Hal was my regular babysitter. I was eight. He was 16, a big, tall guy who was popular with the girls. When my father had to work late or go away on the weekends Hal looked after me. Me and him sometimes got along fine and sometimes not at all.
Once when we weren't getting along fine at all I sort of got on his bad side. He had been babysitting me one night but didn't have much time for me since he spent most of the evening locked in a bedroom with his girlfriend Alice. I happened to run into Alice's mother in town the next day and mentioned how friendly she was with Hal to go behind locked doors all the time.
The following week he babysat again. He gave me quite a dirty look. It seems he and Alice weren't allowed to see each other for a while and it was all my fault.
"You better watch your ass, Tommy," he said. "Because if I get half a chance I'm going to tan it for you."
I wasn't too worried. My father had authorized him to spank me for three offenses: smoking cigarettes; fighting; and setting foot on the grounds of the abandoned house at the end of the street. It wasn't too hard to avoid any of those three things while under his care, and in fact he had never given me a spanking yet.
A couple of months after that Dad was away on business and Hal stayed at our house for the weekend to look after me. He was smiling and nice and sweet, which wasn't like him and should have made me suspicious.
Saturday after lunch, to my surprise Alice turned up. She said hello to me and then the two of them went into the bedroom and locked the door. I figured everything was back to normal.
I went outside to the front yard and not two minutes later who shows up but Alice's little brother Jimmy. Jimmy was in my class at school. He and I were not exactly enemies but we didn't like each other too much. I thought he must be looking for Alice. "She's busy," I said.
"Uh-huh." He looked around. "Come on," he said. "I want to show you something."
"What?"
Jimmy took a pack of cigars out of his pocket and showed it to me briefly before slipping it back. I had smoked cigarettes before but never a cigar.
"I don't know," I said. "I'm not allowed."
"Of course not," he said. "Who is?"
"Well..."
"Come on!" He lowered his voice. "She's with Hal, right? You know they'll be in there for at least an hour."
He had a point there. They had just gone in. Surely I'd have time to smoke a cigar. We set out together.
Jimmy headed for the abandoned house. Nobody was in sight. I ducked in there with him. We went through to the back. Leaning against the back wall, he pulled the cigars out of his pocket along with a book of matches. He handed me one. "Here," he said, "You can light up first." He lit a match and held it up for me.
I puffed, sucking in the flame until the cigar was lit. I pulled some smoke into my mouth and was blowing it out into the air when Hal stepped around the corner, with a smile of grim satisfaction on his face. Caught!
My eyes widened and I looked from Hal to Jimmy, who was smiling excitedly. The son of a bitch! He had set me up! With a roar of rage I threw the cigar aside and went for him.
Hal let us roll around on the ground for a few seconds throwing punches at each other before he separated us.
"Come on," he said. "Back to the house."
He marched me back home, holding me firmly by the collar.
"Well, Tommy," he said. "You were smoking. You were inside the abandoned house. And you were fighting. I think you're able to count the number of spankings you have coming."
I was furious, as well as scared. There was nothing I could do. I knew my Dad would side with Hal in any appeal I might make. And in any case that would be after the fact.
Inside the house Hal took me into the living room. Alice was sitting there looking smug. "Caught the culprit, did you?" she asked with a laugh.
Hal sat down. "I caught him red-handed. And it's his bottom that's going to be red soon. Little tattle-tale here was smoking, fighting and trespassing. That's three counts against him." He let go of my collar. "Take those pants down, boy," he said with a smile. "I'm going to let you have it on the bare."
Jimmy had sat down next to Alice. Everybody seemed to be looking forward to this but me. I hesitated a long moment, thinking about making a run for it. But Alice was between me and the door. Angry and mortified, I undid my trousers and pulled them down a little.
Hal was impatient. He reached over and hooked his thumbs in my underpants. I saw Jimmy staring as Hal pulled my pants and underpants to my ankles. Then he hauled me across his lap.
I found myself with my feet dangling off the floor and my head upside down, my hands touching the floor in front of me. My stomach was tied in knots with anxiety as I waited for the spanking to start.
Hal placed his left hand firmly on the small of my back and set his right hand lightly on my naked bottom. "Now I hope you understand why I have to give you your first spanking," he said with mock sincerity. "Smoking is very bad for your health. So is disobeying. So is tattling. So, let's begin, shall we?"
With that he draw back his arm and delivered a stinging crack to my behind. I gasped and jerked.
"I'm sorry this has to hurt, Tommy. But if it didn't hurt, you wouldn't care enough to start behaving, would you?"
He spanked again, just as hard. Tears began to well up in my eyes and I made an effort not to start crying.
"I'm afraid this is going to be one hell of a spanking, Tommy. Now you will try to be a big boy and not cry and fuss, won't you?" A third sizzling smack. I clenched my jaws.
"I didn't hear you, Tommy." Smack again. "Will you answer my question?" Smack. Pause. Another smack. "I asked you if you'd be a big boy and not cry. What do you say?" Another pair of hard smacks. A shuddering sob escaped me, and I began to cry.
"Oh, well, I guess you're going to be a crybaby about it. We might as well just get on with it." And with that Hal began to spank my bottom in earnest. I howled and squirmed as he set my rear end on fire, paying me back with interest for having squealed on them to Alice's mother. Finally it was over and he set me on my feet. Still bawling, I started to pull my pants up but Hal stopped me. "Go stand in the corner for a little while," he ordered. "Put your hands on top of your head." I stumbled awkwardly to the corner with my pants and underwear around my ankles and put my hands on my head.
"Wow," said Alice. "Hal really gave it to Tommy good, didn't he, Jim?"
"I'll say!" said Jimmy. "His ass is red as a beet."
After fifteen minutes of listening to the three of them comment on the state of my behind, the shameful spectacle I had put on with my howling and crying, and how it was an unfortunate necessity to spank disobedient children, I was allowed to go to my own room.
"But take off your shoes and socks and your pants and underpants first," said Hal. "Don't forget you've got two more spankings coming. You might as well stay prepared."
I did as I was told. Hal had showed me I had better not cross him. Naked from the waist down I fled to my bedroom and threw myself face down on the bed, crying into my pillow. I cried myself into a deep sleep in the warm summer afternoon.
It was a few hours later that I woke again. Hal was shaking me gently by the shoulder. "Wake up, Tommy," he said softly. "It's six o'clock." I sat up, still disoriented from sleep. "What?" I said.
Hal sat down on my bed, facing the open window. "It's time," he said gently. I was still groggy as he pulled me, gently but firmly, into position.
"No!" I said as I realized what was happening. But it was too late. I was over his lap again. "This is for going where you shouldn't," he said, and started right in spanking me. But this time the slaps were light, hardly even uncomfortable at first. I relaxed a little as the sleep cleared from my head. He was spanking me rapidly but not hard. Gradually, however, the spanking began to sting and throb even though it wasn't very hard. I began to squirm and moan. The heat and the pain were building in my behind, and I couldn't get away. "Ooow!" I said finally, "Stop it, stop it, it hurts!" I started to cry again. This seemed to be what he was waiting for. Suddenly he began to spank me with loud, hard smacks, drawing his arm back and bringing down his hand with real force. I writhed and kicked and bawled loudly, but he held me down firmly and kept spanking me hard for so long I wondered if he would ever stop. But he did stop, finally. When I was back on my feet, weeping hard, he took me by the hand.
"Calm down, now," he said. "It's dinner time." And he led me through the open door of my bedroom out into the living room.
Alice and Jimmy were there. I realized with a start that they had heard everything, and could even have seen everything through the door. Hamburgers and Cokes and salad were laid out on the coffee table in the living room.
"Buffet style," said Alice. "Everybody take a plate and serve yourselves."
"Tommy," said Hal, "I don't imagine you'll want to sit down. You'll eat standing up."
Jimmy smirked as I stood opposite him eating my hamburger, clad in only a T-shirt. "Hal lit you up that time," he said. "I've never been spanked that bad before!"
"You have too, Jimmy," said Alice. "You're forgetting just a few months back when Daddy took the belt to you for swiping money out of Mama's purse."
"Oh," said Jimmy. "You think that was as bad as that spanking Hal just gave Tommy?"
"It sure was. And I was an eyewitness."
Jimmy scowled. I felt a tiny bit better.
After dinner I had to wash the dishes. We all watched TV for a while. I was able to sit down for it - I was sore but I could manage it. Then at 9:30 Hal shut off the TV.
"Before Alice and Jimmy go home," he said, "I'd like to give your third and final spanking, Tommy." I had been trying not to think about it. I could hardly believe I was going to have live through another session over Hal's lap.
"Come on. Out here."
I followed him out of the living room but halted when I saw he was going out on to the front porch. Alice and Jimmy came up behind me and firmly escorted me out.
It was a warm summer evening, not very dark. Our porch light was on and there were moths fluttering around it. I covered my crotch with my hands and looked anxiously around the neighborhood. The neighbors across the street were inside their house but there were people on the porch of the house next to theirs. Next door on our side of the street, our neighbor Mr. Morris and another man were leaning up against a car in the driveway and talking quietly. I could hear children's voices further down the street. Nobody seemed to have noticed us.
"Alice?" said Hal. To my surprise, Alice handed Hal something: a well-worn wooden paddle, broad and heavy.
"You'll feel that one!" said Jimmy. "That's from our house!"
Hal walked down and sat on the middle porch step. "Come here, Tommy," he said. "Don't be shy."
I really didn't want to do it. The thought of the neighbors hearing my earlier spankings was humiliating enough. But to be seen? I turned and started to go back into the house, but Alice caught my arms and took me struggling down to Hal.
He pushed me across his lap. Alice and Jimmy sat down on either side of us on the steps. I began to shout in protestation, and of course this got the neighbors' attention. "This is for fighting," said Hal. He draw back the paddle and gave me a good crack. The hand spankings immediately paled in comparison. A smack with that paddle got all my attention. I cried out and began to kick. Alice caught my feet, moved in a little closer to Hal and held them firmly in her lap. Hal began to paddle me. Not only was the paddle a painful instrument, it was loud. It sounded like rifle shots. As I began to cry and holler, I could hear Mr. Morris next door. "Now there's a little fella bein' taught a good lesson," he said approvingly.
And it was a hell of a lesson. As the neighbors looked on, and the kids on the street came running to see what was happening, Hal paddled my ass with enthusiasm. Strong, slowly-paced smacks covering both buttocks had me wailing and struggling.
When it was over I had to stand on the porch, facing the street, with my hands on my head, stonily ignoring the kids who stayed on to laugh and tease me. I was glad of one thing: that it was over. I had had my three punishments. The next day I could keep my pants on.
Of course, I hadn't foreseen my father's reaction. When he got home the following evening and heard about my cigar-smoking, trespassing and fighting, my pants came off again, and Dad taught me the same lesson all over again with his belt, as Hal watched.
But the lesson sank in. I would grow up to be a fighter, a cigar-smoker, and at times a trespasser, but I was never again a tattle-tale.