Archive of Our Own

Mr. and Mrs. Stevens cringed when they heard their next door neighbors through the
thin walls of their apartment building.

"Didn't I specifically tell you not to buy that, Sandra?"

"I'm sorry, Henry. I'll take it back tomorrow."

"That won't change the fact that you disobeyed me.
I'm the man, and that makes me the head of this household."

"I know."

"Go get the strap.'

"Yes, Henry."

"Not again," Mrs. Stevens whispered to her husband.

"I'm calling the police," he said. "I wish I could break down the door
and stop that bastard myself."

Then they heard the sound of the strap, and Sandra's cries of pain,
and then, her sobs.

A few minutes later, at the 23rd Precinct, Captain Joe Carlino
came out of his office, looking disturbed.

"I just got a call," he said. "Neighbor reporting spousal abuse at 38 Elm
Street, Apartment 4B. I want you to come with me, Josie. The wife may
feel more comfortable talking to a woman."

Ten minutes later, Joe was pounding on the door of Apartment 4B
at 38 Elm Street.
"Police! Open up!"

The door opened three minutes later. Henry and Sandra stared at
Joe and Josie.

"What's this about?" Henry demanded.

"We got a call," Josie said, "from a neighbor who heard you beating
your wife and heard her crying." She turned to Sandra and asked,
"Do you wish to press charges against your husband?"

"No, she does not," Henry said.

"Let her answer for herself," Joe ordered.

"No," Sandra said, "I do not wish to press charges against my
husband for doing his duty."

"His duty????!!!!" Josie repeated.

"We practice Bible-based Christian Domestic Discipline. Wives are to be
submissive to their husbands at all times. Isn't that right, Sandra?"

"Yes, Henry." Sandra turned to Joe and Josie and said, "I disobeyed my husband
today, and he had every right to spank me."

"You mean," Joe said, "you're okay with ..."

"Yes," said Sandra. "Henry was right when he said that a wife should
be submissive to her husband at all times But sometimes, I'm ashamed
to say,I am foolish and disobey him, and then it is his absolute duty as
a loving and conscientious husband to spank me until I'm in tears, and
then spank me a little more to reinforce the lesson."

"No offense," Josie said, wanting to throw up, "but isn't that humiliating?"

It was Henry who answered.
"The humiliation is part of the punishment. Spankings are not meant to be enjoyable.
They are meant to hurt in order to correct."

"Henry is right," Sandra said.

"And one thing I have to say in Sandra's favor," Henry put in, "is that she
always submits without any argument. She may squeal and yelp, but she
never asks me to stop."

"And Henry never strikes me, except on my bottom, and he allows
me to sit on a pillow for as long as I need to."

Josie turned to Joe and muttered, sarcastically, "How nice of him."
She looked at Sandra and asked if she was sure she didn't
want to press charges. She was.

"Well," Joe said, "since your wife refuses to press charges, we can't
arrest you. But I just don't get this Christian Domestic Discipline
business. What the Hell is Christian about hitting your wife?"