Therapy Through the Vent [M/Ff]

(c) 2007 by Grace Brackenridge
[504 words]

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This story is inspired by the vent photo (06.jpg) for the 2007 Short Story Contest.
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When we hit the other car, I smacked my head.

I regained consciousness in the hospital.

"Her knees hit the back of Mr. Brackenridge's seat," the police officer was explaining to Mom as I came out of the coma. "That contributed to your husband's forward velocity."

Neither of us was wearing seat belts.

-- -- -- -- --

The heating vent in my bedroom carried sounds from my parent's bedroom.

Around age 11 or 12, I discovered I could hear Mom and Dad making love. After the accident, I could hear Mom crying. Mom fought with Dad right before that ill-fated trip.

So Mom started seeing Dr. Stinchcoyle for therapy.

Dr. Stinchcoyle assumed I felt guilty, too, because my knees smashed against Dad's seat and helped propel him through the windshield.

But in truth, I didn't feel guilty.

I didn't feel anything.

-- -- -- -- --

I woke up around 1 a.m. to strange sounds from the vent.

I didn't understand why Mom had invited Dr. Stinchcoyle over for dinner that evening.

Bored, I went to bed early.

Now I heard another man in Mom's bed.

"You're very, very naughty, Mrs. Brackenridge," I heard the reverberating voice of the therapist declare. "Seducing your therapist sabotages your recovery."

"I feel so guilty, doctor. My Daddy would know how to handle this."

"Like this?"

Smack!

"Oh yes, only harder!"

God!

Dr. Stinchcoyle was spanking my mother!

-- -- -- -- --

"Martha, this is your husband!" I said hoarsely into the short length of wide metal pipe I found -- with the help of a flashlight -- in Dad's workshop.

I pressed one end of the pipe to my lips and the other against the vent.

"How can you forget me so easily, Martha! How can you sleep with another man?"

I took my mouth away from the pipe and covered my mouth to suppress a giggle.

"So this is the source of the ghostly voice!"

I turned.

Dr. Stinchcoyle stood in my doorway in his underpants. He stepped in and grabbed my arm.

"This is for trying to make your mother feel guilty," he said, pulling up my nightgown and positioning me over his lap.

Dr. Stinchcoyle gave me my first spanking in five years -- bare bottom too!

When I finally stopped crying, I looked up. Mom stood in my doorway, her arms folded.

"Now, what else do you need spanking for?" asked the psychologist.

"Nothing!"

Wrong answer. I got spanked again.

"So what else do you need spanking for?"

"Okay!" I sniffled as a suppressed thought was spanked free and bubbled up to consciousness. "Alright. Spank me for killing Daddy. I pushed him through the windshield."

Dr. Stinchcoyle gave me a tremendous spanking.

When I recovered, I sniffled with relief. "Thanks!"

"Grace, we owe a lot to Dr. Stinchcoyle," nodded Mom approvingly. "For tonight and for all the future nights when he helps us."

"Yeah," I sighed.

"From now on, Grace," said Mom, "you'll get spanked first."

"No spying, either," said the psychologist. "You can stay and watch while I spank your mom."

"Now won't that be special?" Mom asked rhetorically.

Now if this wasn't in the picture category, wouldn't this have been perfect for 'edge' ? I really loved this decidedly kinky, in every sense, story of the impact of a vent on a young girl's emotional development. The writer has, very skilfully, introduced the importance of the vent into every stage of what, in the first couple of paragraphs, appear to be unrelated incidents then you see how the whole extremely disturbing pattern comes together. If I said any more I'd be giving the whole story away. What I really enjoyed was that in 500 words the writer has crafted an original and decidedly creepy plot and done it extremely well. Thats what short story telling is all about.

Very nice job indeed!

The beginning of this piece is catching and draws the reader in instantly. We are curious to know what happens next. There is something very appealing about the image of someone listening to a spanking via a vent and that draws us in even further. I also find it cute how the girl tries to imitate the voice of her father. Yet my favorite part by far is when the doctor is spanking our character and he asks her what else she should be spanked for. When her answer is nothing, he continues spanking and then asks again. I find this exchange both amusing and intriguing. I find the ending to be rather unbelievable, but overall I think this is a very unique and well-written story.

I'm not convinced within the structure and restrictions of the story that the child felt the guilt that was the climax of the story. While the thought, "I didn't feel anything," struck me as poignantly real, I expected an equally poingnant relief at the spanking.

When she was eavesdropping, there was time (and story space) for the child to think about how she felt. I get the sense that the child might have had some insight while listening to her mother's confession, and her inability to express her own guilt led to her mischief, but that could be drawn in much better.

Finally, I found the ending, suggesting that the child would be witnessing her mother's foreplay with her lover, completely inappropriate. I know mental health professionals are human and can be predators, too, but I think this is an over the line ethics issue that just squicks me.

This story, with its view of adult sexuality through a child's eyes, disturbed me. But then the picture it's drawn from is disturbing too. The harshness of the narrative style fits this and added to my feelings of tension and discomfort. So of course I really like it.

Generally I'm not a fan of the "knowing child" genre in the kink, but this story is exceptional and further, is a great fit with the image that inspired it.

Cute ending.

This story was well written and amusing. I could picture it in my head, which is always the sign of a good story. Of course the actual picture helps too. I thought it worked real well for this category. I can see this turning into a series, too.