Jamie Douglas

With my kids, it would never happen; and, if it did, I would never admit it. However, I’d be lying if I said that, among my kids’ friends and my customers, I don’t have some favorites. Jamie Douglas is one of those.

There are a lot of different reasons why a kid might be one of my favorites. A lot of times, it’s simply because they’re polite, funny, and just generally pleasant to be around. Jamie is all the things, but he has one special trait that really endears him to me. It’s easier to illustrate than explain.

First, let me tell you about Jamie. He’s very small for his age. He has 5th grade home room with Barry this year. Jamie is about five months older than Barry; but, Barry, who’s not quite 11, is about the size of a pre-pubescent 12 year old (about 4'11"), while Jamie is nearly 6 inches shorter than that. Jamie has light brown hair that I think is supposed to be worn parted in the middle, but always ends up with the bangs hanging into his face. There’s nothing really special about the way Jamie looks, except for one thing. Oh, he’s cute; he has dimples in his cheeks and big ears; but, his special feature is a pair of the darkest blue eyes I can ever remember seeing. Looking at him in shadow, you’d swear they were brown or hazel, but they’re a beautiful midnight blue. That’s not what makes me like Jamie so much though.

Jamie is endearingly, heartbreakingly honest. I remember once, last fall, Jamie and Barry were outside playing. I was in the kitchen, starting dinner, when they came back inside. I had just finished washing my hands and turned to talk to them.

"What have you boys been up to?"

Barry replied, "Just messing around." and sounded perfectly normal. However, as he said it, I saw Jamie’s hands sneak around behind him, like they were trying to cover his little bottom.

"Jamie," I asked, "I think your dad spanks you, doesn’t he?"

"Yes, sir." Poor Jamie didn’t know how I knew, but he already sensed they’d been caught.

"Does he ever pull your pants down for a spanking?"

"My pants? Yes, sir. Every time."

"By the way you said that, I’ll bet he pulls your underwear down, too, sometimes. Right?"

Jamie blushed, but admitted the truth. "Yes, sir. If I’m in real trouble."

"Don’t be embarrassed, Jamie. Barry and his brothers get spanked bare pretty much every time." Now Barry blushed. "Has your dad ever told you that lying always makes things worse?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, if you’d done something that your dad thought you should be spanked for, but it wasn’t going to be a bare spanking, but then you lied to try to get out of it, how would that make it worse?"

"He’d spank my bare rear for lying, then I’d get the other spanking for whatever I’d done."

"Well, in this house, say you’d done something that I thought deserved a paddling. If you lied about it, then you might get the brush, instead of the paddle." I was looking at Jamie, but I saw Barry wince at that statement.

"Now," I said, after giving them a minute to absorb my pronouncement, "I’m going to ask again; what were ya’ll up to?"

Barry looked embarrassed, Jamie looked a little scared, then they looked at each other, and finally, looking down at his feet, Barry told me, "We went down to the creek."

Now, I had to think about that for a second, because I didn’t have any problem with the boys playing at the creek, unless the water was high. Then the problem occurred to me.

"What do you know about leaving the yard without telling someone, Bartholomew Allen?"

"That I’ll get in trouble if I do it." He said it so quietly, I almost couldn’t hear him.

"You know I don’t have a prob..." I thought about it for a second. Then I looked at Jamie. "I don’t know your middle name."

He looked confused, but answered the implied question. "Oliver."

"James Oliver!", I snapped at him. "Are you supposed to be playing down by the creek?"

"No, sir." He admitted, tears starting to gather in the corner of his eyes. "My daddy says I can get ticks and stuff down there, and might get sick."

"Well, I think that’s just a risk of childhood myself, but it’s also why I have the boys put on bug spray before they go down there. Still, if that’s your dad’s rule, you should respect it. Shouldn’t you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, you know I have permission to spank you?" He nodded. "So, should I tell your dad what you did, or should I take care of it here and now?"

Jamie shrugged, but then seemed to think for a second. "You take care of it, please."

"Now, you and I have another problem. Haven’t your father and I both told you that you’re not supposed to leave here without telling me, in case he calls and needs to know where you are?"

"Yes, sir." Poor Jamie was sounding very distressed now.

"Well, I’d say you’re in double-trouble. Aren’t you? Well, if your daddy gave me permission to spank you, who decides how hard a spanking you need?"

"You do."

"All right then, you did two things wrong, so I guess you need two spankings. Does that sound right?"

"Yes, sir." The poor kid. You could hear his voice break as he tried not to sob.

"All right. Then I think each spanking is going to be one spank on each cheek. Both of you get your pants and undies down."

Barry started unfastening his pants, but Jamie just stared at me. He finally managed to get over his surprise enough to ask, "What?"

"You did two things wrong, so you’re going to get four swats." I paused and looked at him for a minute. Barry stood there with his fly open, but not letting his pants drop yet. "Unless you think that won’t be enough to make sure you don’t forget next time?"

"Oh, no, sir! That’ll be plenty. I’ll remember, I promise."

It was mid-fall, but a chilly day. Both boys were in long jeans. Barry was wearing a sweat shirt, but Jamie had on a light blue hoodie. Jamie lifted the hoodie, exposing his flat, bare belly, then quickly shucked his jeans and briefs to his ankles. He actually got his down faster than Barry did, even with Barry’s head start. (Barry’s a little neat about certain things. He had to get his jeans down, before he lowered his briefs. Jamie was quicker, but his briefs and jeans were tangled.

It was only a few seconds before both boys were standing there, holding their shirts up, leaving them nude from chests to below their knees, with those cute little peters dangling in the wind. They’re so cute that I had to enjoy the view for a few seconds before I finished with their instructions.

"Okay guys. Turn around, put your hands on your knees. You don’t get up until I tell you. Understand?"

As soon as I heard two ‘yes, sirs’, and they were in position, I stepped up to Jamie. Since he was in more trouble, I thought I’d let him be first and last. I placed my left leg against his left hip, and put my left hand on his right hip, pulling him lightly against me leg, to give him some support. Then I leaned back a bit to make sure I got a good swing.

"This one is for leaving the yard without permission. You already know why you’re not supposed to do that, so..."

Even as they ‘so’ left my lips, my right hand was swinging downwards. He wasn’t expecting it quite that fast, and I didn’t really shift my weight, so I think it was a total surprise to him as my hand landed square on that cute little left cheek. The SWAT! was almost immediately echoed by his OOWWW! I gave the sore cheek a firm squeeze, then reached over and rubbed the right cheek for a second, before lifting my hand back.

"Did you not want to risk me mentioning to your dad that you’d gone down there, Jamie? Or, did you just not think about it?"

He’d been rubbing his bottom a bit against my hand, but stiffened when I lifted it. As I talked to him, he relaxed a bit. "A little of both I think. I really didn’t think of it, until we were already in the woods."

"Well, you’re going to think about it next time. Aren’t you?"

"Yes, s...OWWWW!!" Jamie has a mellow little tenor voice, but I think he hit soprano with that second swat. I had managed to sneak it in on him also, and it was every bit as hard as the first had been. I think his yelp was even louder than the first. I let my hand rest there for a minute, then gave the cheek a firm squeeze, before moving my hand away.

"Okay, Jamie. You can stand up." He wasn’t crying; but, as he turned to face me, it wasn’t hard to see the tears running down his face. "No rubbing, " I warned him. I didn’t have to say anything else. He lifted his shirt, where it had fallen down, ignored the exposure, and watched as I stepped to Barry.

"I don’t think we need to say anything, do we, son?"

"No, sir."

He expected the same thing Jamie had received, so instead I immediately shot two rapid fire swats. His let loose with one long, loud yelp at the unexpected speed of the swats.

"We going to have anymore trouble, Barry?"

"No, sir."

"Good. Do you want to do CT, or get dressed and no rubbing?"

"Get dressed."

Jamie and I watched as Barry adjusted his clothes. Then I turned my attention back to him.

"You and I still have something to take care of, don’t we Jamie?"

"Yes, sir. You gotta spank me for breaking Dad’s rule. "Hands back on my knees?"

"Sounds good to me."

I waited until he was back in position, and went back to the same stance I’d used before. I didn’t bother to lecture this time, or try to surprise him. I just lined up and planted two hard swats on those already red, little cheeks. Not as fast as I had with Barry, though. I did take long enough to give each cheek a light rub and a good squeeze, before I was finished. On his already warm, red bottom, Jamie was crying after the third swat. After the fourth, I pulled him up and lifted him into a hug. With his arms wrapped firm about my neck, I rubbed his bottom for him for him. After a minute, I let him down.

"Get dressed, Jamie. And you should consider yourself lucky."

"Yes, sir."

"You heard me tell Barry no rubbing?"

"Yes, sir."

"Once you’re in his room, if you two want to pull down your pants and rub your bottoms, it’s okay."

Jamie blushed, but they both smiled. When Jamie finally got his briefs and jeans untangled and pulled up, they started to leave, but I stopped them. "Jamie? Would you do me a favor, please?"

"Yes, sir?"

"When you get to Barry’s room, would you get the paddle and put it on his bed? After you’re gone, he and I need to have a talk about him lying to me, when you two came in."

As I dropped that bombshell, Barry’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped; but, he knew better than to argue with me about it.


Talking is actually all I did with Barry that evening, because he really hadn’t lied to me. I don’t want the boys telling me partial truths and trying to hide things from me, but one also has to make allowances for youth. Our talk covered that, and I reminded him of why even Marcus has to check with me before he leaves. I think I would have been technically justified in turning his little bottom scarlet, but I don’t think there was reason. Of course, I also made sure he understood that if a similar incident occurs, he’s going to pay for both occasions at once, and that means the hairbrush. Barry has a healthy enough fear of the brush that I think he’ll make a real effort to avoid anything that even loosely resembles a lie. At least for a little while, and that’s the best you can hope for, when a boy is closing in on his teens.