Author's Note: This was one of the ideas I had in the back of my mind when I started writing these TV/Movie spanking stories, but I had several requests which sped it along.
Background: Dennis the Menace is a comic strip that started many years ago and still runs in newspapers worldwide. It's about a boy named Dennis Mitchell, who is about six or seven. He lives with his Mom and Dad, but spends a lot of time over at the house of his elderly neighbors, George and Martha Wilson. As the name implies, Dennis is a very mischievous little boy, even though he has no ill intent, and he tends to drive Mr. Wilson crazy. Other than the comic strip, there was a TV show in the 50's or 60's which stared Jay North as Dennis. Also, in the early 90's, there was a movie version with Mason Gamble as Dennis and Walter Mathahu as Mr. Wilson. The movie was what I had in my mind's eye when I wrote this, but just picture your own favorite version while reading.
George Wilson sat on his front porch. The morning sun was splashing down on his garden and the dewdrops on his roses were glistening like gemstones. 'This is the life' he thought to himself, 'Martha is gone for a few days to take care of her sick friend and I only have myself to worry about.'
He was just enjoying the prospect of having a quiet day when his peaceful solitude was shattered by a high-pitched yell.
"Hey, Mr. Wilson!" called out a depressingly familiar voice.
Mr. Wilson groaned as the saw his golden blonde headed little neighbor come bouncing up the sidewalk. There went his quiet day.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he asked the boy.
"No, silly! It's midterm break, I don't have school for a week. Didn't you know that?" Dennis answered brightly.
"Now how would I know that?" Mr. Wilson muttered "Do I have any kids in school?"
"Well, anyway" Dennis chirped "Whatcha doing today?"
"I was planning to have a quiet day in my garden" Mr. Wilson said pointedly.
"Well, gee, now I can keep you company so you won't get bored!" the boy announced.
Mr. Wilson sighed to himself. He knew there would be no getting rid of the kid, so he may as well make the best of it. He stood up and went to get his garden tools. One of the things he wanted to do was plant some potted flowers that were ready to go in the ground. Retrieving them from the side of the house, he took them to his flower bed and started digging holes. Dennis was chattering away the whole time, and Mr. Wilson was politely listening and responding when called for, but his mind was on his gardening. Dennis realized that he didn't have Mr. Wilson's full attention and wondered how to get it.
'I guess I could help him with those flowers' he thought to himself. 'Should I offer to help him dig holes? That looks like fun!'
So the boy quietly picked up an extra trowel and began to dig a nice, deep hole. Mr. Wilson wondered at the boy's silence and turned and looked at him. Too late, as it turned out.
"Dennis!" he shouted, "You've just dug up my Gladiola bulbs!"
Dennis looked at the brown lumps he had unearthed. They just looked like dirt clumps to him.
"Sorry, Mr. Wilson. I was just trying to help."
"Well, that's not helping. Now I'll have to cover them back up. Anyway, they should still spring so no damage done." He knew the boy had been trying to help, so he didn't want to fuss him. Mr. Wilson re-planted the bulbs and finished his new holes. As he was taking the plants out of the pots Dennis had another idea.
'I bet Mr. Wilson is going to water those flowers when he plants them' he rationalized. 'I'll just go turn on the hose for him!'
With a new errand in mind, Dennis trotted off to the tap. It took Mr. Wilson a moment to realize the boy had gone and he only had a few moments to wonder what new trouble he was going to cause. Dennis opened the tap all the way. Unfortunately, the sprayer on the hose had been locked open. It was just more bad luck that it was pointed more or less at the kneeling Mr. Wilson.
A thick spray of water erupted from the hose and caught Mr. Wilson full in the chest. He couldn't move quickly in his position, either.
"Turn it off, Dennis!" he shouted. But Dennis was around the side of the house and didn't hear him clearly.
"What did you say, Mr. Wilson?" he asked as he came back in front. But then he saw the situation and moved quickly to solve it. He dashed over to the end of the hose and turned the nozzle shut. However, he had run through another plant bed to get there and had managed to trample a few of poor Mr. Wilson's favorite flowers.
"I turned it off, Mr. Wilson." Dennis needlessly announced.
"I don't recall asking you to turn it on." Mr. Wilson reminded him. "And I certainly didn't ask you to step all over my zinnias" he added as he pointed to the crushed flowers.
"Sorry Mr. Wilson," the boy replied with a rueful expression on his face. "I was just trying to get here as fast as I could so you wouldn't get any more wet."
"I don't think I could be any more wet, Dennis." Mr. Wilson told him as he wrung out his dripping hat.
The plants were in the ground and so Mr. Wilson gave them a bit more water and then stood up. He decided it was safer to stay out of the garden for the moment, at least until Dennis went home. After putting up his tools, he went into the house with the boy following directly in his footsteps. Just as he got to the kitchen, the telephone rang. Picking it up, he recognized the voice of Mrs. Mitchell, Dennis' mother.
"Oh, George, how are you?" she asked.
"Just fine" he answered looking at the puddles under his feet.
"Listen, I know Dennis is over there with you. I was wondering if you could do me a big favor."
Mr. Wilson had a sinking feeling, but he told her yes, anyway.
"Something's come up and I have to go out for the rest of the day. My husband has a late day in the office and neither of us will be back until about 11 tonight. I was wondering if you could watch Dennis for the rest of the day?"
"Oh, sure" Mr. Wilson said as he groaned to himself "No problem. What do you want me to do about tonight?"
"Well, if you let him go to sleep on the couch, we can pick him up when we come in" she suggested.
"Tell you what," he countered "I'll just keep him for the whole night and send him back in the morning. He told me he doesn't have school so it should be all right."
"Oh, thank you George! You don't know how big a help this is. I'll just run a pair of pajamas over."
"No, don't bother. I'll just put him to bed in his briefs. It's not cold so he should be fine" Mr. Wilson didn't want her to see him dripping wet and she would if she came over.
"O. K. then, just let me speak to Dennis for a moment."
Mr. Wilson indicated to Dennis that he should pick up the other line and he listened as Mrs. Mitchell spoke.
"Dennis, honey, I have to go out and Daddy and I are going to be very late tonight. Mr. Wilson has offered to keep you for the rest of the day and you're to spend the night with him as well. Now I want you to mind what he says and not be a bother to him."
"Oh, I won't Mom!" Dennis promised. "I'll be good."
"All right then, I love you. Would you put Mr. Wilson back on please?"
"I'm right here" Mr. Wilson told her.
"One other thing George, he's not fussy about supper but for lunch he likes to eat...."
"Peanut Butter and Root Beer, I know" Mr. Wilson broke in.
"Yes, that's it. Thank you once again, George, and I'll see you tomorrow."
Mr. Wilson hung up the phone and looked at his young charge. It was going to be a long day.
"Gee Mr. Wilson, isn't this going to be fun! I get to spend the night even!" Dennis said with a toothy grin.
"Just great, Dennis" Mr. Wilson said in a slightly sour tone. He hoped he would survive until tomorrow.
He went upstairs to change his clothes and then came back down. They managed to get through the rest of the day with only a few minor disasters. Dennis never meant any harm, but he just acted without thinking. Mr. Wilson ordered a pizza at Dennis' suggestion and they had an early supper. Afterwards, Mr. Wilson settled on the couch to watch his the 8 O'clock news on CNN. Dennis had no interest in the news and so he got up and went into the parlor. He was wondering what to do, when he noticed a _c_o_c_k_roach crawling up the wall.
'Oh, my gosh!' Dennis thought 'Mr. Wilson hates bugs in his house. I guess I better kill it.'
But he saw no way to reach it quickly and he didn't want it to crawl away. He whipped his trusty slingshot out of the back pocket of his overalls and put a marble in the pouch. He drew back and took careful aim and the bug. Dennis' aim with a slingshot was really quite good and he wasn't surprised that he nailed the roach dead center, killing it instantly. But he was surprised when the marble ricocheted off the hard wooden walls and smashed into a brightly colored vase on a stand.
The vase was shattered with a loud crash; the damage of the flying marble made worse as the shards fell on the floor. In a trice Mr. Wilson was there, groaning in despair as he examined the ruins of the vase.
"Maybe you can glue it, Mr. Wilson" Dennis suggested.
Mr. Wilson turned his head and glared at the boy. Glue it? The _d_a_m_n_ thing was totally destroyed. This had been a wedding present from his aunt and was irreplaceable. He wanted to make some nasty comments to Dennis to let him know just how angry he was. But the boy was slowly withering under Mr. Wilson's piercing glare and he just looked so vulnerable. So Mr. Wilson swallowed the harsh words and tried to deal with the situation in a rational manner.
"Why were you using your slingshot inside, Dennis?" he calmly asked.
The boy looked guiltily at the offending weapon and then pointed to the dead insect plastered on the wall.
"I was trying to kill a roach, Mr. Wilson" he said softly "I know you don't like them."
Mr. Wilson sighed. The vase was gone, but he had to try and teach Dennis a lesson. Once and for all, he had to be made to understand. He got a broom and swept up the mess.
"Come upstairs with me, Dennis" he instructed when he was done.
Silently, the boy followed him up to the master bedroom.
"Sit down on the bed and listen to me for a minute" he told him. Dennis obeyed and looked up at him.
"Your problem is that you do things without thinking of what might go wrong and because of that you get yourself into trouble. The thing is, most of the time other people suffer from what you do. That vase you broke was very important to Mrs. Wilson and I. Now I'm afraid that you're going to have to pay for the consequences of your actions, then maybe next time, you will think a little more before you do something."
Mr. Wilson got up and went to the bathroom. He came back with the wooden scrubbing brush he used to wash his back with. Dennis looked at it with eyes as wide as saucers.
"Do you know what this is for?" he asked Dennis.
"Are you going to spank me with it?" Dennis asked with a quite voice full of trepidation.
"Yes, Dennis, I'm afraid I am. I hope it will teach you something."
Mr. Wilson knew that the Mitchells didn't believe in spanking, but too bad. He had been left in charge and he did. If someone had spanked Dennis before this, he might be more under control than he was. He sat next to Dennis on the bed and stood the boy up. After a bit of fiddling, he had his overalls unfastened. He removed them and Dennis was left with just his underpants. The boy was silent as the man positioned him over his knee.
"Dennis, you've been a very naughty boy all day, and naughty boys need to have their bare bottoms spanked. I'm sorry about this, but you've earned it."
Mr. Wilson grasped Dennis white briefs and pulled them off, exposing his small white butt. He reached for the brush and grasped the handle firmly. Then he brought it smartly down on the little boy's bottom, SPANK!
Dennis cried in pain as he started to experience his first spanking ever, SPANK! SPANK!
He was already crying, but what would you expect with such a young boy, SPANK! SPANK! SPANK!!
Mr. Wilson was pausing for several seconds between each swat. He didn't want to give the boy too many, but he didn't want it to be over too quickly, either. Dennis rear was turning candy apple red as the blood rushed to the stinging cheeks, SPANK! SPANK!
Dennis was howling in misery, and so Mr. Wilson decided that ten would be enough. But he made sure they were good, hard ones, SPANK!!, SPANK!!!!
The boy was crying his eyes out, and so Mr. Wilson took pity on him and gently rubbed his bare bottom. The skin was hot to the touch and he knew that the message had been driven home. After a while, Dennis quieted down, but Mr. Wilson kept rubbing him bottom. Though he hardly ever admitted it, even to himself, Mr. Wilson really loved this kid, and he was sorry that he had had to hurt him. But it was far worse in his book not to property train a child and so he had no true regrets about his decision to spank Dennis.
Dennis shifted and crawled up next to Mr. Wilson and snuggled against him.
"I'm sorry I was naughty, Mr. Wilson" he said softly.
"I forgive you Dennis," Mr. Wilson said gently "But I had to teach you a lesson."
"I know," Dennis said. "You can spank me anytime when I'm bad. Just don't tell my Mom and Dad, please."
Mr. Wilson had no intention of telling anyone, and was glad that Dennis had also decided to keep it between themselves. It would be nicer having the boy around all the time, if he could keep him in line.
Dennis curled up more and in a few moments fell sound asleep. Mr. Wilson gently pulled back the covers and tucked the naked boy in. As he kissed him goodnight on the forehead, he softly whispered that he loved him. And in his sleep, Dennis smiled.