GRIM HOMECOMING

 

 

            Jody lay comfortably in his own bed in his own home for the first time in over a week. (He had run away from home after his parents had made him kill his fawn). His heart was light because Penny had forgiven him for running off, and for the dreadful things that Jody had shouted at his parents before leaving. His joy in his return was dulled only by his father's wretched condition. But Jody had promised to fetch Doc Wilson to Penny the very next day, and Penny had been pleased and proud of his son. Jody fell into a calm and grateful sleep. But he hadn't considered the reactions of his mother and the Forresters to his various transgressions.

            Penny had told Jody that Ory, to her immense shame, had gone off to the Forresters to beg for seed corn to replace that which had been destroyed by the fawn. If Jody had given it any thought, he would have anticipated that his mother would have complained bitterly to the Forresters about her wayward son.

            The very next morning, before Jody could even get started on his mission to fetch the doc, Ory's wagon rolled into the yard in front of the cabin, followed directly by three Forresters mounted on horseback.

            As Jody and a stooped, bedraggled Penny emerged from the cabin to greet them, Ory surveyed her prodigal son coldly.

            Unnecessarily, Jody murmured, "I'm home, Ma."

            "'Bout time," she commented crossly, as she descended from the wagon.

            Catching sight of the stern, unsmiling faces of the dismounting Forresters, Jody mumbled even more softly, "I've done 'pologized to Pa for them things I said."

            "'Bout time," she repeated herself, unmoved.

            "But not 'nough, by a long sight," Buck observed in a tone of open hostility, approaching the boy.

            Alarmed, Jody began to back away from him.

            "How dare you run off, knowin' your pa was ailin'?!" Buck demanded.

            "I...."

            Mill-wheel put in, "And how dare you pester our ma and pa whilst we was all six off horse-tradin' in Kentucky, tryin' to git 'em to keep that dratted fawn for you?!"

            "I'm sorry! I jest...!"

            Buck picked it up again, "And how come you to tell your ma and pa you hated 'em?!"

            "I ain't meant...!" he stammered.

            Mill-wheel went on, "And this from the same leetle feller that begged us he'd do anythin', iffen we'd save his pa from the snakebite! And now you hate him!" He also advanced a few menacing steps toward the boy.

            "No! I don't...!" Jody continued to back away from the big men, all color now drained from his small face.

            Penny tried to appease them on his boy's behalf. "Now, fellers, Jody and me had a long talk last night and worked it all out. Plus, he jest now this mornin' aimed to go fetch Doc Wilson to me."

            "Not near 'nough!" Buck proclaimed.

            "Arch is a'ready doin' that, right now," Mill-wheel stated flatly. "He'll be here with Doc directly. 'Sides, we ain't even knowed iffen the boy was back home yit."

            Buck chastised Penny, "You ain't never been strict 'nough with this here boy, and now you see where hit gits you."

            Penny tried to change the subject, as he eyed the third Forrester who had arrived. "Lem? You come to check on us? I'm grateful and mighty surprised."

            "Don't be," Lem said coldly. "Me and Buck and Mill-wheel aimed to go to Volusia today anyways. They insisted on stoppin' here to check on you. To me, hit's jest a nuisance."

            By this time, Buck had backed Jody all the way to the outer wall of the cabin. Jody was shaking his head in panic, and in despair; he could scarcely believe that of all of the Forresters, Buck was most aggressively after him.

            In one swift movement, Buck scooped Jody up, sat down in Ory's front stoop rocker, and turned the hapless boy over his knee. Buck struck the first blow, eliciting a piercing scream.

            Penny protested, "Buck! No! Don't!"

            Buck explained, "I'm doin' what needs to be done. What's long overdue. Iffen you'd walloped this young un long ago, he'd not be spoiled and shif'less like he be. Seein' as you ain't in no shape to whop him now, hit falls to one of us to do." So saying, he delivered the next shockingly devastating blow, forcing from Jody the next shrill scream.

            Ory looked on with folded arms, nodding in approval at the spectacle.

            With tears streaming, Jody gazed up at where Mill-wheel and Lem stood together, and pleaded, "Help!"

            With a grim, humorless smile, Lem remarked, "You ain't askin' me to he'p you?"

            "No, sir," Jody mumbled, again hanging his head. "I know ain't no use." He forced his gaze upward again desperately. "Mill-wheel! Please! Help!"

            "Not this time, boy. You done riled the bunch of us. Iffen Buck wa'n't doin' it, I would be."

            "Or me," Lem offered, with sadistic satisfaction.

            In pain and enraged, Jody began kicking furiously. Instantly, Buck's hand descended powerfully onto Jody's back, terrifying him and freezing his motion in mid-kick. The big man spoke ominously, "At the very next kick, your pants come off."

            Jody cried out in terror, and his legs immediately fell limp to the ground. The Forresters chuckled smugly.

            Lem muttered, "Damn! I was hopin' for one more kick! I'd ruther see his bare bottom git beat!"

            Jody whimpered piteously, at the severe pain, at the terrible fright, and at Lem's relentless verbal cruelty. He sobbed and cried out at the remainder of the harsh blows, but with no further physical belligerence, just hanging limply over Buck's lap.

            After Buck finally let him up, Mill-wheel demanded, "And jest where'd you figger you was goin' when you runned off?"

            Jody regarded Penny in horror; he was terribly afraid to tell them that his intended destination had been Boston. Shakily, with quavering voice, he asked, "Don't matter, do it? You'll jest laugh at me." He was bluffing, of course. He knew full well that they most certainly would not be amused. The obvious intention to find Oliver would, in fact, redouble their rage, and place him in even greater danger of even more severe punishment. He carefully backed farther away, out of Buck's immediate reach. Buck had risen from the rocker, but just stood looking at him.

            Just then, with good distracting timing, Arch and Doc Wilson rode into the sandy yard. As they dismounted, Arch remarked unsmilingly, "So the boy's back. Looks like I missed his beatin'. Too bad." He and the doc gently took hold of Penny from either side, and helped him back into the cabin, and to his bed.

            Buck strode purposefully to the Baxter wagon, reached into the back of it, and gruffly ordered Jody, "Come 'ere."

            Jody approached gingerly, obediently, even more frightened, now that Penny was no longer within sight. Without him, Jody felt like he was surrounded only by enemies.

            Buck withdrew a bag of Forrester seed corn and thrust it at him. "Now go plant this. Do it keerful, and do it right. You'll be at it awhiles. Don't stop 'til you're done. Understand?"

            "Yes, sir," the boy mumbled timidly. His gaze flinched away from the severity of Buck's expression, caught sight of his mother's stern approval of Buck's actions, and shied from her face as well. He didn't even dare to look at Mill-wheel and Lem.

 

            "I shoulda waited a extry day afore I come home," Jody muttered irritably to himself as he worked in the cornfield. "I'da not been here when Ma and the Forresters arrived. I'da not got a beatin'." He deeply resented the Forresters' treatment of him, especially Buck's, even while he bitterly acknowledged within himself that they were right, and that he had deserved it for his serious infractions. Even so, Buck's betrayal of him had deeply hurt, in more ways than one.

 

            Hours later, Lem, Buck, and Mill-wheel dropped in again on their way home, their business in Volusia having been concluded.

            Jody was lying face-down on his bed. He gasped dramatically upon sight of the three of them appearing in the doorway of his bedroom.

            Mill-wheel teased him, more or less good-naturedly, "Is your butt up in the air sos's we kin git a easy crack at it?"

            Jody rose quickly on his elbows, began automatically to roll over, and then though better of it. "No! I cain't roll over on my back...or sit...; it hurts too much. Don't!!" he cried in alarm as they entered his room and drew closer.

            Buck gave him a gentle smile, sat beside him on the bed, and reassuringly patted his back. "None of us ain't gonna spank you no more. We checked out the cornfield. You done a right good job."

            Jody collapsed in relief with a sigh, and forced a weak smile in return.