Six in Harper Wood – ebook

Excerpt

Two girls were to be publicly flogged. They stood on Stage, completely nude, while the Governor made her preliminary speech. The whole of Harper Wood special unit was below them on the floor of Hall, standing to attention.

The Governor was saying, “These prisoners were warned. They were caned twice, they had twelve in Gym, and still they saw fit to continue their activities. It will now be shown that persistent misbehaviour will get as stern a response as necessary.”

It was true enough, Vanessa thought as she stood in the audience, that Kim and Sue had had warnings. They stood there now, pale, staring above the audience’s heads, but they’d seemed impervious to risk as they carried on and on having ‘tumbles’, as lesbian sessions were referred to in the jargon of this place.

But girls were always being caught at that, it was the standard hobby in this special unit for girl offenders aged between eighteen and thirty, and whatever the Governor was now saying, it was usually regarded as quite a minor offence, not like disobeying an officer for example. When caught they got the cane of course, six of the best on the bare bottom, but that was all, usually. Six of the best was the standard punishment for almost anything in here – there weren’t many girls who’d never been caned by the time they’d served their six month sentence. But every so often Authority seemed to fear that they’d been too lax recently, and took action to remind everyone of the score. So Kim and Sue, having been whacked and warned two or three times, were now deemed suitable to be made an example of to everyone. Yet Melissa, the prisoner who risked it more than anyone, had got away scot free again…

 

Kim was turned round and escorted to a gym bar further back on Stage. It had two saddle seats over it, another bar beneath it, and a motor on one side. Sue remained facing front, still staring upwards above everyone’s heads.

Kim bent over the left-hand saddle seat, her bottom facing the audience, full-on. Everyone gazed, fixated. Kim’s hips were wide, yet her bottom was not big, though fully rounded. Her two rear cheeks seemed perfect in shape, rising either side of the parting between them. The gap between the top of her legs was just visible. Melissa, and quite a few others, feasted their eyes.

Kim was made to stretch right over the bar, further and further, till they could see her face upside down. Her ankles and wrists were shackled to the lower bar to keep her in position. A screw pressed a button, and Kim was raised up into  the air.

In the old days, before the unit was closed for a while following a riot,[1] the bar had been raised manually – a screw would wind a handle round and round. But now it had been mechanised, and the bar rose, with Kim doubled over it.

A screw picked up the firm cane – the real business cane for the flogging. She applied chalk to it, back and forth. The reason for chalking the cane was unclear, but it was something they did in public floggings. The chalked cane was handed it to Chief, who mounted a large footstool and stood behind and to the side of Kim.

She raised the cane up high. The silence in Hall was intense.

WHACK!

Chief brought the cane down in a dramatic wide arc to crash onto Kim’s bottom. It sounded almost like a cannon shot. People could be seen to jump. Kim let out a huge cry, with lesser cries after. The cheeks of her bottom vibrated, and the cane seemed to dig in, creating a wide groove. Chief held the cane there for several seconds after striking, and when she removed it the groove was already red and deepening.

Chief paused a moment, adding to the drama, then she delivered the second stroke.

WHACK!

Kim let out another great cry. She choked back further cries as best she could. A girl being flogged usually tried to be brave, but total silence was near impossible. Another wide red weal had appeared.

WHACK!

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

Each stroke left another red weal – if not a welt – and Kim gave out more cries. By the last stroke it had become screams. It was a terrific thrashing, and better control was beyond her. Her bottom was now a frightening spectacle: red weals were on every part of the cheeks, and on their sides as well, and were darkening rapidly.

That was the end of the first set of eight. Chief returned the firm cane to a screw. There was a pause while a screw chalked the thinner cane. While she did so there was a sound of a fall on the floor of Hall. Someone had passed out, at sheer fright from the spectacle presumably, perhaps a new girl who hadn’t seen a public flogging before.

There was more pause while screws went down to the floor of Hall and the person was carried out. The rest of the audience had to stand silent, with Kim over the bar, gasping, crying, and even screaming, her bottom writhing furiously from side to side.

It almost seemed a mercy when the flogging resumed. Kim would now receive eight strokes with the thin cane across the back of her thighs.

Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!

The first four strokes landed just below Kim’s bottom, all close to one another. They were less powerful strokes than on the bottom, but they still left weals, and the sound was still awesome. Anyone who’d had strokes across the back of the thighs with the thin cane knew its different pain, sharper and wildly stinging, its own agony.

Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!

The second set of four landed further down the thighs, nearly half way to the knees. Kim gasped and sobbed, with one loud yell.

Chief handed the thin cane back to the screw at the table. It was now to be the last and most excruciating part of the flogging – a second set of eight on the bottom.

The firm cane was chalked again and handed back to Chief. Chief took the cane and raised it high.

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

The existing marks on Kim’s bottom were darkening and darkening. New lash marks went on top of the existing marks, on a bottom already writhing in agony. Kim screamed, howled and groaned, and writhed side to side and backwards and forwards.

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

At last it was over, for Kim. She rested over the bar, crying, panting, writhing, jerking, and trying to kick her shackled legs. Not that there was any releasing of her yet. She would have to remain where she was, doubled over the bar, her rear quarters presenting a memorable and terrifying spectacle. Meanwhile Sue would have her turn…

 

That evening in Recreation Room, Annette said to her cellmate Sarah, “I thought they were going to call me out and give me six! She just she picked on me! It was just an excuse, saying I hadn’t turned fast enough.”

“I wouldn’t have put it past them,” Sarah replied. “They were in the mood to make more examples of people.”

“Firm but fair!” Annette muttered. On their admission day to the unit, all those months ago, the Governor had made a speech claiming that the regime they were entering was “firm but fair”.

“Hi Annette!” Melissa’s voice called to her from a little distance away.

Annette went over to her reluctantly. She could guess what Melissa wanted.

“I can fix a session in my cell after Gym tomorrow,” Melissa said.

“For God’s sake! We’ve seen a public flogging today for doing the same thing!”

“You know that won’t happen with me darling.”

“It’s too soon Melissa. If a screw comes along they won’t dare ignore it, for their own sake. Let things calm down.”

“The screws who’ll be in the area tomorrow won’t dare do anything but ignore it.” Annette understood what Melissa meant. Everyone knew she’d had tumbles with at least two screws. There was no difficulty believing it gave her a hold on others too.

“I’m got Special Duty after Gym. There’s no chance I won’t be missed.” Every girl had a so-called Special Duty, and Annette’s, which she shared with Pat, was to help the guards at the entrance gate, checking on vehicles coming in and out.

“I’ll arrange for them to be told you’ve been diverted to helping with Laundry Duty tomorrow. They’ve got a vacancy there.”

“Then won’t they miss me at Laundry Duty?”

“I’ll make sure Laundry Duty think you’re somewhere else again, but they’ll forget where. No one will ask about you.”

Melissa had all the answers, as usual. But Annette didn’t want any tumbles for the time being. “Please,” she said. “I’m too nervous at the moment. Give me a week.”

“I’ve made a good hour free specially for you, darling.”

“Maybe next week,” Annette said.

“I may have other arrangements next week.”

Annette was torn between fear of consequences and fear of losing access to the most desirable girl in the unit. Melissa detected such things and knew how to play on them.

“You make your choice, darling,” she said. “The safest tumble you’ll ever get, or riskier tumbles with other girls when you get desperate for it again.”

Annette gave in. “For fuck’s sake, make sure it’s safe,” she said.

Melissa laughed. “Yes, it will be for fuck’s sake!” She went away.

When Annette turned round she found Sarah standing behind her.

Sarah said, “You understand that she’s serving her own agenda, not yours?”

“Of course I know. But it’s in her own interest to make sure we don’t get caught.”

“Remember that she can get away with things more easily than you.”

“Oh clam it!” Annette frequently found Sarah irritating. “I’m not a fool. I couldn’t afford to be could I?” She was referring to her escort agency days, which she often talked about to the others. You had to keep your wits about you for that sort of thing.

Sarah shook her head. “I don’t think it’s advisable,” she said.

Neither did Annette really, but she said, “Then it’s my problem isn’t it?”

 

[1] see the previous novel, Reformatory for Girls