Donna (name changed to protect the naughty), a new girl on our bus route and two grades behind me, was not a bit shy. Her outgoing personality first revealed itself on our way to school.
She leaned forward over her seat to where Eddie and my brother David sat.
“Hey guys, look at this,” she said.
They turned their heads and learned Donna was growing breasts. Her pulled down neckline was two inches from their noses. They did not look away.
The bus swerved as Mr. Carlton glanced up at the rearview mirror.
“Sit down in your seats,” he ordered.
Donna was also artistic. She drew a stick figure of a boy, folded the paper into an airplane, and sailed it over the seat onto David’s lap. He unfolded the paper and beheld an anatomically correct drawing.
David, with suggestions from Eddie, drew an equally correct stick figure of Donna. He labeled it with her name, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it back.
Donna left David’s artwork on her seat, where Mr. Carlton discovered it and sent it to the principal’s office. Mr. Snyder called Donna to his office and she named David as the artist.
David was scolded, kept after school, and told a note would be mailed home to his parents. David intercepted the mail and removed the principal’s letter.
Face of a blackmailer.
Life was great, for me. Not so great for David.
It’s hard to believe, but power went to my head. Within one day, I got carried away with my list of demands. Rather than be subservient to a tyrant, David confessed to Mom and Dad.
Lesson learned: The cost of blackmail should never be higher than the cost of getting exposed. Much to my regret, I never got a chance to put my blackmail lesson to use.
Related post: Chapter Four: David Laughs LastNow it’s your turn: Have you ever had an innocent blackmailing experience?
© Mary Norton-Miller and 1950s Suburban Adventures, 2012 forward. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary Norton-Miller and 1950s Suburban Adventures with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
1950 Memories of Suburban Adventures 
Must have been a very strict school – I that dump I attended an award would have been given out in respect of artistic intent! Fine post.
Thanks, Mike. It’s not that our school was strict, but an inappropriate drawing was about as bad as it got. Not much crime back in 1964.
Wow, in the UK it was bad – or maybe I just went to the wrong school!
Mike – I think it’s because our rural school was so small that every one knew each other. From kindergarten to senior, we had a total of 500 students.
LOL!! David must have been really scared of what you might do to torment him!
Elle, I was so disappointed when he confessed. I thought I had a servant for life. And to top it off, he didn’t even get into a lot of trouble.
Omigosh! And I thought MY sis was dangerous 🙂
Suresh, I wasn’t dangerous, just demanding. David wouldn’t have made a great servant anyway.
He he he! David must have been really scared of you… to go and confess to your parents like that…something he had never intended to do at first!
Rajrupa, unfortunately David wasn’t scared of me, he was fed up with my polite little requests. He immediately saw what the future would be like as my slave.
Your poor brother, evil sister lol
Manty, you have it all wrong. I was just trying to make sure David learned his lesson and didn’t walk on the wild side again. I had only the purest motivation, ha ha.
I didn’t expect you to be the type to have an evil streak in you. It does mean, however, that you know how to have fun. 🙂
Glynis, you are confusing ‘evil’ with ‘concern’. I was merely concerned about my younger brother’s future as a juvenile delinquent. My attempt at blackmail was just my way of saving him.
Oh Skinny. That was just too funny. You outsmarted yourself on that one.
Suz, my big regret was not getting a future chance to blackmail correctly. I would have shown much more restraint.
I love your optimism and what you valuable lessons you learned from this.
Thank you, Suz. I always tried to learn from my mistakes, but must confess that I usually repeated the mistake and remembered the lesson afterward.
Skinny, Skinny, Skinny, what would I do without you? Did Donna grow up to be Jackie Collins? 😀 (honestly, I don’t understand David’s put-off attitude. I would have been thrilled even if what Donna had were just olives) 😀
Spunky, Donna moved away before the school year was over, never to be seen (and I mean really seen) again.