Copyright© 2/14/05

Daddy was driving home, happy to have an unexpected half-day off work.

As he neared the house, he glanced over at a neighbor's house, and saw his girl sitting on the porch with a friend of hers. Daddy's mood changed immediately as he drove up to his own house. As soon as he got in the house Daddy dialed his girl's cell phone.

Nearby the girls cell phone rang, she looked at it and smiled seeing it was Daddy calling her. The smile quickly faded as she realized from the caller-ID the call came from home. She tried to sound cheerful as she answered, although she felt dread in the pit of her stomach, "Hi Daddy!"

"You have 5 minutes to get home." Daddy said tersely into the phone.

The girl quickly said her good-byes and raced all the way to her house. She stood on the porch trying to catch her breath, while thinking what she could say to lessen Daddy's obvious bad mood. She knew what it was about and steeled herself as she opened the door.

Quietly she greeted Daddy, "Hi, Daddy, I didn't expect you home so early."

"Get the cane" was all Daddy said. He did not even look at her. He was staring out the back window; the skirt he had seen her put on this morning now in his hands.

She shivered as she ran to the bedroom to retrieve the cane. She hated this. She silently berated herself for her error. She thought she had it figured out, she could change into shorts just for a while, and get back home before Daddy did. Her friends were always commenting about wearing skirts all the time, and refusing to play some of their more raucous games. Not only had she disobeyed Daddy's direct orders, she was going to be deceptive about it too. Her stomach knotted as she thought about her plan earlier in the day, leaving her skirt right by the door. She figured she could get home and change before daddy got home from work. One time was all she intended. Now Daddy was disappointed, and that knowledge ate away at her.

She sighed and took the cane out of the closet.

Back in the living room, Daddy paced back and forth, the skirt still in his hand. His girl hesitated at the entry to the room. Daddy turned around, seeing her waiting, put his hand out expectantly, "bring it to me."

He pointed at the large ottoman, "Sit."

She sat immediately,

Daddy sat on the chair directly in front of her and watched as she fidgeted. She looked at the floor, the walls, and the ceilings. She looked everywhere but right at daddy. Her legs jittered up and down; her fingers kept rubbing the material of her pants. She was biting her lower lip, fighting back tears. She sighed several times.

When her movements slowed, daddy spoke to her.

"My little girl, do you have any idea how disappointed I am? The shock I felt seeing you outside, seeing the proof that you blatantly disregarded my wishes?"

Daddy's anger rose, "I go to work every day, expecting you to be my good girl. I have trusted you to follow my rules. Does it mean so little to you, that you can blithely disobey daddy? Do you think you are such a smart girl, to plot how to deceive me?"

She looked at him with sad tear filled eyes, protesting, "NO daddy no! I'm sorry! I..."

Daddy cut her off before she could finish, "I'm sorry isn't going to cut it little girl. You broke my trust. Now I wonder how many times you HAVE done this, and I just didn't catch you.

Vehemently she denied it, "Noooo this was the first time, HONEST daddy! You gotta believe me."

Daddy stood up and looked down at her, "I don't GOTTA believe you. What I believe is what I saw with my own eyes. What were you thinking??? No don't answer that. I know what you were thinking. How to pull one over on Daddy? How to have things YOUR way? You were thinking that this was all about you. That it wasn't important enough to please daddy. Ignore that he might come home early and surprise you. That's exactly what I was going to do, surprise you. I thought we would have a very enjoyable afternoon together. Instead, here we are having a discussion we shouldn't have to have. Instead of going out for ice cream, maybe renting a movie and watching it together, now I have to deal with this. Do you have ANY idea what this has done?

Daddy watched her as her chest heaved and she fought back a sob, a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. The sight of her made him want to gather her in his arms and hold her, to tell her everything was going to be ok. Daddy knew that would be the worst thing to do, no matter how good it would feel.

"This hurts both of us, not just you. I don't relish the idea of having to punish you. I would rather our time together be spent having fun and enjoying each other." Daddy made his way behind her, avoiding her sad face. "Let's get this over. Daddy will take care of this, hopefully once and for all. I can't trust you to make the right choice when I'm not here. Go to the bedroom and bring every pair of pants you own, long and short, to me"

Her mouth opened, but shut immediately as she did as she was told. She searched through all the drawers and closet, gathering up her pants. She brought them to daddy and dropped them in a heap at his feet.

He asked her if this was all of them. She started to nod in response before realizing there was one more pair of pants. She was wearing a pair. She kicked off her shoes, and then stood, unbuttoning the fly of her pants. She peeled them off, adding them to the pile.

Daddy asked, "How many pair are there?"

Picking them up one by one she counted, "Ten, Daddy."

Daddy walked out to the kitchen and got a trash bag. He placed it by the ottoman.

"Ok little girl," daddy was watching her intently, "remove the rest of your clothing and lay across the ottoman."

She looked down as she undressed, her long hair obscuring her face from his view. She heard daddy tapping the cane against his leg impatiently. Once naked she lay across the ottoman and waited.