19 year old Mark had just completed his first year at college. he had done fairly well academically, enough to keep his parents happy. He had also joined a fraternity, and he really enjoyed the parties and just hanging out with his new brothers. At the moment, Mark was cruising down the highway in his car, on the way to his uncle's cabin by the lake. His father's brother Larry had always been his favorite uncle, and he had jumped at the chance to spend a weekend with him at the lake, swimming, skiing and such. And now there was an added bonus; the fraternity he had joined in college was the same one his Uncle Larry had joined years ago when he was in college. Now they were brothers too!
Before too long, Mark was pulling up in front of the cabin. "Hey, Uncle Larry," Mark called out, having seen his uncle outside doing some work on the boat. "How's it going?"
Larry came over and gave him a hug. "Just great, just great. It's good too see you. So what's this I heard about you joining my fraternity?"
"Yeah, it's really cool. It's a lot of fun. Pledging took up a bit of time, but I kept my grades up."
"Well, it's good to hear that. Come on let's get your things inside." With that, Larry grabbed some of MArk's things from the back seat. Mark grabbed what was left and followed him inside. "We'll have you sleep in the den on the pull out couch. Mary and I haven't gotten the other bedrooms ready to go for the summer yet."
Following Larry to the den, Mark dumped his things beside the couch. Noticing the paddle on the wall, Mark went over and looked at it. It had his frat letters on it, as well as his uncle's name and pledge year, 1983. "Cool paddle, man."
Larry laughed, and said "Yeah, that paddle brings back a lot of memories. Why don't you get into your trunks and we can take the boat out, see if you remember how to ski."
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Later that evening, Mark and Larry returned to the house. It turned out Mark had remembered how to ski, only taking one or two unplanned spills.
Larry opened the fridge in the kitchen and grabbed a Budweiser. "Want a beer, Mark?"
"Sure," Mark responded, a bit surprised. Larry had never offered him alcohol before. It was cool to know that his uncle saw him as an adult now.
Larry tossed him a beer and headed down into the den. Mark followed him, and by the time he got down there, his uncle had turned on the TV and had a baseball game on: Cleveland vs. the Yankees.
"So how was your pledging, Mark?" asked Larry. "Tough to get through?"
"Not really. We had to do some stupid stuff, but nothing too bad."
"You should have been in college when I pledged," Larry said, laughing. "They had real pledging then. You pissed an active off, he took a paddle to you. Or sometimes he took one to you without a reason." Pointing to the paddle he said "That thing sure got a work out. But I guess they don't use paddles anymore, do they"
Mark replied "Nah, we had to paint one up, but only for decoration. Once in a while at a party a couple guys will get drunk and show off by trading hits. I only did that once. Didn't hurt much though, he was too drunk to swing hard."
"Yeah, you young guys today are wimps," Larry said, punching MArk jokingly in the shoulder. "You couldn't handle what we went throught."
"Aw, come on, I could take it. It couldn't have hurt that much. I could take just as much as you could.," Mark protested.
Uncle Larry raised his eyebrows. "Oh really! You want to find out, or just run your mouth."
"What do you mean?" Mark asked.
"Well, I've got a paddle over there on the wall, and a nephew who seems to think he's pretty tough. What do you think I mean?" Larry said, looking at Mark in a challenging way. "Want to see how touch you are?"
"As long as I get to swat your ass too," Mark replied. "I'll trade a shot with you. Who's first?"
"Just ONE shot? What's that?" LArry lughed.
"Two then. Or whatever. I can take anything you dish out," Mark said, putting his thumbs through his belt loops and hamming up a macho pose.
"If you really want to prove you're tough, we can do what my bros and I did at parties sometimes. We'd challenge each other to see who could take more. First each guy would swat the other once. Then each guy would swat the other guy twice. Then three times each, and so on until sometime wimped out. It sucked to lose though, because the guy who wimped out first had to drop trou and take five more shots. I doubt you want to do that though, so we can just do onbe trade."
"_f_u_c_k_ that, Uncle LArry," Mark said. "I'll take you challenge. I guarantee you I'll beat you too."
"Is that so?" Larry just smiled, and crossed over to grab the paddle off the wall. "OK, because this is your first time doing this, you go first. Here are the rules. You give me a shot, then I give you one. Then we move to two. You can only give up after getting your set; you can't give me four and then give up, you'd have to take your four and then say enough. Same goes for me. Then like I said, the loser drops his pants and gets five more. I'm going to go change into jeans; I suggest you do the same. We might as well go shirtless; shirts jsut get in the way."
LArry walked upstairs, and Mark changed to jeans with briefs underneath. He was a bit nervous, but how could he say no? His uncled wouldn't respect him if he did. "Well hell," he thought. "I'm just as built as he is." And it was true; MArk's body was well muscled from high school athletics and keeping himself in shape in the weight room at college.
Before long, LArry returned, and bent over with his arms braced on the back of the couch. "OK, Mark, grab the paddle and lets go. May the toughest ass win."
Mark picked up the paddle from the couch and moved hesitantly into place behind his uncle. He felt kind of weird doing this, but decided what the hell. He pulled back, let fly and WHACK! While he thought he had hit pretty hard, his uncle didn't flinch.
Then Larry stood up and said, "Mark, it's your turn." As Mark handed over the paddle, he realized how muscular his uncle's bare upper body really was. Slowly he bent over and waited. CRACK!! Mark shifted forward a little from the force of the swat, but kept from crying out or even grunting. While his ass stung a little, it wasn't too bad.
He switched places with his uncle again. He swung again. WHACK!! Once again, his uncle barely acknowleged it. Determined to get a reaction, he pulled back and swung his hardest. Again, absolutely no reaction. MArk was beginning to get a little worried.
Then Mark was over the couch again for two. WHACK! The first hit. Then CRAACK!! The third hit immediately before the pain from the first had really registered. "_s_h_i_t_" Mark muttered. That had really hurt.
"Ready to quit?" LArry asked.
"Hell, no. Bend your ass over" Mark replied angrily. Giving up already? Hardly. His uncle bent over and Mark swung with all his might three times WHACK! WHAACK! WHAACK!! Still, his uncle barely flinched. "He must have an ass of iron." Mark thought. "I'm not giving up til I get a reaction at least." Then he bent over the couch again.
WHAACK! WHAAACK! WHAAACK!! MArk groaned with the force of the swats, but got to his feet, and grabbed the paddle, ready for the fourth round. This time he took a step back before letting the swats fly. Finally, on the fourth swat, his uncle's breath hissed slightly in pain. When he stood up though, Mark wasn't even able to tell at all, and once again he was over the couch.
WHACK! WHAACK!! WHAACK! "oh _s_h_i_t_" Mark groaned. Then CRACK!! "_s_h_i_t_!" Mark yelled, leaping to his feet. His uncle opened his mouth, but MArk grabbed the paddle before he could even say a word. Shrugging, Larry bent over again. WHACK!! WHAAACK! CRAAACK! No reaction. Mark was getting desperate. He pulled back and swung extremely hard. WHAAAACCCCKK!! In response, his uncle groaned slightly. FINALL!!! MArk thought, and delivered the fifth swatjust as hard.
Larry stood up and said "Pretty impressive, bud. But it's my turn now." Mark bent over the couch, closing his eyes in anticipation of the pain. By the time these swats were delivered, Mark knew it was over. He was gasping from the pain that shot all through his ass. Standing up, he said "You win Uncle Larry. God, you've got one hell of an arm." Then he hesitated, remembering what the loser. had coming. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and looked at the floor.
"It's your decision on the loser penalty, Mark. I'm willing to forget it."
"No, I gotta, Uncle Larry. A bet's a bet."
"Think about it Mark. I'm willing to forget it entirely, but if you don't want to, I won't go easy on you. It will hurt like hell. You really don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do Uncle Larry. I'm not going to cop out of this."
"Fine then, Mark". Then Larry laughed "Nineteen year olds never did have much sense. Get your pants off and get over the couch if you want to do this."
Mark swallowed, then slowly unbuckled and unzipped his jeans, slid them down and stepped out of them. He was a little embarrased; it's not like he hadn't changed with his uncle in the room but this was different. He slowly bent over the couch.
"Count these, brother" Larry said. MArk smiled slightly. Hearing his uncle say that made this worht it.
WHAAACK!! His smile was quickly gone. As much as the other swats had hurt, they were nothing compared to this. "One!" he gasped.
CRAAACK!!! "T-two" Mark said his voice trembling.
WHAACK!!! "Three" he whispered, his eyes watering from the pain. Dammit, he wouldn't cry. He Wouldn't!
CRAAACCCK!!!"Oh _f_u_c_k_, _f_u_c_k_! Fo..fo...four!" Mark said, and despite his resolve, tears slid down his cheeks.
Finally, his uncle let loose the last one, and any thought at composure was lost. He put down his head and sobbed, mortified. He wasn't as tough as he thought.
When he stood up red faced and red eyed, his uncle gave him a hug and said "Don't be embarrased. I made more than one of my bros cry in college. I never lost a challenge."
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A few days later with his ass mostly better, Mark was thinking about next school year at college. He ahd found one tradition he defintely wanted to bring back!!