There I was, sitting in a quiet corner of Het Goude Hooft, hands wrapped around a latte that had long gone cold. Would she come? Was this real? Or had I walked straight into the hands of some delusional creep with a thing for vulnerable women? Or—just maybe—was this the moment? The moment something would break open inside me and the world would shift? Not that I had any reason to complain. When I was thirteen and told my...

Heads I raised the cane, watching her body tense in anticipation. The air between us was thick with tension, almost palpable, as I prepared to strike. With a controlled motion, I brought the cane down sharply. The first stroke landed with a loud crack across her bare bottom. She flinched, her body jerking at the sudden impact. I saw her skin ripple and quickly flush a deep, angry red where the cane had struck. A welt bega...

Life carried on. Schoolwork was going well for Mary, and she was getting the low fifties in her test results, which were now down to the routine half-term and end-of-term checks. She looked a little embarrassed when one evening, she said to us, “Please, can I talk over something with you?” “Yes, of course.” “It’s my friend Janet. She’s been doing not so well in her tests. A few weeks ago, she saw my caned bottom in the sh...

I had been the Operations Manager of a major contracting company in South East Asia’s head office for several years and was single in my late thirties. I spent time in the local head office and travelling around most remote site areas. The term ‘Operations Manager’ meant that if a difficult or potentially dangerous operation would take place with a high level of attention to HSE required, I would be there on an extended v...

I was nineteen and worked for an electronics and electronic warfare company in test and development as a senior technician. Uni was not for me. At the local technical college, I got an HNC in electronics and carried on with an Open University degree whilst working and earning money. Working damn hard affected my outlook, I hoped, in a good way. My older brother had taken a similar route and was approaching the end of his...

My time with Joan had steadied me and I made it through the rest of the term and my mock exams. One of my more perceptive pals at college said, “Pete, you seem much happier and relaxed. That awful look in your eyes has gone. What happened?” “It’s OK,” I said, “All life is change,” marvelling at it! My mother was more perceptive than my father. “There was such a change in you, which I noticed when we returned from the reun...

I was eighteen, and in the summer before I went to uni, I was working on garage fuel pumps in the days before self-service. One of our regular customers was a lady in her mid-thirties whom I will call Vera. She always smiled and was very forward and provocative in the way she acted whenever I served her (with petrol, you understand). She would stick her shapely breasts out; make sure I got a good look at her beckoning bot...

I had been a sailing club member since I was thirteen, and I was now seventeen and doing my A-level studies at a local technical college. Joan was the Commodore of the sailing club following the last committee meeting. Joan had divorced and owned an old traditional keelboat racing yacht with a varnished hull above the waterline and wooden decks. There was an enormous amount of work required to maintain these boats every w...