Unfinished story (Written for Mr Lewis)

Mr Lewis was walking to the post office in town when he heard a raucous female laugh from across the road. He looked over at the bus shelter where the noise had come from recognized his teenaged neighbor sitting on the knee of a college-aged young man. Mr Lewis walked quickly over as Lolli once again let her head back and roared with laughter, this time nearly falling off the boy's lap and onto the woman next to him. 

"Lolli!" exclaimed Mr Lewis. "What are you doing out of school?" As he asked this he grabbed the girl by the arm and yanked her so she had no choice but to get off the young man's lap.

"Mr Lewis, dooon't," whined Lolli, trying to pull down her school kilt and get loose of Mr Lewis's tight grip.

"What did I tell you last night about skipping class, young lady? What did I say?" he boomed, his grip only getting tighter as she squirmed.

"Lols, is this guy your Dad or something?" interrupted the young man with a sly grin spreading a cross his handsome face.

"What? No! Else I would have called him Dad, wouldn't I?"

"Alright well, he seems to have you under control so I might just see you later, babe," he said as he planted a kiss on her velvety cheek, and tipped his imaginary hat to Mr Lewis who just glared after him still holding tight to Lolli's slim forearm.

"You are coming with me, right now," said Mr Lewis to Lolli, his face looking more stern than ever.

"No, I'm not!" said Lolli cheekily.

"You are" Mr Lewis repeated as he began to drag her across the road to his car, the letter he'd meant to post still in his other hand.

"Okay, okay, you can drive me home if you want!" said Lolli gaily, hopping along beside him and trying to keep up with his long-legged stride.

When they got to the car he finally freed her arm and he waited as she got in, then closed the door for her. Mr Lewis got in too and set off -- silent, but clearly still seething. Lolli sat in the front seat contemplating what she would say to her father about why she was home early from school, in case she ran into him at home. She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice that they were not driving in the direction on her home, but rather the direction of the Girls' Reform school where Mr Lewis was the principal. When Mr Lewis began to park the car, Lolli came to and looked out the window in awe. It was a beautiful old building that had once been the state supreme court. It had sandstone columns in the entry way and ornate windows and doors.

Lolli had been here only the night before when she had also run into Mr Lewis by chance. She had been out with friends in a nearby park and as she walked past he was coming out. He had been unsettled to see her, a fifteen year old child wandering the streets past midnight. He had questioned her on her bedtime and let her know that the girls in his institution were safely tucked in bed by 10pm, even the older girls. Lolli had been surprised and had asked him many more questions about the school and his role there. It seemed his was mainly an administrative position, a head of the school who saw to funding and management, but who left the care of the girls to the rest of the staff. That is, except for the strict discipline sessions that were due for particularly severe or repeated offenses. Those were dealt with by Mr Lewis downstairs in the private discipline basement. It wasn't a regular school, after all. This school was for young ladies (if they could be called ladies) who had been in trouble with the law early on in their lives but who, by the grace of a kind judge, had been sentenced to do their time, not in one of the state's prison facilities, but instead here at the Girls Reform Academy.  

Lolli got out of the car thinking this was a detour before they set off home. But instead she felt Mr Lewis's grip on her already sore arm, as he led her up the steps of the pretty building.

"Where are we going, Mr Lewis?" asked Lolli.

"Inside." He replied. After a moment, he stopped and turned to Lolli. "Lolita, I'm going to call your father and ask that you might stay a night in my school so you will learn what awaits you if you don't learn to behave yourself and stop your truancy and bad behaviour. Do you hear me, young lady?"

Lolli heard but she was aghast. She had heard only dreadful stories about the lives of the girls in the school. Surely she wouldn't be made to stay here. Surely not! As she contemplated he fate, Mr Lewis lead her the rest of the way into the school and on seeing Mr Palmer, the head "nurse" as the staff were called, and handed Lolli off to her.

"Have her prepared and brought to me," Mr Lewis said firmly. The woman just nodded, took Lolli, again by that sore part of her arm, and led her down a hallway to the bathroom.