My sister Tracy is 18 months older than I am but growing up it always seemed like I was the 'big' brother. Sure we had our fights but more often than not we got along really well. When she broke up with her first serious boyfriend or her friends teased her or her pet fish died, it was me that she came to and cried, we shared almost all of our childhood secrets and when mom & dad split up we were there for each other.
It wasn't easy before mom & dad split - they yelled, they fought and as sometimes happens Tracy or I would catch hell for something minor just because they were mad at each other. Tracy was 13 and I was 11 & 1/2 when they split and we were both old enough to realize that each of them were partly at fault but mainly it was Dad - he drank too much, spent more time with his buddies than he did with mom, Tracy or I and no matter how little money there was he always had enough for cigarettes and beer. Mom got custody and other than the occasional weekend we didn't see much of dad.
The other thing that changed was discipline - dad was the strict one and fully believed that nothing worked better than a hand firmly applied to the butt of whoever had broke the rules. It was always a hand but depending on what we'd done wrong it could be pants on, pants off/underwear on or right on the bare ass. Once I even got spanked in front of three of my friends for sneaking a beer out so we could try it.
Mom on the other hand was a "let's talk and work it out kind of person". Unfortunately that didn't work with the two of us and as we grew older we got more and more out of hand – by the time I was 16 we'd both smoked, drank occasionally, skipped school, tried pot and a few other things. It all came to a head one night when mom was working late and Tracy and I were sitting in the corner of the back yard after a swim in the pool sharing a joint. What we didn't know (until it was too late) was that mom had come home early and been dropped off by a friend because her car wouldn't start. Neither of us saw her come into the yard until she was right there and we were caught dead to rights. Now we figured that we'd get a big lecture about drugs and we were right - up to a point. After we'd been lectured in the living room for about 15 minutes mom said, "I've finally realized that sometimes your dad was right. We never had these kinds of problems when he was around because you both knew that you'd get a spanking if you didn't behave. I've done everything I can to avoid it but obviously it's not working so both of you – go to your rooms now and get ready for a spanking."
Neither of us really thought she'd go through with it but we weren't going to argue so we quickly went up to our bedrooms which were side by side. I knew mom really meant business when I heard her go into Tracy's room and yell at her, "you're the oldest, you should have known better now get your bottoms off and get over my knee!" I could hear Tracy try talking mom out of it but from she obviously ended up over mom's knee as I could easily hear her ass getting soundly spanked. I could hear each slap as it landed and soon I could hear Tracy sniffling and eventually crying and saying how sorry she was. I'd almost forgotten that I was in for the same treatment until I heard mom say, "Now maybe you'll realize I mean what I say and your brother's going to learn the same thing in a minute or so."
Less than 30 seconds later, mom came into my room and said, "No doubt you heard Tracy's punishment just as I'm sure she'll hear yours. Take your shorts off and get over my knee right now!" I'd already realized there wasn't any chance of talking her out of spanking me so I did what she said. When I had heard Tracy sniffling and crying I thought maybe she over reacting or had a low pain tolerance but when the first couple of swats landed I realized that mom wasn't taking it easy on either of us and it damn well hurt. I didn't quite end up crying but I sure had tears in my eyes by the time she was done.
Both Tracy and I went to bed that night with a sore ass and the knowledge that things had changed and we'd better behave or else.
Fast forward about 5 years. We'd finished high school, finished college, moved out and had our own lives. Once we were away from Mom, both of us had gotten quite a bit wilder again. We'd been raised in the country but now we were living in the city almost across the state - some drugs, lots of drinking, partying and spending more than we made with the shitty jobs we had. I'd been engaged once but that ended before we got married and Tracy got married at 21. It took Tracy less than a year to figure out that her husband's pharmaceutical sales didn't involve stores nor were they legal. He got busted, she had to fight to keep the property they seized and they got divorced - thankfully there weren't any kids yet. Again, it was my shoulder she cried on when she found out and again when the divorce was finalized.
We stayed close and often got together for supper, drinks or just to chill. Tracy had come to like the things that her ex's money bought and had a hard time making ends meet but I'd pulled myself out before I got too deep in debt. I had a not bad two bedroom apartment in a complex and she had a barely livable one bedroom in a house. Dad had died a couple of years ago - he drove into a bridge abutment at over 120km/h with a blood alcohol level just over 2 so mom had used the insurance money to buy a much nicer place further in the country.
It was during one of our evenings together that Tracy said, "You know...it's taken me a while to figure it out but really the only reason we behaved as kids was that we knew the consequences - without consequences we've both done a lot of shit we shouldn't have." We'd already had a few drinks and a couple of spiffs so the conversation didn't surprise me much.
"Yup, we sure caught hell as kids sometimes - good thing we can do what we want now!"
"That's my point - we are doing what we want and quite often we shouldn't. Ok, you've changed but I'm still spending too much and partying too much. I'd really appreciate it if you would help me."
It wasn't the first time she'd needed to borrow money & she'd usually paid me back so I said, "Sure, how much do you need?"
"I've made a budget and blown way past it - I'm about $500 short on this month's rent and bills but what I really need is to know there are consequences."