Transfiguration

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Dahlia was the first to marry. In 1935, she discovered Jeremy, one of the new interns at the hospital where she worked. Margaret thought him perfect for Dahlia, shy and soft-spoken with an obvious need for mothering. He was no match for Dahlia. She told Margaret she had warned him if she caught him making mistakes in her ward, he was going to get a damn good spanking. Dahlia developed a relationship with his mother who lived in town. They became such good friends Dahlia brought her into Circle.

When Dahlia put a wedding band on Jeremy’s finger, she told Margaret her young doctor thought he was now free of his mother’s tyranny. Dahlia got out her sorority paddle and assured her hapless husband that was not the case. Now, he answered to his wife and his mother. She was the boss and when she was indisposed, Jeremy answered to his mother. Dahlia had begun her reign and Margaret envied her.

She and Dahlia were browsing an antique store one Sunday afternoon; Margaret spotted an oak whipping horse. The storeowner had found it in the cloakroom of an old schoolhouse. Dahlia had Jeremy remove the old padded leather and reupholster it. After she had added wrist and ankle straps, she had him haul it upstairs to her bedroom. She invited Margaret, Betsy, and Jeremy’s mother to the inauguration. The women buckled Jeremy over the horse, and took turns smacking his bared backside with Dahlia’s sorority paddle. The poor boy could hardly walk when they finally released him and put him to bed.

At the next meeting of Circle, Dahlia proudly announced she was pregnant. Her daughter’s name would be Emma.

In 1937, Margaret married Roger Simpson. She was 27. He was eighteen. He had worked part-time for her mother in the family’s Sunshine Laundry while he was in high school. After graduation, he switched to full time and Margaret made her move. Before she announced her engagement, she made sure her young man understood his place in her life. Scared stiff of this attractive older woman who had assumed control of his life, Roger reluctantly surrendered to her. He had no choice but to fall in line.

After moving into a modest bungalow, Margaret returned to her work at the Sunshine Laundry. Margaret’s mother had grown the laundry business from an in-home operation to a substantial business doing residential and commercial laundry. While her mother managed operations, Margaret did the accounting. Her mother put Roger to work under one of her strictest supervisors.

On workdays, Margaret was too busy with her accounting to see to Roger’s correction and discipline. She deferred to her mother when her husband needed a whipping. Roger lived in almighty fear of his mother-in-law. While she strapped him unmercifully in her office, he grew to love and respect her maternal authority. At the end of the workday, Margaret resumed control of her husband. In 1952 on his thirty-third birthday, Roger died unexpectedly of a brain aneurism.

Margaret was heartbroken. Her reason for living had been torn from her. She had loved her husband. His passionate slavish devotion had been good for her. She cherished his awkward efforts to obey her. She never forgot the flowers he raised in the backyard. His humble efforts at garden flowers meant more than any dozen long-stemmed roses from the florist.

With the help of her mother, her mother-in-law, and Circle, Margaret worked through her grief and gave her husband the funeral he deserved. Dahlia and Betsy would not allow her to return to an empty house. After the burial, they drove her home and stayed with her for the next three days while she worked through her grief. At night, Dahlia and Betsy put her to bed between them. On the fourth morning, Margaret recalled she woke up smiling into the sunlight. She got out of bed, hugged her friends, and said it was time to get off her butt and make them some breakfast.

She put her black dress and shoes in the back of her closet and dressed in jeans and an apron. When she came down to the kitchen, she had the old bounce in her step. While she fixed waffles, she told Dahlia and Betsy she was 42 years old with her life in front of her. She loved her husband, but it was time now to move on.

She never remarried. Except for her need for s****l intimacy, which would never diminish, she was content to be a widow. Sensing her need, Dahlia and Betsy closed ranks and spent many luxuriously erotic nights with her. When Margaret yearned for the weight of a man between her legs, Dahlia loaned her husband. She had never thought of herself as lesbian, but she could not deny sleeping with Dahlia and Betsy was far more satisfying than s*x with her deceased husband. When they were in bed, she was in control. She mothered him, treated him like her son. Circle nights were different. The three of them could hardly get out of bed in the morning. Dahlia said it was a nice problem to have.

With the help of Circle, the year following Roger’s death faded into a misty blur. Margaret was 43 and back to her old self where she needed to be in control of someone she loved. Over coffee one Sunday morning with Betsy and Dahlia, Margaret confessed her necessity to mother and discipline. She also stipulated she would not remarry or live with a man. She wanted children, but had not been able to conceive. She felt deprived and empty. Dahlia suggested adoption - perhaps an older boy who no one wanted because of his age. Dahlia mentioned she’d met a nun at the hospital, Sister Benita. Sister Benita was Headmistress of Holy Angels Orphanage. Her conservative order of nuns ran the orphanage with a loving but firm hand. To ensure they properly raised their motherless boys, nurturing, schooling and spanking were included in the daily regimen.

Dahlia’s suggestion of adopting caught Margaret by surprise and piqued her interest. She had never considered adopting, but the idea did make sense. Would it be a boy or a girl? She preferred a girl, but Dahlia and Betsy disagreed. They urged her to look at boys. Any mom could raise a girl, but her maternal skills were perfectly suited to making a difference in a boy’s life. He would surely challenge her and when he did, she could apply her domestic discipline. Betsy thought a 9 - 11 year old boy would be perfect for her; young enough to mold and old enough to spank when he forgot his place. Since no one wanted older boys, she would have choices.

Before Margaret met for the first time with Sister Benita, Betsy announced she too was going to look at adopting. She had come to the realization adopting an older boy might also be good for her. If they both adopted, the boys might become playmates. Hearing the news, Dahlia mentioned her daughter, Emma, was available to babysit the boys.

The thought of taking a boy into her charge energized Margaret. Every time she thought about it, she smiled. A few weeks after the coffee klatch, she screwed up her courage and called Sister Benita.

Book Two