Zachary Cunningham
moved his family to Corbin's Bend when everything in their life seemed
out of control. In a DD relationship with his wife Erin, he thought
things had leveled out now that they lived in a community where everyone
watched out for one another and discipline was the norm. Surely his
family life could be more settled now.
Erin had never made
friends easily and in Corbin's Bend she found it doubly as hard. A
little too hard on herself, she ignored her mentor and any friendliness
from neighbors; so afraid of making a mistake that she didn't try. Until
her husband insisted. Having convinced herself she was doing what he
wanted, she made friends with a few ladies who liked to push the
envelope a little. From bowling to a strip club to smoking a little
weed, her life was definitely a lot more fun, even if she was hiding her
activities from Zach.
When her husband and the board of
Corbin's Bend discovered their indiscretions, Erin and her friends found
out what public discipline really meant. When the discipline led to a
larger sense of security and more friendships than she could have
imagined, Erin began to understand that following Zachary's lead truly
was the way.
“Dinner is served,” Erin
said proudly as she laid the platter with her impressive fish next to the bowls
of mashed potatoes and green beans. The girls clapped and Zach looked on with
wide grin.
“That looks spectacular,
honey.”
It did look spectacular,
even if she did say so herself. She’d poured the sauce all over the entire dish
and it positively gleamed. “Would you like to serve?” she asked Zach.
He stood up and scooped
portions on to everyone’s plate. The family said grace and they started. Erin
watched everyone’s faces expectantly. Zach’s face was stoic as he chewed
carefully. Avvy said nothing but she wasn’t even chewing. She just held the
food in her mouth. Jordan was the first one to give her honest opinion. She
spat her offending mouthful back on to the plate.
“That is so gross,” she
said, dry retching for full effect.
Erin’s eyes filled with
tears and popped her fork full in to her mouth to see what was wrong with the
food. She carefully picked up her napkin and emptied the contents of her mouth.
“Don’t eat it,” was all she said, standing and taking the platter with her.
“I can call a pizza,” Zach
said.
“Do what you have to, to
feed your children.”
“Honey, I’m sure there was
just a small mistake with the recipe.”
The girls were wide-eyed.
“I’m sorry I said it was gross, Mommy,” Jordan said. “It just tasted a bit like
medicine.”
“That’s nice of you to say,
honey, but you were right the first time, it was gross. Why don’t you two go
play while you wait for the pizza to come.”
“Nice one, Jordan. You
almost made Momma cry.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
The voices disappeared into
one of the bedrooms and Erin burst into tears. “I have wasted the entire day on
this! I spent a lot of my food budget on the ingredients and did everything the
recipe said!”
“It’s okay, Erin, you
tried.”
“Well I can’t serve
‘trying’ up to a bunch of people on Friday, can I?” She thumped her foot down
on the trash can foot lever to open the lid and it bounced, just as she heaved
the contents from the platter into it. It landed on the closed lid with
splashes of the poison sauce going everywhere. “Oh for fuck sake!” she shouted
into the cabinet door as she banged it open and shut in frustration before
bending to wipe the cabinet door. Zach was behind her in a second and the giant
wooden spoon clapped off her bottom.
“I never want to hear that
word in this house again. Do you hear me?”
Stress
Have you ever
got yourself in a tizzy about visitors? The house that we consider clean enough
for ourselves and our loved ones to live in suddenly seems like a filthy
disaster area when visitors are coming. The food that we serve everyday gets
cleaned off plates with nary a complaint but when other people are coming, you
feel this urgent need to become a michelin chef. Trying to learn how to cook
complicated dishes very rarely works, especially while trying to scour the
house and be a mother and wife.
I hardly ever
cook from a cookbook and if I do, I substitute nearly everything in the recipe
anyway, so of course the recipe doesn't turn out looking anything like it does
in the picture. Erin's problem was a little different. Determined to make a
good impression and cook the best plate
at her pot luck dinner party, she decided to try out a spectacular fish dish.
She followed the recipe perfectly, still things didn't go according to plan.
There's only one
way the tizzy is going to end, badly. Either it will fester and grow until the
stressed person explodes, hurting everyone and everything in their path.
Sometimes they need someone to stop them before it gets to that point.
Zach couldn't
understand all the fuss. He loved his wife's cooking and so did the girls.
Knowing it was important to his wife, he was as supportive as he could be.
There was a limit though. He'd put up with Erin's escalating attitude for days.
Her party craziness was taking on a life of its own. The day she cooked the
fish, Erin seemed calm. He hoped this meant she was over her stress but as he
secretly suspected it was the calm before the storm. When a word came out of
his wife's mouth that should never be said in a house with children,
accompanied by flying pots that she tossed into the sink, he decided a short
sharp reminder was in order. Kitchen utensils weren't just for cooking and
throwing.
Constance Masters is a 54
year old wife, mother and grandmother from Australia. She specialises in
spanking romance and has nine published works. Leading the Way, her Corbin's
Bend novella will be her tenth. Her work is mostly romance with a little hint
of drama and a large slice of humour. She likes to find the humour in everyday
life.
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