"Spontaneous combustion? That's your story and you're sticking to it, right boys?"
"It's not 'our story', dad, it was just what happened."
"Scott, I know you think I am pretty dumb–all parents are, of course–but you really want me to believe the two of you were just out there in the machine shed talking and working on the ATV when the ground suddenly burst into flame?"
"That IS what happened , dad.," Scott replied looking him straight in the eye to try to make the lie work.
"Kind of like Moses on Mount Nebo. Just standing there and suddenly the bush is burning?"
"Honest, Mr. Walsh," Jim pleaded. "I have no idea what happened. Probably a spark from the ignition lit a gas fume."
"But you did have the spark plug and key out of it, boys. That you already told me."
"Well, we did."
"Uh-huh. So this fire which nearly burned down the shed must have started some other way. I don't suppose either of you would know where this fits into the puzzle?" He pulled half a smoked cigarette from his pocket and watch the color flush from the boys' faces.
Silence. The silence which always follows being caught.
"It was my fault, dad," Scott quickly answered. When you are going to get it anyway, might as well try to save your buddy.
"Of that I have no doubt," his father replied. "And I hope you enjoyed your smoke, son, because you will be paying for this the rest of the summer. You can work off the damage and repair the place."
"I will!" Hope spread inside as Scott figured he had just dodged a bullet. And saved his friend in the process.
"Oh, indeed you will. But right now first things first. Let's hear the real version, Jim."
"We were just working on the ATV and I guess we got careless in using some gas to clean some of the carbueration parts and, well, we decided to sneak a smoke and poof!"
"Poof? You're lucky only some of the shed burned! And now you're going to watch me burn Scott's butt for this stunt. Go up to the house and et me the lickin' stick, son: then meet us in what's left of the machine shed."
"C'mon! Pleeeeease, dad! Not in front of Jim!" Now fifteen , Scott had not had a good paddling in nearly a year so he thought that aspect of his life was over for good. To be humiliated in front of his best friend was far worse than anything the paddling would bring him in pain.
"I said to get up to the house and bring me the lickin' stick, Scott. NOW!"
Scott looked into his father's eyes and knew there was no way out of this one. He glanced over at his friend and saw Jim's eyes glued to the ground, his face flushed with embarrassment.
"You come with me, Jim, since you were in on this. You're going to see how I deal with childish behavior."
Jim trailed along in silence across the yard toward the shed which they had set on fire, then he looked to see Scott disappear into the big farm house. Once under the tin roof of the machine shed, Scott's father pulled a tall footstool out into the middle of an open space near the door. Neither Jim nor Scott's father said a word in the several minutes it took for Scott to return to the scene of the crime. He handled the maple paddle to his father, then without saying anything, Scott unbuckled his belt and let down his jeans. His father stood behind and to the side, and pointed with the paddle to the stool. Scott knew what he had to do whether he wanted to or not. So he pulled his briefs down to bare his butt, then bent across the stool for his paddling. This paddling could not be more painful than the humiliation he had already endured.
Jim stared in both horror and fascination at the tableau unfolding in front of him. He had, of course, see his best buddy naked plenty of times. But not like this! Naked from the waist, Scott's lanky body draped over the tall stool with his legs splayed to each side of the stool, his balls hanging low between his thighs, his hands tight on the lowest cross bar between the front legs of the stool. Scott's dad touched the paddle lightly to the middle of his butt, then stepped back a bit as if to measure the perfect distance for this paddling.
For the next few minutes Jim watched as Scott's father cracked that maple paddle across Scott's bared ass. First a bit of lecture, then a good, hard whack. A bit more lecture, another lick. Scott's only responses were "Yes, Sir!" and "No, Sir!" along with a writhing of his now nearly purple ass cheeks. The lecture and the paddling continued for the next few minutes. Jim winced for each lick after the first ten or twelve had turned the skin deep scarlet and purple from mid thigh to mid backside. After twenty or twenty five hard licks with the paddle, the lecture and the paddling was over.
Scott stood up slowly, trying to gain as much composure as he could before facing his friend. His felt as if he had personally extinguished that gasolene fire with his bared backside. He gingerly pulled his briefs up, then his jeans. Behind him, Scott's father stood with the paddle and simply turned and looked at Jim. Did not say a word.
Jim took a deep breath, waited for Scott to step away from the stool, then got up and took Scott's place. He pulled his pants down, then his underwear, then bent across the stool to take his punishment. While he had gotten plenty of spankings with his father's belt, this would be a new experience and his legs were shaking. He hoped that his volunteering now would be enough that his own father would not hear about this.
"Takes a man to own up to a mistake and pay the price for it, Jim. I'm proud of you and I'm sure your dad would be too. This whole incident can stay just with the three of us."
"Yes, sir," Jim answered, having seen what was expected in Scott's paddling.
"Scott, you just stand right there and watch this, boy. Jim saw you get yours and you're going to see him get his licking."
"Yes, sir," Scott answered. Then he looked over at his best buddy, saw his naked ass still white while his own burned in his jeans. And he felt the rise in his pants down there, too. Scott had never seen anyone punished before and his prurient curiosity had his ready to watch and secretly enjoy this.
Mr. Walsh touched the paddle to Jim's naked butt, then pulled it well back and cracked it hard across Jim's waiting cheeks. A deep pink three inch wide band sprung across Jim's butt. The lecture and the paddling then commenced with a well spaced two dozen licks. The maple paddle turned Jim's butt deep purple, and Mr. Walsh took aim, too, at tops of his thighs to turn them a matching color.. Every time the paddle cracked, Scott watched Jim's balls dancing between his legs. But Jim never did lose his grip on that bar. When the paddling ended, Scott's dad handed him the paddle.
"Put it back on the hook, boy. Never know when I might need it again." Then he left the shed.
There were traces of tears in Jim's eyes as he dressed himself, then turned to his best buddy.
"Geez, that hurt! Holy . . . !"
"Tell me about it! I told you about the lickin' stick and you always sneered at me. Well, now you know it first hand."
"Lemme see that thing." Jim took the paddle from Scott. It was solid maple, about eighteen inches long, three inches wide, a quarter inch thick. Shellacked and polished, with a nice little leather band from which it hung. "Well, I'll take it with the belt any day over this thing, Scott."
Together the boys walk rather stiffly across the yard up to the house, then Scott lead the way to the basement and put the paddle back on a hook just outside the door to the laundry. He stopped and put his finger over his lips to keep Jim silent. Nothing. Then he carefully opened the door to the laundry, led Jim inside, and closed the door behind them. Once inside, Scott pulled an old towel from the dirty laundry basket, pulled some liquid soap off the shelf, then opened his pants and let his dripping erection pop free. Standing there in the semi-dark of the laundry room, Scott began to jerk himself off, Jim watching. By the time Scott was about to shoot his load into the towel, Jim's pants began to show a good lump, too. So he opened his jeans, pulled himself free, and joined his friend in his first two man circle jerk. Their smiles telling everything, the two boys proceeded to make themselves feel a good bit better. And think what a great story this whole episode would make once they got back to school in the fall. It was actually almost worth the paddling. Almost.