Fiction: Just Enough Rope – Part 3

Note of emphasis: This is a work of fiction. No prescription for parenting is intended or should be inferred. 3 Through the plate-glass window, the moon was a cradle in the southern sky. Jack Martin stood with regret, wondering how things might be different if he had followed his instincts and watched over her as …

Fiction: Just Enough Rope – Part 2

2 “How fortunate that Emily has found such a hardworking study partner." Jack’s voice was an interruption to the chatter of forks and spoons and four people eating dinner. He was referring to Larissa Caruso, seated to his left at the Martin dining room table. “It has certainly helped her."  Three places at the table …

Fiction: Just Enough Rope – Part 1

This short story was inspired by a vignette written by nora over at Finding Strength in my Submission If parental discipline for adults is not your thing, then please avoid. Just Enough Rope 1 Two students stood talking under the sun in the parking lot at Valley College. One reached into her bag, pulled out …

Fiction: Turning Her Over – Part 3 Fini

"You've had this coming for a long time, young lady." It really has been too long, but my mind is playing through the incidents I've been tolerating for the last few weeks.  “Baby, don't do this." The voice is muffled by the cushion into which a face is buried, this bare woman’s body now upended …

Fiction: Turning Her Over – Part 2

Today she came home angry. It has been that kind of week, each day a crisis. Sunday ...Carrie was depressed, dreading work the next day. Monday …was managed, her nemesis had business elsewhere, but my wife still found herself caught up in what has become a sustained disappointment with her job. Tuesday ...was bad. Carrie's …

Fiction: Turning Her Over – Part 1

I was looking for a story with a particular theme and found this. It’s another husband-wife tale similar to the first story I posted, but with a different approach to discipline. I wrote it many years ago and, as such, it needed a rewrite to align it better with my older self today. It is …

Tantrum

A childish fit of rage. Have you been guilty? Do you throw regular tantrums? Just every now and then when things really boil over and you lose control? Is your tantrum thrown as a conscious manipulation to get your way? Or is it an irrational lashing out against forces you know you can’t control? Are …

Fiction: The Catch – Part 4 Fini

"Is this the correct position your mother put you in?" Rosa's answer was a silent dejection as she stretched over and down, head low, legs straight and stiff, ten helpless toes denied the carpet behind her. Sealed inside an envelope of her own shame, her bottom bare, upturned and high, she surrendered, tummy and thighs …

Fiction: The Catch – Part 3

In stunned silence, Rosa watched as the woman stood and walked around the bed to the other side of the room to an ornate rosewood bureau and, from a drawer, extracted an item that under different circumstances would have been unremarkable. Today it caused her stomach to clench. The college freshman wanted to run but, …

Fiction: The Catch – Part 2

In the master bath, she slapped cold water on a face of self-recrimination. She remembered all too well. She had answered Mrs. Broxton's unusual offer found online, thinking there had to be a catch. Rosa just happened to fit the description: young female, starting college at UCLA, away from home for the first time and …