“I’ll swing for that one, Alice, honest I will!”

Alice didn’t need to ask her colleague to which one she was referring. Jimmy Evans had been making life hell for his nurses ever since he arrived in the ward. Constantly pestering them for the most frivolous reasons, moaning endlessly and, worst of all, being rude and upsetting to the other Patients in the ward.

He was missing home, of course, Alice acknowledged. But there were far sicker patients than Jimmy – he had only been in to have his tonsils out – and he was making life hell for them while he recovered. It really wouldn’t do.

“What’s the matter this time, Sue?”

“Little bugger threw a glass of Ribena over my uniform.” replied the staff nurse, almost in tears. “Just ‘cos I said he ought to have eaten his vegetables.”

“Oh, he did, did he? It’s about time that boy and I had a little word.”

Alice walked down the ward, a trim, pretty sight in her deep blue uniform, her ginger hair worn up in a smart bun. She had not been a sister long – but had been a popular choice. She was understanding with both staff and patients but stood no nonsense from either.

Pausing only for a quick stop at the drugs trolley to collect a few things on a kidney dish, Alice walked briskly over to the  bed.

“Right Jimmy, what’s all this Nurse Groves tells me about you throwing your drink all over her?”

“She’s a nasty cow! She tried to make me eat carrots. Yeuch!” Inwardly Alice was seething, but she managed to maintain an outward calm. “That isn’t a nice thing to say, you know. Nurse Groves only wants you to get strong and well again. Carrots are very good for you.”

“She’s an old cow! An’ so are you,” spat the unrepentant youngster. That was enough. As her staff well knew, it took a lot to provoke Alice but once you had it was unwise to get within a half-mile radius of her. Standing up, her face flushed, she began drawing the curtains around Jimmy’s bed. As she drew the last one Catherine, who was  in the next bed, looked up and asked: “Whatcha doin’ to him?”

“Smacking his bottom, that’s what,” the nurse snapped back. Jimmy felt the colour drain from his face as he heard these words. “You can’t do that! You’re not my mum and anyway, I’m poorly!” Alice finished establishing a little privacy and sat down on the boy’s bed. “Jimmy, while you’re in here I take the place of your mummy. I feed you, wash you, give you your medicine, take you to the toilet – so I’m certainly within my rights to spank you. You’re a nasty little boy who needs a lesson in manners, and I’m about to give it to you. Get out of bed!”

Jimmy made no move. “All right, young man, if that’s the way you want it. But let me tell you this. I’m going to smack your bottom, and if I have to come and get you I shall draw the curtains back first, then all the other Patients will see your behind getting tanned. Is that what you want?”

Jimmy reluctantly slithered from beneath the sheets, a brown study in blue striped pyjamas. It was bad enough that the other patients would hear him being smacked, let alone see it. He made one last conciliatory effort. “Please, sister, I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for sorry, I’m afraid.” “Over my knee, you naughty boy.”

Jimmy fell forward over Alice’s lap in the traditional punishment position.  She inserted her left hand firmly into the small of his back seconds before her flattened right descended to begin the smacked bottom.

The smart was immediate and intense. Jimmy bawled like a little one half his age as a relentless rain of smacks warmed his bottom. What he did not know was that Alice was an experienced spanker, having two offspring of her own who were frequently put across their mum’s knee for misbehaving.

Jimmy felt his tears soaking the bedspread as Alice made every inch of his bottom sore, including some very painful smacks on the tops of his thighs. Alice knew from experience that this was an important area in making sure it hurt one to sit down afterwards.

Suddenly it was over, and the ward which had been filled with the sound of slaps and tears fell silent. All the other patients had listened in awe to the punishment behind the curtains, each resolving to be on their best behaviour for the rest of their stay. Jimmy made as if to get up from the spanking position, but Alice’s hand in his back prevented him. “Hold your horses, young man. It’s time for your medication, so you might as well stay where you are for a moment.”

Jimmy now cried freely. This really was too much to bear.

Eventually she let him off her lap, pulled up his pyjamas and settled him back in bed. Then she handed him a tissue and tenderly stroked his tear-stained face. Now her voice was gentle again. “Going to be a good boy for us from now on?” Jimmy was still too tearful to speak, but he nodded his head vigorously. He had never been more sure of anything in his whole life. “Good. Well, I must get ready for visiting time.” Alice moved back the curtains and unveiled the repentant, naughty boy to the hushed ward.