A Change of Regime: the return of corporal punishment by Susan Thomas

Author:Susan Thomas [Thomas, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: LSF Publications
Published: 2015-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

5. The Black Card

It is some years later and there has been a return in society to a flagellants' mind-set.

She sat at her desk staring at the black card with disbelief; this simply couldn't have happened, not to her. She didn't lift her head but she knew that nobody else in the office would be looking at her. It was always the same when someone got one, it was as if they were no longer there.

It was such a simple looking thing: eighty five millimetres by fifty five; plastic, black on one side, white on the other; on the black side in gold letters the words 'Penitence Partnership' and lower down in smaller letters, 'TDS Engineering PLC', which was the name of her company; and right at the bottom in small letters an eight figure number which was her company's membership number. The white side had only a magnetic strip such as might be found on a credit card.

It was so unfair. Two years she had been with the company and a perfect record: two promotions and three 'Employee of the Month' trophies which sat at home in pride of place. She had been confident that signing up for a penitence contract was perfect for her. Now one week into the contract and this... well, yes, she had made a huge costly mistake. She just couldn't believe she had done it, a moment's inattention and it was too late. Now she had a black card, only one week on contract and a black card, it was so awful.

She had until midnight to use the card but that was a joke as everyone knew penitence stations took the last penitent at nine o'clock and closed the door at nine thirty. Not that it was a problem for her as there was a penitence station just around the corner from her flat. It wasn't a huge one of course, not like the one in Manchester with three whole floors, but she could go on the way home. It was having to go that rattled her.

Of course she had been to a station many times, there was hardly a woman under forty that hadn't and she was only thirty two, but then it was her choice and she got to choose her level. When she was a girl there had been no penitence stations, the first one had opened when she was eight, not that she remembered but she knew it now. It didn't affect children of course, because you had to be eighteen to gain access. It had begun as a fashion thing - guilt had become fashionable among the rich and idle and the first expensive stations had catered for them. It was mostly women to begin with and even now, only about half of men under forty had ever visited one, whereas virtually every woman of that age had experience of them. The fashion spread rapidly until visiting a penitence station was the thing to do, and soon they were everywhere; in fact the fashion began to spread around the world.

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