think I understand, Cassie, I mean I know how much Tom loves you. I know he would never hurt you, but it still seems so weird to think of him doing … that. You know all my friends and all the neighbors talk about you two.”

“Talk about what?” I asked startled. “You and Ryan haven’t told anyone else have you? I don’t want …”

“No, no, nothing about that,” she clarified. “I mean they talk about how much you still seem to be in love with one another. You all are about the age of most of my friend’s grandparents and they say their grandparents barely seem to speak to one another unless they’re fussing. But with you and Tom… I mean, he still opens the car door for you. He dances with you at parties, he holds your hand when you’re walking. My friends think you two are romantic.”

I smiled, tickled to realize that that was the way the teenagers saw us.

Allie had more questions. “But what I don’t understand is why Tom has the right to tell you what you can do or not do. If he’d taken the boat out yesterday, it would have been fine. If he’d gotten stuck in that house a few months back, you wouldn’t have fussed at him. I know he’s the man and all, but being a man doesn’t give them the God given right to boss women around and make them ‘mind’. We have brains too, you know. You are just as smart and sensible as Tom is. Why does he have the right to tell you what to do and spank you if you don’t listen? They are not always right just because they’re men. I just don’t get it.”

I had the feeling we were no longer talking about just Tom and me and I wondered again what was going on with her and Ryan. But I wasn’t quite ready to ask.

“Allie, those are reasonable questions, but I can only answer them for Tom and me. After my first husband died, I lived on my own for five years. I had no money worries and for the first time in my life I was free from anyone’s rules or authority. I could do anything I wanted to and, oh my – I did. Honey, I went so wild I’m surprised I survived it. I nearly didn’t. When Tom came along, I was drinking too much and living very recklessly. For reasons I’ll never understand, Tom fell in love with me. However, he hated the way I acted. He thought of me as a lovely lady although I didn’t act like one at the time. Once we began dating, he made it quite clear he expected me to act like a lady. What he fussed about the most at first was the way I cursed – and I did curse like a sailor.”

Allie burst out laughing at this. “Cassie, I cannot imagine you cussing! You’re always the perfect lady.”

“Oh my.” I laughed, as I told her, “I guess I can play the part well now. But what I want you to understand is that in my case, I was out of control, and I needed the stability Tom provided. Because of Tom’s willingness to love and protect me the way he has all our lives, I have been able live life to the fullest always knowing Tom was there as my protector. Having him ‘be the boss’ works for us. I can’t say I don’t fight against it sometimes, and I know this would not be for everyone, but truly I’m perfectly content.”

We’d been sitting and talking for a long time. We decided to take Willow for a walk, but as we walked Allie still seemed to have something on her mind. After a long silence, she finally said, “Cassie, Ryan came to pick me up at work a couple of weeks ago.” Allie has been working as a waitress at one of our local restaurants this summer. “I was standing outside with the girls waiting. Both of them were smoking and when they offered me one, I just took it. It was no big deal, but Ryan nearly had a fit when he pulled up. He fussed all the way home and when we got out of the car, he popped me on the butt – hard and said I need a good spanking and that if he saw me smoking again, he’d give me one.”

Hmm…

She went on. “The next day we talked. That was when he told me some of what Tom had told him about how it’s the man’s job to protect the women they love – even from themselves if necessary.”

That was certainly classic Tom.

“So what did you say?” I asked her.

“Not much. I just didn’t know what to say. Cassie, you know I love Ryan, but this is just … I don’t know.”

“Well I know one thing. You two have to talk about this. I have no opinion of whether this would be something that would be right for your relationship, but it is something you both have to agree on. If you don’t agree, then it would be dead wrong for him to spank you. I know Tom would agree with that too. So you and Ryan will have to do a lot of discussing.”

“Do you always agree when Tom spanks you?” I laughed again – the girl is quick.

“Let’s just say I have agreed in theory that Tom is the head of our family and yes, I have consented for him spanking me when he feels it’s necessary. That doesn’t mean I don’t often object and nearly always try to talk him out of it at the time.”

When we got back to the house, I offered to fix lunch for Allie but she had plans later to meet friends. She gave me a hug and said, “Cassie, I’m really glad we talked. I feel a lot better. I love Tom too and I didn’t like the way I was feeling about him last night. I think I understand about you two now, but I’m still not sure what I want to tell Ryan.”

“That’s okay, honey, you don’t have to know what you want to say, you just have to talk to him. Oh and one more thing,” I told her as she headed toward her house. “If I find out you’ve been smoking again, I might spank you myself. That’s the one vice I managed to stay away from all my life and you better not start. You hear me?”

Allie laughed at me. “Don’t you have to get my permission too?” she asked.

“No,” I told her. “I’m old and I can get away with anything. You mind me now.” She went into her house laughing and shaking her head at me.

         As much as I had dreaded talking to Allie about ‘this thing we do’, it was a wonderful talk. I felt very close to the child. I knew I’d also be very curious about any further talks she and Ryan had. Without knowing for sure, I had the feeling Allie was going to be numbered among us before it’s all over. As long as Ryan looks to Tom as his guide, I wouldn’t have to worry much about Allie.