A look of sadness overcame me as I sat in a parking space maybe fifteen spots from the door to Ye Treasures of Olde. For the past six months, like clockwork, I had made my way to this particular shop with my sister, Heather, to see its owner, Maureen.
Before arriving each Saturday Heather and I would take 15-20 minutes at the diner just down the road to write out on paper what we were wanting from Maureen when we got to her shop. This was Maureen's standing order. For the most part my sister and I wrote out different "ideas" for how each of our time with Maureen would play out. There were some instances, however, when we only brought Maureen one slip of paper, with one desire that we wanted to do together. Those desires had been particularly difficult to discuss at the diner, what with the numerous people around, including our server. In fact, it was on no less than several occasions when I swore that Monica, the server who was pretty much always at our table, had overheard us or snuck a peek at what we were writing. It was just the smirk that she sometimes displayed while pouring my coffee that led me to believe she knew.
But on this Saturday, I was alone, and it was only 8:00am. Our time with Maureen had never wavered from the time she had told us to be at her store. Twelve noon was the time she closed for the rest of the weekend, and we knew that was when we would have to be at her shop. My arrival that early was due to my sister not being with me. Heather, despite her love for the area in which we grew up, had recently agreed to a merger of her company and a bigger firm. A part of the merger, however, was her having to move to Kansas City, a good 8-9 hour drive from our humble little town in the middle of nothing, in order to take up an executive position. Having left yesterday, Heather had visited Maureen for the last time the Saturday prior, and had asked me to stay home so she could have a solo "discussion" with her. On my end, I had not been inside Ye Treasures of Olde in two weeks.
Before she left for Missouri Heather had written out a card and asked me to give it to Maureen for her. Sitting in my Jeep I glanced over at the passenger seat where the sealed envelope lay. It was a typical shape, as far as card envelopes go, and I had been with her when she picked the card out at Target. I had forgotten what the card looked like and said but I remember it was something whimsical and kind of aloof. Now, what Heather had written on the card herself was a mystery. She had made me promise to not open it and to give it to Maureen before the normally scheduled time for visiting her. So far, I had kept my promise as I waited for Maureen to open her doors at 8:30am. The curiosity of what was on the card never really entered my mind.
With a half hour to kill I "rolled" the windows down and turned the engine off. It being a cool, breezy morning the fresh air felt good blowing through the openness of the Jeep. Moving my hand down to the lever I pushed it and felt the back of the seat recline just enough to where I could get comfortable. Resting on the headrest my mind drifted back remembering the past six months.
I had found Maureen one Saturday afternoon while looking for a wooden bathbrush. Hers was the third shop I had stopped in that day, having no luck at the previous two. Our chance encounter that first day had led to a long discussion with the new antique brush I had found while searching her shelves.
It was a discussion that Maureen had almost dared me to have. Sensing my secret fantasy of having my bare bottom paddled with the brush she first told me of her standing rule: The diner and a slip of paper.
Thinking back I could not remember the exact words I had written that day. For certain the brush was the focal point of a fantasy that had my bare bottom over Maureen's knee for the hardest spanking I could imagine and for a length of time that bordered on crazy. I laughed just a bit. Maureen had always delivered the spankings just as they were asked for. But I knew she never followed through on any time limit request I or Heather put down. A 30 minute spanking here, a 15 minute strapping there, she always would stop just when the time was right, not when a certain number of minutes had gone by. I guess that is one reason why despite the pain and sting of each spanking I had kept going back, without fail.
Heather had found out about my secret meetings with Maureen after only a few weeks. Her curious nature and my seemingly bizarre trips to Antique City had piqued her interest in what I was really doing each Saturday.
She had caught me not only with the note I had written for Maureen that day, but also with her thick, heavy wooden spoon. Sneakily, I had tried to pull a fast one on Heather but she was always a little too smart for me.
I honestly thought the discussion with Maureen that day was going to be followed by another discussion with Heather. How wrong I was when Heather excused herself from Maureen's office after watching her roast my bare bottom with the spoon, and returned in only her panties and a bra. When she asked Maureen to also whip her bare backside with the spoon my mouth could not have dropped more.
It was ever since that day that Heather and I would visit Maureen every Saturday. Over these past six months I had only missed two discussions, while Heather had missed only one.
Outside of the individual discussions we each wanted with Maureen we would sometimes craft little scenes on one slip of paper that led to different scenarios being played out.
One such scene Heather had the idea for maybe three months ago while we were sitting at the diner.
In this one scene Heather talked of how it would be fun to act out roles as shoplifters who got caught in the stockroom area. When we gave Maureen the slip of paper with that scenario written out she had laughed, saying, "Oh, now this sounds like fun." She then smiled and told us to go to the stockroom and start acting it out while she took 10 minutes at the front of the shop doing paperwork.
Heather and I went to the stockroom and wandered around the metal shelving as if we were looking for items to steal. There was one item, though, that "had" to be stolen. Heather had seen it the previous week while waiting for her "turn" to have a discussion with Maureen.
On a shelf third from the bottom near the door to Maureen's office Heather pointed the item out. Knowing time was running out before Maureen would come through the door Heather hurried for me to pick it up.
Holding it my hand I asked her which of us was going to get caught with it. Looking back at me, baffled, we both realized we had not thought that part out. "Rock, Paper, Scissors," she said questionably while raising her hands up in uncertainty.
"Okay," I had said back. "Loser gets caught with it."
One, two, three...we both held out rock. A couple more count downs also led to ties, first with paper and then again with rock. A fourth try gave us our loser as Heather's rock crushed my scissors. With little time to spare I quickly snuck the item into the left pocket of my jeans.
We stood near the door to Maureen's office looking at the double doors that led into the shop. A small opening between the bottom of the doors and the tile floor offered light coming from the other side. From previous visits we knew it also offered a shadow as Maureen's steps approached. A little darkness left and right meant she was stepping our way.
Heather and I watched intently, biting our lips. A minute passed by with no indication Maureen was about to come through the doors. We were just about to take a step towards the door ourselves when we saw the light under the door darken. Maureen was almost to the doors.
Suddenly, Heather and I stepped quickly towards the office and rushed inside, closing the door behind us, just as Maureen made it through the double doors.
"Who is in there?" We heard Maureen shout towards the office. "I know someone is in there, I heard the door shut."
Inside the office we heard Maureen approaching. Heather immediately opened the closet and got inside, pulling the door shut. I wasn't as lucky. With no where to hide I bent down next to the side of the couch farthest from the door, leaving me barely out of view.
I took a deep breath kneeling as low as I could as the door swung open. "I know someone is in here. You better show yourself right now."
Heather was silent in the closet. Maureen's footsteps inched further into her office.
"I will say it one more time...show yourself," she bellowed.
I couldn't decide whether to stand and reveal myself or let her find me. Maureen made the decision for me when she looked at the area where I had cowered and saw me trying to stay concealed.
"You...stand up right now," she ordered.
Shaking just a bit, I stood up and, acting like someone who had just gotten caught for real, I lowered my head.
"What are you doing in here? This is off-limits to customers."
"I, I was just looking for the bathroom," I spit out, knowing it wasn't true.
Maureen was fully into the scene. She scolded how she didn't believe me while moving closer.
"You were back here trying to steal stuff, I bet," her look grew more stern.
