My Sore Butt

Morgan recovered from her operation quickly and was fine within several days. Spring break came, and Seth was out of school for a week. On our days off, Maxim and I tried to keep him busy with trips to the park, the zoo, and movies. On Friday I bought baskets full of candy for the kids and a couple dozen eggs to dye different colors for an Easter egg hunt. I spent most of Saturday evening boiling and dying them and sitting them in holders to dry.

"Looks like we're going to be eating eggs for awhile," Maxim remarked as he strolled into the kitchen. I swatted his behind, and he hugged me and kissed my cheek. Then he winked at me and swatted me back.

That night before going to bed, I found a large basket to put all the eggs into and put it in the refrigerator. Then, eager for the fun awaiting me, I practically sailed into the bedroom.

"Has somebody been naughty today?" asked Maxim.

"Y-yes," I stammered.

"You know what that means." He made me bend over the bed, then reached for the elastic of my panties.

"Can't I keep them on?" I begged.

"Nope." He peeled the panties down and then gave me the spanking of my life. Was I ever sore!

Early the next morning, he got out of bed in his slippers and went to hide all the eggs in the back yard. He was already back in bed and asleep by the time I got up myself.

"Seth! Morgan!" I called, going into the kids' rooms. "Time to go see what the Easter bunny brought you!"

Both kids scrambled out of bed excitedly. I made sure they were both wearing shoes before they went outside.

Seth began looking for eggs right away. Morgan was still too young to really understand, so I had to direct her on what to do. "Why don't you check underneath that leaf, Morgan? Look, there's one!"

Within moments both the kids' baskets were full of eggs. "I bet I found more than her," Seth said as he walked over to us.

"That doesn't matter," I said shortly. We were headed back to the house when Maxim walked out, already dressed and grinning.

"Daddy!" Seth said excitedly, running toward him. "Look what the Easter bunny brought me!" He was swinging the basket so wildly that a couple of eggs fell out.

"Careful, don't lose them all!" Maxim laughed as he went to fetch the eggs my son had dropped.

"Daddy! Eggs!" Morgan crowed as she toddled up to Maxim.

"So I see!" He scooped her up and kissed her cheek.

We went back inside, where I hurriedly fixed breakfast for us and made the kids eat, as I knew that there would be absolutely zero chance of their eating a bite of breakfast once I gave them their Easter baskets. I was just clearing up from breakfast when Maxim walked in with a big grin, carrying both baskets.

Seth grabbed excitedly for the one containing the race car, and Maxim handed the one with the doll inside to Morgan, who squealed with joy when she saw it.

Within almost no time, both kids were smeared with chocolate from head to toe. "What a mess!" I laughed. Maxim got his camera and took pictures.

Later we went to my parents' for lunch. Mom had cooked a ham and made potato salad and green beans and biscuits, and there was coconut cake for dessert. Andy was there with a girl I'd never seen before. "This is Jane," he said proudly.

Jane had dark blonde hair and big blue eyes. Andy introduced everyone to her and and she smiled and said hello.

"So how did you meet my brother?" I asked her.

"In the supermarket," she told me. "Andy helped me find the Tahini. Then we got to talking and he asked me out."

"Cool!" I said.

"Andy told me how you and Maxim first met each other," Jane continued. "I thought it was so romantic how you finally got back together after being apart for so many years."

"And we'll never be apart again." Maxim slipped his arm around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I haven't met too many people around here yet," said Jane. "Mom, Atlas and I just moved here a few weeks ago, after her divorce."

"Who's Atlas?" I asked.

"My younger brother. He's sixteen."

"So where's your Dad?" I asked.

"My stepfather still lives in the same place. I have no idea about my real Dad. I've never met him. He and my Mom had an affair when she was a dancer in Las Vegas. He left a long time before I was born, and my Mom married John. He's Atlas's father. I do have a picture of my real father, though. My Mom gave it to me a few years ago."

She took a photograph from her purse and showed it to me. I gasped, shocked. It was Lily's father.

Jane frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said quickly. "It's just that...your Dad looks familiar, somehow."

Nothing else was said on the subject for the rest of the visit, but the subject came up immediately as Maxim and I were on our way home. "All right," Maxim began with a mischievous smile. "Who is he?"

"He's Lily's father!" I exclaimed. "My brother's dating Lily's half sister!"

"What?" Now it was Maxim's turn to be shocked.

"It had to have happened right after her parents got divorced," I continued. "That was when her father went to Las Vegas."

"And she never knew her father had another daughter?"

"Not as far as I know."

"She's certainly in for a surprise," Maxim said softly.

"I don't think I should be the one to tell her," I told my husband.

"No, you shouldn't," he agreed. "But she does have the right to know, I suppose."

"Of course she does. What we should do is to get the two of them together and let them find out on their own. Have you ever seen the movie 'The Parent Trap'?"

"Nope."

"It's about these two girls who are really identical twins, but they have no idea until they end up at summer camp together."

"Well, it's not exactly the same situation, is it?"

"No, but there has to be some way to get them together. Maybe we could throw a party and invite them both."

"We've never thrown a party together before," Maxim said. "That might be fun."

I knew I wouldn't make the mistake of putting up an announcement on the bulletin board in the employee lounge at the hospital again. I definitely didn't want Darcy to show up at our party.

As it turned out, the plan to bring Lily and Jane together ended up being postponed indefinitely, as there was just too much going on in our lives at the time. One day in early May, Maxim came home with a big grin on his face. He picked me up and spun me around, then kissed my lips. "Guess what!"

"What?"

"I've been accepted to the police force! I start in two weeks."

"That's great!" I was really happy for him. Although I knew I'd miss being able to have lunch with him at the hospital, I also knew that he'd wanted to be a policeman for a long time and that this was a dream come true for him.

"How about if I take us all out to celebrate?" he suggested.

"But I've already cooked dinner," I said.

"No problem! I'll take us all out for ice cream afterwards."

After dinner he took us to Dairy Queen. I got a chocolate sundae for Seth and a strawberry one for Morgan. Maxim and I both had banana splits.

"I can't wait to see you in your uniform," I told him. "I've always thought cops were very sexy."

He laughed and kissed the tip of my nose.

"Now you can arrest bad guys, Daddy!" Seth exclaimed.

"That's right!" Maxim ruffled his hair. I grinned at him, and he winked back. Neither of us could wait until bedtime.

After the children had been tucked in, I went into the bedroom, where Maxim was waiting for me.

"Are you ready for a good spanking?" he asked me.

"Aw, Daddy!" I whined.

"Get ready!"

I knelt beside the bed with my butt high up in the air. He began to spank me.

"Do you have to hit me so hard?" I moaned.

"You get extra licks just for that!"

Wham! Bang! Bam! The blows began to fall harder and harder.

"Ow!" I said, rubbing my sore cheeks.

"Have you learned your lesson yet?" asked Maxim.

"Yes! I'll be a good little girl from now on, Daddy!" I fell face forward on the bed, still rubbing my butt.

A couple of weeks later, I got a rude surprise when Dr. Braun asked me to assist with an obstetrical complication. "It's a woman with a placental abruption," he told me. "If I don't perform an emergency C-section right away, she could bleed to death."

My heart was in my throat as I followed him to surgery. I knew that placental abruption meant that the placenta had separated from the uterine wall prematurely, resulting in severe bleeding.

When I got there, I saw that the patient was already lying on the operating table, white as a sheet. She was bleeding profusely from between her legs, and several towels were already drenched with her blood. But what absolutely floored me was my first glimpse at her face. She was Trina!

There was no time to recover from that shock, as I had to jump right in with assisting Dr. Braun. I helped him prep for surgery, then watched as he made the first incision into Trina's abdomen. I'd assisted with many C-sections before so was accustomed to the sight of blood, yet my heart beat faster with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Would the baby look like Maxim? How could I bear it if it did?

Swiftly Dr. Braun made the next two incisions, the one through the layer of muscles and then the one through the uterine wall, and the next thing I knew, I was staring at the white amniotic sac. Dr. Braun punctured it and then reached inside for the baby. Mesmerized, I stared as he pulled the tiny, blue-tinged body out and laid it on the table. I saw that it was a boy.

I cut his umbilical cord, and he began to wave his little arms and kick his little feet and let out a tiny sound like the mewing of a kitten. He opened his eyes, and I saw that they were dark blue. In spite of myself, I felt the same tug at my heart strings that I always felt at the sight of a newborn.

I cleaned him up and then placed him on the scale. Five pounds, four ounces. Such a tiny little guy. And just as sweet as he could be.

Tears sprang to my eyes. I couldn't help it.

I put a diaper on him and dressed him in a white onesie and put a tiny hat on his head, then wrapped him tightly in a blanket. It was the smallest size onesie we had, and yet it still seemed much too big for him.

Dr. Braun had turned his attention to Trina, whose bleeding was now under control, and I pushed the newborn in his warmer to the hospital nursery. His tiny face haunted me for the rest of my shift, and even after it had ended and I was on my way home.

"All right, Lace. What is it?" Maxim asked me at the dinner table that night.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You've looked like you were a thousand miles away all evening." He frowned. "Did something happen at work today?"

I nodded. "Trina's baby was born."

His bottom jaw dropped. "Really?"

"She came into the emergency room with a placental abruption, and Dr. Braun had to do an emergency C-section on her. He weighs just five pounds, four ounces. You ought to see him, Maxim. He's absolutely perfect!"

"So she had a boy," he said softly. I saw a longing in his eyes that I'd never seen there before, and I felt a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We didn't say a word to one another for the rest of that evening.

The next day at work, I was walking past the hospital nursery when I saw to my surprise that Maxim was there, staring in through the window. Silently I went to stand beside him, and right away my eyes fell on the crib labeled 'Stills, baby boy.'

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

Startled, Maxim jumped. "Oh, hi, Lacy," he said. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"

I looked into his eyes and realized that they were the saddest I'd ever seen them.

Seth's four-year-old kindergarten held a little ceremony for the students who were 'graduating' up to five-year-old kindergarten. As we entered the cafeteria where the event was being held, I noticed right away that Roberta and Bryant were there. Roberta smiled and waved us over.

"Hey, girl!" she exclaimed. "Long time, no see. How have you been?"

"Great!" I told her. "This is my husband, Maxim."

"Wow, so you're married now! Congratulations!"

"Thanks. We did it on Valentine's Day."

"How romantic! Bryant and I just found out that Cara's gonna have a new baby brother or sister soon!"

"That's great!" I said, glancing at Maxim, whose face bore a winsome smile. I knew that he was thinking about Trina's baby, and that thought put a knife through my heart.

Seth's little ceremony was cute, especially when the little boy who was singing the alphabet song got confused and sang 'Y and Z' instead of 'W,X,' and afterwards there was refreshments and mingling.

"So, what do you do?" Bryant asked Maxim.

"I just got on with the police force," Maxim replied. "Before that, I was a security guard at the hospital where Lacy works. How about you?"

"I'm a butcher at the supermarket," Bryant told him.

"Do you know Andy Brandon?" I asked.

"He's a good friend of mine," Bryant replied.

"He's my brother," I said.

"Have you met this girl he's dating now yet? He seems to be really crazy about her. Talks about her all the time."

"She came over for Easter dinner." I didn't add that Jane was also my best friend's half sister.