We dropped everything, I hit the throttles on the Nancy Lee and headed in that direction. Even at full throttle, we were 3 hours away, The Sara Lee wa... 40 miles South and West of us. Running into the seas and wind, it took us 4 hours. I checked the radar. I had been glancing at it every minute or so for hours. Nothing. There was a steady chatter on channel 16, we saw one chopper from the base up North swing over us and then head on. I switched to a side channel and called Mark, the skipper of. We’re a nation of fluff. You’ll need to convince the people you come across otherwise.’ ‘But why me?’ ‘Real simple. You can handle Europe. People there won’t like you because of where you’re from, and you will be able to overcome it. You’ll acquire knowledge over there that you can bring back with you. Your work is excellent and you will be able to make a contribution here when you get home.’ Burnside’s sharp eyes scanned her student. She continued. ‘Amy, you’re smart. You have character. You. The pain seemed to spread after a few seconds. As the pain started to fade I felt the second stroke, lower down my buttocks this time. I cried out. She whipped me slowly, one stroke every ten seconds or so, my buttocks clenching slightly and then relaxing as the whip fell across them. When she had given me twenty strokes she stopped to let me catch my breath. She caressed my bottom, feeling the heat and the raised lines of the welts left by the whip. After the pain of the whipping, her hand. Her heart pounded so hard that her chest ached. She slowly stepped forward, eyes and ears observing the Darkness. It made no move towards her, as if unaware of her presence. She stared at her mother's motionless form. Was this what her mother really wanted to be? Just a good mother and keeper of the household?It helped her set aside more of her lingering resentments, but not all. She could not quite rid herself of the last, and that was what stopped her."Mom," Melinda called out. "Mom, I'll get.