Copyright 1999 to <mijita@thetreehouse.net>. Please respect this copyright. Don't distribute or archive this story in any way except for personal use without explicit permission. No, it's not in the public domain. Ask first, okay? Thanks.

For Kent, who's been politely nagging me for months. I'm sure this isn't worth the wait.

The Canyon (part 2/2)
by Mija

[. . . continued from part 1/2]

As she listened to the car pull in, she had a strong urge to run to the bathroom and pressed her legs tight together. Much as she might want to go, Alyssa was afraid to leave the corner. God forbid she be found somewhere else when they came up. She felt a deep sense of chagrined shame roll over her as she remembered the promises she made last time - her vows never to go into the canyon again. Now, not only had she gone in, but she had brought Sara with her, gotten the younger girl in trouble. She heard her parents talking and her eyes welled up with new tears.

The conversation went on and on, her mother's voice sounding insistent. Alyssa took comfort in that, thinking that maybe her father didn't want her spanked. Her mind reverted to a familiar guilty fantasy. Mom dead, or at least gone. Dad raising both her and Sara, Alyssa being both child and adult helping with her little sister. There were times she felt guilty for these thoughts, but she didn't ever try and stop having them. At moments like these Alyssa found the thoughts completely comforting.

Her imaginings were interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Her heart sped up as their steps got closer and closer to her door, which was standing open. She heard them come in, and then silence.

"I already 'talked' to her once you know, Stephen. Because she tried to hide from me when I called her. But I told her the disobedience was between the two of you."

Alyssa squeezed her eyes shut as her mother spoke, surprised at the feelings of anger and hate mixed with shame that coursed through her. It was so easy for her to see this situation as all her mother's doing. Daddy didn't really want to spank her again but was just being goaded into it.

Her mother ran out of things to say as she watched her husband watch their daughter, the girl standing in the corner so innocently obedient, so young and small. She tried to think of one last barb to send - at him? at her? - and finally shook her head, leaving the room with an audible door slam.

The silence in the room continued. Alyssa curled her toes, counted to one hundred and then to another hundred. Still Daddy said nothing. Finally, without turning around, she whispered,

"Sorry, Daddy."

He sighed and paused a moment.

"Sorry for what?"

The question caught her off guard.

"For disobeying you," she stammered.

"I wonder," he replied. "If you hadn't been caught, would you still be sorry?"

Alyssa stuttered at this. She wasn't expecting that question. A 'yes' formed in her mouth before she could push it down. But she stopped before saying it. Instead she offered the unsure answer.

"I - I don't know, Daddy." Still in the corner, Alyssa hung her head in shame.

"You know we expect you to be responsible for your sister. Your mother and I need to be able to trust you -"

At that Alyssa burst into angry sobs, crossing her hands over her mouth and actually stomping her feet just a bit. Her father froze for a second, completely surprised, then came up behind Alyssa, gathering her into his arms. She clung to him, crying and saying "nononononononono!"

"Shhh. Now come on, sweetheart, tell Daddy what's wrong."

Between gasping sobs that sounded as if her heart was breaking, Alyssa sobbed out the complaint of older siblings everywhere - a form of the biblical 'I am not my sister's keeper!'

"But I don't wanna be responsible. It makes everything my fault! I wish I was the little sister and Sara had to be responsible for me!" Her sobs broke again fresh, drowning further words.

Stephen was taken aback by his daughter's emotional cry. He hadn't intended it, but her frustration offered him a chance to teach her a bit more about obedience, responsibility and freedom than a mere spanking ever could hope to. Putting aside his plans to strap Alyssa, he rocked her gently a bit longer, at first calming her and then scolding her softly.

"Well, you're going to be treated like a little girl right now, young lady. A little girl who disobeyed her daddy and broke a promise she made to him the last time he punished her. Who went somewhere dangerous where no-one could help her if something bad happened. And a little girl who hid from her mommy instead of coming when she was called." Stephen set the still-sniffling Alyssa down in front of him, looking at the top of her downturned head. "What do you think such a naughty little girl's daddy ought to do now?"

Alyssa squirmed a bit, afraid to give the answer, finding it shameful. Her knee shrank away from contact with his leg.

"I don't know."

Steven tilted her chin up with his finger and looked directly into his daughter's eyes. "Don't you?"

Dropping her gaze again, Alyssa shook her head.

"Alyssa Jane, don't you think you're in enough trouble without lying to me? Now you tell me what I ought to do with a little girl like that?"

Wiping the back of her hand across her face and nose, Alyssa murmured, "DeservestobepunishedIguess."

"You guess right. How? How do naughty little girls get punished in this house?"

"Spankin's." Alyssa's discomfort was acute and she rubbed her bottom a little as an unpleasant tingle became apparent.

"And don't you deserve to be spanked?"

"Yes, but - but, Daddy," Alyssa whined. "I did get spanked already!"

"For going in the canyon?" His eyes seemed to bore into her. Not unkind, but piercing. "Or for disobeying your mother?"

Alyssa closed her eyes a second and muttered, "I guess it was for disobeying Mom." Like the witch didn't already tell you that.

Her father nodded, his finger gently stroking her cheek.

"You know, when I heard you disobeyed me after promising not to, I was going to strap you with my belt. So that you'd remember your promises."

As he spoke, Alyssa felt a cold hand of fear on her heart. "Please, please Daddy, don't - don't -" Her voice broke again as she groped for words of protest.

Registering his daughter's reaction, Stephen continued. "But talking with you has made me realise that you don't appreciate the responsibilities and privileges of being a grown-up girl."

She wiped her eyes again, listening.

"So, until this time next week, we're going to make sure that you're safe and do as you're told by treating you just the way we did when you were a little five-year-old. Is that clear?"

Alyssa heard him, but her emotions were focused on the relief she felt over not being strapped with his belt. Anything but that. She nodded in a somewhat dazed manner. He watched her carefully, quite sure she didn't understand at all, but would by the end of the week.

"You're going to be expected to be a very good girl, because nothing you're going to be asked to do is hard for someone your age. And when you aren't good you're going to be punished. Every night before you go to bed, I'm going to come up to your room and we'll talk about your day. If you or Mommy has to tell me that you've been naughty, you're going to get a hard bare-bottom paddling over my lap. If you've been a good girl, you'll get a little reminder spanking and story. Do you understand me, young lady?"

She nodded again. This sounded like a really good deal. His look indicated he expected an answer and she heard her voice squeak out, "Yes, Daddy", as he thought to himself, "Aly's not such a big girl really."

"Good. Now we're going to go tell Mommy and then you and I will have a discussion about you disobeying me today." His voice had become a bit gentler, slower and firmer. The voice of a parent speaking to a very little child. Alyssa felt tears spring to her eyes. She shook her head at him.

"I don't wanna tell Mommy."

"You don't need to," he said as he watched her curl her little finger toward her mouth. For a moment he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her make that childish gesture. He knew it had been years and with that knowledge came a protective surge. "I'm going to explain it all to Mommy."

Her eyes filled with tears and Stephen saw her tremble and wondered if she was shrinking at the thought of her mother's ridicule. Remembering the tension earlier and realising this would be easier to explain without her standing there, he changed his mind and returned Alyssa to the corner, warning her to stay right there until he came back.

Alyssa nodded, slipping into a place of quiet tears as she stood, forehead pressed against the cool paint, trying to remember if she'd felt differently when she was five, if the world had seemed different somehow. Her mind focused in on watching cartoons on Saturday with Daddy, early in the morning before her mother got up and they started breakfast. Just the two of them sitting on the couch, both still sleepy in robes and slippers watching the "Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner Show". Alyssa's mind drifted still further and she remembered that she'd never liked the roadrunner but had always cheered the coyote and wished he'd get to win sometimes. Now though, Alyssa realised that the coyote would eat the roadrunner and she didn't really want that either. That, she decided, was the way she was different now than when she was five. At five she thought the roadrunner could lose and still not die.

"Alyssa Jane! Don't you make me call you again! Come over here right now!" The girl's meditation was interrupted by the sound of her mother's voice. She turned toward her parents, her face streaked with tears, wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her pyjamas. Alyssa's father fished a tissue from his pocket and held it out to the child. Not to take, but to use.

"Blow, Aly. There's a good girl." He found himself unconsciously stroking the back of her head as he wiped her face clean with the tissue.

"Don't you mean good baby? Too untrustworthy to be a good girl anymore, Alyssa has to be treated like a baby??"

Alyssa flushed red and started to argue. "Mom, honest I promise I won't do it again really. I'm not a baby."

Stephen headed off the fracture he felt brewing, "No," he said firmly, "but you're a very little girl. Not old enough to be trusted without supervision. And expected to do what she's told, when she's told to."

Alyssa nodded, face turned down toward the floor.

He continued, "And now little Aly and me are going to Mommy's and my room so she can get her bottom paddled hard for being such a naughty and disobedient little girl. While you're getting your spanking, Aly, Mommy is going to take all the things you're not grown-up enough for yet out of your room. You'll get them back next week if you can show us you can be trusted to be a good girl again."

Alyssa, too caught up in her dread of being spanked to wonder at what would be removed from her room, let herself be led numbly by her father out of her bedroom and down the hall into her parents' room.

She stood in the centre of the room next to her parents' bed while her father went inside his walk-in closet. She knew what he'd return with - a light-coloured wooden paddle, shaped like a supermarket fly-back paddle but of some sort of light but very strong hard wood. Her toes curled in the deep carpet as she remembered how much it would sting. Daddy's spankings always hurt.

Stephen came out holding the paddle at his side. She looked at the floor, feeling a wave of sickness pass over her, feeling an ever stronger desire for the bathroom. She looked up at him pleadingly. As soon as Alyssa looked up, her father pulled out the chair from his desk and sat down, motioning her to him. Seated, Alyssa was just at eye-level with him as she stood in front of him, their knees almost touching. Her father put the paddle down next to the chair and then pulled Alyssa's panties then pyjamas down to her knees.

"Alyssa, I don't ever want to hear that you've broken a promise you've made to me again, is that clear?"

Tears sprang immediately to Alyssa's eyes. She nodded, aware that her pyjama top barely covered her bottom.

"Answer me, Alyssa. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Daddy . . . I'm really sorry."

"You're certainly going to be." And with that pronouncement he lifted Alyssa up and over his knees, holding her tightly so neither her feet nor hands could reach the floor. Without any further conversation, he started spanking her. Just with his hand, but hard. Though her bottom had no real marks from her mother's spankings, it was still tender and it took only a few hard smacks for her tears to begin again. Alyssa's feet kicked helplessly as the spanking got still harder and faster. This accomplished nothing except to move the spanking lower onto her legs which the girl felt sure hurt more than anything else in the world.

"Are you going to be a good little girl this week? Or am I going to have to paddle you again?"

Her sobs were fast and convulsive, but she gasped out her intention to be so very good.

"Good girl. I believe you. But I'm going to paddle you right now so you don't forget your promise. And with that he picked up the paddle and smacked it down hard on the centre of her bottom. Alyssa howled, not caring who heard her. The smack was followed with spanks every bit as hard until her bottom was a deep, dark red.

"Why don't Mommy and I let you play in the canyon, Alyssa?"

She sobbed some more but answered quickly.

"'Cause of s-s-snakes and s-s-stuff."

"That's right," her father said, paddling her harder as he thought more of the danger both girls could have been in. "Poisonous snakes that could kill you before a grown-up could find you. And even if we found you, you could still lose your hand or leg or even go blind."

The paddle cracked down hard. Alyssa kicked, constrained by her panties and PJs. After the next smack, her still-harder kick, accompanied by a little girl wail of hurt, removed them altogether.

"We love you. And it's our job to make sure you aren't hurt." With a final dozen hard paddle whacks, Alyssa's father finished and sat, a bit winded, with the girl over his lap. Her brown hair had fallen forward and covered her streaming face. He let her quiet down a bit and then gently turned her over so she was sitting on his lap. He tried not to smile at her wince as her sore bare bottom landed firmly on his leg. Alyssa hugged herself to him and buried her face in his chest, tears dampening his chest. He tightened his grip on his daughter and stroked her hair, letting her cry herself out.

"Sorry, Daddy."

"I know you are, sweetheart. Hush now."

As Stephen gently rocked her, he noticed Alyssa's little finger edge toward her mouth where she sucked it gently. At first this action was covert, but then, as sleep caught up with her it became unembarrassed. She fell asleep in his arms.

He stood up carefully and gently carried her to her room, sliding her into the turned-down bed. Alyssa rolled from her side to her tummy, still fast asleep, little finger still in her mouth. Cool sheets covered her hot sore bottom as her father tucked the covers tight around her.

Stephen kissed her gently on the forehead and stood - glancing around at the empty bookshelves before he left. Stephen couldn't help but wonder if Alyssa really understood what the coming week would be like.

Back to Mija's stories

Back to the treehouse