“That’s a very funny story, missy, but my granddaughter actually had her third dance recital, and she was dressed like a teacup, not a flower.” Kaitlin realizes that she must have remembered wrong. “Now, tell the truth!”
“It ith the truth!” Kaitlin protests. Anna scowls. She grabs Kaitlin, puts her over one knee, and spanks her. Kaitlin lets out a cry of pain and shock.
“That’s for lying. Tell me the truth, little girl,” Anna snaps. Crying from the pain, Kaitlin decides to tell Anna what she expects to hear.
“We were theparated from our parenth at the mall. The mall clothed and we got lotht. Then we thaw a door open here and came inthide,” Kaitlin sobs. Anna sets her down on the ground.
“There. That wasn’t so difficult, now, was it?” she asks. Kaitlin merely cries in response. Still on the floor on an open dirty diaper, Laura stares at her friend in horror. She decides to do exactly as Anna tells her; she doesn’t want to be spanked, too.
“Now, it looks like someone needs to be changed,” Anna says in a singsong voice. She picks Laura up, brings her over to the changing table, and cleans her thoroughly before putting a fresh diaper on her. Anna pokes Laura’s nose. “There! All clean!” She looks over at Kaitlin, who seems to have calmed down somewhat. “Come on, sweetie. We need to leave.”
Kaitlin mutely takes Anna’s hand and allows herself to be led outside and to a car. While Laura is buckled into a car seat, Kaitlin gets in and buckles herself without being told. Anna beams at her.
“Once you stopped lying, you were much more well-behaved,” Anna comments. Kaitlin looks away. Anna gets into the car and they pull out of the parking lot. Both Laura and Kaitlin are thoroughly exhausted by the events of the day and fall asleep, not waking up until they reach their destination.