The Storm Got Me Spanked

Let me start off by saying Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends.  Enjoy the day.

Hurricane Matthew has been in the forefront of the news this weekend along with our deplorable Republican candidate for the President of the United States. I feel so bad for those who have borne the brunt of Mother Nature.  Matthew's fury played out in the island nations worse than here on the mainland.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, unlike Matthew, The Donald is still here.  He simply annoys the bejesus out of me and for the life of me, I can't understand how anyone can possibly think he would be a good president - dictator maybe.   Enough for now before I start to get on my soapbox.

Here's this week's story.

A loud boom woke Andi out of a sound sleep.  A moment later, a flash of light brightened the bedroom, and she knew they were experiencing a rare event.  Thunderstorms in their area of Arizona were few and far between other than in monsoon season, and that was over.  She loved watching the lightning streak across the sky, preferably from the safety of somewhere indoors so she hopped out of bed to catch the show.

 Mark was still asleep so she quietly donned a pair of sweat pants, a tee shirt and carried her flip flops out of the bedroom, gently shutting the door so as not to wake him. The rain was coming down in sheets by the time she got to the kitchen.  She switched on the coffee as another clap of thunder reverberated through the house.  The boom was so loud, it must have hit something, was her thought.  The light on the coffee pot was no longer showing, and turning on the light switch, she got nothing.  Grabbing the flashlight she went to check the breaker box in the garage.  The flashlight highlighted an empty spot, and she stopped dead in her tracks.  Her car should be there – then she remembered she hadn’t pulled it into the garage the night before.

“Shit,” she said to herself.  Did I even put up the top?”  She hit the garage door opener forgetting about the electricity and cursed again.  She ran to the side door and out into the rain. There in the driveway was their pride and joy – their brand new Convertible – the top down and getting a thorough wash job – inside and out.  ‘Mark is going kill me.’ She ran back to the house to get the keys – they weren’t on the kitchen rack.  ‘Damn, where did I put them.’  She was on her way to the bedroom to get her purse when she ran into Mark in the hall.

He tried to give her a morning kiss, but she blew right by him. “Where are you going in such a hurry,” he asked

.

“Need my car keys?” she responded.

“What for?”

“Because it’s raining.”

“Yeah, so.”

“I don’t have time for this conversation, Mark.  The car is getting wet.”

“Didn’t you put it in the garage when I asked you about it?”

She didn’t answer, just kept on moving past him.  Watching her scurry around, he guessed the answer was no.  “That’s okay, one little rain storm is not going to hurt it.”

“You don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand,” he asked as he followed her out the side door.  That’s when he saw why she was so upset.  She ran to the car.  There had to be at least an inch of water on the seats and the floor.  She sloshed through the wet and quickly turned the key, pushing the “up” button. Mark watched the top slowly rise as Andi sat in the driver’s seat getting drenched. 

  

Mark was beside himself.  The previous evening he had asked her several times if she wasn’t going back out to put the car in the garage.  If she had made up her mind, he would have done it, but she kept telling him not to worry about it, she’d take care of it.  He was tired after a bear of a week and fell asleep in the chair. When he awoke, all the lights were out,  he climbed into bed – the car the last thing on his mind.

Mark undid the garage door opener.  He manually pulled open the door and told Andi that since she was already wet, she could drive the car into the garage. Mark gathered up all the towels he could find and started sopping up the water from the seats.  As soon as the electricity came back on, they’d be able to wet vac the car, but until then, this would have to do.

When they’d done their best, he handed Andi a dry towel.  She still looked like a drowned rat in her sopping wet clothes.  He waited until she had dried herself off before telling her he was going to blister her butt.

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“How many times did I ask you about putting the car in the garage?”

“Apparently, not enough.  If you were so goldarned worried about it, why didn’t you get up and put it away.”

“I'm not sure getting mouthy is in your best interests right now.  Besides, I would have, but you kept insisting that you would take care of it.  Well now, I’m going to take care of you."

He pushed her against the sink, put his arm on her back and with his other hand grabbed a wooden spoon from the crock.  She was standing in a puddle of water that dripped from her clothes.  He yanked down her sweatpants and was surprised to see her bare bottom.  ‘All the better, it’s one less thing I have to remove.”

The storm was still raging outside, and Mark was taking his clue from the pattern of the falling rain. He smacked Andi’s bottom over and over, playing a tune that soon had her dancing around on the wet floor.

“Stop Mark, it hurts.”  He ignored her pleas and picked up the wooden spoon.  The sounds of the wooden spoon hitting her bare flesh weren’t quite as loud as the thunderclaps outside, but Andi’s howls of protest were.  When he thought her bottom was sufficiently colored, he dropped the spoon and gave her a final few whacks with his hand. He removed his hand from her back, kissed her head and picked up her sodden clothes, taking them to the washer. Nary a word was spoken between them.

The storm was abating, the rain gently falling now, not the downpour of before.  The smell of coffee permeated the air.  A few shafts of sunlight were peeking through the windows.  Rubbing her backside, Andi looked at Mark and asked if he wanted to join her outside to look for a rainbow.

It seemed that everywhere, the power had been restored and things were back to normal.

See you later for more Aimless Ramblings