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Crystal is Crazy: The Cleaning Caper Part 4

Slowly, ever so slowly the daytime turned into dusk. Crystal spent the time halved between pacing her room, fuming, or curled up in the fetal position, covered by her pink quilt, crying bitterly over the unfairness of it all.. And the fear of what her father was going to do to her.

As it grew later the girl became increasingly anxious, and when she heard her mother and Danielle starting on supper she breathed a sigh of relief; soon they would be coming up for her. Before long the smell of ham and sweet potatoes and fresh corn was wafting up to greet her nose, and she realized that she was quite hungry. Before long she heard James come in and at first she sucked in her breath in fear. Then she realized that it was too close to dinner for him to do anything to her now, and that the only reason he would come up would be to get her.

She heard places being set around the table, usually her job, and raised an eyebrow curiously. Before long there was a knock at the door and she gratefully opened it, starting to exit, before she realized James was blocking the path.

"Here," he said gruffly, shoving a plateful of food and a cup of water in her hands. "We decided we couldn't make you miss a meal because of your headaches, although if you were a normal child there would be no supper for you. As it is you get no milk and no dessert for a week." With that he turned on his heel and left just as abruptly as he had come in, leaving behind a daughter whose eyes were glistening with tears.

She took her meal over to her desk, struggling to choke down her food in between the sobs that were shaking her slight frame. She wanted to give her body enough to work on for whatever else her father had in mind for her punishment, and wanting dreadfully to ward off a headache so she ate what she could. It wasn't everything, but it was a good portion.

After she went back and lay down again, squeezing her eyes tight, listening to her family eating with enjoyment just below her, their laughter floating up to her room. It wasn't more than ten minutes later that she was beginning to get another headache. She pushed it aside as being the stress she was in, sure it would go away once everything was over. After all, it wasn't all that bad. Five minutes later she wasn't so sure, and in another five she knew that another full-blown headache was coming on.

(Truth be known, it wasn't just the stress that was causing it, although it was a major factor. The ham itself contained ingredients that were deadly to someone with her condition. Once again, if it were a hundred years later they not only would know this and prevent the use of ham, they would know the NAME of what they were dealing with: migraines. Sadly, this was the late 1800s, a time before many medical discoveries, so people like Crystal had to suffer.)

Shakily Crystal got up, squinting, and made her way to the door. She wasn't sure which would make her parents angry with her: her hiding her health so as to follow their prior instructions, or her actually disobeying their instructions to get help. Totally clueless, she decided they'd be angrier if she made herself sicker so with a deep breath she opened the door and slowly, carefully, made her way down the stairs. They weren't noticing her so as she stood at the bottom of the stairwell she did her best to call out to them. But already the pain in her head was growing rapidly and it wasn't very loud. After another feeble attempt she came into the full light of the room, tightly closing her eyes against the light of the candles.

Everything in the room stopped dead; everyone sat motionless, completely quiet. Fury welled up in Julia until she moved quickly, breaking the spell. She leapt up from her seat and slapped her daughter across her face, hard. James' own eyes burned with anger, but most of it was directed at his wife. Even after they had decided to start spanking or even whipping Crystal they had maintained that the only thing that would feel their wrath was her backside. Danielle, on the other hand, was completely enjoying the spectacle and just barely managing to contain her glee at the unforeseen events.

"M-ma?" Crystal asked, her head now hurting more than she ever thought possible. Her lower lip trembled and fresh tears spilled onto her cheeks as her hand went to protect her face from more oncoming blows.

Julia, however, was unmoved. "Damnit, Crystal!" she bellowed, making her daughter cringe, mostly from the pain her booming voice caused, but partially from fear as well. "I told you stay up in your room and I meant it! Now git your fanny up those stairs this instant. You've already created a hell of a lot more trouble for yourself young lady," Julia swore, which was totally unlike her.

Crystal shook her head slightly though; they still didn't know the reason she'd come down. She could only hope and pray that if she explained then they'd understand. "Mama.. Honest.. I came down 'cuz I need help!"

James started to get up, concerned about his daughter, but Julia signaled for him to stop. "Oh really," she asked, her voice condescending. "And just what kind of help do you need, young lady?"

"I need you to give me a shot, Pa.." the girl sobbed out. "My head hurts worse than ever, please.."

Once again James made to get up, and had actually succeeded, when Julia crossed over and managed to push him back down, mostly because her husband wasn't prepared for any action of the sort.

Then Julia turned to her daughter again. "Young lady, I'm sick and tired of you not doing your work and your trying to get out of punishment. Now you can just go on out to the barn and sit while you can. I can guarantee that it won't be something you'll care to do for quite some time when your pa is through with you."

Sobbing hard, the fair-complexioned girl slowly turned around went out the door while holding her head in her hands. Behind her quite some conversation was going on.

"Julia Catharine Craiger!" James snapped. "I don't know WHAT has gotten into you, but this punishment can wait until our child is no longer in pain from something that is of no fault of her own, and when it DOES come time for her proper punishment it is NOT going to be some inhumane WHIPPING like I'm sure you are planning on making me give her."

"That child is FAKING!" Julia barked back. "She has to know that she can't postpone the inevitable and that her attempts will only be rewarded negatively."

"There was PAIN in that child's eyes and if you had half a sense you'd know it!"

Danielle was taking this all in greedily, praying that her uncle wouldn't win the argument, when suddenly both pairs of adult eyes pivoted toward her for some reason. "OUT!" Both her aunt and uncle yelled at once, pointing to Crystal's recent room of banishment. With a sigh she got up and trudged up the stairs where she perched herself behind the door, able to hear almost every word anyway.

"James, you know what we already agreed for a punishment for that child and I want it raised by six strokes to her thighs."

Anger burned in her husbands eyes, but none of it was directed toward his daughter. He still felt she deserved a very harsh punishment for her prank with the fish and she would pay for that dearly. But he would have bet his life's savings that she hadn't been faking the pain she was already in, and in his opinion there was no need to punish her when she was already so miserable. Unfortunately it would be just like his wife to check the state of her daughter's bottom, so there would be no faking it.

With a miffed huff he got up from the table, uncharacteristically leaving behind his plate and things. He walked out of the house, banging the door, leaving his wife with the mess. It was with a heavy heart that he opened the barn door, seeing his little girl sitting on a hay bale, her head resting on her knees, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable sobs.

He almost couldn't do it; he was supposed to be the head of the family, darn it, not his wife! But he knew he wouldn't be able to enter the house except by force if he didn't do this. He didn't know which would be worse for the child: to ignore her current distress and keep the strict disciplinarian sense or whether to comfort her, tell her didn't want to do it now, to cuddle her. True, his wife could be right; Crystal could be faking the pain. But something in James' gut just told him that this wasn't the case. So instead of reaching around and grabbing the heavy strap right away he went and sat next to his child.

"Hey Crys," he said softly, so as not to hurt her head. She jumped a bit but quickly turned to him. There was no anger in his voice now; she felt it safe to trust him.

"You're still gonna strap me tonight, aren't ya Pa?" she whispered, and forlornly he nodded. "Are.. Are you gonna give me extras for coming down?"

Once again her father had to nod. But as she looked at him she noticed that there were tears running silently down his own cheeks. "Papa?" she asked in confusion.

James looked at his daughter and shook his head. "You don't deserve this Crystal. Not now at least. One pain is enough to deal with. I.. If it weren't for your ma.. Darn it. Maybe I still shouldn't.."

As much as Crystal wanted to shake her head vigorously she couldn't do more a couple slow shakes before the pounding caused her to stop. "I don't want you two fighting because of me. I.. Ma's right. I shouldn't have come down."

James looked at Crystal in shock. "Crystal, you don't know what your ma wants me to do.."

"I have a pretty good guess. But I'll live. Just.. Pa, please. Please promise me you'll give me an injection for the headache afterward. I know it'll help the pain from the whipping too and I'm sorry about that but please. I don't think I.."

She never even finished her sentence because her father held a finger to her lips. "If I have to sneak out of bed to do it behind your mother's back I will. But now.."

Crystal had warmed with her father's words until his 'but now.' Then she froze and gulped. She didn't know how on Earth she would EVER make it through even a handspanking with this headache.

"How.. How bad is it Pa?" she asked nervously.

What he told her made her want to scream already. "It would have been twenty-four lashes, sweetie, but your ma is insisting I give you an extra six all on your thighs. There's just no way I can fudge much."

She began shaking from fear and crying, which just made her head hurt the worse. James took her in his arms, wishing for the life of him that something else could just happen to change things, but seeing no hope in sight.