Return to SSC 2008 Story Archive
The Old Schoolhouse
Zadigski

zadigskiz (at) yahoo (dot) com

Category: Science Fiction/ Fantasy

It has never ceased to amaze me about how many people can just ignore reality. Take ghosts as an example. Millions of people have reported seeing ghosts. It has to be the height of effete snobbery to claim that ghosts don't exist just because you haven't seen one. But if you are so stupid that you really want to see one, I have got just the place for you.

Up here in New England, there is this restaurant called the "The Old Schoolhouse". It was the town's schoolhouse at one time. It was abandoned because after the last schoolmaster died, he didn't leave.

The Old Schoolhouse serves a great breakfast, and an amazing lunch. But they don't serve dinner. Because anyone who is that building after the sun goes down is going to get a lesson they are not going to forget.

My friends and I have bugged the Old Schoolhouse. We have installed night-vision cameras, as well as lots of other electronic gear that will broadcast the evening's activities to us. We sit out on a boat in the harbor and sip our rum drinks. We don't want to be too close, we might get drawn into the fray.

We like it when we trick some guys into staying all night in the Old Schoolhouse. But I like it even better when I can convince some stuck-up, know-it-all woman to go there. It is such fun to watch the expression on her face as an unseen hand grabs her by the ear, and drags her to be bent over one of the old desks. She usually begins to shriek when unseen hands raise her skirt and lower her panties. Then a strap flies through the air and lands right across the fat part of her bare bottom. It doesn't take long before she is sobbing and promising to be good. And have you ever seen a well spanked bottom viewed by a night vision camera? It glows and lights up the area around it. There is even a halo around the bottom.

But would believe that, on the next morning, when ask these people what happened to them during the night, most of them insist nothing happened! On, for certain, they don't want to sit down on a hard bench and talk about it. And if we ask why they are walking so stiffly, they will just blame the damp, New England night air.

There are those who warn us that old schoolmaster might decide to get us for being such peeping toms. But I think if we keep sending him nice round bottoms to spank, he isn't going to care.

Oh, you don't believe me? Would you like to spend the night in an old schoolhouse?


Readers Comments:
Jess:  peaceluvnbooks (at) clovermail (dot) net

I think this story would've read better without the first paragraph because it seemed unnecessarily preachy.  The points are great ones, I guess I even agree with them, but their inclusion in this piece can make it seem as if one is trying to promote an ideological agenda, not entertain with a story.

There were also a few errors in the writing that a careful pre-submission reread would've likely prevented.

I thought the concept of a school house haunted by its school master was an intriguing one.  The spanking specter did make for a unique read.  I was amused by the idea of looking at a well-spanked bottom through a night vision camera because I had never considered that before.  Also, I liked the way the author portrayed the victims the day after their supernatural spanking.  I enjoyed the fact that they were both unwilling to talk about the event or sit on a hard surface afterwards.

Zoey:  zprymantis (at) smilingwithteeth (dot) com

Well, if the author is serious about that question, he was asking the wrong crowd in a spanking short story contest.  Of course, I would love to spend the night in an old school house!  The author's "common man" voice in this story comes through nicely and gives the story a nice tone.  I was a bit distracted by a few typos but otherwise the story was easy to follow.  This story had some clever ideas and I liked it.
CK:  CrimsnKid6 (at) aol (dot) com

This is a pretty straightforward fantasy story which presumably owes a lot of its approach to various haunted house tales, it's reasonably well done but doesn't seem to be anything that special. I think it would have been more appealing if the author had personalized it a bit more closely, perhaps presenting part of the narrative from the point of view of one of the ghostly schoolmaster''s victims rather than merely the somewhat detached voyeurs who enjoy watching the punitive proceedings.

So do the schoolmaster's spanked victims actually have amnesia afterwards or are they just unwilling to admit to what has happened to them, considering it too humiliating to discuss? If they do sincerely suffer memory loss from their disciplinary interaction with the spirit world, their sore seats must indeed be a puzzlement to them.

As for the closing rhetorical question, are there any old schoolhouses haunted by pretty but strict schoolmarms? That could be an enlightening evening…

Domino:  domino at Domin-o (dot) org (dot) uk

An old school house is evocative of so many things - a more innocent time, childhood memories, the leaves on the trees turning to brown as the new school year commences.  And of course, those memories must also include the learning of so many lessons, some harder to learn and more painful than others.

This is a charming ghost story which should be told round a fire, on a dark night.