Spanktember Prompt, Day 8: Missing Scene
Summary: Jonathan Garvey takes son Andrew out to the barn for a lesson on cheating. (Missing scene from Little House on the Prairie, S5E11: The Cheaters.)
Out to the Barn
"I think maybe you and I better make a trip out to the barn," Jonathan Garvey told his boy.
"Do you have to?" Alice Garvey asked, looking between the resigned face of her husband and the guilty one of their son's.
"It's okay, Ma," Andy said tearfully. "It'll make me feel better."
Alice nodded and watched as Jonathan placed his large hand on the back of Andy's neck and the pair walked out into the evening air. She smiled at the sight even as her heart ached for the pain that was about to befall her son. But the twelve-year-old was right—he would feel better when this mess was settled and behind them.
Andy's heart raced and his eyes blurred and stung with new tears as his father guided him with a firm but gentle hand towards the dark silhouette of the family's barn. He kept thinking about what Mr. Ingalls had told him yesterday afternoon about fessing up to his own ma and pa about playing hooky from school. Mr. Ingalls said his father gave him a whuppin' he'd never forget but that it had cleared his conscious. Andy had been sick with guilt ever since that rotten Nellie Oleson taught him how she was getting her top marks in school—by being a big fat cheater!
The boy didn't regret telling his parents of his transgressions, but that didn't mean he was looking forward to walking into that barn with his pa now. This would all be over in a few minutes and Andy knew for a fact that he'd feel a whole lot better when he and his pa came back out.
Jonathan Garvey steered his son into the barn before him, then fumbled for a moment until he found the lantern on the wall. Lighting it, he met his child's anxious face. The glassy eyes that met him nearly broke his heart, weaking his resolve. But as he had told the boy before, they just couldn't abide by lying and cheating.
"Alright, son," Jonathan sighed as he took down the strap from the peg on the wall, "Bare your bottom and bend over the work bench there."
"Yes, sir," Andy croaked, his hands trembling as he eased his suspenders off his shoulders. Unbuttoning his trousers, he quickly pushed them down his legs until they bunched around his knees. His drawers came next and the boy shivered at the cool breeze kissing his bare skin. Red-faced and with the first tears spilling from his long lashes, Andy made quick work of bending over his pa's work bench. He didn't see the point of drawing this out any longer than it needed to be.
Andy heard his father's footsteps as the man came up behind him, and Andy couldn't help but tense as he prepared to feel the sting of that thick strap his pa held in his hand—the same strap Pa had felt as a boy too.
Jonathan stopped once he was standing to the left of his son's bare bottom. He took a deep breath and stared at his target—two pale white cheeks bright as the moon staring back at him. The man's heart ached knowing those cheeks would glow crimson when he was finished here.
"Get a good grip on the other edge of that table, boy, and hold tight. This will be over soon," his voice was gruff, trying to mask his emotion. It'd do no good for Andy to think his pa regretted the whuppin' he was about to give him. No, Jonathan needed to have the outward appearance of a stern disciplinarian.
Andy readjusted his position and grabbed for the table's edge as his father had instructed, tensing further. He knew he should try to relax—tense muscles only made the strap hurt that much worse—but his body refused to cooperate. He jerked in surprise as the thick leather came to tap his bottom as his pa lined up his stroke. The strap left and Andrew Garvey squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth in preparation.
Jonathan brought the strap as high as his shoulder before sending it back down towards that small target. He could hear the air whistle around the leather and saw his son's rear end quake with the impact. The loud CRACK followed a moment after, and then Andy's pained grunt. Color blossomed in a thick red line across the center of Andy's bottom.
Jonathan had never seen much sense in drawing out the punishment with a scolding. He and Alice always had words with the boy beforehand and there was no need to have them again. No sense beating a dead horse, the man reasoned. Besides, his hand and especially his strap spoke for themselves.
Raising the strip of worn leather a second time, the man applied it firmly, striking just below the first lick. Andy's answering cry was louder this time.
For the next several minutes, the only sounds (besides for the nervous whinnies and snorts from the horses) that could be heard in the barn were the SWISH, CRACK of the strap falling over and over again, and Andy's increasingly loud wails.
"AH! P-Pa! S-Sorry! 'M sor—sorry! OUCH!" the boy cried, stomping his foot on the dirt floor as the pain in his bottom reached an all-time high. Tears streamed down his face and his backside throbbed with a pulse all its own. Still the thick leather fell, painting his skin with fire from the crest of his bottom all the way down to mid-thigh.
"I know you are, boy," Jonathan managed between licks. His heart went out to his child. "It's my job as your pa to make sure you know right from wrong. I aim to teach you this lesson once, Andrew. Lyin' and cheatin' are wrong, son, and you're gonna remember that after today."
"Y—Ye-Ouch! Yessirrr!" Andy sobbed. "N-Never again, Pa, I pr-promise!"
Jonathan nodded to himself and delivered one final lash to his child's glowing bottom. Dropping the strap onto the table beside his boy, his hands then went to Andy's shoulders and back. He gave a supportive squeeze to Andy's neck with his left while his right went to work rubbing soothing circles on a heaving back.
Andy sobbed out the last of his guilt, his tears soaking into the worn wood beneath his face. His father's hands were so gentle now as the man comforted him. Letting out a shaky breath, Andy pushed himself up on his elbow. Those hands moved to support him just under his arms and help him stand.
"I love you, Andrew," Jonathan whispered into his son's silky hair as he pulled the boy into a bone-crushing hug.
"Love you, Pa," Andy's voice was muffled against his father's rough shirt. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and soaked up all of the love his pa was giving him.
Once Andy's tears had run their course, Jonathan stepped back to look into his boy's red-rimmed eyes. "I'm proud of you, son, for owning up to your mistakes and taking your lickin' like a man. I know that hurt, boy, but I hope the hurt in your heart has quieted now."
"Yessir, Pa," the boy replied with a small smile, wiping at his face with the back of his hand. He grimaced as he bent over to return his clothes to their proper place. His hands then went back to clutch at his bottom and held on as if he could squeeze the pain from them. He could feel the heat through his drawers and trousers and wondered how he was going to manage sitting in school tomorrow—he could already hear the phantom snickers of his classmates taunting him—but his heart felt lighter than it had in weeks.
"Suppose we should get back up to the house now, 'fore your Ma thinks I've skinned you alive out here," Jonathan teased, ruffling his son's hair. Slinging one arm around his boy, he grabbed up the strap with his left hand and the two made their way to the barn doors. Jonathan stopped to hang the strap back on its hook, hoping this would be the last time it was needed for a long time, and then doused the lantern before heading back out into the dark night.