Chapter 2

Ada faces the consequences of her reckless actions from the previous day.

WARNING: This story contains disciplinary spanking/ corporal punishment of minors by a young adult.

Dear reader,

I'm a little too busy lately to make time to work out the timelines of these events. I still hope you can turn a blind eye and enjoy the story regardless.

At the sound of softly creaking wooden stairs, Tommy sighed without ever looking up. There was no way it was Michael. His cousin wouldn't dare face him after the stunt he had pulled. Ada on the other hand- it sometimes seemed his sister had a deathwish. He was still deciding whether to get the cane out or use a belt to help today's lesson stick. One thing was sure. She wouldn't get off lightly this time.

"Did I say you could come down, Ada?" Tommy called from where he sat at the table.

"No, but I didn't come here for you"

John and Arthur cocked their heads towards her.

Arthur folded his arms as she approached, still leaned against a wall. "First of all, little girl, watch your tone," Arthur said, a little too pleadingly. He was clearly already worried about the punishment Tommy would be dishing out.

"I didn't come to fight, Arthur. I came to negotiate"

"No" Tommy interjected from across the room " There will be no negotiation. You will go back to your room until someone calls you down"

"Arthuuur" She whined as if she hadn't heard him. Tommy hated when she turned bratty this way. Arthur, however, doted on her especially when she sulked.

"NOW!" Tommy roared.

Ada turned to Tommy, who was now standing. It was difficult to ignore him when he raised his voice. John had carefully inserted himself between his seething brother and moronic sister. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He whisper-shouted over to her.

"Alright Ada, run along upstairs. We can talk later, ay? I'll come to you." Arthur addressed his sister sweetly.

Tommy scoffed loudly and walked himself back to his seat at the table. Nobody was softer on Ada than Arthur. It was a laughable thought because Arthur before the war was not to be fucked with. Tommy remembered how quick he was to slap him or John both upside the head, box them on the ear for misbehaving, or God forbid, putting themselves in undue danger.
Arthur would take beatings from their abusive father in place of his siblings, and in turn, give them a punishment as harsh as they deserved. He had, however, never punished their sister successfully. He was the only one who would tolerate her attitude with no consequences at this proximity. Even John wouldn't allow this. Arthur had given her one or two smacks before at a time, and based on that, she knew he had a far harder hand than Tommy, but he almost never used it on her

"I wanted to negotiate Micheal's punishment. John was right, he's just a kid. I'm the one who had the idea, and since I forced him into it, I should be the one in trouble"

"Oh don't worry, you're in trouble anyway."

"I wasn't talking to you Tommy", Ada's mouth said before she could stop herself. Arthur's jaw just about hit the floor.

"Okay, that is it!" Tommy lunged in her direction, and John held him back.

"No Tom. Stop it!"

Tommy sat back down, but his foot was tapping furiously. He was trying to calm down. He took a deep breath and nodded to John. He was back under control. John went back to lean against the counters, cautiously eyeing Tommy as he got up and started to walk towards their sister. He crossed the large room to where she was standing arms crossed, chin out, refusing to back down.

"I want to talk"

"There will be no more talking" Tommy took her by the ear, twisted it, and pulled her towards the kitchen table, encouraging her forward with smacks to her bottom. "It seems to me that you are impatient for your punishment. And who am I to disappoint"

"Tommy, stop!" She squealed and dug her heels into the floor. It hurt her ear, but if she let him get her to that table, he would definitely use one of infinite wooden or metal cooking implements on her. And she knew from vague childhood memories, that aunt Polly used to have a thin cane in the cabinet under the counter.

"I do not take instructions from you, Ada Shelby, and you would do well to mind your own punishment" He proceeded to drag her to the kitchen table and bend her over it.

He reached over and picked up a large wooden spoon. "Come on Tommy" It was Arthur attempting to protest on her behalf.

When Tommy paid him no mind, he found his way to another room, to try to block out the sounds of what would no doubt be a strict punishment.

"Arthur don't leave me with these people!" She begged "Arthur please!"

"Sorry kid."

"First of all", he said, as he whacked her with the spoon, "I do not appreciate your tone with me. You do not speak to me or anyone in this house that way. Remind me to wash your mouth out after, or we'll wash it every day for the rest of the month". Ada knew that Tommy didn't make idle threats, and shuddered at the thought of soap in her mouth for a month.

He carried on and gave her five more whacks, each one forcing a pained "Oww" out of her. Ada was hardly sobered, she immediately folded her arms over her chest. Tommy sat on the edge of the kitchen counter, and looked straight at his sister. He lowered his voice as he spoke.

"You stole my guns, Ada. Why? You have a gun, but you went in the stash I told you was for emergencies only"

She shrugged and looked down at her shoes.

"You took company money. Would it be unfair if I said you stole it?"

More silence.

"You recruited Micheal for this, endangering not just yourself but him too"

"You met with Alphie, Ada. Do you even understand how fucking dangerous that was? Why would you put yourself in that position? Did you just wake up that morning and decide you'd really like for us to mourn this week'?"

"It's bad but it's not that bad. I know Alfie. He has a sister. He'd never hurt her, so I know he wouldn't hurt me"

"That is the most incredibly naive thing I have ever heard anyone say. Listen to me very carefully. Alfie was in the war, and like any other person who went to France, he left his soul there. We're all just waiting to go to hell. We don't see women, children, or men anymore. Just blood and bones. Alfie doesn't care about you."

"I knew what I was doing, Tommy. If you hadn't brought down fire and brimstone on that place, Michael and I would've out-negotiated the whole lot of you, with your gang bullshit."

"Ada Shelby, you watch your mouth. If you swear at me again, you will not like how it ends."

"But Tom, I'm allowed to swear." She stamped her left foot in the cringe-worthy manner of a toddler.

Truly she was allowed to swear, Tommy thought. And it shocked everyone to witness. Aunt Polly didn't like it, but she wasn't Ada's guardian. She did what she could with her son, and Michael was not allowed to swear. It landed him in hot water far too often for a boy his age. Tommy kept himself from shuddering at the thought of Polly's punishments. Even this long after the war, she would still hit him sometimes when they were alone. Just last month, she had slapped his arm and back repeatedly in an empty church. A week ago, she had picked up a slipper, clearly meaning to smack him with it, but hurled it at him instead. It must be so different for her, one minute, she's raising four rowdy boys, the next they're all men, back from war, and she doesn't know how to handle the idiotic choices they still made from time to time. Tommy didn't mind that his aunt still gravitated towards punishing him. It reminded him that he was human, and kept him grounded. No one else would dare call out his decisions as she did.

"Swear with me as much as you want. Never at me or our brothers. And I know you know the difference so don't play dumb."

She frowned but didn't protest.

"Hey. Look at me." Tommy prompted, his voice losing its hard edge. "We keep you out of family business to protect you. Do something fun if you're bored. Go see a film. Whatever it is that girls your age are seeing. Make some friends for fucks sake, Ada. Anything but this, because I will not have it "

"You want to protect me because I'm a girl?"

He scoffed "Aunt Polly is a girl, and there are probably not a lot of men as strong as her. I want to protect you because you're far too young to be part of the destruction we cause" She rolled her eyes, barely holding her sarcastic retort back. "Because you're a girl is the only reason that I haven't taken the strap to you. Yet." She gulped at the thought.

"I'm just saying you went to war at my age, Tommy"

"And not a day goes by when I don't regret it"

"All the girls my age are getting married. Is that what you want for me?"

Tommy frowned at that. Couldn't trust any of these men with his baby sister.

"Well do you want to get married, Ada?"

"I'm not even allowed to talk to boys."

"You'd do well to remember that. Because if I see any of these smallheath rats within a meter of you, I swear to..."

"Yes yes. How could I forget"

Tommy sat in silence for a long couple of seconds, before returning to the original topic.

"Is there anything you want to say before we start your punishment?"

Ada chose her words carefully, with the intent to hurt her brother as much as she knew her coming punishment would hurt. "Only that I hate it here and I wish you weren't my brother"

Tommy didn't blink, didn't react in any visible way, but his heart shattered into a million pieces. The baby he had held when he was barely eight years old, who he loved so much at her birth, that he thought he would die. She hated him, and he knew he would never be worthy of her love or anyone else's.

"Right then, Ada. Let's get on with it"

She bent over the table, and steeled herself for what was coming.

Tommy began, trying to look past the hurt in his heart, and get it over with. He had only delivered three halfhearted swats before his vision started to blur, and his nose ran. After two more, he stopped to swipe at his nose.

John from his position on the counter, looked over and saw what was happening. He came by and took his brother by the shoulder, turning him away, he said to his sister, go up to your room, Ada. That's enough for tonight.

"Please I want to be done. Can we finish right-"

"Ada Shelby, did I fucking stutter? Go to your fucking room now!"

Ada only had time to glance over her shoulder to try and see what was wrong. John caught her loitering, and sucked his teeth. "I am not playing with you Ada, if I count to three and you're still here, I will get the cane out myself and give you the worst whipping of your life. One. Two."

Ada scrambled away and disappeared up the stairs before he could say three.

Tommy stumbled blindly towards the doorway for air, his arms feeling his way to the exit. Once outside the door, he crumbled to the floor, head in his hands. John let him sit there for a full minute before he started to hyperventilate.

"Tom"

He squatted in front of his brother, putting hands on both sides of his head. "Tom", he struggled to hold his brother's head still. "Hey, look at me. Get it together" Thomas composed himself, remembering the slow full breaths he used to take to try to keep the panic at bay while tunneling.

"Fuckin ell, Tom."

"She hates me" Tom managed, his voice was cracked, and John had never seen him look so broken. He sat down on the doorstep beside his brother, who still allowed soundless tears to roll down his face.

Do you think Tommy will go through with this punishment?