Baker Family

Of yard work and the girl next door

Pete watched in dismay as Mickey disappeared around the corner of the house.

Pete walked back into the house where he the dishwasher was running and he could hear the washing machine running from the laundry room. Lori was wiping down the table as he said "I am going to beat that boy's backside today I just know it."

Lori wiped the table as she said "Mickey is due for one."

"It's been a couple of weeks hasn't it." Pete said as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Mickey had gotten in trouble in school and got a note sent home detailing his behavior. Pete had taken to his room when he got home and whipped him soundly that night. And fortunately his behavior at school had greatly improved for the rest of the semester. "I hope I don't have to give him one though."

"Same here." Lori said. She did not like it when the boys were spanked but knew it was something that needed to be done. "But maybe you should consider giving him one. His attitude has not been the best lately." His woman's work comment went through her mind as she spoke. She shook her head in disbelief that any child of hers would have such archaic beliefs. That was thinking that the boy needed to be cured of.

"I'll think about it." Pete said. "Why can't he be more like Ricky?" Pete said in frustration. "I can't remember the last time I punished Ricky."

A thoughtful look crossed Lori's face. She had been married to Pete for eight months and dated him for nine month before that and she had to admit that in all the time she had not seen Ricky in trouble once. Trouble serious enough to deserve a paddling or grounding anyway she thought. He had been taken to the side a few times and told to straighten up which he normally did quickly.

"He's not Ricky Pete." Lori said pushing the thought from her mind. "He is his own person just like Dawson is his own person and Ricky is. You need to realize and stop comparing the boys to each other all the time."

An embarrassed look crossed his face. "You're right I do that too much." He then shook his head. "That is what my mother use to do me and my siblings and it made us hate each other." Pete took a sip of his coffee as he said "I told myself I would never do that." He then said "Speaking of Ricky he is rather smitten with the Benson girl."

"All of our boys are infatuated with Scarlet." Lori said with annoyance in her voice.

"What's wrong?"

"That girl is trouble." Lori said as she walked over to the sink.

Pete then let out a smirk. "Come on she seems like a very nice girl."

"You would feel differently if we had three daughters and Scarlet was a boy."

Pete shook his head in agreement.

"That little minx has our sons wrapped around her little finger." Lori said.

"Minx?" He said with a laugh. "What is this the nineteen fifties?"

"It's a nicer word than what was originally going through my mind." She said and Pete's eyes widened in shock. "I don't like her, I don't like how she parades herself in front of our sons and I don't trust her."

"Don't you think you are being a little hard on her?"

"No I don't." Lori said. And again you would be feeling different differently if the roles were reverse. "I don't want the boys to have anything to do with her."

"That is not going to be easy since she lives next door."

"I know but I don't trust her. She's going to break one of our boy's hearts I just know it."

"If not her it will be some other girl." Pete said taking another sip of his coffee. "And they will probably break some girl's heart at some point. And there is nothing we can do stop it."

"I think there some monasteries we could send them to for a couple of years."

"Wow you sound like my dad when my sisters started dating." He said with a shiver. His thought how crazy his dad got when sisters boyfriends came around. One moment he would be sitting in his recliner watching the television the next he would be getting his shotgun from the closet in order to intimidate some poor sixteen year old kid. He hated how his father waved it in their faces threatening to kill them and their family if they did not get away from his daughters.

"Your father was a wise man who knew what boys were like and that he needed to protect his daughters." Pete could not help but look at her in amusement. Wise man was not normally how she described his father. Tyrant, brute, and dictator were normally words used in association with his father.

Lori looked at him knowing what he was thinking. "In that respect anyway." A sense of sadness went through her as she looked at her husband. "In other respects not so much." Pain filled Pete's face at the thought of his father and how he treated him and his siblings.

She and then looked out the window. Her nose wrinkled as she said "And there she is again."

"What." Pete said joining her at the window. He looked out and saw that she now had the attention of all three boys.

"I am going to kill her." Lori said as she made her way to the door.

"Lori don't." Pete said and she stopped. "Please let me handle this."