“Sunday Morning Mayhem”
Talla wasn’t all that pleased with my job as a Sunday school teacher at a local church, but she understood the reasoning. It actually was her idea that I take my five-year-old daughter, Amanda, mentioning that her and I should be spending more time together, since I am her biological mother. However, Amanda didn’t seem to care for Sunday school all that much. She was always getting into things she wasn’t supposed to and disobeying the rules. I think however, she was just scared of not making any friends and most of the kids in that class were human, which she didn’t care for all that much. Our maid, Sarah was the only human she trusted.
For some reason I have yet to figure out, the room the Sunday school class was in had four candles in it, and one of these candles had matches near it. What’s worse was that long drapes hung from the window. I at first didn’t really think anything of it. No one really did, but, Amanda eventually showed us why it’s not a wise idea to keep such things within a child’s reach.
***
That day was a rough day for me anyway. As I was getting Amanda myself ready, trying hard to let Talla sleep as she had worked very late the previous night. I was halfway through my shower when I heard a loud crash come from the living room. With a sigh, I prayed that Sarah would be able to handle it in a quiet manner. But when I heard Sarah screech at the top of her lungs, I puffed another disappointed sigh between my lips, and quickly rinsed the suds from my fur.
Once, dry enough, I threw on a pink pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt and wandered out to the living room. There, I was greeted with the sight of Amanda sitting in only a pair of underwear on the couch, watching TV while Sarah struggled with trying to stop her hand from bleeding all over the floor, while the other three maids cleaned up the mess of Amanda’s oatmeal and her bowl from the kitchen floor. I frowned at the sight. Before I could ask what was going on, Whitney knocked on my door a couple times, herself fully dressed for church.
After letting my cousin in, I quickly shut off the TV and went to grab Amanda to get her ready for church. “DON’T TURN OFF MY TV!” She shouted.
“Hey!” I spat quietly, but firmly. “You do not yell at me, and you need to keep your little voice down because your Momma is sleeping. Now, I am going to get you ready for church and you are going to apologize to Sarah for biting her.”
“No! She deserved it!” argued the little wolf.
With a sigh, I picked up my daughter who refused to move from her pouting position and carried her up the stairs to get her ready for church. Sarah gave me a apologetic look as I passed her. “No, Sarah, you did nothing wrong. There’s no reason for you to be apologetic for anything,” I told my head maid.
The blond human girl smiled at that. “Thank you, ma’am,” she replied.
I could feel my heart rate was probably higher than it should have been as I hauled my little trouble maker up the stairs. I set her in a chair as I pulled shifted through those her dresser for an outfit, complete with a fresh set of panties, as the ones she had on she had worn to bed.
It didn’t take much for me to slip her old underwear off and put a new pair on. And I slipped on my personal favorite pair blue jeans on her: they had a little heart on one of the back pockets and a bear on the other. She always looked adorable in them. As I went to pry her arms apart to put on her shirt, she gave me a lot of resistance. “Come on, Amanda, I need to get you ready for Sunday school,” I said.
“I don’t wanna go to Sunday school,” muttered the little girl.
“Well, you certainly aren’t going to stay here after you bit Sarah. Now, if you don’t want me to put you over my knee, I would suggest you stop giving me such a hard time and let me get you ready for Sunday school,” I replied and reluctantly, Amanda let me put a shirt on her.
I did my best not to resort to spanking her and by that point I had only spanked her once before. It was enough to teach her that when I threatened to spank her, she better do listen.
Talla stood in the doorway to Amanda’s room. “I can watch her if she’s too much for you,” my wife said as she attempted to scratch the sleep from her mane.
“No, you should still be asleep, Talla. But, if you’re going to stay up for a bit, you can make sure Sarah’s alright,” I said, and the white wolf glanced down the stairs, in confusion.
“What happened to Sarah?” she asked.
“She was being a bitch!” spat Amanda and instantly she covered her mouth.
“Amanda Elizabeth Graives! We do not use that kind of language in this house! I’m going to have to think up a new punishment for you, I think,” I said, despite wanting to spank her for just pushing her luck, I was trying to keep my blood pressure down.
Talla gave me a groggy smile. “You should take your heart medicine before you go, hun,” she said as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me in a warm hug.
With Amanda between us, I gave my beloved white lover a kiss on the lips. “I think you’re right.”
I already had a heart attack once, and Whitney had ordered me to do my best to relax, but I pointed out that I have a little girl running around the house. She gave me some aspirin and a couple other heart medications to prevent a heart attack.
***
The need for my medication became apparent when Whitney informed me she wanted Sarah to stay off her feet and rest her hand for a couple days. To make sure of this, Whitney took Sarah to the hospital where she would have her hand stitched up and be given some morphine to dull her pain.
Not being without my head maid wasn’t really want made my stress levels jump, it was the fact that my five year old is the one who put her out of commission for a while. Upon hearing the extent of Sarah’s injuries, I grounded Amanda for a full month and tact on two weeks for making a mess in the kitchen. Unfortunately, grounding her probably wasn’t going to be enough to cure her young rebellious stage.
The ride to church was quiet. I was trying desperately to think of a suitable punishment for Amanda, and Amanda sat in her car seat, and pouted while she watched the trees and buildings roll by. Finally, my mind formed a creative punishment. “You are going to take up some of Sarah’s chores, Amanda. We’re also going to go down to the hospital tomorrow and you are going to be Sarah’s little servant, is that understood?”
Amanda didn’t answer me. She just continued to pout. “I’m not kidding, Amanda. If you don’t do your chores and don’t obey Sarah, you will get spanked. I’m not going to sit by and let you cause all kinds of mayhem for everyone,” I said, and Amanda continued to be silent. I knew she didn’t like the idea of doing chores or waiting on Sarah, but I figured it was a suitable punishment for injuring the human so badly that it put her in the hospital.
***
In my haste to get Amanda out of the house, I completely forgot my pink acoustic guitar that I had strung up for my southpaw style. This meant I was stuck playing a right handed guitar. I could play right handed, but it was always hard for me, and I couldn’t play as well right handed as I could left handed. Because of this, I only played a couple of songs before the actual Sunday school teacher started her lesson.
I was merely an assistant. And I sat and watched over the children as the teacher taught. I had noticed Amanda glancing around the room as if she was looking for something she could use to get back at me with, however, I did not notice that her eyes fell on the matches by one of the candles. While the other kids got their snacks and the teacher and I had our little discussion – in which she noted that she liked my pink outfit – Amanda snuck over to the matches and quickly lit one and lit a candle.
The flame of the candle moving across the room towards one of the curtains caught my eye, but by the time I glanced over, Amanda had already placed the flame against the curtain. Without hesitation, I marched over and snatched the candle from Amanda’s hand and blew it out. I then took the pitcher of juice and splashed it over the flames, extinguishing them quickly. In one swift move, I scooped up Amanda who instantly began to squirm and wriggle in my arms. “Amanda Elizabeth Graives II, you best stop squirming or you’ll get more spankings then you’re going to get.”
Instantly Amanda stopped squirming and plopped her thumb in her mouth. Amanda loved to suck her thumb, and always did it when she was nervous, scared or happy. At that moment, I figured she was nervous and scared. She really didn’t like to get spanked.
As I turned to the teacher, she gave me a frown. “You going to take her home?” she asked.
“Yeah. Seems like she’s just wanting to get into trouble lately. And a Sunday school room is no place for such a child,” I commented.
***
When I set Amanda down to open the door of my truck, she started to run back towards the church. “AMANDA! You have two seconds to get back here or I will spank your little butt right here and I won’t stop until I reach fifty!” I spat.
Amanda stopped in her tracks and turned around with a questioning look on her face. “Oh, you think I’m joking?” I asked. “One…” that’s the highest I got before Amanda rushed back to the truck. I plopped her in her car seat and turned her little head so I could look her in the eyes. “Now, you sit here and shut up and behave yourself. If you ’cause any more trouble, I will pull this truck over and spank your butt until you can’t sit, is that understood?”
The black wolf pup nodded and the moment I let go of her chin, her thumb went into her mouth and stayed there the entire trip back to the house.
***
When I opened the door of my house and carried Amanda inside, I set her down and demanded she go to her room. I had intended to calm down a bit before I gave her the spankings I was fully intent on giving her but when she walked up to one of the other maids and stomped on her foot just because she could, I knew her punishment couldn’t wait. As I moved to her, the little pup quickly scurried up the stairs, but because of her little stature, she made it about halfway up the stairs before I grabbed her and hauled her into her room, shutting the door behind us. Without much hesitation, I sat in one of the two chairs in her room and placed her over my knee. The first slap against her five-year-old cheeks was enough to bring her to tears. “You do not start fires and you do not bit people and you do not hurt people just because you can! You do not make messes in the kitchen because you want cereal over oatmeal!” I said as I continued to spank her.
In my head I counted out 25 spankings before I her on her bed. “Now, you stay in bed until you can behave yourself. I mean it, too, Amanda. If you get into trouble again, I will give you more spankings. I’m tired of you being bad all the time!” I ordered and left the room with Amanda crying out her pain.
“I HATE YOU!” she screamed as I shut the door. She was mad at me, but that comes with being a parent. I didn’t feel at all sorry about spanking her. I knew it was the one punishment that she understood. I also knew she wouldn’t be going to church with me anymore, which meant whenever Talla had those late nights, I would be staying home.
Talla was a welcome sight after such a rough morning. The moment I shut Amanda’s door, Talla greeted me with a hug. Returning her embrace, I heaved a sigh to calm my nerves. “You alright, honey?” she asked.
“Yeah. Just glad I decided to retire, you know,” I commented and Talla laughed before placing a kiss on my lips.
My spouse guided me down the stairs and back to the couch. There she say me down next to her and wrapped her arms around me. I noticed she was wearing her light green dress that day. That was one of my favorites. It always made her look so beautiful. After a couple minutes of just holding me, Talla ran her hands through my black fur where my outfit didn’t cover it. “I know what will make you feel better, in more ways than one,” she commented and quickly went into the bathroom and grabbed her favorite hairbrush. With it she began to gently bush my man and the rest of my fur. That was something that needed to be done. Dealing with my daughter all day while Talla was off projecting the city meant that I didn’t really have a lot of time to brush the knots out of my fur. And the white wolf was just so gentle, it really put me at ease.
Even as the doorbell rang and one of the maids answered it, I didn’t really bother to glance up until the door was opened wide and another white canine entered our house. “Hey, Rayna,” I greeted as the fox – wolf halfbreed entered wearing a very lovely light blue dress that stretched down to her ankles. The smile she wore, however put me at ease.
“Aunt Laura, I figured you’d still be at church,” our guest greeted while Talla continued to brush me.
“And I would be, but Amanda almost burned down the church,” I replied. “And that was after she sent Sarah to the hospital to get stitches in her hand.”
“Wow! Sounds like someone was being a little hellion. But, I remember getting into plenty of trouble when I was her age,” Rayna said as she took a seat in the chair closest to the door.
“Yeah. I know I was a handful at that age. Of course, I had just watched my father kill my mother, but still. Poor Whitney,” I said dwelling on the few times my cousin had brought me across her knee. “So, what brings you over here?”
“I invited her for lunch and dinner,” Talla commented. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen her, and I figured it would be nice to have some company over. And next week I invited other superheros over for a barbecue. Rayna has agreed to babysit for that.”
I laughed at my wife, and quickly turned around and planted a kiss on her lips. “And what makes you think I’m fine with having all that company in my house?” I asked playfully.
“It doesn’t matter. You could use a little break from fighting with Amanda all week and I just happen to have the next couple weeks off,” Talla said, her blue eyes glowing with joy.
“Oh, really, does that mean I’m going to get some quality time with you?” I wondered.
“If Amanda will let us. I also want to get out and do some activities as a family. And that includes Rayna, since she is your foster daughter. I even talked Whitney into letting Sasha join us,” the white wolf said with a smile.
I gave her another kiss. “Sounds like fun. It’ll be good for Sasha to get out of the house,” I said, and noticed that Amanda had stopped crying.
Talla and I had put a baby monitor in Amanda’s room when she was only three-years-old. We had designed it so Amanda could just press a button and talk to us if she need. The monitor was fed to two other monitors. One in our bedroom that was constantly on, and one in the living room that only came on when Amanda pushed the button on her end. “Momma,” came her little voice through the speaker that sat on the coffee table.
Smiling, I leaned over and picked up the device and pressed the button to talk back to her. “Yes, Amanda?”
“Can you come tuck me in?” Amanda asked.
Smiling at the request, I answered, “Of course, I can, honey.” It then occurred to me that perhaps Amanda just wasn’t getting enough sleep. I often woke her up whenever I got up, which was pretty early sometimes. I guess that would be something to talk to Talla about, as well as my counselor.
***
Amanda slept for a while. It wasn’t until close to dinner time when she wandered out of her room and down the stairs. The conversation Rayna, Talla and I were having stopped as soon as the door to her room opened. My little clone wandered over, her thumb placed firmly in her mouth, and proceeded to crawl up on my lap, and snuggle into my fur. I wrapped her in my arms and held her a moment. “You going to be a good girl, now?” I asked, and she nodded and waved at Rayna while still sucking her thumb. Rayna waved back with a smile. “Alright. I bet your hungry, though, let’s say we get you something to eat, shall we?”
I tried to stand and carry my little one to the kitchen to fix her some food, but she didn’t want to leave my lap. I was about to say something to her when Talla gave me a kiss on the cheek and stood. “I can fix her something. She seems content right there on her mother’s lap anyway,” she said softly.
“Thanks, Talla, I appreciate that,” I replied.
“Of course. I’m your wife, Laura, and as such, Amanda is my daughter, too. Now, what does our little Princess want?” Only with that question, did Amanda briefly remove her thumb from her mouth.
“A peanut and butter sandwich, please,” the little pup said.
“Alright, sweety, one peanut and butter sandwich coming up,” Talla said.
“Thank you, Momma,” Amanda said through her thumb.
I stopped one of the maids as I held my daughter. “Sheila, could you do me a big favor and bring me Amanda’s diaper bag.”
“Of course, ma’am,” the redhead said with a smile and instantly wandered off to grab the bag. Although Amanda had been potty trained a year prior, we occasionally still put her in a diaper, like when we were going to be out in public for a while or when she was spending the night with one of her friends.
When Sheila returned with the bag, I thanked her and fished out a pacifier from one of the pouches. Without a word, Amanda removed her thumb and accepted the rubber device. I much preferred her to suck on a pacifier than her finger. Mostly because it she had a tendency to hairballs if she sucked on her thumb too much. Those are not fun to clean up. I was thankful that Amanda was just as happy to suck on a pacifier as she was to suck on her thumb and often choice a pacifier over her thumb if there was one around for her.
Talla soon returned with a plate that had sandwich cut in triangles and a bottle of breast milk. “You’re still lactating, Aunt Laura?” Rayna asked.
“Yeah. This should be the last of it though. She doesn’t breastfeed anymore, but she’ll drink my milk from a bottle still. Granted, she prefers juice right now, but Talla and I are trying to get rid of the milk,” I explained.
“That’s odd. She’s learned everything else so fast, it’s a little surprising to think that she isn’t weened yet,” the young canine said.
“Yeah, but Amanda loves her Momma,” Talla said with a smile as she took a seat next to Amanda and me. removing the pacifier, the white wolf began to feed Amanda her lunch.
“That she does,” I said and gave Talla a brief kiss.
Rayna had cook Talla and I dinner, as we were busy with Amanda. Despite all the trouble and irritation Amanda caused me, when I had moments like that, where she nestled against me and was just the sweetest little girl in the world, I was reminded that I wouldn’t give her up for anything. Not even Talla. She was my little Princess and she would always be my little Princess.
