Her name was Alice and she was the Doctor's daughter . It was her mother who was the Doctor what her father did i never quite worked out, except i knew he left for work early every morning dressed in a dark suit. He may well have been an undertaker as he rarely smiled and seemed to have an air of quiet mournfulness about him. Alice was aptly named as she looked exactly like an Alice should look. Large blue eyes expressively mirrored her mood. They would laugh when she was joyful and quickly fill with tears when she was upset. The most Alice like thing about Alice was her long golden hair, almost as if she had just escaped from Wonderland and i must admit at the age of seven i just couldn't seem to get enough of Alice. Alice was nearly nine and as she regularly informed me, it was a great honour that was being bestowed on me every time she agreed to play with me. I did have a rival in love and strangely enough it wasn't a boy but a girl. On the other side of the fence that bordered our garden lived Vanessa. She was a slim pretty dark haired child. She definitely had the hardest life of the three of us. Her mother, a widowed Irish woman with enormous breasts, red hair and a permanently angry expression, used to bully everyone she came into contact with. She rented out several rooms to single middle aged men and quickly cowed them into a state of terrified submission. I remember standing outside our front door and watching her on her hands and knees cleaning her front steps. I knew they were Catholics as Vanessa attended the local convent school and was taught by the nuns so i thought maybe i could get an answer to a difficult theological question that had been puzzling me. My father, much to my mothers despair, was a confirmed non believer and i was worried at what God might have in store for him. "Mrs O' Reilly", I asked, "People who don't believe in God what happens to them when they die?" "Atheists!!" she snarled, as she continued to vigorously scrub her already gleaming steps, "Well they all burn in hell and its just what they deserve so it is!!" Mrs O' Reilly applied her strict sense of justice to her daughter's upbringing and both Alice and i had witnessed Vanessa being angrily ushered inside by her mother for a good hiding. One time she was caught in the act of urinating in the coal shed as she doubtless couldn't be bothered to walk back up the garden and into the house. Afterwards we heard a steady unhurried rhythmic slapping sound as leather made firm contact with bare flesh. It seemed to last a long time. We never heard any howling as Vanessa possessed extraordinary courage and suffered in silence. A pale faced Vanessa later explained that her mother kept a leather soled slipper in a draw specifically for disciplinary purposes. Both Vanessa and i were so in awe of Alice and her magnetic personality we would both willingly have undergone untold agonies in her place. Little did we know that fate was going to offer us both a chance to show our mettle. It was a rainy day during the long Summer holidays and playing in the street or the garden was impossible, usually on such occasions we played in our house as my mother was the most easy going of parents. This particular day she had a bad migraine and we had little alternative but to play in Mrs O' Reilly's spotlessly clean house, (for some reason we never played in Alices house). Mrs O'Reilly surprisingly announced she was going out for an hour to visit some ailing, bedridden relative. We were warned to be on our best behavior and off she went. It didn't take us long to discover the gramophone. It was in the front room and stood on an immaculate white tablecloth. Surrounded by crucifixes and various religious artifacts. It played the thick heavy 78rpm records, all hiss and crackle but still delightful to childish ears. We had a more modern one at home on which my father used to listen to his jazz records but their was something enchanting about this old gramophone. We heard Ave Maria, i can't remember who sung it but it was a beautiful sweet enchanting female voice. I wanted to play it again after it had finished but Alice decided she would prefer to hear something else. I insisted upon it and Alice after recovering from her surprise quickly picked up the record and dashed it over my head. It shattered into several pieces. It was a rash impulse which she quickly regretted, her eyes filled with tears and both Vanessa and i were quick to comfort her. "Don't worry I'll take the blame. We will say it was me", i said, like a young braveheart. I don't know what made me say it as i was an unlikely hero. "Well it was your head" agreed Alice, tearfully. Just then we heard the front door slam. It was Mrs O' Reilly returning early. The bedridden relative having been informed of the impending visit had decided he wasn't bedridden after all and had made a quick getaway. Something about the way the walls shook as the door slammed informed me that Mrs O' Reilly wasn't in the best of moods. The front room door opened, Mrs O' Reilly stood framed in the doorway and my heart skipped a beat. More terrible than ever she towered over us. Her eyes were firmly focused on the bits of broken record. "Who did this?" she said it quietly. If she had roared like some demented wild beast it would have sounded less terrible but she almost whispered it. My courage deserted me and the instinct for self preservation had taken over. I was ready to run. She looked directly at me. I don't know why, maybe she mistook the terror in my eyes for guilt. "Was it you? Did you break my lovely record?" she hissed. I managed to shake my head in a negative manner despite being rendered speechless. Then a small brave voice piped up. "It was me Ma. I did it" The leather soled slipper was produced from a small cupboard and Mrs O' Reilly placed her ample behind on a large high backed chair. Without undue ceremony Vanessa found herself over her mothers lap with her plump little bottom uppermost. She had a cute bottom and even at that tender age i was not immune to its charms. Her legs seemed slim by comparison. Alice and i watched frozen in fascinated horror as a small pair of pink panties were pulled down to her knees. Two pale, impossibly round cheeks shivered in anticipation. SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK I think Mrs O' Reilly imagined she was beating a particularly dusty carpet. The bottom quivering like two jellies slowly turned from the palest ivory to pink with little scarlet patches. Her small feet, encased in white ankle socks flailed helplessly as she writhed on her mothers lap. The thin panties seemed to stretch one way then the other as if they would tear between her gyrating knees but Vanessa made no sound although her lip quivered with emotion and small fat tears dripped off of the end of her long dark eyelashes. SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACKKK It was an exemplary punishment. Vanessa made not a single sound and when it was all over she matter of factly pulled up her pants and adjusted her dress as if it was all of little consequence. Only the tears glistening on her pale cheeks told the tale. Something of importance had happened. Things were never to be the same again. It still brings feelings of guilt when i think about it now. Of course we cannot go back in time but i swear i would not let my courage fail me again. We are most of us capable of both extraordinary bravery as well as cowardice. It is a small regret but one i shall never forget. The next day i tried to make amends and resume my friendship with Alice but she, arm in arm with a triumphant Vanessa turned her big blue eyes towards me and quietly said, "You Coward", the words hurt me more than any spanking ever could.