01 - Aunt Glenda's Cigarettes
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By aeris
Aunt Glenda's Cigarettes
Post by aeris » Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:36 pm
(One of my earlier stories.)
Billy and Karen looked at each other nervously. They thought that brushing their teeth after trying one of their aunt's cigarettes would take away the foul taste in their mouths, but when Aunt Glenda came back from the library she noticed the missing Winston from her pack. She called Billy and Karen -- visiting her farm for a week while their parents vacationed in San Diego -- into the living room, and had them breathe onto her nose. She curled her nose up and yelled at the two of them, telling them that children aren't supposed to smoke.
As they stole away to the back porch with the cigarette and Aunt Glenda's lighter, they talked about how the other kids in junior high would think they were so cool for smoking. As Billy and Karen stood stock still in front of the couch waiting for Aunt Glenda to return, they wondered what would happen next. Aunt Glenda had changed since Uncle Eddie died three years ago, become more mean. They didn't want to go back to the farm, but their mother said it would be fun. They weren't sure what was going to happen next, but it sure wasn't going to be fun.
"I can't believe this," Aunt Glenda said as she stormed back into the living room, the heels of her shoes clacking on the hardwood floor. "Your parents should have taught you better than to smoke, or to steal my cigarettes."
"Yes Aunt Glenda," Billy said.
"Sorry Aunt Glenda," Karen added, folding her hands in front of her.
Aunt Glenda sat back down on the couch, reaching into her sewing bag. "They're mollycoddling you. Back in my day if I'd have stolen cigarettes from my parents, they would have tanned my hide real good."
Billy and Karen stole glances at one another. Karen whimpered as Billy moved his hands to cover his rear. Their parents never spanked them, but they didn't know what Aunt Glenda would do.
"They'd probably yell at me if I hit you, but you've got to learn a lesson." Aunt Glenda pulled a pair of scissors out of her sewing bag. As she sat back up, Billy and Karen saw a roll of duct tape on her lap. "Billy, come here."
Billy looked over at Karen. "I said COME HERE," Aunt Glenda repeated in her Arkansas twang. Billy quickly stepped forward.
"This should teach you real good," Aunt Glenda said as she pulled a strip of tape from the roll, cutting it with the scissors. Pulling the tape taut between her fingers, she leaned forward and placed it straight across Billy's mouth.
"Mmmmmm," Billy tried to say. Karen hissed in air through her teeth as she saw Billy's mouth being taped shut.
"Quiet," Aunt Glenda said coldly. "This will keep you from smoking." She cut another four pieces of tape off, placing each one on Billy's face at a different angle. By the time she was done, Billy's entire face from his nose to his chin was swathed in shiny silver tape.
"Now for you, Karen, step forward."
"I... I don't want my mouth taped, Aunt Glenda," Karen chirped tentatively.
"You don't have a choice, now come here."
"I don't want to..."
"If you don't then I'll keep your mouths taped shut until your parents come back to pick you up. That change your mind, little missy?"
Karen pouted as she looked over at Billy. Billy nodded softly, as if to tell her to do it so they didn't have to spend the rest of the week with their mouths taped shut. Swallowing hard, Karen stepped forward and closed her eyes.
"I'm going to keep your mouths taped shut until tomorrow at lunch," Aunt Glenda said as she placed the first of five pieces of duct tape over Karen's mouth. "I'll take the tape off for dinner, but if either of you says a word, the tape goes right back on. Twenty-four hours ought to be enough for you to learn your lessons." By the time Aunt Glenda was done, Karen's entire lower face was covered in duct tape, from one ear to the other.
Karen stepped back, rubbing the duct tape covering her face. She breathed softly through her nose, blinking slowly. She could still taste the cigarette in her mouth, and not being able to breathe through her mouth seemed to intensify the taste. It was foul, and even breathing through her nose made it worse. It was a reminder of what she'd done to get her mouth taped up.
Billy looked over at Karen. She looked ridiculous with all of that duct tape on her face, her cheeks blushing where they were still visible. He realized that he probably looked just as ridiculous with his mouth taped up too.
Once their mouths had been taped up, Aunt Glenda made the two of them come onto the front porch with her. As she sat in her wicker chair reading from a romance novel, Billy and Karen were made to sit on the swing as they usually did. This time, though, there was no talking with each other or Aunt Glenda, there were no smiles. Every time Aunt Glenda lit up a cigarette, the wind blew the smoke in front of their faces. Somehow the smell seemed a bit more familiar, not as noxious as it once was. That was cold comfort with their mouths taped shut as they were, though.
After a couple of hours of sitting on the porch, Aunt Glenda said, "We're going to the Piggly-Wiggly so I can get food for dinner tonight. Meet me at the car."
Aunt Glenda got her purse, then let Billy and Karen into the backseat of her Oldsmobile. The drive to the Piggly-Wiggly was stuffy -- Aunt Glenda's car had no air conditioning -- and breathing came harder to the two of them with their mouths taped shut.
As the Oldsmobile pulled into the parking lot, Billy saw that it was very busy. After he and Karen had been let out of the back seat, Billy looked up see a young red-haired girl about his age looking at him. As she walked beside her mother, she snickered softly.
Billy's hands reached up to the tape on his mouth. "WHAT do you think you're doing, young man," Aunt Glenda snapped.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm," Billy said through his tape.
"If you take it off, so help me I will turn you over my knee right here, and then I'll keep it taped up for the next four days." She took Billy's hand in one of hers and swatted it with the other.
"MMMMM!"
"Now come on." She took Billy and Karen's hands in hers, dragging them towards the entrance of the store.
As Karen walked through the store, staying two steps behind Aunt Glenda along with Billy, she noticed how many people stared at her and Billy. The adults mostly just looked, but most of the kids smiled. While they were in the checkout line, two teenage boys pointed and laughed at them. Karen's sense of shame over what she and Billy did grew even bigger as they laughed. As they walked back to the Oldsmobile, Aunt Glenda said to them, "I hope you realize those young gentlemen were doing you a favor. This'll teach you to smoke or steal from me again."
After they returned to the farm, Aunt Glenda made dinner, and true to her word she took the tape off. After dinner, though, once the two of them had brushed their teeth -- again -- she taped their mouths back up, once again covering their entire lower faces in the shiny tape.
After their mouths were taped again, the two of them had to stand in front of the living room television, their backs to it, while Aunt Glenda watched her crime shows. Billy and Karen didn't care to watch the shows, but standing for three straight hours was hard on their legs. They shifted from foot to foot, and Billy kept moaning softly into the tape on his mouth from the pain.
When the shows were over, Billy and Karen were led to their bedroom by their hands. As they crawled onto their mattresses with their scratchy blankets, Aunt Glenda said, "If you take the tape off while I'm sleeping, it won't stick to your face again, and you'll have to have your mouths taped shut the rest of the week. If you're good I might take the tape off early, but don't count on it. Good night." She turned the light off and walked back to her bedroom.
As Billy pulled his blanket up over him, he looked over at Karen. She was staring up at the ceiling, her eyes half-open, her sadness visible. Billy ran his fingers over the tape on his mouth. He could still taste cigarette smoke inside his mouth. He thought back to the girl in the parking lot, the boys in the checkout line, all the other people who had seen him with his mouth taped shut. He wondered if Aunt Glenda would take them out in public again tomorrow, who else might see him and Karen with all that tape on their faces, unable to say a word. He felt a deep shame as he closed his eyes and began to fall into a fitful sleep.
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aeris's stories
- 01 - Aunt Glenda's Cigarettes (F/fm)
- 02 - Nora's First Sleepover (f+/f)
Index of all stories in the "Archive for Everyone" section