before stealing truck

I was at the university when I got the email.  Short and to the point, immediately making my heart sink. 

We tried to call but your phone is off.  Your father has passed.  We need you to write and fax a letter that gives permission for cremation.  I put more money in your account.

Love, Mom xoxo

It’s not like my dad was ever there anyway.  My clearest memories about him were of me sitting at the window, waiting for him to show up, only for him to have forgotten about me in the midst of his binge drinking.  

And now here he was, inconveniencing me on a day that I was supposed to be focused on getting my thesis project together.  A day I was supposed to spend helping Noelia and Caro at the shop because Mateo was out of town.  A day that was supposed to be about fun and chaos and living in the moment with my new found-family because I only had a few more weeks left in SP.  

stealing truck

Ramon wouldn’t mind if I borrowed his truck.  I was practically family, right?  And he just left the keys out in the open where anyone could get them.  

That’s how I ended up in the pickup, camera in tow, driving towards Monte Seco.  Past La Patria, where the pavement ended, I hadn’t expected the amount of mud… I mean… it was raining… but not that hard, right?  

I should’ve immediately turned around, but the road wouldn’t be thaaaaaat bad.  And Monte Seco isn’t thaaaaat far away.  And honestly, right now, I just didn’t fucking care.

The mud was slippery.  The truck was out of control, sliding all over the road.  A tiny part of me was regretting this.  But mostly it felt like an adventure.  Plowing through to the park.  

public spanking

I had never seen Mateo so angry before. A vein looked like it was about to pop out of his forehead.  Thankfully Emilio and Raul were gone now, and I saw Mat’s nostril’s flair as he took a deep breath in.  Probably trying not to kill us both.

“Let’s go.”  And then he began walking, long strides through the thick tension that enveloped us all.  Noelia looked like she had seen a ghost, eyes wide, suddenly realizing what deep shit we were in.

And me.  I like to be the “comic relief” even though usually I regret it. 

“That was fun, we should do it again sometime!”

noelia and ramon

I heard everything.  Almost every word of Ramon’s scolding.  How he didn’t turn soft even though she was crying.  The chair scraping the floor.  The hard and fast handspanking mixed with Caro’s yelps.  Then every swat with the paddle.  By that time I was squirming in my own seat, hearing how bad it was for her, knowing it was about to be worse for me.  Because fucking Emilio had to leave me stranded and I couldn’t just come back home like expected.  I was going to spank him for that!  

When the paddling stopped, I began chewing on my fingernail, thumping my leg, because I knew I was next.  I suddenly was really interested in what the cop on duty was saying on his phone call.  There were soft mutterings in the punishment room, which I knew was Ramon giving her a final hug while she sobbed into his chest.  And then…

The doorknob clicked and the door squeaked open.  Caro emerged first, hands on her bottom, face stained with tears, hair matted to her forehead, eyes all red and puffy.  Yikes.

Ramon poked his head out.  “Noelia,” he bellowed in his best authoritative dad-cop voice. 

I jumped slightly in my chair as Caro sniffled, shuffling towards me, easing down on the bench.  

“Let’s go,” Ramon urged, standing to the side so I could go inside.

callie

I couldn't get into writing Joeie because of her age... like it felt fine to think about, but any time I tried to write anything, it felt weird.  But I wanted to keep Jeremy and Justin because... a part of me does want to be Joeie, I just can't write about it in the same way these days.  So I decided to figure out a happy medium... a grad school student who eventually wants to be treated like a little sister.  

x-x-x

The phone call came only a few hours after I arrived alone at my new grad school home in New Jersey (as far away from my hometown as I could get).  It was from my social work fieldwork advisor, and her tone gave away the bad news before she could break it to me.  

“Sorry, Callie, they weren’t able to approve your request.  You’ll have to find a different field placement.”

I let out an exasperated groan.  I’d found the perfect nonprofit to work with, where I’d be able to use my Spanish skills to help immigrants.  The problem was that the supervisor wasn’t a licensed social worker, so couldn’t sign off on my internship hours.  FML.  Now there wouldn’t be much left.

“Maybe I have another opportunity you’d be interested in.  You’ll also be able to work with the Spanish-speaking population, helping out with, like, domestic disputes.”

Why did this start sounding like an episode of Cops?  “What do you mean?  I don’t really want to do therapy…”

weekend trip

I decided to go a different direction with this but... this is where i started 🥰

x-x-x

Caro came to get Noelia and me from the university, where we were doing homework (AKA hanging out and gossiping).  Before she opened her mouth, I knew something was wrong.

“Ramon came into the shop and wants to talk with all of us.”

Noelia scrunched up her nose.  “Ramon?  Why? What does he want?” 

“He didn’t say but I think…”

“Don’t jinx it!” I said, but it was too late.

“... he knows.”

“Fuuuuuuck,” Noelia said, and I could see her heart dropping to her stomach.  “What are we gonna do?”

bell tower

 

“Lexi! What are you doing up there?  Get down here, right now!”

“Just a minute!” I shouted back at Tavo, not bothering to look back because I was in the middle of taking a long exposure shot of the bell with the town behind.  

“You’re not allowed in the bell tower!  How did you get in there anyway?”

“The door was unlocked!”

I heard him grumble something as I checked out my shot, wanting to move the angle just slightly…

“I said get down here, now!  Don’t make me come up there and get you.”

camping

“I got it from Greta’s bag.  She’ll never notice it's missing, she had like forty in there.”  

“Noelia!!  No!  We can’t.”  Caro spoke in a hushed tone even though everyone was far enough away they wouldn’t hear us anyway.

“Ceci, don’t go off too far,” Noelia said, to which Ceci waved her off.

“Did you get a lighter?” I asked.

Noelia grinned, digging into her other pocket.  “Of course I did.”

“Lexi, stop being a bad influence.  Noelia, we can’t.  Ramon would kill us!  And Mateo!  We’d be toast.”

“Dude, Caro, you actually need the weed, because what the fuck.  Chill out.” 

astrophotography

“I’m ready to take my camera to the wilderness.  Monte Seco looks pretty close on the map.  Maybe I’ll go today… clear night, new moon…”

“No.”  

I glanced over at Mateo, not having realized he was even listening to my conversation as he scrambled eggs over the stove.

Noelia rolled her eyes.  “He’s so over-protective sometimes.”

“I noticed,” I said, breaking off a piece of bread and popping it in my mouth.  “How far is it anyway?”

“By car?  Maybe an hour and a half, depending on road conditions.  Probably muddy, right Mat?”

He brought the skillet over, scraping eggs onto each of our plates.  “Not tonight, Lexi.  I’ll take you another weekend.  No buses stop near there, especially this time of year.”

I let out a whine.  “Ugh but I haven’t been able to go anywhere at allllllll.  I’m getting so bored.”

“Imagine living here 19 years,” Noelia said with an eyeroll.

Mateo eyed his little sister.  “If you’re so bored, you can organize the shop like I’ve asked you to a hundred times.”

“Booooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggg!” 

The two of them playfully bickered for a while as I stuffed my face quickly, wondering whose car I could borrow to go to the national park.  I didn’t know many people, and the ones I did know were too associated with Mateo to ask for this particular favor.  

San Pancracio world

this wasn't meant to be a story... it was just going to be the timeline before the story. but... it's kind of a mixture of both 🤷‍♀️

-----

I found out about San Pancracio on an obscure spanking website, with clips from a movie and a short blurb about it being one of the few places that uses corporal punishment on adults. My imagination went wild – what it would be like to live in a place like this. I instantly scoured the internet for more information, digging around until I found the entire documentary on a pirate website. Yes, I infected my school laptop with viruses just for the sake of spanking. What would they do, spank me? As if they’d even notice.

The documentary was from the early-90s, hazy quality and badly translated Spanish. An hour and a half of some white girl claiming abuse and sexism. Clearly editing her footage to support the narrative that this traditional culture should be abolished.

I wanted to know more, but there was just nothing online about it. From the documentary, I gathered that adults engage in this process and the council of elders decides whether someone should get punished. Anyone who breaks a law could get strapped in a semi-public way. For minor offenses, it’s common for the head of household to administer the spanking.

Seriously, I couldn’t have dreamt up a fictional town this good!