This story isn't part of the Bransom Writers' Group Challenge # 2 in MMSA  which requires it to be between 1900 and 2000 words although it is based on the same picture.  Click to open the image off-site.

The following story is fiction about a switching.  If this subject is offensive, uninteresting or if you are a minor (i.e., child) please leave now.

This work is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission.  Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice.

The author would appreciate your comments – pro and con, including constructive criticism, and suggestions.  Please take a moment to email.

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Growing Up Is Painful

By

YLeeCoyote@juno.com

Red sat on the base of the high tension transmission pylon.  His head was down and he was depressed enough to be sobbing.  He had just hurt Eric, his kid brother. «Damn it all!» he was thinking. «Why the hell did this have to happen?  Big brothers are supposed to love and protect their kid brothers not hurt them.»  He never had wanted to hurt little Eric but he had.  He hadn't cried since he was five except that one time his dad had taken him out the woodshed and used the strop on his bare ass.  A lad of fifteen only cries when he is really stropped hard like he was just three months ago only a week after his birthday.  Hell, Eric was still a little kid of eleven and he had hurt him.  He had hurt him so much that he cried long and hard.

* * * * * * * * * *

This Tuesday had started like all the other summer days with bright sunshine and perfect for the agenda for the two of them each had – playing.  Mom had made them their favorites for breakfast since their dad was away for business until the end of the week.  After eating Red dressed in his new red running shorts and cross trainers to go bike riding with his buddies and Eric had gone off with his friends with Mom's approval.  The trouble was exposed in the mid-afternoon as Red and his buddies were returning home and had spotted Eric and his friends climbing on the rusty pylon.

Loud blasts from their air horns got the kids' attention.  Red was particularly worried because Eric was behind all his friends.  Red's heart was in his throat as he watched his brother and the others slowly make their way back down the rough, rusty steel structure.  He could hardly breathe until he had gotten a firm grip on his little brother back on terra firma.  The others immediately ran away as under twelves are intimidated by fifteen year olds.  Red's buddies left them alone.

"Please don't tell, Red.  Mom will ground me forever and Dad will spank me so hard that I'll never sit again.  Please Bro, please."© YLeeCoyote

"Then you knew enough not to climb a pylon."  Eric nodded and stared at the ground.  "And that you could have easily gotten terribly hurt.  You could have fallen.  You could have been cut up badly by the rough, sharp rust  You could have been burnt to a crisp if you got near the wires."  Red paused.  "And you promised Mom and Dad not to do it."

Eric felt terrible.  He was silent.  He knew that his brother was right. «How could I have been so stupid?» he asked himself.

"If I don't tell and you don't get punished, then you will do it again.  I'll never forgive myself if you get hurt…or worse."

"Dad won't be back for daaaaaayyyyyyyyyyssssssssssssss.  I'll be stuck in my room just waiting for Dad to spank me." whined Eric.

Eric went silent.  He was pensive and practically in tears.  Then, just as suddenly, he perked up.  "I know!  You can spank me!  Then you don't have to tell."  With the single mindedness of the young he dashed to the greenery and cut a switch with his pocket knife and gave it to his brother after trimming.  "Here." he said and then pushed down his shorts and briefs and bent over grasping the pylon base, "Do it."

Red hesitated.  "I'm not allowed to hit you."

"Dad always puts you in charge.  And you're not hitting me any more than when Dad spanks me.  I give you permission, Big Brother."  He took a breath.  "Please."

"Give me the knife.  Dad said you are not to carry it around."  Red held out his hand and slowly Eric yielded up his precious Swiss Army Boy Scout Tinker jackknife with six blades and tools.

Red considered long and hard before using the switch on his little brother.  Although the splint on his finger made it hard to hold the switch, the first cut still caused Eric to yelp in pain but, to his credit, remained in place gripping the steel of the pylon even tighter.  His knuckles turned white as painful stripe after stripe appeared on his little tail.  Red stopped and held his brother as he cried.  When he had recovered, Red had him stand with his nose on the pylon's corner with his hands on his head.  Although not so much for corner time but since Red needed the time to put his own head in order.

Red sat on the pylon base and put his head down on his arms.  He could not help but to cry because he had hurt his baby brother who he loved so much.  For the first time ever he now understood why his father always said "This hurts me more than it does you." whenever he got spanked.

They walked home slowly stopping in the park so that Eric could wash away the tear marks.  Eric even held his brother's hand, carefully so not to hurt his splinted finger, as they walked.  Each had a new respect for the other.

The End

© Copyright A.I.L. August 27, 2010

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