A birthday is always an important event in a boy's life. A thirteenth birthday, the day when a boy becomes a teenager, is particularly important. Whatever adults may feel about it, the boy himself is nearly always conscious that he has made a large step on the road to adulthood. Often, though not always of course, the dawning of the teenage years coincides with physical changes in the boy which also herald the beginning of adulthood. But it is not just that. There may not be an instant and immediately recognisable change in the way the boy is treated, but there can be little doubt that, in most western cultures, the thirteen year old is accorded more freedom and, with it, responsibility than is the twelve year old. Anyway, as the previously twelve year old boy wakes up on the morning of his thirteenth birthday he will tend to think that a new age is dawning. Sadly for him, of course, he will find, over the next few years, that some adults remain stubbornly convinced that he is still a child. But, on the birthday itself, his optimism will usually triumph.
In the case of Timmy and Charlie there was certainly a strong element of optimism in their minds as they woke from their dreams as teenagers. In their case, the physical changes to which I have made reference had been continuing apace for some months. Once the school holidays were over, they would be returning, not to the closeted and childish world of the prep school, but to the much more open and responsible world of the public school. On top of all that, for a very long time they had been used to parental remarks along the lines of "you're too young, wait till you're thirteen". Although I fear they may have been deluding themselves, they were both convinced that their newly acquired maturity would open the door to all sorts of delights previously forbidden to them. They knew that all would not be wonderful. Errors of judgment which, in the past, would have been put down to their tender years would not be so easily forgiven. School work would become more and more demanding. Despite their, to their minds, great age they knew they would be arriving at Upton as the youngest boys there. Most of all, they knew that the days of the slipper were now over, to be replaced by canings of almost unimaginable severity. But they were natural optimists and they didn't allow such depressing thoughts to intrude on the day. They were teenagers, and they were going to enjoy the experience immensely.
On other days during those school holidays, the boys had tended to enjoy the luxury of lying in in the mornings. It was one of the great advantages of spending the holidays under the supervision of a seventeen year old boy that the adult preoccupation with early rising was forgotten. It was not uncommon for the twins and Adam, who were sharing a room, to wander down to breakfast as late as 10 in the morning. But that was not to be on this special morning. Poor Adam. He had reached that age when a boy often wakes in the morning to find himself in a condition which can only be relieved by a certain kind of exercise under the bed clothes. The morning of the twins' birthday was no exception. But how could a boy enjoy himself properly when two over-excited thirteen year olds were rushing around the room laughing and shouting and urging him to get up? Adam gave up the struggle and reluctantly pushed back the bed clothes to start the day at the ungodly hour of 7.30.
It promised to be another gloriously warm day. All three boys dressed as cooly as they could in thin shorts and T shirts. The twins were out of the room first. Their priority, they knew, must be to rouse the rest of the household. The easiest starting place was Sarah, Jo and Sandy's room. Their reception there, they calculated, might not be so stormy as the one they would be likely to get in their own sister's room or in Robbie's.
They charged down the corridor and threw the door open with shouts of "time to get up lazy boneses".
Even though Jo and Sandy would be making the same leap into their teens in the following week, they were not, instantly, inclined to jump out of bed to please the boys. Sarah, who was already 14 and was never particularly keen on getting up in the mornings, was even less inclined to please the birthday boys. All three girls groaned as the invasion of their room began. None of them made any move towards getting up.
Timmy and Charlie stood just inside the door looking at the supine girls and deciding on their best plan of action. As they did so, they were joined by Adam. Though he had considerable sympathy with the girls, he also felt that, as he had been so inconvenienced, he did not see why they shouldn't be too. He decided to take command.
"Ok lads", he ordered, "I'll take Sarah, one of you take Jo and the other Sandy". And he strode across the room to the furthest bed in which Sarah was stubbornly lying face down trying to ignore the interruption to her sleep. Charlie had no hesitation in heading for Sandy's bed and Timmy approached Jo's.
"If they're not up on my count of three boys", said Adam, "we get them up. One, two, three. Ok, into action".
He grabbed Sarah's bed clothes at the top and, in one movement, tugged them up and down to her ankles. At the same moment, Charlie and Timmy did the same to Sandy's and Jo's sheets and blankets. Still the girls did not move, other than to grab the sides of their mattresses in an attempt to prevent the boys from dragging them out of bed.
Sarah, in view of the weather, was wearing a very short nightdress. It had risen up slightly and, so short was it, that Adam could see the gentle curves of the lower part of her delightful buttocks. Ever since he had watched Charlie smacking Sandy's bottom on the beach he had longed to plant a firm slap on Sarah's bottom. I am afraid he could not now resist. He raised his hand high and brought it down hard (but not too hard I am pleased to say) on her gorgeously firm flesh. Her reaction was instant. Both hands released their grip on the mattress and flew to the defence of her bottom. I don't suppose for one moment that she intended it, but the movement had the effect of raising her nightdress even further and, for a glorious moment, Adam found himself looking down at her completely bare bottom, now nicely coloured by the force of his smack. He rather hoped that she would persist in her refusal to get up, so that he could do it again, but he was out of luck. With a moan of "you're so mean Adam", she rolled over and got out of bed.
Charlie and Timmy saw what Adam had done and, determined not to miss out, each delivered a sharp smack to the bottom of his victim. Sadly for them, the girls, tomboys that they were, were dressed in boys' pyjamas and so they were denied the pleasure of seeing the effect their slaps had on their exceptionally pretty bottoms. But at least they had felt the firmness and warmth of the flesh. Their birthday, each felt, had started off well.
Although the boys would dearly have loved to stay and watch the girls change out of their night clothes, they recognised that there were limits to the liberties they could take and they set off to tackle the rather more risky task of persuading Sammy and Robbie to get up.
As it happened, they had no difficulty with Sammy. She was still enjoying her role as surrogate mother to her young brothers and was eager to make their birthday as enjoyable for them as possible. She had realised that they would be bound to rise early and, keen to ensure that they should have a proper breakfast, she was already dressed when the gang of boys arrived at her door. So only Robbie was left. Quite correctly, as it turned out, the boys guessed that he would not be as easy to deal with as the girls had been. Indeed, Adam was so convinced of that that he decided to leave the honour of rousing Robbie to Charlie and Timmy alone. He merely stood in the door and watched.
It grieves me to have to report it, but Robbie had woken in the same condition Adam had (he had been having a particularly enjoyable dream about Sammy just before he woke). Unlike Adam, however, he had already started to deal with the problem in the time honoured way favoured by teenage boys around the world. The sudden arrival of two noisy thirteen year old boys was not a pleasant interruption to his sport. Guessing that they might be inclined to pull his bed clothes off, given half a chance, and conscious of his total nakedness, he gripped the blankets firmly with his left hand, leaving his right free to cope with any attack. The twins approached him cautiously. He glared at them. They halted. Then Timmy decided to throw caution to the wind. He advanced further. He reached the side of the bed and leant down to grab the bed clothes. Robbie saw his chance. In a move Timmy had not expected, the older boy released his own grip on the bed clothes and, using his right hand, pulled Timmy down on top of him and placed his left hand on the boy's upper back.
Timmy was trapped. Slowly, Robbie eased himself up into a semi-sitting position. Timmy was lying on his thighs, his slim round bottom positioned in such a way as to invite only one course of action. The thin cotton shorts were tightly hugging his buttocks. Robbie raised his right hand high in the air. Then he had second thoughts. He didn't know which twin this was. But there was a way to find out. As he had done in the previous holidays, he had used indelible ink to mark the tops of each boy's right thigh with the initial letter of his name. Nothing would be easier than to lift the hem of the shorts up to examine the boy's thigh. But he had noticed that the shorts had an elasticated waist. It would be just as easy to pull them down. With one tug he had them round Timmy's knees. Sure enough, there was the small letter T.
"So, it's Timmy I see", said Robbie, "well you're in for a treat. In America they have a splendid tradition called the birthday spanking, and that's just what you're going to get". As he spoke, he slipped his right hand under the waist band of Timmy's underpants and yanked them down. Then he raised his hand again and brought it down with a mighty crash on the creamy white flesh. Timmy squirmed and wriggled and kicked his legs in the air, but there was no escape. It had been a long time since he had been smacked, as opposed to slippered. Any idea he had had that a smacking could not hurt him any longer was instantly dispelled. His bottom was already stinging and he guessed, absolutely correctly, that there was more to come. After six, his bottom was feeling decidedly hot and sore. It was, to Robbie, a deeply satisfying shade of bright red. Of course, the spanking had not been nearly as painful as the real punishments Timmy now had to endure, but it had hardly been a picnic either. As Robbie released him, he leapt to his feet and clutched his bottom with both hands, rubbing furiously. He turned to his brother.
"Hey, Charlie", he said with a wide grin, "if we take him on at the same time we're bound to get him up".
Charlie was not a coward. He took a step forward. But then Robbie spoke.
"Oh, I forgot, sorry, now you're thirteen I'm meant to cane you aren't I. Adam, you wouldn't be so kind as to pass me the cane. It's just there, on the chest of drawers".
"Ok, ok", said Charlie quickly, "you win. But please get up soon. We really want you to join in the fun."
"Don't worry, I'll be along soon, so long as you leave me alone. See you downstairs."
The boys left, Timmy pulling up his pants and shorts as he went.
Robbie happily resumed what he had been doing before the interruption. And he had to admit to himself that that interruption had done nothing to dampen his excitement. His mind was flitting happily between thoughts of Sammy's perfect body and of Timmy's delightfully rosy red bottom.
As they went downstairs, Timmy confided in Charlie and Adam.
"Bloody hell, just getting smacked by Robbie is bad enough. Getting the swish is going to be like hell on earth. But, hey boys, you'll never guess. When he pulled me down I landed on his _c_o_c_k_. It was as hard as a rock and really big. I reckon he was doing it when we came in."
"No wonder you got that spanking", said Adam, "he can't have been at all happy to see us. He was probably thinking of your sister lying naked beside him and then we burst in the room. A bunch of boys wouldn't exactly be the ideal sight for a chap in that position."
Sammy was already in the large kitchen frying up eggs, bacon, sausages, back pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms and black pudding. This, she was determined, was to be a really special birthday breakfast. Within seconds, tempted by the aroma, Sarah, Jo and Sandy came in.
"Hey, what was that row from Robbie's room?" asked Jo.
"He didn't want to be got up", replied Timmy with a grin, "so he decided to give me a spanking, and much harder, I'd have you know, than that little smack I gave you."
"I bet it was. Don't forget, Sandy and I have had some experience of Robbie's spankings. Did he give it bare?"
"Yup. No half measures".
"Wish we'd seen it", said Sandy with a mischievous grin.
"Sadist", said Timmy, grinning just as widely.
Once the pressure had been relieved, Robbie, who could also smell that perfect aroma of the English breakfast, got up, had a very quick shower, dressed and came down to join the others.
Eight very contended children munched their way through the mountains of food Sammy had prepared. Even Timmy and Charlie, who were desperate to open their presents and who knew that Sammy would not permit that until breakfast was over and cleared away, were happy to make the most of the meal. But, at last, every scrap had been consumed. Sarah, Jo and Sandy jumped up to clear the table and do the washing up (it was their turn), the boys went into the sitting room to look at the piles of unopened presents and await the girls' arrival. Sammy went to the village shop to pick up the birthday cakes she had ordered previously.
Charlie and Tim each had his own pile of presents. Unknown to them, several had come in the post from their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. There were also presents from all the occupants of the house.
"Wow", said Timmy, "I've never seen so many presents in one place before."
"This is just fantastic", said Charlie, "I wish the girls would hurry up. I can't wait to see what I've got".
"Well I've got a special one for you that you can have now", said Robbie, walking towards Charlie (whom he could now identify because he was wearing different coloured shorts from Timmy).
"What, just me? Not Timmy?"
"Timmy's already had his".
At that second, just as Robbie lunged forward, Charlie realised what he was talking about. He screeched with laughter and ducked away from Robbie. "Oh no you don't, I'm not getting a birthday spanking too".
He ran in and out of the furniture, laughing wildly all the time. He did remarkably well for a couple of minutes, but he was no match for Robbie. Cornered at last, he had to give up. Robbie picked him up like a sack of coal and carried him over to a chair. He sat down and draped the wriggling and giggling boy over his knee. The shorts and underpants were down in a second and the first resounding smack echoed round the room just as quickly.
In the kitchen on the other side of the passage the girls had heard the laughter from the sitting room. But they busied themselves with their work. It was only when they heard the sound of the first smack that they decided to investigate. There was not a child in the land who could not recognise the sound of a good spanking, and the girls had absolutely no doubt what was happening. The fact that it was obviously a hand spanking meant that it was being given in fun, not in earnest, and Jo, Sandy and Sarah rushed for the door and bounded across the passage. They heard two more smacks before they got the sitting room door open.
Charlie's bottom was already red when they arrived. Sarah had been secretly hoping that the victim would be Adam, but Jo and Sandy were delighted to see it was Charlie. To be fair to them, they did wince as the next three smacks pounded his bottom, but there was no doubt that both had a secret thrill of excitement at seeing his magnificently athletic and slim buttocks being turned scarlet. And, anyway, although the spanking was clearly painful, it was also obvious that Charlie was entering into the spirit of things. Despite his stinging bottom, he was still madly giggling.
After the last smack Robbie patted Charlie's bottom as a sign that he could get up. He did so, with some relief, but still laughing all the while. It was only as he stood, rubbing his warm bottom, that he noticed the presence of the girls. His back, or perhaps I should say his bottom, had been towards them during the spanking. But when he rose he also turned round. In an instant, he took his hands away from his bottom and placed them in front, to protect his modesty.
Robbie, also, had not noticed the arrival of the girls, so engrossed was he in the task at hand. Now he saw them and, though still grinning, rebuked them.
"You naughty girls. That part of the birthday celebrations was for boys' eyes only. You'd better make yourself scarce before I put you over my knee as well."
Giggling helplessly, the three girls made their way back to the kitchen.
As they got there, Sarah turned to the twins. "I say", she said, "Charlie's growing up fast isn't he? With kit like that he could be taken for 14 not 13."
"So's Timmy", said Jo in immediate defence of the boy who seemed to have become her special friend, "remember, we saw them both when they came out on to the landing with the wallet and they were starkers".
"Bet you two would have liked to give the birthday spankings", Sarah was giggling as she spoke, "I know I wouldn't mind giving Adam one."
Sandy, who had no secrets from her sister, had told Jo about what she and Charlie had got up to in the cave. But she hadn't told Sarah. Now, she thought, was the time to reveal all.
"This is a total and utter secret, ok?" she asked.
"Yes, of course".
"Well I have in fact already given Charlie a spanking, and on the bare bum too."
She went on to give a graphic description of the fun they had had in the cave.
"And the best bit", she concluded, "was that it got him totally excited, you know, the way boys do when they think about us in bed."
"Wow", Sarah had listened with mounting fascination, "do you mean he did it, there, in front of you?"
"No, worse luck. He got all embarrassed when he got up from being over my knee and he dived into the water to calm down. But I bet he was thinking of it that night in bed."
"Well", Sarah said after a pause, "you've told me a secret, I'll tell you one now. You remember when Adam got the slipper from Robbie for going down to the village last hols when we'd been told not to?".
Both twins nodded.
"Well that night, when you and Charlie and Timmy had all gone to bed and Robbie and Sammy were in the sitting room, Adam and I went to the billiards room together. Anyway, when we got there I got him to show me his bum. And I sort of stroked it and hugged him a bit and we kissed. You know, on the lips properly. Well that got him really excited. And this is the bit you mustn't tell anyone else. I put my hand round it and sort of stroked it and moved it up and down until it started throbbing like mad and stuff spurted out."
The twins were staring at her with mouths and eyes wide open. Sandy eventually expressed their obviously shared opinion.
"Bloody hell Sarah. You are just so lucky. Well, perhaps it would have been better with someone other than our bro. But was it really fantastic?"
"It was just the best thing ever. And you've never seen a boy so happy either. And I won't have you say he's not the most attractive boy on this earth, cos he is."
"I'm not sure about that", said Jo, "but he must have been in heaven. I mean, I know he does it in bed. Well I expect all boys do. But I'm sure he's never done anything with a girl like that. Who'd think our brother would get so lucky?"
And so the girlish chatter continued as the washing up progressed rather slowly. Eventually Sarah raised the subject of Jo's and Sandy's forthcoming birthday.
"Do you think Robbie'll give you two birthday spankings?"
"Wow, I hope not", said Jo, "we've been spanked by him before remember, he's not exactly soft".
"That's what I was thinking watching him do it to Charlie. But how about getting birthday spankings from Timmy and Charlie? Do you think you'd like that?"
Both twins blushed slightly, but they had to admit that the idea was not unattractive to them.
"Ok, well let's make a plan", said Sarah. And that is precisely what they set about doing.
Finally, the girls finished both the washing up and the conversation. The latter would, I fear, have considerably shocked the boys had they heard it. They were entirely used to lewd dormitory chatter about girls, but it would never have occurred to them that girls might indulge in the same sort of talk about boys. Anyway, now looking as demure and innocent as ever, the girls made their way to the sitting room for the present opening ceremony.
"At last", said Timmy as the door opened. Sammy had been waiting with them for nearly half an hour. So all were now ready.
It must be an almost impossible task to buy birthday presents for identical twins. Most people, I suspect, do what most had done on this occasion. They buy identical presents. Charlie and Timmy were well used to that and had developed a procedure for coping with it. They would identify those packages which were identical in shape and then agree the order in which they were to be opened, each opening a package as the other was opening his identical one. The sorting had already been done by the time Sarah, Jo and Sandy arrived.
The first presents to be opened were in long oblong boxes and were from the twins' parents. Carefully, making sure that neither got ahead of the other, the two boys set about unwrapping them. At precisely the same moment they lifted the lids on the boxes and at precisely the same moment they let out shouts of delight as each pulled out a brand new .22 air rifle. Both had longed for their own air rifles for ages. Whenever they had asked, they had been told they were too young. Now, at the wonderful age of 13, their dreams had come true. But there were so many more presents to open and, for the moment, the air rifles were put aside.
The next were the all too obvious bicycles. They were from the twins' grandparents. I say they were obvious, because it is very difficult to wrap a bicycle in a way that does not reveal what it is. But the boys were still eager as they tore the wrapping paper off. And they were delighted with what was revealed. They were the absolute latest in boys' racing cycles. Timmy's was red and Charlie's blue. But in other respects they were identical.
Gradually all the presents were unwrapped. Some were on the boring side. Thirteen year old boys, in those days, did not get terribly excited about clothes and the jumpers, shirts and trousers did not lead to enormous elation. But the advanced chemistry sets, with their potential for wonderful explosions, went down very well, as did the cricket bats and the vouchers for a week's sailing course. Robbie, with typical generosity, had bought them wet suits, to enable them to get further in their passion for diving. Sammy and Sarah had clubbed together to buy them tickets to the final Test Match of the season at Lord's. Finally, they got to the presents from Jo and Sandy (Adam's, he had explained, was to be given secretly in their bedroom).
The two girls had thought long and hard about what to get the boys. Eventually, they had agreed that they would buy only one present each, so as to maximise their spending power. It was agreed that Jo would buy Timmy's and Sandy would buy Charlie's. They had spent ages traipsing round the market town's shops. Buying presents for boys was not, they had discovered, an easy task. Both, at different times, had been tempted by some very smart looking, and rather tight, trousers. But both had then realised that the chief purpose in buying them would be to give them, rather than the boys, pleasure. It had been Jo who had found the answer. She had seen a poster advertising a teens' disco to be held in a hall in the town on the night of her's and Sandy's birthday. The tickets, which included food and drink, were quite expensive. But she worked out that, between them, she and her sister could just about afford two each. She had explained her idea to Sandy, who instantly agreed the plan. They bought the four tickets and now two each were in envelopes addressed to Charlie and Timmy, with cards saying that the boys could take one girl of their choice each to the disco. The plan, of course, worked. As soon as they saw the tickets, Charlie asked Sandy to come to the disco with him and Timmy asked Jo. Both accepted with alacrity.
There were still various morning chores to be done, although Charlie, Timmy and Adam were still off duty and allowed to amuse themselves. They slipped quietly upstairs to their room to see Adam's secret birthday presents.
Adam fished out two parcels from under his bed. Each was wrapped in rather uninspiring brown paper and each was about six inches thick. He handed one to Charlie and one to Timmy. As before, they unwrapped the presents in unison. Their eyes widened as they saw what was inside.
"Wow", said Timmy, "these are just fab" and he eagerly flicked through the top copy of Playboy Magazine to find the centre fold picture.
"They're really good currency at Upton", explained Adam, "course, you'll have to hide them well cos you're bound to get swished if they're found, but there are photos in them that are perfect for after lights out. That's why I put the torches in too."
The rest of the day seemed, to Charlie and Timmy, to fly past far too quickly. There was another picnic on the island, this time with smoked salmon and lobster as well as chicken. Tea, back at the house, was a feast of biscuits, tea-cakes, boiled eggs, sandwiches and, of course, two wonderful birthday cakes each adorned with thirteen candles. After tea, all the children joined in a game of cricket. Supper was another feast of perfectly cooked roast beef. Robbie allowed them all to drink wine with it. After supper they played a hilarious game of charades. Finally, later than usual, the twins, Adam and Sarah were sent to bed while Robbie and Sammy had their now normal hour together on the sofa.
Charlie, Timmy and Adam all made excellent use of the magazines before they drifted off to sleep. A perfect day was over. But they weren't sad at its passing. For the following night was to be the one on which they would continue the criminal investigation without, they hoped, being caught by Robbie.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Do email me with your comments. In particular, do let me know whether the boys should be caught by Robbie when they continue their investigation!