Ramon71
Magistrate
Good morning,
Here are the first four chapters of a new story, with three more to follow this week. I hope you enjoy it!
1.
Will Strickland was Lucy Hughes’ first love, and she couldn’t believe how he had made her come alive during the last four months.
While outgoing, Lucy had always been much more focused on academics and sports than many of her boy-crazy friends. She was cute and well liked, with a slight build and brownish-blond hair often worn in a ponytail. Will, handsome and charming, had always run with the cool kids. He was not an asshole like many of the other jocks and had a laid back attitude.
Though she had known Will since grade school, Lucy never thought she would date him. They grew closer during several classes together the first semester of their senior year, and she invited him to a small get together for her eighteenth birthday in February. Lucy was taken aback, but thrilled, when he asked her out shortly afterward. Their relationship took off. Lucy was radiant beside him in prom and graduation photos.
It was like a dream when they first kissed, and Lucy’s sexuality blossomed as they began making out frequently. She loved the attention he paid to her breasts, about which she had been self-conscious because of their smaller size. Will kissed and stroked them like they were the most precious things on earth, sucking her nipples while pressing her chest into his face with his strong hands on her back.
They would steal away to the couch in Will’s basement, where Lucy would topless within a minute, kissing passionately with legs intertwined. She became incredibly wet when she pressed the front of her yoga pants or shorts into his muscled thigh. Lucy yearned for Will to put his hand between her legs, and she couldn’t wait to feel his hardness in her own.
Will had been moving ever closer, rubbing the insides of her thighs and running his hands down the back of her shorts to feel her bare ass. It was going to happen, and then sex eventually. Lucy wanted Will to be her first.
•••
The couple kissed while waiting on the train to clear, Will’s car illuminated only by the dashboard and the flashing red lights of the crossing. They had been cuddled together at a friend’s house during movie night. With their bodies close for so long, their hormones were buzzing.
Will unzipped Lucy’s light jacket, and the pair clumsily tried to remove it as their mouths stayed locked together. He caressed her breasts through her tank top and could feel her nipples harden as the motion of their tongues intensified. Will soon lifted her shirt and loosened her bra, baring Lucy’s wonderfully pert mounds and then kissing her nipples alternately.
Returning his mouth to hers, Will let his hand drop to her warm thigh. Lucy did not stop him, so he grazed the front of the Lululemon shorts that were snug against her crotch with the back of his fingers. She opened her legs further and arched her back with a gasp.
Will turned his hand around and began to rub her dampening sex, softly at first, and then more vigorously. He could feel the contours of her mound and lips with only thin material preventing his fingers from being inside her. Lucy reacted, moaning and grinding against the pressure.
Just as Lucy scooted down to allow him access to her waistband, the train passed with a whoosh and the gates popped up.
“Let’s pull over somewhere,” Will panted, “I want to touch you there so bad.”
Lucy smiled, wishing that the train were longer.
“We better get home! The new curfew just went into effect anyway.”
Sensing Will’s disappointment, Lucy gave him a deep kiss and decided to throw caution to the wind. Pulling her shorts and panties away from her body, she thrust Will’s right hand into the soaked heaven below. He drove over the tracks and steered the car onto the shoulder as Lucy slid her bottoms down to mid-thigh.
They could not contain themselves, as Will switched hands and fingered her enthusiastically with Lucy bucking against him for several glorious minutes. She pushed his fingers further inside her as she came, trembling with eyes closed and her head tilted back.
“Your body is incredible,” Will said, laying his head on her breasts. His sticky hand was covered in her juices. Will let his index finger wander through her small thatch of neatly trimmed bush as he savored Lucy’s intoxicating scent.
“I’ve been waiting for that Will. We’re going to have plenty of time for more before we both leave for college,” Lucy said with a smile, her eyes almost teary from the orgasm.
Will sat up, but Lucy did not fix her clothes. She placed her hand on his lap, giving a firm squeeze to his member. They began kissing again, and Lucy was soon hungrily pawing at the button and zipper of his shorts.
His rock hard pole was finally in her grasp, and she ran her fingers over the length of it. Will guided her hand into a pumping motion that slid easily with the help of his pre-cum. His reaction and quickening breaths let her know she was doing it right, since this was the time she had touched a penis.
Will reached back across for her waiting vagina. Lucy spread her legs as wide as possible and pushed against his hand with a groan while simultaneously delivering a long slow stroke to his manhood. That was all it took for Will to explode, rockets of semen shooting over his pubic hair and onto the love trail going up his belly. Hot cum continued to flow like lava over Lucy’s hand.
“Oh my God! Will!” she said in amazement.
They both sat spent for a few moments before cleaning up with napkins and wet wipes from the glove box.
“I love you Will.
“I love you too. Let’s get you home.”
2.
It was only 12:10 AM when they were pulled over by the police a few blocks from Lucy’s house. The midnight curfew had just been put in place for unmarried couples under the age of twenty-one.
Will expected to only receive citations, but the officer ordered them out of the car. The pair were informed that they were being arrested for immoral behavior. Will begged the officer to let them go free, and it briefly seemed that he would, but they were both handcuffed and hauled to the station.
Lucy had never seen her normally mild-manned father so angry. This was the first time she had been in trouble with the law, and was never a problem at school, but it seemed to push him over the edge. Lucy was frightened.
Mr. Hughes seethed with barely controlled rage on the way home at having to bail his daughter out of jail. Lucy tried to apologize, but he told her to be quiet. Not only had she been arrested, but there was no telling what she had been doing with her boyfriend. The physical attraction between them was palpable, and he had seen Will putting his hands all over her waist. He told his wife to stay on her case about not going too far. They had probably missed curfew because they were messing around. Now he would have to do things his way.
Lucy’s mother looked concerned when they arrived. The three sat in the living room with Lucy sniffling on the couch. What if they grounded her, cutting into the time she would have with Will before college?
“What the hell were you thinking Lucy? I warned you about the new curfew several times.”
“Daddy we were just watching movies at Kaitlyn’s and got caught by the train. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry and Will is too.”
“You’re damn right it’s not going to happen again! Your mother and I will talk tomorrow about how you’ll be spending the next month, but for right now get upstairs and get across your bed.”
Lucy’s blood ran cold, and her mother hung her head. It had been almost eight years since Lucy had last heard this command after playing with matches and starting a small fire in the garage.
“No, Daddy please!!!” Lucy wailed hysterically, “I’m eighteen now! You can’t do this to me!!!”
“Get upstairs, unless you want extra licks.”
“Daddy, no!”
“That’s two.”
Lucy ran upstairs sobbing loudly. The night had taken a turn from the greatest feeling she had ever experienced to abject fear and embarrassment. Her hands trembling, she dropped her shorts and quickly changed her panties. Though the previous pair were now dry, they had been saturated with the results of the night’s adventures.
Lucy laid down with a pillow under her midsection and her head toward the foot of the bed. She had a terrible knot in her stomach and was numb with disbelief as she heard her father approach. He carried a thick doubled over belt, and was now looking more sad than angry.
“Daddy, please don’t do this. I’m sorry,” Lucy said meekly.
“Lucy, you’ve been a good girl your whole life. Your Mom and I appreciate that, we do, but there are times when we have to teach lessons. They may not always be pleasant.”
“Pleeease. I’m about to go off to college Daddy.”
“Fortunately, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to do this, but you know the drill. Take down your panties and grab the foot rail.”
“Noooo! Noooo!” Lucy bawled, “At least let me leave them on.”
“Do it now! You just earned two more licks. You were only getting a dozen but now it’s sixteen. Don’t make it worse on yourself.”
Lucy pulled her panties down to just below her butt crack, not wanting to show her privates. Her pale body blushed scarlet.
Mr. Hughes’ rage flamed again. “I said take down your panties godamnit! That’s two more!”
In a flash, Lucy’s father pulled her underwear down her legs. That’s when he noticed the hickey on her neck and came unglued. He shockingly ripped her tank top down the back and unhooked her bra, violently pulling both off her body as she tried to cover herself.
“Daddy stop! Stop! Stop! Please!” Lucy said, now in a panic.
“Get your arms up!”
Lucy was naked save for the panties stretched between her knees. She slowly reached out to grip the wooden rail slightly above head level and felt the cool air of the room in her damp armpits. Awful memories of trying to put out the fire and the painful aftermath came flooding back.
The leather cracked across her bottom, and Lucy cried out in anguish. Seven more good licks fell in succession on her reddening cheeks as she thrashed. Her cries awakened her younger sister who ran downstairs and into their mother’s arms in fright. Mrs. Hughes wept. Their house was always so calm and cheerful. Lucy’s arrest and this punishment had turned things upside down. Her husband seemed possessed.
Lucy’s father smacked her thighs four times as she kicked. He then brought the belt down on her back with six hard blows, starting at her waistline and working forward to her shoulder blades. Lucy flung her head back in a scream with each strike, arms twitching as she tried to hang on to the rail. The final two were laid with extra emphasis diagonally across Lucy’s already stinging butt forming an X. She dug her fingernails into the wood and howled as her rear shot upward twice reflexively.
When it was over, Lucy’s face was buried in the bedding, and she released her cramped grip. She had taken twenty licks with the belt.
Mr. Hughes briefly touched the top of her head and put the belt on Lucy’s dresser.
“That stays here as a reminder until I come get it. Where are you supposed to be young lady?”
Lucy pulled herself from the bed and painfully slinked to the corner, one arm across her breasts and the other covering her pubic area. She put her hands on top of her head with her elbows out and her feet spread slightly. Her father turned off the light but could see the welted tableau of Lucy’s body as the room brightened with the dawn.
“Please. I’ll be good Daddy. Don’t make me stand here.”
“Your mother will let you know when you can move.”
Lucy spent a miserable two hours naked in the corner as her backside burned, not daring to drop her arms in case her father walked by.
3.
Still hurting for the next few days, Lucy mostly remained in her room, scared of her father. She comforted herself with thoughts of Will, though she didn’t know when she would see him again. Lucy pressed her fingers to the front of her shorts and thought of the things they had done when they parked by the tracks. She was ready to have Will’s manhood inside her.
Lucy’s parents told her it would be a month before she could go out. Thanks to her mother’s influence, her phone was returned, and she quickly tried to contact Will. She was crestfallen when he didn’t answer her calls and only responded with short messages. Was he abandoning her now after she had taken a belt whipping for being with him? They still had court appearances in a week, and Lucy was nervous.
Milford Johnston, the attorney engaged by Lucy’s parents tried to ease all their minds at his office.
“You know how things are nowadays. Everyone’s on this religious kick. Immorality can be a serious charge, but she’ll just plead guilty and do a week in jail or some road cleanup. Humbling, but no harm done. As you probably know, they’ve brought back corporal punishment, but I would say it is highly unlikely here.”
Lucy recoiled at the attorney’s words. Might she be beaten again?
“Are you sure this is the way?” her father said, “Pleading guilty to immorality sounds like it could affect her future. Would it help to inform the judge that she has received a punishment at home and has not been able to sit down comfortably?”
Lucy’s face glowed red. Her father had turned into a different person. She had never heard him speak like this.
Johnston was briefly thrown off his game imagining this darling girl being spanked.
“Well, uh, that might not be the best idea. Anyway, if we fight it out and lose at trial, Lucy could go to the penitentiary for six months. These laws are new, but I suspect things will be harder on her if this gets dragged into a full blown affair. Her boyfriend likely plead out too.
“OK. I just want this over and my daughter away to college. She and Will have caused enough trouble here.”
He turned to Lucy, “When we get home, head to your room and get across your bed. My clients at the firm have started reaching out about your arrest. I was called to the director’s office about it this morning.”
Lucy swallowed hard. She felt moisture bead on her brow.
“You’ll get a dozen licks today. As there are more consequences from your actions, you will continue to feel them.”
“Mom? Do something. Please!” Lucy whimpered pitifully as her lower lip quivered and tears rolled down her face.
Mrs. Hughes looked away and said nothing.
“That’s six more for defiance Lucy. You don’t seem to get it. Let’s go”.
Johnston could only partially stand up to shake Mr. Hughes’ hand. He had already risen in another way.
Lucy followed her parents out of the office, hands covering her hot face to muffle the sobs that shook her body.
4.
Judge Roy Tidwell had a strict rural upbringing steeped in the faith. He moved on from the small town but continued to wrap himself in religion as his legal career flourished. It was not over concern for his immortal soul, but for the related power and attention. Tidwell also found that religion could be a potent aphrodisiac, his favorite targets being young women with sheltered backgrounds and widows. They could be easily silenced if they threatened to speak ill of him.
Tidwell was recently elected on a wave of fundamentalist fervor that swept the state, mirroring a national trend. He had mostly been assigned low level criminal cases and was anxious to make a name for himself. The judge was well aware of the recent spate of legislation aimed at discouraging sexual activity out of wedlock. It had been signed into law by the governor and allowed wide sentencing discretion to judges, including options for corporal punishment.
His opportunity had arrived when he received Lucy’s case. She was a girl-next-door type, a good student, and the daughter of a respected accountant. A harsh sentence for Lucy would draw much more coverage than for the rabble that was usually in court, thieving and drug-addled rednecks and blacks. While corporal punishment was not in the recommended sentencing guidelines for the curfew law, it was not prohibited. He would make an example of this girl. Then he would known statewide, if not around the whole country.
The judge noticed that Will’s case was assigned to his friend, Lawrence “Larry” Ballard, who had been elected at the same time. The two judges were derisively referred to by progressives in the legal community as “The Hitler Youth”, owing to their far-right politics and relatively young ages, both being in their late thirties. Tidwell decided to give Larry a call to see what information he could glean about the couple’s relationship.
•••
An old pickup pulled into the parking lot of the county courthouse. Dwight Timmons had arrived to interview for the position of executioner, which a new law created for each of the state’s counties.
It was a long and twisted trail that led him to this field of work. Retiring from the U.S. Army at forty, Timmons sought money and adventure in South America. He found himself driving trucks for drug cartels and then in a government sponsored paramilitary unit fighting rebels.
The rules about the activities and conduct of the unit were murky, to put it mildly. It was often necessary to interrogate or punish prisoners, and it was discovered that Timmons had a way with the whip. His strength and accuracy brought out information and confessions. Severe pain was always inflicted.
Tired of the jungle, Timmons eventually transitioned to duty with the Sistema de Justicia Federal, performing corporal punishments on common criminals and convicted rebels alike. His skill grew with whips, canes, and leather paddles. It was a plus that Timmons was generally able to perform his job without compassion.
He returned to the United States when his mother became ill and stayed to help her. Once she passed away, Timmons handled her estate and spent aimless months drinking, watching TV, and playing online poker. He was deeply affected by his mother’s death, wishing that he had not been gone so many years.
The posting for the executioner position piqued his interest. Timmons sat smoking in his truck until it was time to go inside. He knew he had the skill and experience for the job, but did he still have his edge?
To be continued…
Here are the first four chapters of a new story, with three more to follow this week. I hope you enjoy it!
1.
Will Strickland was Lucy Hughes’ first love, and she couldn’t believe how he had made her come alive during the last four months.
While outgoing, Lucy had always been much more focused on academics and sports than many of her boy-crazy friends. She was cute and well liked, with a slight build and brownish-blond hair often worn in a ponytail. Will, handsome and charming, had always run with the cool kids. He was not an asshole like many of the other jocks and had a laid back attitude.
Though she had known Will since grade school, Lucy never thought she would date him. They grew closer during several classes together the first semester of their senior year, and she invited him to a small get together for her eighteenth birthday in February. Lucy was taken aback, but thrilled, when he asked her out shortly afterward. Their relationship took off. Lucy was radiant beside him in prom and graduation photos.
It was like a dream when they first kissed, and Lucy’s sexuality blossomed as they began making out frequently. She loved the attention he paid to her breasts, about which she had been self-conscious because of their smaller size. Will kissed and stroked them like they were the most precious things on earth, sucking her nipples while pressing her chest into his face with his strong hands on her back.
They would steal away to the couch in Will’s basement, where Lucy would topless within a minute, kissing passionately with legs intertwined. She became incredibly wet when she pressed the front of her yoga pants or shorts into his muscled thigh. Lucy yearned for Will to put his hand between her legs, and she couldn’t wait to feel his hardness in her own.
Will had been moving ever closer, rubbing the insides of her thighs and running his hands down the back of her shorts to feel her bare ass. It was going to happen, and then sex eventually. Lucy wanted Will to be her first.
•••
The couple kissed while waiting on the train to clear, Will’s car illuminated only by the dashboard and the flashing red lights of the crossing. They had been cuddled together at a friend’s house during movie night. With their bodies close for so long, their hormones were buzzing.
Will unzipped Lucy’s light jacket, and the pair clumsily tried to remove it as their mouths stayed locked together. He caressed her breasts through her tank top and could feel her nipples harden as the motion of their tongues intensified. Will soon lifted her shirt and loosened her bra, baring Lucy’s wonderfully pert mounds and then kissing her nipples alternately.
Returning his mouth to hers, Will let his hand drop to her warm thigh. Lucy did not stop him, so he grazed the front of the Lululemon shorts that were snug against her crotch with the back of his fingers. She opened her legs further and arched her back with a gasp.
Will turned his hand around and began to rub her dampening sex, softly at first, and then more vigorously. He could feel the contours of her mound and lips with only thin material preventing his fingers from being inside her. Lucy reacted, moaning and grinding against the pressure.
Just as Lucy scooted down to allow him access to her waistband, the train passed with a whoosh and the gates popped up.
“Let’s pull over somewhere,” Will panted, “I want to touch you there so bad.”
Lucy smiled, wishing that the train were longer.
“We better get home! The new curfew just went into effect anyway.”
Sensing Will’s disappointment, Lucy gave him a deep kiss and decided to throw caution to the wind. Pulling her shorts and panties away from her body, she thrust Will’s right hand into the soaked heaven below. He drove over the tracks and steered the car onto the shoulder as Lucy slid her bottoms down to mid-thigh.
They could not contain themselves, as Will switched hands and fingered her enthusiastically with Lucy bucking against him for several glorious minutes. She pushed his fingers further inside her as she came, trembling with eyes closed and her head tilted back.
“Your body is incredible,” Will said, laying his head on her breasts. His sticky hand was covered in her juices. Will let his index finger wander through her small thatch of neatly trimmed bush as he savored Lucy’s intoxicating scent.
“I’ve been waiting for that Will. We’re going to have plenty of time for more before we both leave for college,” Lucy said with a smile, her eyes almost teary from the orgasm.
Will sat up, but Lucy did not fix her clothes. She placed her hand on his lap, giving a firm squeeze to his member. They began kissing again, and Lucy was soon hungrily pawing at the button and zipper of his shorts.
His rock hard pole was finally in her grasp, and she ran her fingers over the length of it. Will guided her hand into a pumping motion that slid easily with the help of his pre-cum. His reaction and quickening breaths let her know she was doing it right, since this was the time she had touched a penis.
Will reached back across for her waiting vagina. Lucy spread her legs as wide as possible and pushed against his hand with a groan while simultaneously delivering a long slow stroke to his manhood. That was all it took for Will to explode, rockets of semen shooting over his pubic hair and onto the love trail going up his belly. Hot cum continued to flow like lava over Lucy’s hand.
“Oh my God! Will!” she said in amazement.
They both sat spent for a few moments before cleaning up with napkins and wet wipes from the glove box.
“I love you Will.
“I love you too. Let’s get you home.”
2.
It was only 12:10 AM when they were pulled over by the police a few blocks from Lucy’s house. The midnight curfew had just been put in place for unmarried couples under the age of twenty-one.
Will expected to only receive citations, but the officer ordered them out of the car. The pair were informed that they were being arrested for immoral behavior. Will begged the officer to let them go free, and it briefly seemed that he would, but they were both handcuffed and hauled to the station.
Lucy had never seen her normally mild-manned father so angry. This was the first time she had been in trouble with the law, and was never a problem at school, but it seemed to push him over the edge. Lucy was frightened.
Mr. Hughes seethed with barely controlled rage on the way home at having to bail his daughter out of jail. Lucy tried to apologize, but he told her to be quiet. Not only had she been arrested, but there was no telling what she had been doing with her boyfriend. The physical attraction between them was palpable, and he had seen Will putting his hands all over her waist. He told his wife to stay on her case about not going too far. They had probably missed curfew because they were messing around. Now he would have to do things his way.
Lucy’s mother looked concerned when they arrived. The three sat in the living room with Lucy sniffling on the couch. What if they grounded her, cutting into the time she would have with Will before college?
“What the hell were you thinking Lucy? I warned you about the new curfew several times.”
“Daddy we were just watching movies at Kaitlyn’s and got caught by the train. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry and Will is too.”
“You’re damn right it’s not going to happen again! Your mother and I will talk tomorrow about how you’ll be spending the next month, but for right now get upstairs and get across your bed.”
Lucy’s blood ran cold, and her mother hung her head. It had been almost eight years since Lucy had last heard this command after playing with matches and starting a small fire in the garage.
“No, Daddy please!!!” Lucy wailed hysterically, “I’m eighteen now! You can’t do this to me!!!”
“Get upstairs, unless you want extra licks.”
“Daddy, no!”
“That’s two.”
Lucy ran upstairs sobbing loudly. The night had taken a turn from the greatest feeling she had ever experienced to abject fear and embarrassment. Her hands trembling, she dropped her shorts and quickly changed her panties. Though the previous pair were now dry, they had been saturated with the results of the night’s adventures.
Lucy laid down with a pillow under her midsection and her head toward the foot of the bed. She had a terrible knot in her stomach and was numb with disbelief as she heard her father approach. He carried a thick doubled over belt, and was now looking more sad than angry.
“Daddy, please don’t do this. I’m sorry,” Lucy said meekly.
“Lucy, you’ve been a good girl your whole life. Your Mom and I appreciate that, we do, but there are times when we have to teach lessons. They may not always be pleasant.”
“Pleeease. I’m about to go off to college Daddy.”
“Fortunately, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to do this, but you know the drill. Take down your panties and grab the foot rail.”
“Noooo! Noooo!” Lucy bawled, “At least let me leave them on.”
“Do it now! You just earned two more licks. You were only getting a dozen but now it’s sixteen. Don’t make it worse on yourself.”
Lucy pulled her panties down to just below her butt crack, not wanting to show her privates. Her pale body blushed scarlet.
Mr. Hughes’ rage flamed again. “I said take down your panties godamnit! That’s two more!”
In a flash, Lucy’s father pulled her underwear down her legs. That’s when he noticed the hickey on her neck and came unglued. He shockingly ripped her tank top down the back and unhooked her bra, violently pulling both off her body as she tried to cover herself.
“Daddy stop! Stop! Stop! Please!” Lucy said, now in a panic.
“Get your arms up!”
Lucy was naked save for the panties stretched between her knees. She slowly reached out to grip the wooden rail slightly above head level and felt the cool air of the room in her damp armpits. Awful memories of trying to put out the fire and the painful aftermath came flooding back.
The leather cracked across her bottom, and Lucy cried out in anguish. Seven more good licks fell in succession on her reddening cheeks as she thrashed. Her cries awakened her younger sister who ran downstairs and into their mother’s arms in fright. Mrs. Hughes wept. Their house was always so calm and cheerful. Lucy’s arrest and this punishment had turned things upside down. Her husband seemed possessed.
Lucy’s father smacked her thighs four times as she kicked. He then brought the belt down on her back with six hard blows, starting at her waistline and working forward to her shoulder blades. Lucy flung her head back in a scream with each strike, arms twitching as she tried to hang on to the rail. The final two were laid with extra emphasis diagonally across Lucy’s already stinging butt forming an X. She dug her fingernails into the wood and howled as her rear shot upward twice reflexively.
When it was over, Lucy’s face was buried in the bedding, and she released her cramped grip. She had taken twenty licks with the belt.
Mr. Hughes briefly touched the top of her head and put the belt on Lucy’s dresser.
“That stays here as a reminder until I come get it. Where are you supposed to be young lady?”
Lucy pulled herself from the bed and painfully slinked to the corner, one arm across her breasts and the other covering her pubic area. She put her hands on top of her head with her elbows out and her feet spread slightly. Her father turned off the light but could see the welted tableau of Lucy’s body as the room brightened with the dawn.
“Please. I’ll be good Daddy. Don’t make me stand here.”
“Your mother will let you know when you can move.”
Lucy spent a miserable two hours naked in the corner as her backside burned, not daring to drop her arms in case her father walked by.
3.
Still hurting for the next few days, Lucy mostly remained in her room, scared of her father. She comforted herself with thoughts of Will, though she didn’t know when she would see him again. Lucy pressed her fingers to the front of her shorts and thought of the things they had done when they parked by the tracks. She was ready to have Will’s manhood inside her.
Lucy’s parents told her it would be a month before she could go out. Thanks to her mother’s influence, her phone was returned, and she quickly tried to contact Will. She was crestfallen when he didn’t answer her calls and only responded with short messages. Was he abandoning her now after she had taken a belt whipping for being with him? They still had court appearances in a week, and Lucy was nervous.
Milford Johnston, the attorney engaged by Lucy’s parents tried to ease all their minds at his office.
“You know how things are nowadays. Everyone’s on this religious kick. Immorality can be a serious charge, but she’ll just plead guilty and do a week in jail or some road cleanup. Humbling, but no harm done. As you probably know, they’ve brought back corporal punishment, but I would say it is highly unlikely here.”
Lucy recoiled at the attorney’s words. Might she be beaten again?
“Are you sure this is the way?” her father said, “Pleading guilty to immorality sounds like it could affect her future. Would it help to inform the judge that she has received a punishment at home and has not been able to sit down comfortably?”
Lucy’s face glowed red. Her father had turned into a different person. She had never heard him speak like this.
Johnston was briefly thrown off his game imagining this darling girl being spanked.
“Well, uh, that might not be the best idea. Anyway, if we fight it out and lose at trial, Lucy could go to the penitentiary for six months. These laws are new, but I suspect things will be harder on her if this gets dragged into a full blown affair. Her boyfriend likely plead out too.
“OK. I just want this over and my daughter away to college. She and Will have caused enough trouble here.”
He turned to Lucy, “When we get home, head to your room and get across your bed. My clients at the firm have started reaching out about your arrest. I was called to the director’s office about it this morning.”
Lucy swallowed hard. She felt moisture bead on her brow.
“You’ll get a dozen licks today. As there are more consequences from your actions, you will continue to feel them.”
“Mom? Do something. Please!” Lucy whimpered pitifully as her lower lip quivered and tears rolled down her face.
Mrs. Hughes looked away and said nothing.
“That’s six more for defiance Lucy. You don’t seem to get it. Let’s go”.
Johnston could only partially stand up to shake Mr. Hughes’ hand. He had already risen in another way.
Lucy followed her parents out of the office, hands covering her hot face to muffle the sobs that shook her body.
4.
Judge Roy Tidwell had a strict rural upbringing steeped in the faith. He moved on from the small town but continued to wrap himself in religion as his legal career flourished. It was not over concern for his immortal soul, but for the related power and attention. Tidwell also found that religion could be a potent aphrodisiac, his favorite targets being young women with sheltered backgrounds and widows. They could be easily silenced if they threatened to speak ill of him.
Tidwell was recently elected on a wave of fundamentalist fervor that swept the state, mirroring a national trend. He had mostly been assigned low level criminal cases and was anxious to make a name for himself. The judge was well aware of the recent spate of legislation aimed at discouraging sexual activity out of wedlock. It had been signed into law by the governor and allowed wide sentencing discretion to judges, including options for corporal punishment.
His opportunity had arrived when he received Lucy’s case. She was a girl-next-door type, a good student, and the daughter of a respected accountant. A harsh sentence for Lucy would draw much more coverage than for the rabble that was usually in court, thieving and drug-addled rednecks and blacks. While corporal punishment was not in the recommended sentencing guidelines for the curfew law, it was not prohibited. He would make an example of this girl. Then he would known statewide, if not around the whole country.
The judge noticed that Will’s case was assigned to his friend, Lawrence “Larry” Ballard, who had been elected at the same time. The two judges were derisively referred to by progressives in the legal community as “The Hitler Youth”, owing to their far-right politics and relatively young ages, both being in their late thirties. Tidwell decided to give Larry a call to see what information he could glean about the couple’s relationship.
•••
An old pickup pulled into the parking lot of the county courthouse. Dwight Timmons had arrived to interview for the position of executioner, which a new law created for each of the state’s counties.
It was a long and twisted trail that led him to this field of work. Retiring from the U.S. Army at forty, Timmons sought money and adventure in South America. He found himself driving trucks for drug cartels and then in a government sponsored paramilitary unit fighting rebels.
The rules about the activities and conduct of the unit were murky, to put it mildly. It was often necessary to interrogate or punish prisoners, and it was discovered that Timmons had a way with the whip. His strength and accuracy brought out information and confessions. Severe pain was always inflicted.
Tired of the jungle, Timmons eventually transitioned to duty with the Sistema de Justicia Federal, performing corporal punishments on common criminals and convicted rebels alike. His skill grew with whips, canes, and leather paddles. It was a plus that Timmons was generally able to perform his job without compassion.
He returned to the United States when his mother became ill and stayed to help her. Once she passed away, Timmons handled her estate and spent aimless months drinking, watching TV, and playing online poker. He was deeply affected by his mother’s death, wishing that he had not been gone so many years.
The posting for the executioner position piqued his interest. Timmons sat smoking in his truck until it was time to go inside. He knew he had the skill and experience for the job, but did he still have his edge?
To be continued…
