Judy Stevens crossed her arms and began to tap her right foot on the ground, her tall heel creating a menacing clacking noise in rhythm against the wood floor.  Her look of surprise and confusion was slowly shifting into one of frustration.  Anger, even.  She stared around the living room, which was still lined with empty cans, a few loose streamers, dirty plates, and even a few lost hats.  The moment she had stepped into the house to find it swarming with her son’s partying friends and bellowed at the top of her lungs for all of them to clear out, a fire had been ignited in her eyes and it was growing quickly. 

                This was the final straw.

                “Look, Mom, we were just having some fun, okay?  I can still get all my work done tomorrow, and-” began Scott Stevens in protest, his forehead beginning to sweat a bit.

                “That’s not what I’m concerned about, Scott,” Judy answered, a little more coldness and uniformity in her voice.  “What I’m concerned about is that you disobeyed me.  Again.”

                “I know!  And… and I’m sorry about that, Mom, but… but…” stuttered Scott, hearing the shift in her voice very plainly and getting seriously nervous.

                “Our house rules aren’t hard to follow.  I let you go out with your friends every weekend, go on trips with them during school vacations, see movies and go out to dinner late at night… and ALL I ask is that you listen to me when I tell you it’s not an appropriate time for a party, when I’m not around…”

                “Mom, look I’m sorry, okay, but I’m eighteen, I…”

                “Your brother and sister aren’t, are they?” snapped Judy, raising a hand in exasperation.  Scott looked toward the upstairs railing and at the closed bedroom doors, where his middle school aged siblings were waiting out their mother’s stormy mood.

                “N-N-No… and, I’m sorry, really…”

                “What if someone had brought drinks, or drugs, and one of them had used them and gotten hurt?  What then?”

                “I d-don’t…”

                “No, you did know.  You just didn’t think first, Scott,” said Judy, taking a step closer to her son, brushing a strawberry blonde bang out of her eyes so she could glare at him more effectively.  “You are…” she began.

                “Grounded?” asked Scott almost hopefully, pleading with the fates for this to be his punishment rather than the alternative.

“No,” she said finally, causing Scott’s heart to almost stop in his chest.  “No matter how many times I ground you, it never works.  It never sticks.  You never learn from your mistakes.”

“I do! I do!  Really, Mom, I… I…” gasped Scott, getting desperate.

“Scott, baby… chill out!” said Ella, Scott’s girlfriend who had stayed behind for support, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around Scott’s shoulder.  “You’re just in trouble, you’re not about to get a lethal injection or something…”

“Ella, p-please…” whispered Scott, realizing how this situation was going to play out.  “You should probably go now, I...”

“Don’t be rude, Scott,” said Judy, who was already rooting through her purse loudly.  “Let Ella stay awhile longer.”

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Ella, becoming more concerned with Scott’s terrified reaction to this.  “Why are you…”

“Ella, I don’t w-want you to s-see…” whispered Scott.

“Ella, do you want to stay?” asked Judy sweetly.  “Because I’d love to have you here.  Scott would, too.”

“Yes, of course I’d like to, but…” continued Ella, getting more and more confused.

“Ella…” said Scott through gritted teeth.

“Be quiet, Scott,” said Judy.  “Or it’ll be twice as long this time.”

Scott dashed forward to his mother, his eyes pleading desperately, grasping her shoulders roughly.  “Mom… please…”

“I’ve given you plenty of chances, Scott.”

“Mom…” he gasped, his eyes beginning to tear up with stress.  “Don’t do this to me again…” he whispered in the lowest voice possible.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she said, at length removing a long silver object about the size of a flashlight from her purse, which she began fidgeting with on a variety of metallic dials.  “But Mommy’s not in the mood for it right now.  Now, just hold still for me…”

“N-N-No…” wept Scott, defeated, already beginning to accept that it was going to happen.  He sunk to his knees, his face level with his mother’s waist, and allowed the tears to stream down his face, careful to keep his back to his girlfriend, who was looking on with curious and shocked eyes.

With a smile of satisfaction spread over her plush red lips, Judy placed one hand on her full hips, placing most of the weight on one foot, and pointed the device at her cowering son, holding down a small lever at she looked at his pitifully cowering form, on his knees before her.  As if begging.

“Just sit tight,” whispered Judy in a more soothing voice, her thumb pressing firmly on a separate button on the device while holding the lever.  “This will be so much easier if you cooperate with me.”

The effect was immediate.  A blinding flash of green light exploded from the end of the device.  Scott screeched loudly, but was cut off.  Ella, so surprised by the effect, blinked; the instant she opened her eyes, though, it was over.  Everything was back to normal. 

That is, except for what stood before Judy on the floor.