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#Post#: 16424--------------------------------------------------
It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Jack Date: December 16, 2019, 6:22 pm
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I was still trying to figure out why I should really care if
this random family was happy or not when their back porch light
came on. It was one of those wooden doors with a window on the
upper half, and I could see there was someone - probably a grown
adult, by the size - standing just inside. Then the door
opened.
“Please, Daddy. I’m sorry!”
“Now, David.”
The boy, a bit smaller than when he’d been taking out the
recycling - maybe 11 years old now? - stepped out onto the
porch. It was definitely David, and I have to admit he looked a
bit familiar when I saw him, but I didn’t recognize him, and I
wasn’t sure how many kids his age I saw around at school and
stuff. I almost didn’t recognize him as David, since I hadn’t
seen him exactly this way before.
David stood in the doorway. With the patio light on, I had a
pretty good look at his face, and I could tell he was about to
cry. I guess the incipient crying shouldn’t have been too
surprising, since there was a light breeze, but there was snow
on the ground, and it was very cold, which didn’t go well at
all with David being stark naked except a pair of boots.
He stood there a moment… I think the word is ‘tharn’ - like a
rabbit watching an approaching car. He shivered in the chill
air, but only stood until his dad finally spoke. “If I have to
take you to pick one, David Allen, we can just handle it out
there.”
David jumped at his dad’s words and quickly hurried across the
lawn. He was trying to hold his hands over his… thing, and
mostly managing, until he reached his target. I don’t know what
kind of tree it was, but I knew why he was picking a branch from
it, and it looked evil.
When David reached up to pull the branch loose, he wasn’t able
to keep himself covered anymore. I couldn’t help a quick glance
and notice that he was still a little boy, so eleven was
probably a good guess.
David took a moment to check the branch - making sure it was
okay, I guess, then turned and hurried back inside. I glanced
around. I saw a few lighted windows, but it didn’t seem likely
that there was anyone around to spy on him anyway.
At the door he paused. Despite the breeze, I’d swear I heard
him whimper as he handed the branch to his father. His father
took it for a second, ran his hand down the length, smoothing it
out I guess, then swished it through the air. I’d never been
switched, but the sound made me shiver nearly as hard as David
did.
Dad opened the door and gestured the boy inside. As the door
closed, I found myself following them.
Over the last year, I’d seen David cleaning his room so many
times that it was nearly as familiar to me as my own when we
stepped inside it. Instead of his bed, David and his father
moved to the armchair that sat to one side. The man put the
switch aside, took David by the hips and lifted him a bit,
laying him across the back of the chair. David stretched
forward and grabbed the sides of the cushion.
His father rubbed his back for a second, seeming tender as he
did it, then he stepped back and lifted the switch. There was a
long moment of tense silence as his dad took aim, then the
silence was broken - ‘swish!’
David screamed. I could see the thin line of deep red suddenly
painted across the middle of his butt, and almost before that
one finished appearing, the switch swished down again, painting
another just below that.
David was screaming and crying as the switch cut down again and
again and again. He was apologizing over and over as one line
after another crawled down the pale, fair skin of his butt.
Another line appeared, definitely on his leg this time, and
David howled his misery, but it didn’t stop the switch from
landing again and a final time.
Eleven very distinct lines had been painted across David’s
creamy cheeks, and from the sound of it, each of them was
excruciating.
His father’s arm dropped down, still holding the switch, but not
immediately threatening to strike again.
“We’re very lucky the police weren’t involved in this, David.
Do you understand that?”
It occurred to me as I listened, that I had no idea why David
had been switched. It must have been serious if the police
could have been involved.
David must have agreed, since he made a noise that could have
been taken to agree.
“Stealing over fifty dollars means you could have gone to jail,
David. I don’t think they’d do that to an eleven year old, but
you don’t know. What I do know is you’re very lucky that boy
told me what you’d done before the store clerk was able to stop
us leaving.”
“I’m sah…. Sah… sorry, Daddy.”
His father let the switch fall and leaned down to rub his sons
shoulders, but I barely noticed. Instead, I started looking
around the room, trying to find a reason to dismiss my sudden
fear.
Bailey tapped my shoulder, and pointed, but not to give me any
good news. There, lying on the bed, mixed up with a pair of
jeans, socks, and a pair of blue cotton briefs, was the ugliest,
awesomest Christmas sweater I’d ever seen - Jaw Humbug.
Suddenly I knew who David was, why he seemed familiar, and I
felt sick to my stomach.
The room started to fade, and even though I was able to watch
his dad help David stand, then pull him into a hug, it didn’t
make me feel much better.
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#Post#: 16425--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Zyngaru Date: December 16, 2019, 10:03 pm
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I despise switches and the switching of anyone. I understand
that some might think it necessary and even appropriate for a
given situation, by I personally could never use a switch on
anyone. :( :( :(
#Post#: 16428--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: No Way Out Date: December 17, 2019, 12:51 am
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I admit that I'm a bit impatient: Since the story is told in
small chapters, it feels like there are often little
cliffhangers. Here for example I don't see why the identity of
David hasn't been revealed yet.
It's probably Bailey's Dad, so not much of a mystery, but I'm
still a bit miffed about the secrecy. But maybe that wasn't
intended by Jack?
#Post#: 16432--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Jack Date: December 17, 2019, 4:55 am
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[quote author=No Way Out link=topic=1631.msg16428#msg16428
date=1576565505]
I admit that I'm a bit impatient: Since the story is told in
small chapters, it feels like there are often little
cliffhangers. Here for example I don't see why the identity of
David hasn't been revealed yet.
It's probably Bailey's Dad, so not much of a mystery, but I'm
still a bit miffed about the secrecy. But maybe that wasn't
intended by Jack?
[/quote]
It really is just the nature of writing in serial.
I'm only 54 years old, but when we were growing up (remember
that Kat and I are very close to the same age, and that he, I,
and Adric all grew up within a relative few miles of each other
and with all the same TV stations), our local station - KTVT
Channel 11, showed a lot of old movies. They had an Afternoon
movie Monday through Friday starting at 1pm, they had an evening
movie those days that started at 9pm, they showed a number of
movies most Saturday afternoons (I think they had Kung Fu
Theater then for a while), on Sunday afternoons, they had Family
Theater (which was a horror movie for a long time, and it had an
eerie theme and title card with a skull and candle), and then on
Sunday evenings, they tended to show movies that came in series,
and afterwards, they ran serial episodes. Also, in 1973, on
school day afternoons, they ran re-runs of the Mickey Mouse
Club, including their serials for the Boys of the Western Sea,
Spin and Marty, and the Hardy Boys. They also had the Banana
Splits, with the Danger Island serial.
The thing about all these serials is, they had cliffhangers. I
don't guess that's how serials have to be, but that is how I
think of them. The way I tend to end each chapter has more to
do with how I view the format than anything else.
#Post#: 16433--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Zyngaru Date: December 17, 2019, 8:18 am
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I both like and dislike cliffhangers. They leave you wanting
more which is a great thing. They leave you hanging, which is a
bad thing, because you can't wait to find out how it works out.
:) :) :)
#Post#: 16434--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: db105 Date: December 17, 2019, 9:17 am
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Yes, David must be Bailey's dad, although I don't think that
Christmas sweater that made Bailey recognise him has been
mentioned before.
#Post#: 16488--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: David M. Katz Date: December 20, 2019, 5:09 pm
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;D I do like a good switching scene!
Methinks Bailey is stubborn and also that Bailey is going to get
himself worn out when he does go back home.
[emoji320]
#Post#: 16503--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Jack Date: December 21, 2019, 7:10 am
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[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=1631.msg16433#msg16433
date=1576592330]
I both like and dislike cliffhangers. They leave you wanting
more which is a great thing.
[/quote]
And I wanted to say I'm really sorry about it.
I've shared most of this elsewhere, but this is a really crazy
time for me.
For the record (and as a reminder), my mom has mobility issues
these days, among other problems. When we had that bad storm a
couple of months ago that caused my power to go out for a couple
of days, there was more damage done to her house, and when a
contractor looked at it, he found a lot of damage from previous
storms. He worked with the insurance company and was able to
get a lot of it approved, and, once we had people coming around
to do work, I was able to get her to let me do some other
repairs that have needed doing as well. The problem is, Mr.
Mintz wasn't available, so I went through this other contractor
on everything - he's done a pretty good job on the work, and he
has finally finished almost everything, but I'm not crazy about
his work ethic (to be fair, there's been some flu going around
here, and several of his employees apparently got it).
Having to deal with my mom is always stressful to me. Then,
this is the shortest amount of time possible between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, which means there are a number of
holiday things we would have done, but we just didn't have time
(basically just consider we're missing one weekend we would
normally have free, plus a few weekdays with no school, and you
get the idea). The college boys getting home Thursday have
been a huge help. We managed to get all the last minute,
priority shipping orders sent out yesterday evening (I stopped
by the warehouse yesterday after Mom's house, and it was crazy -
but a controlled chaos). We had a ton of kids around here
yesterday after school let out. By 6pm, I was trying to chase
guests away.
Not all stress is bad - things have been extremely busy around
here, but it's still kept me away from the keyboard. I have
other things to say about this story, but I'll save them for
when I finished.
There are big blocks of time over the next few days when I won't
be able to write. I'm going to try to double post a couple of
chapters, and see if I can't cut or combine a few things, but
it's occurred to me that this may not finish until after
Christmas. I hope that's not a huge problem for anyone.
Thanks for your patience.
#Post#: 16505--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: Zyngaru Date: December 21, 2019, 7:37 am
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=1631.msg16503#msg16503
date=1576933833]
There are big blocks of time over the next few days when I won't
be able to write. I'm going to try to double post a couple of
chapters, and see if I can't cut or combine a few things, but
it's occurred to me that this may not finish until after
Christmas. I hope that's not a huge problem for anyone.
[/quote]
It's not a problem for me. It will actually be fun still having
the story to read after Christmas. That block of time between
Christmas and New Years is usually boring. Having your story to
look forward to will be nice.
#Post#: 16506--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Happened One Christmas Chapter Fifteen
By: No Way Out Date: December 21, 2019, 7:46 am
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=1631.msg16503#msg16503
date=1576933833]
There are big blocks of time over the next few days when I won't
be able to write. I'm going to try to double post a couple of
chapters, and see if I can't cut or combine a few things, but
it's occurred to me that this may not finish until after
Christmas. I hope that's not a huge problem for anyone.
[/quote]
The way I see it, writing should be fun, not an obligation. So
if other things keep you busy, just focus on them an do the
writing later when you have more time and feel like it.
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