Nine years later...
15 year old Fred was up in his room changing his clothes from his hard day of working out in the fields. He was practically a man now and he grew almost as strong as Amos, so Fred, many a time would help Amos with plowing and planting the fields as he was away at his job at the blacksmith shop in town, as Fred was doing this particular warm summer day. He was dressed in brown trousers, and a teal shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his suspenders were hanging down. He pulled one up over his shoulder, and grabbed the other one quickly, but it snapped suddenly.
"Damn it!" Fred Lay swore in anger. He took his broken suspender and tied a knot in it. "There, that'll have to do for now!" He heard his adopted mother yelling at him to come down for lunch. "Comin' Leah!" Fred hollered. He made his way down the ladder. "I wish she would just shut up sometimes! I'm tired of all the yelling!" Fred hopped down onto the floor and turned around. He made his way to the kitchen table and saw Mrs. Beck staring at him. "What?" Fred asked, with his thumbs hooked in his pockets. His tone of voice suggested to her that he was copping an attitude with her.
"What happened to your suspender, Fred?" She asked, coldly.
"It broke on me and I tied a knot in it to fix it." He said and his eyebrows were raised and furrowed in the middle.
"I'll teach you to ruin your things!...Amos spent good money for you to have nice suspenders to wear, and you ruin them by tying knots in them!" Leah fiercely grabbed the young man by the arm and shoved him out the door. Fred was surprised by her force on him. "Get in the barn!...Now!" She said, kicking him in the legs. Grabbing an old buggy whip, she quickly followed him into the barn, whipping him all the way. "Take off all your clothes!" She demanded.
"What the heck?...No!" Fred backed up against a barn wall. It was like the woman had gone mad or something.
"Do it...You're not feeling it! The pain!...You need to feel it, boy!...I guess my other beatings didn't work and I still need to whip the Devil out of you!" She barked.
Fred tried to run, but Leah grabbed his shirt and it ripped. She continued whipping his back, ripping the skin and creating wounds that she knew would later turn to scars. She ripped his shirt all the way off of his body, showing his toned chest that was no longer boyish, but had half-way matured into a man's. She whipped him with the buggy whip again, with each strike tearing out blonde hairs that had begun forming on his chest, for there were tiny pieces of glass on the end of it. Fred bit his bottom lip to try not to scream from the pain. He was a man now, not a boy! He was tough, not a little weakling! She kept whipping him, the glass tearing into his strong, farm-worked shoulders and upper arms. He tried to crawl away as she grabbed at his trousers and those ripped as well and she began to whip his legs as well. He endured his whippings for hours it seemed, and Fred curled up on the barn floor, his knees to his chest, and he realized Leah had stopped whipping him. He felt hands run over his body and thought it was her again. "No!" He screamed. "Don't touch me!...Get your hands off me! Don't touch me!" He was screaming and backed himself up against a corner. "No!...Don't touch me!...Don't touch me! Get off me!...Get off me!" He was still screaming and he felt hands grip him tighter and a manly voice scream at him, "Fred!...Fred! Its Amos!...Its alright!...Its alright, boy!...Its alright, son!..." Fred was exhausted, bleeding and in intense pain. He still had a feeling of adrenaline and his chest was heaving, his heart pounding. Finally, he almost fell limp, but Amos still had a firm grip on his arms. Fred was still panting hard and he kept breathlessly chanting, "Don't touch me!...Don't touch me...No...Don't touch me." Moments after, Fred was leaning up against the barn wall,...he was shirtless, and his brown trousers were almost torn to shreds. He was still breathing hard, his chest heaving up and down with every breath he took. Fred's eyes were shut tight and he was almost numb to the rest of the world. He heard something being dragged and later a fire crackling, and much later, water running, he thought. He felt a pair of strong hands lift him up slowly. "C'mon son, lets get you in...Take off what's left of your trousers." Fred numbly and still half aware of where he was, took off his brown trousers and the rest of his underclothing. Amos helped him into a tub filled with hot water, not to hot, but hot enough, and what Fred smelled and recognized as soap made from rendered hog's fat. Fred felt a sharp, horrible, stinging sensation on his skin as Amos scrubbed his bloody, beaten, torn body with the soap. It hurt like the dickens and Fred felt as if he were on fire! He couldn't help but scream! He had too, he was in so much pain! Amos had gotten the young man into some good clothes and made up a bed in the hay loft. Fred immediately fell asleep as soon as his weak body hit the makeshift bed. Amos climbed up there as well and stayed there with him all night. All Amos kept saying, though unsure if Fred was able to hear him, was, "Why in Heaven's name would she do this to you again?...I'm sorry she did this to you, son..."
A/N: Fred's beating for tying knots in his suspenders was true! How horrible was she?!
Fred had grey eyes...and for awhile it was thought that he had either had wavy, blonde or dark hair as a young man...in his wedding photo, you can tell he had dark hair. I did not know that physical feature at the time of writing this.
