The Unknown

Set another place at the table

Julie's pov

As much as I miss Shane when he's away on business, I'm not particularly looking forward to his return this time. Knowing I have to answer to him for my dishonesty and disobedience by playing in Friday's basketball game after he expressly forbade it, makes this family reunion especially unwelcome.

When Shane arrived home from the airport, it was hugs and kisses all around. After having lunch, a shower, and a nap, Shane said he would come and get me so we could have our "chat." I'm not sure why he felt the need to speak in code since we all knew precisely what our "chat" would entail.

Shane entered our bedroom around 3pm. Stacey and I were just chillin' on our beds while Lisa and Carrie were playing foosball in one of the rec rooms.

"Are you ready to come to my room, Julie, so we can have a discussion about you playing in Friday's game?" Shane posed it like a question but it obviously wasn't.

But since he asked, I answered with a curt, "No."

"And why is that exactly?" Shane stood rigidly with his arms crossed and an unhappy scowl on his face.

"Because that punishment wasn't fair. You had no right to bar me from playing." I still feel that was unjust.

"Yeah, that was a dick move, Shane. It was the last game of the season," my cousin crudely puts in her two cents, as she defends me.

"Do you want to join your cousin tonight for a taste of my belt, Stacey? I could set another place at the table for you."

"No thanks, I'm not hungry," Stacey sasses.

Shane removes his belt and slowly walks over to my cousin's bed, staring her down without blinking.

"Turn over and lie on your stomach, Stacey." His icy tone surpassed only by the frigid look in his eyes.

"Why? I didn't even do anything." Stacey tries to put up a brave front but I can see right through it and I'm pretty sure Shane can as well.

Getting in my cousin's face, he says, "You will not speak to me so disrespectfully without consequence. Do as I say and do it NOW, STACEY MARIE!"

Stacey looks at me and I mouth, "Please," begging her silently with a pleading look not to aggravate Shane any further and make things worse for us both.

Exhaling loudly as a final display of defiance, my cousin reluctantly lies face down on her bed. Shane raises his belt high and whips it across my cousin's backside three times, delivering the most severe strokes she's received to date.

I cringe each time that god awful sound reverberates through the room, followed by my cousin's painful yelps.

As Stacey cries into her pillow, Shane whispers harshly in her ear, "The next time you disrespect me, I won't hold back."

Still clutching his belt tightly in his hand, Shane snaps, "Let's go, Julie," as he heads to his room.  After witnessing how mercilessly he dealt with Stacey, I immediately follow him without complaint. When we enter Shane's room, he points to his bed and barks, "Sit," and like an obedient frightened little puppy, I do. Shane loops his belt back around his waist and I breathe a sigh of relief.

"I'd like to know what on earth you were thinking when you decided to lie to Mike and defy me." Shane is looming over me, giving me a good view of the bulging veins in his neck and forehead. The angry look on his face freezes my tongue.

"ANSWER ME NOW, JULIE ELIZABETH!" Shane's patience has worn thinner than the excuse he's about to hear come out of my mouth.

"I didn't want to miss the last game of the season. I just really wanted to play," I lamely offer up reasoning akin to a three-year-old's logic: Why did you do it? 'Cause I wanted to.