Note: The background to this is in my blog. So, here's what might have happened after the Tabor's mid-east posting:

Not long after the conversation I overheard between mom and Mrs. Tabor the Tabors suddenly moved as the dad got a five year posting to the middle-east. They put furniture in storage, rented the house and were gone in a matter of six weeks just as school ended.

They were gone an extra year but then, even more suddenly than they'd left, they were back on the street. Mom and Julie Tabor had kept in touch via Facebook and emails and I'd seen a few pictures of what looked like an amazing home with servants and the Tabor family so it was no surprise to see Christie, now just Chris, and how grown up she was at 18. They also came back, mom said, with a big bank account and could have moved to a fancier home but they stayed on our street. However they did have a maid who had come back with them.

I wasn't a big kid, 5'11" and 140 pounds but I was male, 18 and my mother saw me as the family workhorse be it shoveling snow, mowing lawns, moving couches. Not just for us. I was often 'volunteered' out to family, sometimes family friends. I didn't mind. I was, even then, a pleaser who liked to help and please others, especially my mother. All of which may help explain why, at 18, I was still sometimes spanked by mom and accepted it.

When Julie Tabor came back she and mom were together for a visit, coffee, at least once a day and I was often down at the Tabor house having been volunteered for one chore or another. On those visits Mrs. Tabor was always interested in talking to me, not only as I worked but also after at her kitchen table where I'd have a Coke and cookies while she had tea or coffee prepared by the maid. The maid had a long name but everyone one called her Tal. At home she's worn a head covering but her father told her to take it off in America. She'd come not only to work as a maid for the Tabors but also to attend college classes. I learned she was 20.

Gradually our kitchen table talks became more personal, intimate and one day when Tal was out of the room Mrs. Tabor said to me in a quiet voice, "You might be interested to know Tal wasn't just spanked growing up, her last spanking from her dad was just before she left with us." I blushed and made some sort of noise and Mrs. Tabor said, in a quiet voice, "Oh yes. Spanked. Just about the time your mom last spanked you." This time I did more than blush I turned beet red and before I could say anything, she added, still in a quiet voice, "you see your mother and I have exchanged family news. Tell me, did you deserve the spanking?"

I was stunned but managed to squeak out, 'yes' and she said, "I'm sure you did. Would you like another piece of Tabor family spanking news?"

I was still beet red, in shock and vocal cords seized but I did a nod. Mrs. Tabor leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial voice, "I've had to spank Tal twice since we got here." The news overrode my vocal cord issue and in a horse voice I said, "Spanked! You spanked Tal?"

Mrs. Tabor gave a little smile and said 'yes -- spanked ... and on the bare bottom in case you're wondering. I'm a spanking mom and another bit of Tabor news for you is I've spanked Chris once since we got home. Actually she and Tal got it together. Both bare bottom."

At that point Tal came back into the kitchen and Mrs. Tabor said, "I was just telling Tommy I was a spanking mom and how you'd come from a home like ours where spanking was the norm. It's the same at Tommy's house. His mom spanked him about the same time your dad spanked you last, just before we left. Your family and his and ours have something in common."

"Not totally," said Tal. "At home males don't get spanked at Tommy's age."