Break of A Lifetime -Part Sixteen

[orflash64]

Break of a Lifetime part 16
by Goodgulf
#1814
awatcher123Oct 4 2:56 PM

Part 16 - An Unexpected Turn

A Monday in mid October found Jane still struggling as she pounded on doors looking for real work. Her hair was grown back enough to style, and she wasn't going to shave again just for pity jobs that went nowhere. While walking towards a potential interview, she heard her name being called.
"It is you! What have you done with your hair?"
"Hi Uncle Darren," Jane said, wishing that she hadn't run into him.
She'd been avoiding her family since she got out, not really out of shame, but she didn't want them to see her hair and ask her about it. She had never been good to lying to family and still hadn't invented a good story to cover it. Her parents thought she was avoiding them because she felt bad about borrowing money, and they thought it was cute.
But she had been avoiding this side of her family even more than the others. Her Uncle Darren was David's father, and she had no idea what (if anything) he knew.
"Well, I thought it was time for a change, but that didn't work and I had to take off more than I wanted to, but I like it," Jane told him.
"It looks good on you," Darren told her. "We missed you at Labour Day."
"Well, I was busy," Jane said, only half lying. "Everyone wanted the weekend off so I was able to pick up some work."
"That's right, you graduated last spring," Darren smiled. "Where are you working now?"
"Um, well I'm kind of acting as a stringer for ..."

"You should have said something," Darren said. "I know everyone. I'm sure a have a friend of a friend who can do something about regular freelance work or maybe even an entry level job. Of course after that, well I can't make you successful at your work, but I can help you get your foot in the door."
"Really? I am, I thought you only knew people in government," Jane said.
"I know all sorts of people, but you'd have to do something for me," Darren told her. "Oh, don't pull a face. It's nothing unpleasant. Your aunt is out of town and I don't want to go stag to a get together this Wednesday. I hate to go alone to these things, but there's no way I could hire an escort without it looking as if I was, well, hiring an escort. And don't worry, I don't expect you to have something in your wardrobe that will mesh with the group. Send my assistant your sizes and I'll have an outfit sent over. Something you can keep for formal occasions."
"Um, but..."
"And send her your resume too," Darren told. "I don't want you wasting your degree."
"Um, okay."
Her uncle gave her his card, writing instructions on its back, and sent her on her way.
Two days, Jane was opening garment bags. Whatever you said about her uncle, he had taste and the means to express it. That or his assistant had taste. Either way, she now had a lovely black number with a respectable hemline and modest slit up the side, complete with matching underwear, shoes, purse, and the rest. The bra was even a shaping one, helping her in filling out her bust line.
Examining herself in the mirror, Jane thought she presented an elegant sight. The only thing that didn't reek of class was her hairstyle. Thinking about how it had gotten that way, Jane sighed at the memory of the still missing Trish. She couldn't help feeling pangs of guilt for her role in Trish's disappearance, and the fact that she dared not do anything to help her imprisoned friend.
Forcing a smile on her face, Jane told herself that this was a night for fun, not dwelling on how Trish couldn't talk her way out of the place.
As expected, her Uncle Darren picked her up in a limo. As the man always said, image was everything, and he always travelled in style. Not that he was rich, no, he was comfortable but he had always made it clear that his children would have to earn their own way. Style was one thing, but trust funds were out of the question and far out of his price range.

Darren greeted her with a smile, and they kept the smalltalk going on the drive. Jane assumed that they were going to Darren's country club, but they went past that turn off without slowing. Jane glanced out of the window when they did slow down, and she recognised the turnoff.
She stopped mid breath when she saw the exit number.
"Um, Uncle Darren, where did you say this party was?" Jane asked, seeking reassurance.
"I didn't," Darren said.
"Um, I didn't know that there were a lot places out this way," Jane muttered.
"There aren't," Darren said. "Personally I think that David rushed things, that a summer there might have done you good, but he's still conflicted over Heather."
Jane blinked, trying to make sense of his words. She had assumed that her uncle didn't know about last summer's misfortunes, but now he seemed that he did, and what did her Cousin Heather have to do with anything? Her cousin was married, had just had her second child, and none of this made any sense. Her head was swimming and she need to make sense of what was happening.
"Heather?" Jane asked.
"Yes, Heather. It's a long story, but it's a long drive," Darren began. "I blame child literacy for it. You see Heather fell in love with a series of books about babysitters. Of course she couldn't sit for any of our neighbours, they all had maids and most had nannies or au pairs, but she really wanted to babysit. Since she was more than three years older than David that seemed an option, so when she was 14 we ended up letting her sit for him. Of course the maids were still there but Heather was officially in charge. And that was the mistake."
"It was?" Jane asked, still not sure where things were going.
"You see Heather needed to prove she was in charge, so she spanked him," Darren confided. "More than once. She spanked him in front of her friends so they would know she was in charge and she spanked him in front of his friends for the same reason. But with the maids still there, but carefully staying in distant room, we thought David was over stating things. That she was just giving him a swat or two. That wasn't it, but who would have thought that she would actually spank him with the maids in the house? At least twice, once in front of her friends and once in front of his, she even pulled down his pant so they could how red she was spanking him. As you can imagine, that drove a wedge between them."
"Well, yes, I guess it would. Um, but what..."

"But what does this have to do with now?" Darren laughed. "I told you this was long story, but I'll flash forward. Now do you remember that Christmas Heather had short hair?"
"Sure. She spent that summer hitchhiking in East Europe and she had to cut it after something to do with lice and..."
Jane halted mid sentence. Heather's hair then hadn't been that much longer than hers was now. Heather would have had to have shaved it around Labour Day. If she had shaved it at Labour Day that would have been around the time she got back from Europe, but why would she shave then if she no longer had to worry about getting lice in former communist countries? Unless she wasn't worried about lice at all.
Jane's thoughts went back to the last time she had encountered people who said they were worried about lice, then why her own hair was so short.
"Heather didn't spend that summer in Europe, did she?" Jane asked.
"Clever girl," Darren laughed. "No, she got into a little trouble just after finishing her third year, and she spent that summer at certain institute for women. I could have done something, but I didn't. I thought it was time for her to learn that I couldn't fix every problem in her life. Somehow David found out about it, and he thought it was karma kicking back. At least at first, but then he found out more about what happened there, that their strappings often left bruises. Anyway, after that happened they talked and worked out most of their issue, but I think that David feels guilty that he was happy that Heather spent her summer there. That's why he raced to your rescue."
"Did, um, you know, um..."
"Did I know that you were there? How could I not?"
A look of horror spread over Jane's face.
"Oh, don't be like that," Darren scolded. "I didn't have anything to do with it. You put yourself in there, all I did was not move Heaven and Earth to get you out."
"Um, but..."
"Don't worry, I wasn't going to let you rot there," Darren snapped. "Maybe you would have stayed for the rest of the summer, just so you could learn a lesson, and they would have probably let you out by Labour Day. If not, you would have been home by Thanksgiving. Christmas at the latest, even if I had to intervene, and if that had happened I would have done a much better job of it than David did."
Jane didn't know what to say.
"Now is when the long story starts to get a bit weirder," Darren told her.
"Weird? Now?" Jane asked with a slightly hysterical laugh.
"Now what do you know about the MAFIA? Nothing except movies, right? Well the MAFIA has an expression called 'making your bones'," Darren said. "They don't trust a man until he does a contract killing because once he does that he can't go to the cops without being sentence for a cold blooded killing. He has to do the worse sort of crime to guarantee that he can never testify against the others. Does that make sense to you?"
"I guess," Jane said.
"A gangster can't tell the police about a loan shark if he's murdered some one can he?" Darren smiled. "Well if a woman goes as a spectator goes to something called Punishment Night and enjoys herself there, then she can't go to the cops and complain that she was once part of the other side of Punishment Night, can she?"
"I... I guess not," Jane said slowly.
"And that's where we're going," Darren told her. "Some people thought you should have gone earlier, especially with you being a journalist, but I thought you needed a chance to let your hair grow back. Adjust to life on the outside and such. After tonight there is absolutely no way you'll be able to do any kind of story on the Carnacki."
"Oh. Oh. Ah, what's happening tonight?"
"It's Punishment Night," Darren reminded her. "We are attending it. There's some wine and cheese served on arrival, then we take seats in the auditorium. The inmates are brought out, and you know what happens to them."
"Yes, I guess I do."
"As for what role you shall play, during what is know as halftime you will approach one of the inmates and finger her a bit," Darren continued. "She doesn't have to enjoy it, but you do, or at look as if you do. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
"Um, well, I'm not sure," Jane admitted. "Ah, I've never done anything like that with another..."
"What? You went to collage and were inside a woman's prison and you've only touched your own pussy?" Darren asked in mock shock. "Has every exploitation movie I've ever seen been a lie? Is Shaft not actually a mean motherfucker? Well, no matter, you can learn when you get there."
"I can?"
"You should," Darren said with a smile. "Did you mix much with the other inmates? No? Then you might not know that the quad rooms are often rented by the week or weekend."
"Rented?"
"Sometimes a woman wants to know what it would be like to be an inmate, and when she is there she is treated the same as any other inmate," Darren explained. "Except for the exit interview. They leave on schedule, usually."
"Usually?" Jane eeped.
"Sometimes something happens and they get a week added on to their sentence," Darren explained. "But other than that they attend the same classes and takes the same risks, including Punishment Night. Some enjoy flirting with danger, so much so I've heard that a few women have spent at least one weekend a month there for years and never earned a real strapping. Of course they use wigs so they appear to have the standard hairdo, or wear wigs when away from that place."
"Then there are the other cases," Darren continued. "A man with connections can arranged for a female friend to spend some time there. Sometimes as part of a game and other times as something else. Some even send out of control daughters or nieces there, not that I ever did so. Heather earned her own way there and you're my only niece who even knows that this place exists. But I could have. I could easily take someone there tonight and not see her again until Monday. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I hope I don't," Jane said quietly.
"Then you do understand," Darren said with a smile. "When we get there I am sure, quite sure, that you will made the decision that is right for you."
"Oh," Jane muttered. "Um, couldn't we turn around? You could drop me off home."
"No, I can't do that," Darren told her. "It's time to make your bones, metaphorically speaking. Otherwise, well you are a reporter, aren't you? And speaking about that, I've lined up a job interview for you."
"You have?"
"It's at a minor organisation, one focused on exposing corruption and human rights abuses. I'm sure you'll fit right in."
"But, but David..," Jane began, trying to find the words. "He works for, um..."

"But David is basically a boy scout," Darren told her. "He does his job without injecting personal ambition in it, that's why everyone likes him so much. He's not malicious; he just wants to see the world working as it should. For the trains to run on time. Nor does he work for villains. Most of the people in that, call it a 'firm', most people in that firm are like David, convinced that if they weren't doing what they do then the entire world would go up in flames. Just between us, I'm not sure if they aren't right."
"But if I'm exposing government corruption and..."
"Oh, don't worry, David isn't corrupt," Darren grinned.
"I mean..."
"I know what you mean, but don't have to worry. Those people are very good at what they do; they rarely leave traces that anyone notices," Darren told her. "To be honest, I'm not sure if David could prove that they exist, and he traces more of their activities than most other people working for them. Don't worry, if no news network in the country has found anything to report on, what makes you think that a reporter just out of college can? Now put a good nice smile on, we're here."

[automagix12]

Many thanks to orflash64 for posting the story!

[orflash64]

I thought it was 16 parts, but it's 20 and epilogue. Will post rest soon.