Chapter 12 - Sister Katherines Wrath

Ken met her at the entrance to the exam room. “Sister, I need to talk to you first before you go in there.” Sister Katherine could sense immediately that something was wrong by his grave expression.

“What’s happen? She asked seriously.

“Now Sr. Kate, before you go and get all upset on me…..!”

She noticed his eyes were blood shot and that it appeared that he had been crying. She interrupted him. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” He thought if he came out with it very quickly it would make it easier for himself. “I..I lost my temper, Sister.” He was having a very difficult time looking at her straight in the face.

Sr. Kate tried to remain calm while searching his face. “Just tell me very slowly what happened.”

“She made me so DAMN mad! I didn’t set out to intentionally lose my temper! It just happened!”

“Dr. Cummings, WHAT happened? Is Susan all right, is she still here?” There was anxiety blended with impatience in her voice.

“Yes, she’s all right and yes she’s here!” Ken took a deep breath before speaking. “Shortly after you left, I gave Susan a very severe spanking.” There, he said it!

Sister didn’t say a word to him. Her eyes narrowed at Ken and than she hastily brushed passed him to go to Susan. After a few minutes went by she returned. She was furious with him! Never in the whole time in which he had known her had he ever seen her so profoundly mad !

“I just took a good look at her raw bottom! In heavens name what was going through your mind? Her buttocks are as red as two boiled lobsters! What did you use on her, a whip?” Ken recoiled at what she had just asked. “Perhaps,” her head was looking around scanning his office, “you have a large paddle somewhere that you’re hiding!”

“SISTER, how could you ask me such a question? I don’t even own a paddle much less a whip! He paused and lowered his eyes along with his voice. “I… I… used the palm of my hand.”

“Your hand DID that?’ She gave him a shocked look! “That doesn’t look like a spanking! That looks like a beating! You must have hit her extremely hard!

“I did.” Ken hung his head in shame between his huge shoulders.

“My God! What were you thinking of?”

“That’s it! I wasn’t!” He walked over to his desk and sat down and buried his face into both his opened hands. He slid his hands down his face. “I apologized to her profusely. I’m pretty sure she’s forgiven me. I hope to God she’s forgiven me!

“I hope it was on your knees! If I was Susan I’d make you wait a very long time for that forgiveness!” A few moments passed silently. “I have a good mind to go see Fr. Ryan myself Monday morning!”

“I wouldn’t blame you, if you did!”

“How many times did you pummel her backside?”

Ken cringed when Sister used the term pummel. “Four times.”

“Telling from those burning welts on her backside it looks more like a dozen times!”

“SISTER, PLEASE I feel terrible as it is!”

“GOOD, I want you to feel terrible!” Another period of angry silence filled the room. “Perhaps, there’s a dark side to your nature, Dr. Cummings, that I wasn’t at all aware of!” Ken just gave her a look of contrition. “I guess there’s more of a Mr. Hyde to you than a Dr. Jekyll!

“Sister, Please!”

“PLEASE WHAT! I trusted you with this girl! We both agreed how emotionally fragile she was and that she had to be treated with care! I told Susan you would do just that, take GOOD CARE of her!”

“I will take good care of her! I want to do so much more than that! I don’t know what came over me! Sister, I’m sorry! What else can I say? I give you my word, it will never happened again!”

“IT damn well better NOT happened again!” That was the first time Ken had ever heard Sister say a cuss word. Sister turned to gaze out the window to compose herself. “Were you able to administer the enemas?”

“Yes, after she finally decided to surrender to them. I assure you, at this moment, she’s got the cleanest colon in the state of Colorado!

“Evidently, she gave you a difficult time?” She asked stiffly.

“Sister, she gave me an exceedingly difficult time! She was unyielding in her behavior! She provoked me to the point where I lost all my self control!”

“What’s happened to you today? I’ve seen you lose your temper with patients on occasions, but never like……., pointing her hand to the other room, “……THAT!”

“I’ll tell you what’s happen to me, Sr. Katherine! Miss Susan Sheridan happened! From the moment she walked into my office she bewitched me! Perhaps you were right! I really do have the capability to bring out the devil in young women!”

“That’s absurd, and you very well know it! Don’t you think you’re a little confused. It appears that the devil emerged from you, not Susan.” She glowered at him! “I should have never left you alone with her, NEVER!” Sister paused. She was not going to leave it alone. At least, not just yet. “You told me before I left that exam room that you would not do anything ‘inappropriate with her’!”

“Sister, when I said that, I was thinking along the lines of a sexual nature not a spanking!”

“You don’t call this whipping you, mindlessly, administered inappropriate?”

“SISTER, PLEASE, I didn’t whip her. I just spanked her!”

“I prefer to call it a whipping after witnessing those appalling signs of abuse on her backside!”

“Sister, give me some leniency! I didn’t break the skin!”

“Oh, so that’s suppose to make it OK !”

“NO, NO of course not! It’s not OK! I realized that almost immediately after I was done spanking her!”

“I need to ask you this, Dr. Cummings.” She paused another moment before she flung another accusation at him. “Did you at any time beat your wife, Ann?”

“My God Sister, NO! How could you ask me such a terrible thing! I loved my wife! I worshipped the ground she walked on! I never in the whole time that we were married laid a hand on her!” Ken was shocked that Sr. Kate could even think of such a thing much less ask it!

Angry silence permeated the room for some minutes before Sister spoke.

“In heavens name why didn’t you call me back from maternity!”

“When she began to resist me, I…. I did for a moment thought of doing just that.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I guess… the Neanderthal in me wanted her to submit! I don’t know!”

“What did you think she was? Some kind of a horse, a filly you could break in, to do your bidding? In using your brutish potential you tried to break her spirit, and force her into submission! Pretty chauvinistic of you, don’t you think, Dr. Cummings?”

“Yes, it was of me! I can see that now! It’s just that…. she made me SO very angry! I couldn’t think straight!”

“THAT’S no excuse and YOU damn well KNOW IT!”

“Right again, Sister Kate. It’s no excuse what so ever!”

“Did you ever think for one moment that the reason why Susan is so strong willed is because it probably helped her to survive her aunt’s tyranny? I would also venture to say that the same goes for her sister Shannon! You wanted her to bow down to you and relinquish the entities that make her strong, her tenacity and her pride!”

“You’re absolutely right! I agree with you!”

“Just walk through the psychiatric ward and you will see all the people whose spirits have been broken!”

“What are you trying to say Sister Kate? That I’m responsible for causing irreversible psychological damage to that lovely girl in there? If that’s true, than I’d sooner cut off my right hand!”

A considerably amount of silence went by before either one of them spoke. Ken just sat at his desk staring at his hands while Sister fiercely stared out the window.

Sister decided to say something first. She was resigned to the fact that this unfortunate deed took place and that she was powerless to undo it. Her speech was rapidly stern and unfeeling as she spoke. “What’s done is done. We can’t do anything about it now. Let’s proceed with this proctoscope exam. I’ll call you when she’s ready.” Sister left the his office still in a fit of anger to prepare Susan for her exam.

She was angry and disappointed in him and had no intention, at this time, of giving him an ounce of exoneration for his actions!

From the moment she saw them together she knew and felt a powerful physical attraction had taken place between them!

Is this what happens when a person falls in love? She was glad that it had only happened to her once in her own lifetime.

Perhaps with the loss of his wife and Susan’s unstable emotional makeup, the combination created a clash of wills. She’d hope that circumstances would eventually work out between them. However, something told her that it was going to be a tumultuous, relationship before it ever would be a calm and sedate one.