Joe wearily carried the heavy laundry basket down the cellar stairs. "Shit! I never knew we had so much dirty laundry, before I started doing it!" Joe muttered, with a gloomy glance at the basket as he set it down. Joe had started taking over more and more household chores three months ago, and was finding them more of a burden than he imagined. He glanced at his watch, nervously.

"Still got to get Vern's breakfast, before I go!"

Joe's wife, Verna, liked Joe to bring her coffee and toast in bed before she got ready to go to work. She didn't have to be at her new job in the real estate office until ten, while Joe had to be to the Country Club where he was the golf pro, much earlier.

"Shit, better hurry! I've got a lesson scheduled for Eight thirty!" Joe thought, as he tossed the clothes into the 1955 model automatic washer, new the previous year. "Glad she talked me into this automatic thing last year, now!" Joe thought, remembering the old washer with a manual wringer, Verna used for so many years.

Turning the washer on, with an uncomfortable shrug of resignation, Joe remembered that night his life changed...

three months earlier...

As they prepared for bed, it happened both Joe and Verna were naked at the same time. Joe was always glad they lived in an age when married folks weren't ashamed to see each other naked, like his own folks had been.  After all this WAS 1956, and times had changed a lot since the war.

Joe glanced appreciatively at Verna's plump, buxom figure. "A few more pounds than when I married her, but she still looks good!" Joe congratulated himself, as though his wife's mature good looks were his own achievement.

Feeling a sudden, familiar urge, Joe started to put his arms around his wife's waist, but Verna pulled away with a snort.

"Oh! Tonight you're going to put your arms around ME? I'm SO lucky!"

That afternoon, on the way home from her self-defense lesson at the YWCA,  Verna stopped by the Country Club, to see what Joe would like her to fix for dinner. When she approached the driving range, Joe had his arms around a student showing her how to swing the driver. Unfortunately, the pupil was Cindy Edwards a cute, young, blonde divorcee. Verna had always intensely disliked Cindy, perhaps because the young blonde was so sveltely slim, compared with Verna's more generous, middle-aged curves, and, of course, Verna, a devout church goer, didn't approve of divorce.

"I thought you liked skinny, bleached blondes?" Verna sniffed.

"Aw Vern! You know how it is! Teaching the members golf is my job!"

"Yeah, and you looked like you were really enjoying your work, this afternoon!" Verna scoffed. Verna was sure Joe had always been faithful to her, but she knew, too, he wasn't above flirting with an attractive young woman.

"Aw, c'mere Honey..." As Joe made another move to put his arms around his wife, Verna pulled away, again.

"I don't know whether I'm really in the mood tonight!" Verna told her husband, playing a little hard to get, so he'd get the message. "Still kind of stiff from my self-defense course!"

This time, Joe snorted. "Self-defense for women! What a waste of time! You've got a husband here to protect you! What d'you need self-defense for?"

"Well I've got plenty of time to waste since you won't let me get a job of my own!" Verna retorted, bringing up another sore subject.  It was true, she'd only signed up for the course out of boredom. Despite her gardening and church activities, she never seemed to have enough to occupy her time since the children grew up, and moved away from home.

Verna wanted to get a job, but Joe had forbidden it. "I don't want my wife working! After all, I make a good living for both of us, and I don't want people to think I have to send my wife out to work! After all, I'm the one wearing the pants around here; that's why I'm the boss!" Joe had pompously laid down the law. Verna had dutifully bowed to Joe's prejudice, after all a wife was supposed to obey her husband, but it still rankled.

Although Verna might only be taking the course out of boredom, Joe's disdainful dismissal of it, irked her. After all, she was only taking the darn thing because Joe wouldn't let her go to work, and find something meaningful to occupy her time.

"Oh! I suppose you think no woman could defend herself from a man? You just try taking advantage of me, Mister, and see what happens!" Verna sniffed, in annoyance.

"What would you do? Beat me up? Ha, ha!" Joe laughed uproariously at the idea. "Really Vern! I don't care what they tell you in that course! A woman just couldn't hold off a man, if he really wanted to take advantage of her!"

Angered by Joe's smug arrogance, Verna snapped back. "Oh yeah! I probably don't even need that course to take care of myself! I used to wrestle with my brothers, when I was a kid, and at one time or another, I made everyone of them say 'uncle'!"

Verna had grown up on a farm, the only girl with three brothers and she had been a real tomboy, chopping wood, milking cows and taking turns with her brothers at all the farm chores, before she settled down. Of course, after all those years of being a housewife and mother, she was somewhat plumper then she'd been at sixteen, but she was still a strong woman under her soft looking curves.

"Yeah Sure! If ya did, your brothers were just humoring their little sister!"

"Well, why don't you try your luck, if you're not scared?" Verna retorted, with a provocatively angry toss of her brown curls.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Joe laughed. "You've got t'be kidding! You want to wrestle ME, for real? You wouldn't have a chance, and you know it! Any time we've fooled around lie that, you always ended up on the bottom, if you remember?"

"Yeah! Well, maybe I was just letting you win, because I was humoring you, to protect your fragile male ego!" Verna snapped, miffed by Joe's airy dismissal of the idea that his wife could wrestle.

It was true, Joe had always easily won their little tussles, but Verna never put up much of a struggle, assuming there was no way she could really prevail over her tall, powerfully built husband, a professional athlete at that. The confident woman teaching her self-defense course had made her wonder a little, though.

Joe's face got red at the suggestion that Verna might have LET him win. Even the mere suggestion that his wife could out wrestle him was disturbing as hell to Joe. It was unnatural that a wife would even think of such a thing. 1956 or not, times hadn't changed THAT much!

With smug satisfaction, Verna saw the reaction her needling was having on her husband, and added more fuel to the fire.

"Yeah, if I really tried, I'd pin you, and make you beg for mercy! How'd you like to scream 'uncle' to a girl, Big Man?" Verna laughed. She didn't believe there was much chance of that happening, of course, but she didn't care. Seeing Joe's present outraged indignation at the idea was worth getting pinned for, later.

"That does it!" Joe snapped nearly snarling. "You need a good lesson in who wears the pants, in this house!"

Unintimidated, Verna snapped back. "Nobody's wearing the pants right now, if you notice? C'mon, I'll wrestle you for them! I'll give you a real chance, two out of three falls! Of course, I'll only need two to win the match, AND your pants!"

"I'd like to smack that smirk off her face!" Joe fumed silently. "Course I'd never really hit her, but she's really asking for it!"

Joe hesitated, trying to get his composure. Verna had made him so mad, he might really hurt her, if they wrestled. He wished he'd never let things go this far.

"Anytime, you're ready?"  Verna smirked, unconcerned by Joe's obvious anger. He might be sure to win, but she felt confident she was no pushover.  "Or are you scared, a girl can beat you up?"

"That does it!" Joe felt the need to assert his masculinity.

Angry as he might be, Joe had no intention of actually hurting his wife. He'd just shove Verna down on the floor, and pin her, with firm male authority. That would teach her a much needed lesson about the proper relationship between the sexes.

Joe grabbed Verna by the shoulders to throw her down. "This shouldn't take more than thirty seconds!" Joe thought with arrogant assurance.

Joe's silent prediction proved to be way off base. As he grabbed her, Verna's body tensed, her plump arms suddenly felt like they were steel springs. As Joe sought to throw her down, Verna moved like a graceful stalk of grain in the wind, countering his pressure. They struggled silently, Joe trying to throw Verna to the floor, and Verna doing her best to prevent it. Joe's height and weight advantage, and greater strength, somehow weren't enough to throw his plump, matronly wife. She always anticipated his next move by a split second. Her flexible, body moved with him, rather than against him, offsetting his efforts, and keeping him, off balance. Joe bent forward to get more leverage, and Verna slid her hands around his chest. A split second later, with a supple arch of her back, she used Joe's momentum to toss him over her hip. Joe made a hard landing on the floor.

"Oops! Sorry! A little trick I learned in self-defense class!" Verna laughed, very pleased with herself.

Well, as long as he's on his back, maybe I should teach him a lesson; he's such a smart aleck!"

Before Joe could move, Verna jumped in the air, and, as though she was doing a cannon ball into the community pool, plummeted down on his belly.

Verna had gotten carried away by her unexpected success, and now she was  afraid she might have seriously injured Joe. After all, she was no light weight, and she'd landed square on his unprepared middle.

As Joe writhed in pain, Verna cooed sympathetically. Male pride affronted by Verna's success, the last thing Joe wanted right now, was his wife's sympathy. Joe swore angrily at her. Joe had never used such language to her in all their married life, and it shocked and angered Verna.

"If he can talk like that to me, I guess he isn't hurt very bad!" Verna told herself, as she got off her doubled up husband. "Maybe he deserves a little more pain, though, for talking to me like that! Guess maybe I'll have a little more fun, before he gets his breath!"

Even though she was preparing to attack again, Verna gave her flustered   husband time to get up on his knees, first. Short of breath, Joe slowly pushed himself up on his knees, gaping in shock, unable to believe what Verna had just done to him.

On his knees, a puzzled Joe looked up at Verna muttering in disbelief "how the hell..." Before Joe could finish the thought, Verna flung herself through the air at him, toppling him over in a twisted painful heap.

Before Joe knew what happened, Verna twisted his body into a pretzel. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly, and the pain was so intense that Joe had no time to think. For the moment, all thoughts of male superiority were blotted from his mind by the pain, and he urgently hollered that he gave up.

Verna eased the intense pressure on Joe's body, but, even though he'd conceded, she didn't entirely release him, continuing to hold him in her inescapable grip. It gave her an incredible sense of power to hold Joe helpless. She really enjoyed the feeling, even if it made her feel a little guilty.

"Let the lesson sink in a little!" She told herself, in justification for the pleasure this was giving her. "I guess I showed him, that I'm no helpless wilting lilly! Heck! As long as I'm on a winning streak, maybe I should really try for another pin and win this thing! Boy! He'd never live that down!"

Joe squirmed uncomfortably, but to his mortification, he still couldn't get loose. Verna's arms were like steel cable, it seemed.

"Oh goddam! The bitch is really enjoying humiliating me like this! Wait'll I get loose, I'll teach her a thing or two!" Joe's resolution not to hurt his wife was seriously eroding.

Before Verna finally let Joe go, she chanted. "I won the first fall! Joe lost! I won the first fall! Joe lost!"

His face blazing in humiliation, Joe listened to the hateful chant, gritting his teeth in fury.

"Okay, I'll let ya loose now!" Verna crowed as she untangled herself and stood up.

Holding his aching side, Joe turned over on his belly to get up, unable to believe he'd just submitted a fall to his wife. It was one thing for a man to loose a fall to another man; Joe could accept that with good sportsmanship, but to his wife?

Verna, bedazzled by the heady elation of a victory over her big, muscular husband and eager to try to win another fall, was itching to get started. She jumped eagerly to her feet. Joe got up on his knees, much more slowly, his hand pressed painfully to his side. Verna just couldn't wait any longer; she grabbed her crouching husband's right arm, and painfully jerked it behind his back.

Caught completely off guard by Verna's aggressive attack, Joe struggled vainly to free his arm. Before he had any chance to get loose, Verna pressed her foot down on his back and pushed him down flat on his belly, and none to gently.

Once she pushed Joe down flat, Verna planted her knee in the small of his back to hold him in place. With Verna's weight pinning him down, and his arm stretched painfully behind him, there was no escaping. Verna had him helpless again, and Joe was quickly discovering there was no feeling he detested more. This evening was turning into horrible nightmare for the proud golf pro.

As Joe strained to escape, Verna plopped down on the small of his back. She let her whole body weight drop hard, and the impact left Joe breathless. Once seated firmly, Verna wasted no time in twisting Joe's arm all the way behind his back, high up between his shoulder blades. As she did, she pressed her thumb nail into the tender flesh in the middle of his wrist, and Joe squealed at the atrocious pain. Her eyes gleaming, Verna ignored her husband's cries. With her left hand, Verna grabbed Joe's' pinkie and bent it backward; another trick she'd learned in class. Joe cried out anew.

Winded and hurting, Joe struggled desperately to get loose; his male pride couldn't endure lying helplessly under his wife's control, not again, NOT AGAIN! Face down on the bedroom floor, his wife sitting firmly astride his middle, his arm shoved up to his neck, there wasn't much Joe could do to escape, though. Every time he tried to get loose, Verna rammed his arm up another agonizing half inch. Whichever way he turned, she jammed his arm the other way. She continually bounced her substantial bottom up and down on his kidneys. Her plump, fleshy arms were stronger then he ever guessed.  She didn't bend his finger or twist his arm to the point of breaking, QUITE, but the pain was becoming unbearable.

"Lie still!" Verna commanded she didn't threaten him, but Joe heard the steely determination in her voice. How could he have lived with this woman all these years, and yet, not known how ruthless she could be?

Joe managed one last doomed effort to shove himself up on his knees, by pressing his face and head against the floor. Verna just raised her butt a little
higher, and slammed it down on his back, with all her weight, which was more considerable than she would have liked, flattening him again. The only thing left to Joe was to kick his legs wildly, until they were just too tired to kick any more. By then, his abdomen ached as much as his arms from the constant struggle. His breathing came harder and harder, until he was panting loudly.

Verna proved just how ruthless she could be. As Joe struggled, she'd let his arm slide down a little, then shove it back up, with all her might.

"Goddam bitch is playing with me!" Joe realized.

Verna soon had her big, muscular husband nearly sobbing aloud at the pain. The most galling part, was that Joe heard Verna giggling at his miserable humiliation, all the while.

"Had enough?" Verna asked, after what seemed an eternity.

"Yes...yes...okay..." Joe muttered. It was horribly humiliating to admit it in cold blood, but Joe couldn't take anymore.

Still demonstrating just how ruthless she could be, Verna cackled. "Say uncle! Say 'uncle' and THEN I'll let you go!"

Joe hesitated; he felt like he had when he was a little boy and about to cry. His eyes were hot and dry, and it was a struggle to blink back the tears.

Verna bent his pinkie a little further, and stabbed her thumb nail into his wrist a little harder, and shoved his arm up a little higher.

"Oww...ow...uncle..." Joe cried.

"Hey! That's two falls, and both submissions, too! Gee, but I'm good! That means I win the match, and, oh yes, YOUR PANTS! Maybe I'll hang them up on the flag pole in front to celebrate my victory!" Verna chortled in glee.

Wrestling her teen aged brothers was one thing, but in all their years of marriage, it never occurred to Verna before tonight, that maybe her adolescent wrestling skills could actually defeat Joe. It put their relationship in a whole new perspective.

Kneeling on the floor, nursing his sore arm, Joe was close to tears. He never in his wildest dreams imagined anything like this could happen to him. His wife just beat him in a wrestling match, not only beat him, but made him submit, TWICE, made him scream for mercy!  What would his friends at the club ever say if they knew. Joe Hathaway, the most admired Man's Man in Town, was a pussy whipped wimp, who submitted to his own wife! How could he ever live with THAT?

Joe began protesting. "Y-you cheated! You didn't let me get up from the first time, and that first time you caught me by surprise!  You don't fight fair!"  Verna heard the whining desperation in Joe's complaints. There was a near hysterical pitch to his tone.

Now that she'd won, Verna began to feel kind of sorry for her husband. "Gee! Getting beat by your wife must really be humiliating for a proud guy like Joe!  I suppose I shouldn't gloat so, but he did ask for it!"

Verna realized that Joe's pride would never let him rest until he had a chance to even the score.

"Okay, okay! Maybe I did sort of start that second fall before you were ready. Let's say I'm ahead by one fall, and go from there!" Verna conceded.

Joe would get a second chance, but Verna resolved she'd do her best to beat him, again.

Joe got up from the floor and faced Verna again, a look of fierce determination on his face, a look that was almost scary. Verna shivered a little at that look.

As Joe moved relentlessly toward her, Verna nervously prepared to repeat her judo throw.  "What the heck, he fell for it once!"

Certainly Joe had his blind spots, but he wasn't really stupid, and he was ready this time. Before Verna could get her arms around him, Joe swept his arm around her neck, and flung her to the floor.

Wishing to demonstrate his mastery beyond doubt, Joe threw Verna to the floor with a good deal more roughness than was strictly necessary.

Verna was stunned for a second by the fall, and Joe jumped atop her, pinning her arms to the floor with his knees. All his heavier weight pressed down on her chest.  Verna wriggled a while, but knew she couldn't get free. Ever the practical housewife, Verna wasn't one to waste her strength needlessly; she lay still conserving her energy for more important things. She'd done her best, but knew she'd lost the fall.

Whether winning or losing, Verna had been tremendously aroused by the wrestling. She'd enjoyed her win, but winning wasn't a point of honor with her. She could accept a loss with equanimity. After all wives weren't expected to be able to fight. It was really quite unladylike; not something Verna would ever want to to tell her friends about.

"Gee! Now that he's won a fall and showed me what a big man he is, maybe we can go to bed! I'm really in the mood now!"

Verna was about to concede the match gracefully and suggest just that, but, unfortunately, Joe didn't accept victory with equal grace. He crowed loudly at his success. Instead of letting Verna up, Joe kept her pinned to the floor bragging of his male prowess.

It was a while before Joe triumphantly climbed off his prone wife. Even then, he knelt loomingly over her, continuing to loudly proclaim his victory. By now, Joe's boasts were really getting on Verna's nerves, to say the least. Annoyance soon put all thoughts of a romp in bed from Verna's head, for the time being.

"Maybe we're not done here, yet!" Verna thought. "He's really asking for it!"
Lying apparently defeated, Verna eyed her husband with a cool calculating stare, already planning her next move.

Suddenly in Joe's moment of triumph, Verna arched her body and swung her legs in the air locking her ankles around her husband's neck, and catching him completely off guard. Joe squawked as Verna's ankles cut off his air supply with assertive control.

As Joe lurched from side to side, gasping for air, vainly seeking to free himself from the constricting grip, Verna arched her back, and twisted her whole body, toppling Joe to the floor like a bulldogged steer.

As Joe hit the floor with a loud thump, Verna kept twisting, levering her husband over on his back. As she twisted, she slid her legs up higher until she locked her plump thighs around Joe's neck and head, in a vise of abundant, firmly packed flesh.

To his humiliated chagrin, Joe was once again caught in one of Verna's skillful, inescapable traps. Verna's plump thighs crushed his head with amazing power, until he feared she'd squash it like an egg shell. His wild struggles to escape subsided as the punishing pressure sapped his greater strength. There was nothing he could do but whine plaintively. Once more, Verna experienced that pleasurable, heady feeling of power. Though she had no real desire to hurt Joe, his helplessness and his whining pleas were somehow very erotic. It was a real turn on, to be fully in charge for a change, to be on top, to be the one firmly in command. It was a habit she could easily get very used to.

Though she enjoyed this feeling of power, Verna, the devoted church goer, did not like to think she was some kind of cruel bully. Her, only half acknowledged, feeling of arousal at the pain she was inflicting made her uneasy, and Joe's whining and begging quickened a wifely sympathy in her plump, matronly bosom.  Finally, a little reluctantly, Verna released Joe's neck, but her thighs still tingled in triumph. As soon as she let him go, Verna was sorry. It had really been fun!

"Maybe, he hasn't quite learned his lesson, yet?" Verna told herself; that tingling in her thighs was hard to ignore.

Verna was reluctant to face it, but after all those years as an obedient wife, dominating her husband as she had, was a pleasure hard to give up. Anyway, he'd brought it on himself, hadn't he? Maybe it was time for Joe, himself, to learn a little lesson in Christian humility; ONE he'd never forget!

"Heck, yes! It's time to take Mister High and Mighty down a peg or two!  I'll show him who wears the pants!"

Joe sat up, trying to make sense of what was happening.  Verna was already creeping up behind him, ready to pounce again.