About the same time J. V. and Billie were paying the second installment for their night of homebrew and Patti Hollybird, Buddy Massey came sneaking back to his place looking like a derelict from a Horatio Alger novel. He had spent the night sleeping it off in the woods by the levee. The mosquitoes, he thought, must have drawn a pint of blood. Between his headache, the mosquito bites, and the fear of what his father would do Billie had half a mind to jump a freight and disappear for a month. But, at sixteen, he was not ready for such a drastic step. Besides, he fancied himself among the smoothest of con men and figured he might just slide his way through this with minimal damage. He had gotten out of tight spots more than once.
Buddy looked to see whether there were any signs of life in the house and, seeing none, he quietly opened the back screen door and slipped into the hallway. There he looked up the steps and saw his father standing, waiting for him.
"Howdy, pa!" Buddy smiled. "Boy, what a night! We got to fishing and one of the boys brought a jar of brew along. And well, next thing you know, I was sleeping and didnt wake up till this morning! Boy, I tell you I learned a lesson last night! No more hooch for me!" Smooth as only Buddy could make it up, smiling all the while. His father stood listening and there was no smile on his face.
"Well, Buddy, thats interesting. Very interesting. Thats not the way I heard it from J. V.s dad."
"Oh?" Buddy replied. Now he wondered about the wisdom of returning home before the worst of the storm had blown over.
"OH?" His father repeated with sarcasm. "And I got a couple other calls, too."
"You did?" Buddy still stood there looking straight up the steps at his father. And he debated whether hightailing it out the back door might be the best choice right about now.
"Oh, yes, I did. Got a very interesting call from the Sheriffs Office last night. And then I got one from Patti Hollybirds dad, too. Dont suppose you want to tell me the truth now?"
"Well, I guess youre gonna believe them and not me, pa?"
"You got it, boy. You arent scammin your way out of anything this time. Now you tell me again WHO brought the homebrew to this party you had last night?"
Buddy swallowed hard. "I did, pa. The devil got in my head and I just took a quart from the milk house. I did it." There. It was out and he hoped his confession would bring some mercy when the sentence came as it surely would.
"Thats a good start. Now tell me how many fish you caught last night. The way I heard it you caught a beaver, not a fish."
Buddy blanched white. He figured he would get nailed on the homebrew but he really thought maybe Patti would not want to talk about the rest.
"Devil got your voice, too, son?"
"No, sir. But if you already know, there isnt anything I can tell you I guess."
"Dont you sass me, boy. You are in more trouble right now than you have ever been in. This is not the time for a smart mouth."
"I didnt mean to sass, pa, just that you seem to know everything and there isnt anything I can say except I am sorry. I really am."
"I bet you are. And I bet you are going to be a lot more sorry soon. For taking the hooch youre grounded here for the rest of the summer till school starts. And believe me, I have plenty of chores in mind to keep you busy through the entire summer."
"Yes, sir," Buddy replied meekly. If that was the sentence he figured he would find a way to work with it.
"I ought to wash your mouth out for lying to me and then sassing, boy."
"Yes, sir," Buddy replied, his eyes now on his feet. He sure hoped that wasnt about to happen.
"AND," his father quickly added, "I want you to know your two sidekicks got a good hard strapping down at the station last night and a second dose when they got home. I told Mr. Hollybird that was his job--if he wanted it--when you finally showed your face around here again."
Billie stood there, his face showing both shock and some fear. He figured he would likely get a lickin even though it had been over two years since the last one and he thought he was too old for that. But not from a stranger! And from her father, no less. In his minds eye he could see himself trussed over a stall in the barn for a horse whipping.
"You go up to your room, now, boy. When Mr. Hollybird gets here, he will settle up with you for your part in all this. And before you go to your room go on out to the garage and get the rubber hose: you ARE gonna get a good lickin. If he doesn't give it to you, I will."
"Yes, sir," was all Buddy could answer. He turned back out through the screen door and went to the garage. There he opened the top drawer on the workbench and took out the two foot length of black rubber brake hose his father had used on him only twice. He went to his bedroom and waited.
It was several hours later, around lunch, that old man Hollybirds truck came sputtering into the yard. Buddy watched out his window and, once again, thought about fleeing out the back door and hopping the first freight west. He actually got along pretty well with Pattis dad he thought. Generally a nice guy who bought Buddy a root beer when he saw him at the store. But that was before what happened last night.
A few minutes later Buddy heard his father and Mr. Hollybird talking as they came up the stairs to his room. The door opened and the three of them just stood there in silence, Buddy trying to read the two faces to see just how nasty this was going to be.
"Tell you what, son," Mr. Hollybird began. "I like to think Im a fair man and Id like to hear your side of this."
"Well, sir," Buddy replied, his mind moving quickly to decide just how many lies he might put over. Then, remembering his fathers phone calls and all the rest, he decided to throw himself on the mercy of the executioner. "I did some pretty dumb things, I guess. And I learned some real lessons, too. I am sorry about bringing the jar of brew and I am sorry if I scared Patti or hurt her feelings."
"Thats a good start, son," Mr. Hollybird said. Buddys father just stood there, silent, but blocking the door just in case. "And I really hope you mean it. As for learning lessons, I think you will be getting a lesson you wont forget." He smiled thinly.
"Yes, sir."
"Youre really lucky you boys didnt go any further than you did with my daughter or youd all be looking at some time in the reformatory. So I mean to see you dont ever pull this again. With Pattie or anyone else. You hear me?"
"Yes, sir. I hear you."
"Well, then, its time for you to take your punishment."
"Yes, sir," Buddy whispered. He watched at his father took the rubber hose from the dresser and handed it to Mr. Hollybird.
"Take your pants down, boy, and bend across the end of the bed," his father ordered.
Billies face blanched a sickly yellow as he took down his overalls and stepped out of them. Bad enough to get a thrashing but from a stranger was worse than anything he had imagined as punishment for his night of fun. He took his place at the end of his bed and bent full across the end rail only to have his father step behind him and yank his underwear down to bare his ass. Then his father sat on the bed and took a good grip on Buddys shoulders to hold him in place.
Mr. Hollybird took aim at Buddys quivering white butt cheeks, raised the rubber hose over his right shoulder, and laid the first lick on hard. His effort brought only a dull thud as the hose flattened against Buddys backside and a sharp intake of breath as Buddy felt the sting.
"I know my daughter is no saint, boy," Mr. Hollybird lectured, "but no means no. And you have no business using liquor to get your way." He watched as a deep purple set of parallel lines sprung up on his target.
Again he raised the rubber hose and lashed it home. A second stripe rose just below the first.
"You boys dont know how close you came to criminal charges for what you did last night."
A third lick followed, then a fourth, and a fifth. Buddy hadnt gotten a licking since he started high school a couple years back and he had forgotten just how much it hurt. He fought to keep from bucking and squealing but soon lost that battle.
"You might want to know that Pattie, too, paid a good price for her behavior last night."
Six, seven, eight, and nine now turned Buddys ass scarlet with purple stripes from top to bottom. Mr. Hollybird laid the next couple on lower, across the tops of his backs of his thighs. And that brought the first tearful pleas from Buddy Massey.
"Oh, gawd! Please sir! No! PLEASE!"
"I think thats about what my Pattie was squealing when you guys were all over her last night?"
For a brief moment the licking stopped as Mr. Hollybird waited for an answer.
"Am I about right, boy!" He asked. "Did you stop when she asked you? Answer me boy."
"No, sir. We didnt. I am sorry, sir! REALLY sorry! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER will I do that again."
"No, you wont. At least you wont without remembering this day."
Buddys father continued to keep hold of his son and hold him from shooting upright when the rubber hose came whipping down again, and again, each time with a verbal message from a father taking his revenge. Whoever said there is no fury like a woman scorned hadnt see the fury of a father whose daughter had been pawed by a trio of half drunk sixteen-year-olds. Despite sobs and pleas Buddy took another two dozen hard licks before, mercifully, it was over.
"It really saddens me to have to do this, son," Mr. Hollybird said as he laid the rubber hose back on the dresser. "It truly does." Then he left the room.
Buddy, his face streaked with tears, lay on his belly on his bed, mortified, with his ass on fire. His father, standing in the doorway, said quietly, "Buddy, I sure hope this is the last time we have to do this. But you put that rubber hose back in the garage just in case. You hear me?"
"Yes, sir."
"And the next time you sass me your mouth gets washed out with the lye soap."
"Yes, sir," Billie replied as he lay on his belly, his hips still rolling side to side in pain.
After both men had left him to his misery, Billy thought of that dresser drawer full of clean rags in the garage bench and smiled. He was, he thought to himself, incorrigible. And he snuck his right right hand down under his belly to reach for his hardening dick. First chance he got to slip away from his grounding he knew he'd find Billie and J. V. Going to be a long summer, he though to himself.