Although Henry was 18 and had finished his freshman year in college, he still looked young for his age. He was not happy about going home for the summer because he knew that he would soon be back under his mother's thumb at home, after enjoying a delightful two terms of freedom at his university.
He had tried to schedule some courses there for the summer to get ahead of schedule and to avoid returning home, but his mother and father had insisted that he return. His mother was very controlling. He knew that she dominated his father when they were in their bedroom as he had seen her tell him to go there when he said or did something that she found unacceptable.
She had brought him up under strict discipline as well. Henry had been spanked from when he was a child all the way through high school and he knew that when he got home, he would still not be spared. But he finally faced up to the fact that he had no way to escape a certainty of an unhappy summer in front of him.
So he packed his bags and set out for home. When he arrived, he walked in and his mother was sitting in the living room reading, as she usually had been. She rose and have him a swift peck on the cheek and told him how happy she was to see him in her misleadingly sweet tone that masked a will of steel.
She accompanied him upstairs where she told him, much to his surprise, that he would be using his sister's room, because she, his mother, had taken his room for her use. His sister was off in Europe on a fellowship, so as much as he resented losing his own room, with his own things, he decided he'd better not make a big deal out of it.
His sister had been just as dominant as his mother, so he was satisfied in reminding himself that at least she wasn't there to come down on him too.
But now as he looked around his older sister's very femmy roomโall in pink and white with delicate lace bedspreads and curtains, he started to get annoyed. Then he opened the chest of drawers and as he would have expected, he saw Cynthia's underwear and tops and the like, along with dresses and skirts hanging in the closet.
But he took a closer look at these clothes and realized that they were in a larger size, closer to fitting him rather than his petite sister!
Henry figured it was better not to say anything about this because it would just stir things up. But he now anticipated that his mother had things in store of him that he was not going to like.
He went back to the living room and asked his mother where there was room in the closet and chest for his things.
"Oh," his mother answered in a calm tone, "there's an extra drawer for you and room at the right of the closet." She then went on to mention that his father had set up two or three interviews for him for office jobs that she was sure he would be well qualified for and which would allow him to save some money for school.
"You know that we're not millionaires, Henry," his mother said rather bluntly. "You have to help earn some money this summer to help pay your way." Again, he kept his thoughts to himself. He knew that his parents were rolling in dough. His mother was smartly if conservatively dressed, and the house was quite substantial. His father may have been dominated at home but he made a fine living as an investor and hedge-fund partner.
"I wanted to take a little time to relax," Henry said calmly. "I don't want to start right in Monday on working."
His mother looked severely at him and answered, "Your father has been good enough to go to some effort to line up these interviews. You will go to them, do your best to satisfy them as to your abilities, and you will accept the one which pays the best."
"Can't I get a little consideration?" Henry rejoined, momentarily losing his cool and letting his anger surface. "I've worked hard at school all year."
"I don't like the attitude you seem to have acquired," his mother snapped back. "You obviously have not had the disciplining you need and I intend to do something about that."
"I'm too old to be spanked like a little kid," Henry complained.
"You are not," his mother answered in a very firm tone. "In fact, we will go up to your room to do just that." With that, she took him by the ear and led him back upstairs to his sister's room, now his.
His mother sat on the bed and told him to take off his trousers. He realized he had to comply, that as always, she was in charge, so he dropped his pants and took them off. He stood in front of her, feeling already like a younger boy, in his white y-fronts, the jockey shorts he still preferred.
"Take those off too," his mother barked.
He complied and stood there totally embarrassed already, not two hours home.
Then his mother motioned to him to take off his shirt and his undershirt, which he did.
Now she had him lie across her grey flannel-skirted lap and then suddenly he felt her spanking hand start inflicting hard spanks on his bare white bottom.
He had not experienced her strong spanking hand on his bottom for a long timeโalmost a year. She clearly had lost none of her prowess in inflicting a stinging spanking. The spanks kept raining down on his bottom and he especially felt them now aimed at the tender curve from the base of his bottom onto his thighs.
It wasn't long before Henry was unable to hold off tears as the spanking, which hurt just as much as he now remembered. He couldn't see how red his bottom was becoming, but finally, after he had been made to plead for mercy and cry, things he had vowed never to let himself do any more, the spanking ended.
****
Henry duly put on a nice suit, shirt, and tie to go to the interviews his father had arranged. The jobs were surprisingly interesting, at least from the descriptions the men, slightly younger than his father, provided. He was pleased that he actually would be getting a decent intro to the financial world.
That night at the dinner table, his father questioned him carefully about the interviews. His penetrating questions made Henry think hard about the different aspects of each office where he could be working.
"We need to decide this quickly," he said to Henry. "Have you a strong preference?"
Henry thought for a moment and answered that he liked one at which the executive to whom he spoke seemed to take more of an interest in Henry's particular skills and school course background.
"That's fine," his father said with a satisfied look. "He will indeed look after you well."
Despite his longing for some free time, Henry reported for work the next day. He had worked in offices before, but this time, he admitted his father had done well by him. The executive who hired him made sure Henry met everyone involved in the operation and had given instructions to include him in all the important tasks that would benefit both Henry and the firm by Henry's learning to play his assigned role.
When Henry came home, he was exhilarated. But he saw the look on his mother's face and his face fell. She told him he was responsible for cleaning his room every morning and that he had not bothered to make his bed or tidy up his things that morning.