Posting a couple of photos a few weeks back on my Tumblr site, I made somewhat similar comments about a break in proceedings mid-punishment.
The first showed a girl bent over a stool, being strapped by one female prison officer as another looked on. Perhaps, I observed, the staff would swap over so that the second half of the flogging was inflicted by the other officer.
The second showed a young woman facing the wall, her freshly- and thoroughly-striped bottom on display, holding a long, thick straight cane in her hand. I suggested that the photo had been shot during the five-minute break in the middle of her beating. (She’d presumably soon be called back into position, for the remaining strokes to be administered on top of her first batch of marks).
In both cases, I like the formality of the two-phase approach. The girl struggles physically through the mounting agony of the initial whipping, itself unbearable, whilst craving the respite – which hasn’t yet come – and knowing that she’ll have to face the same again. She waits during the break, trying to process the pain of the first strokes, and dreading their repetition. And then the moment comes when the second half of the punishment is about to begin…
An idea I’d like to play with in scenes, I think…