My friend Anna, whom I have known since we were classmates, came to stay with me recently. We went out and about a lot and found ourselves boys and played cards, but the thing we most enjoyed was chatting. We’ve both moved on, me to uni for a publishing course and Anna to do a gap year and have fun. We had both had similar upbringings and liked to compare notes.
One evening we opened a bottle of Metaxa brandy and just chilled. She told me a story from the past that simply astonished me.
Of course, you never know with Anna whether her stories are real or invented. But anyway, here it is and I leave people to decide for themselves whether to believe it or not, whether some of it is true, or none of it, or all of it. This is what Anna told me. In places where I have been unable to restrain myself I have put in my own comments in square brackets like these [ ].
Anna’s story
So Florence, my dear friend, like I said I had been instructed to report to Miss Donovan at 6 pm one evening, on the dot without fail. She would be expecting me.
[Miss Donovan was the headmistress, young and beautiful but hyper strict.]
Everyone told me that if I had been sent to Miss Donovan I would be receiving a ‘traditional’ punishment for sure. Ten minutes in her presence would leave me in tears with a burning behind that I would not be able to sit on or show my boyfriend without shame for days.
You remember where her office was, Flo, at the end of a long corridor on the top floor. As I walked slowly up the stairs I reflected on the events that had led me there, my repeated bad behaviour, my failure to attend detentions, my poor performance in tests (especially spelling tests), and then finally a letter home that elicited an instant reply permitting the school to administer whatever punishment it thought I deserved, including corporal punishment.
I stood outside Miss Donovan’s door; I knocked and waited. There was no answer. I knocked again without response. As I wondered what to do I heard the percussive sound of hard footsteps coming down the passage, and saw the headmistress approaching me.
I wasn’t fooled by her smile as she looked at me.
“Are you waiting for me?” she asked.
“Yes Miss Donovan, I am Anna. I have been sent to see you.”
“Ah yes, Anna, I have received a report about you from your tutor. Wait here and I will call you in. I need to check a few details.”
I waited, my heart thumping uncontrollably. I thought I might even be sick – much good that would do me.
I heard a peremptory “come in Anna”. I opened the door and slowly entered the room. Miss Donovan was not – as I had expected – sitting at her desk looking sternly out at me. She was standing by the window, looking out at the pretty garden below.
“Come here,” she said, turning towards me. As I approached, she drew me to her and pointed over my shoulder down into the garden. “Isn’t it beautiful, Anna? Would you like to go down and sit in it for a while?”
This was not at all the question I was expecting her to ask me, and I replied somewhat hesitantly.
“Yes, I think it would be nice, Miss Donovan, but it’s not really what I was expecting.”
“What were you expecting, Anna?”
She went over to the desk and picked up what looked like a hand-written note. “What do you think your tutor thinks you deserve?”
“A punishment.”
“I think he does, Anna, because you have not been behaving well, have you?”
So Flo, I was like, you know, struggling with my voice. “No Miss Donovan.”
“We will talk about your behaviour. And we must think of ways of making you improve. You know I may have to punish you as well, and I am sure you know how we punish here.”
“Are you going to cane me Miss Donovan?”
“That is one possibility, have you been caned before?”
“No Miss.”
“Or received any corporal punishment? A spanking for example?”
“No Miss, never.”
[I am reasonably sure that Anna is lying here, but she insisted it was true. She might have been hoping it would secure a milder punishment from Donnie, but events were to prove otherwise.]
Miss Donovan’s smile returned.
“Well, in that case it will be a new experience for you. As it is your very first time, we are going to play a game. I call it bowls, but it’s not the usual game of that name.”
Florence
To be continued...