Please refer to previous stories for background.
Jer awoke to the shaking of the Gypsy wagon. His brain slowly cleared, and he remembered where he was. As he twisted, he felt stabbing pain in the area of his bottom. He reached down the back of his loose fitting trousers, and felt the welts from yesterday's beating. He slowly ran his fingers over them, and cringed just a bit. His movements attracted the attention of the gypsy boy who Jer had (unknown to anyone) observed getting much the same whipping as he had received. The boy smiled at him, and told him in heavily accented English that there were biscuits and water for breakfast. Jer asked him where they were headed, and the boy only shrugged his shoulders. Later, the wagons stopped, and formed into a circle. Jer and the boy walked the horses to a nearby stream, to water them. About that time, Jer saw a Gypsy lady pushing 3 girls and a boy in front of her to the stream, where, with gestures, she made them remove the ragged clothing they had on, and enter the stream to bathe. Jer stood with his mouth open, for two reasons. First, for the first time in his life, he was seeing naked girls, and second (and probably even more shocking), he could see obvious whip marks on the butts and backs of all 4 of the children, 2 of which were quite a bit younger than he was. The Gypsy boy observed him, and asked him why he was staring. Jer asked who the kids were, and why they had been whipped. The boy replied that they were not "one of us", that they were settlers kids that the Gypsies had picked up along the way. (Jer surmised that being "picked up" was not a voluntary thing). The boy said they had been whipped to remind them to not attempt to run away. He also told Jer that the boy had been caught trying to undo the laces of the wagon the kids were kept in, and that he was going to be whipped as soon as lunch was over. Jer realized that the only thing that kept him from being in that wagon with the kids was his dark hair, and being circumcised. The Gypsies thought of him as one of their own.
Lunch was a filling stew, and Jer ate his fill. He could not help but notice the boy, who he would guess to be 11, or so, was not eating. He just sat on a rock and stared at the fire. Occasionally, he stood and would run his hand over his rump. Lunch ended, and the group formed around the large wagon which housed their supplies, and which also housed the children. With practiced hands, a large lever was placed under the wagon axle, and somehow the four Gypsy men pushing on it caused the wheel to lift off of the ground, where other men placed a newly sawn log under the axle to keep it in the air. Jer did not understand what was going on. Soon, he found out, as the boy was called by the Gypsy leader. He walked slowly toward the wagon, his head hanging low, and tears rushing down his cheeks. The leader said something to him, and he sobbed, and slowly reached to his waist, and pulled his tatttered shirt off. With a visible shudder, he undid the rope holding his rough trousers, and they slid quickly to the ground. He stepped away from his clothes, stark naked. He turned to face the leader, and Jer noticed his uncircumcised penis was totally stiff, causing his pink penis head to stick about half way out of his foreskin. The boy did not seem to notice, as the Gypsy told him that he would now learn what happens to people who try to leave. He pushed to boy to the wheel, and with the help of two other men, quickly tied the boy's hands over his head to the wheel spokes. His legs were then pulled apart, and his ankles were tied in a similar manner. Then, ropes were tied to his thighs, high up near his butt, and more rope was tied around his waist, and looped up over his shoulders. When they were finished, he was tied so that the only thing he could move was his head, which stared over his shoulder in fear.
Jer studied the boy's butt cheeks, and could see the previous marks of a recent beating. He counted six stripes, from top to bottom, and two stripes on the boy's shoulders. Jer heard a gasp and saw the boy's eyes as they observed the leader approaching with a black whip, which was about four feet long, and tapered at its end. Without any delay, he raised the whip, and slashed the boy's back, raising a livid red/blue welt. Then, he pulled on the wheel, and caused the boy to rotate until his head was down, and his legs up. It was in this position that the rest of the whipping would occur. The Gypsy was an obvious expert in whipping, and took his time, placing strokes along the boy's left butt cheek, working his way up, from just at the top of the boy's butt, to the crease where his thigh joined his bottom. The upside down position caused his cheeks to drop down slightly toward his head, and gave a greater area for the Gypsy to whip. The welts from the whip now covered the entire area of the boy's left butt cheek. Jer could see the boy's face was bright red, and he continued to scream in agony, his voice rising with each stroke, and falling to a combination of a moan and scream between strokes.
The Gypsy leader now swung the boy upright, and started a similar path down his right butt cheek, until livid "railway tracks" ran parallel over both cheeks. Swinging the wheel again, the boy was now upside down, as the Gypsy moved directly behind him. The boy's legs were pulled wide apart, and his ball sack was laying back, almost covering his hole, which was drawn tightly apart by the ropes. The Gypsy calmly approached the boy, and cruelly pulled his bag out, twisting the boy's balls as he pulled. He then shoved the sack forward, and moved back. With a practiced eye, he brought his whip down right over the boy's perineal area which runs from the back of his ball sack to his hole. The whip rose and fell, visiting the entire area, and seeming to almost stick inside the boy's hole as it visited it time and time again. The boy's screams filled the woods.
The Gypsy now approached the boy, and rubbed his hands over the boy's bottom, ending up by shoving a finger slowly over the ravaged hole, and gently pushing down, causing the boy to scream again. He then turned, and went to his wagon, leaving the pitiful boy tied to the wheel, where he would remain for an hour, until he was released, and shoved into a wagon, his hands tied in front of him (which meant that he could not escape, and could not even rub the pain out of his bottom.)
Jer watched the sun from the moving wagon, and realized that the wagon was moving North, not West. He asked the Gypsy boy where they were going, and was met with a shrugh of the boy's shoulders. He said that they only go where the leader takes them. Jer realized that this was a bad place to be. He had food and clothing, and really did not have to do much work to earn it, however he knew in his heart that sometime, they would figure out that he was not of Gypsy blood, and at that time, he would probably be whipped before being shoved into the supply wagon with the other kids. He knew that he had to get away, and waited until a time might present itself.
That night, quicker than he had hoped, his opportunity came. One of the kidnapped girls had done something to "earn" a strapping, and the entire camp formed around a fallen tree as she was stripped of her torn dress, and pushed over the tree. Jer stood to the rear of the group, having walked to the food bucked, and soaked a biscuit in the left over gravy. Several wary eyes watched him, but then seemed satisfied and turned around to observe the young girl as she flopped and kicked her legs as the strap started it's trip up and down her little butt cheeks. Jer slipped behind a wagon, and silently walked into the woods, carefully watching for twigs which might crack and give him away, as he walked, ever quicker, away, toward the setting sun. He was once again going West. As he walked, he placed his hand inside his trousers, and again felt his welted backside. A shiver went down his back as he imagined himself riding the wagon wheel like that poor boy he had witnessed being whipped. He heard shouts in the direction of the camp, but kept walking his deliberate way, careful to not give himself away. Night found him near a cliff, where a series of small caves looked out over a river. He backed into a cave, as far as he could, and slept the sleep that only those who have lost and regained freedom could ever know.