One day when Ben I and I were travelling in the train to the city to visit a museum (he does not really like visiting museums but I do) Ben asked if he could play soccer with his friends when we got back home. I looked at the boy but did not reply.
Ben's mother had been in hospital or a while now and I was in sole charge of the boy. I had been enjoying sole caherg very much and watched as Ben fidgetted about on his bottom. I expect it was still a little sore from the bard bottom paddling I had given him after breakfast.
I stared out of the window, fields and sky rushed past.
I thought back to the paddling I had given the nine year old and glanced back at him. He is cute with his hair just falling onto his eye brows and his round cheeks and small nose. The skin on his face clear and pale. His bootm had been like that when I pulled down his pyjama shorts just two hours before. His bottom was not so pale now though. I dont think he will argue when I tell him we are visiting the history museum next.
I looked at Ben's thighs and long grey socks.
I turned toward the window again and said '' we will see how good you are in the city and if you can answer my questions about what we have seen on the return journey''.
My eyes turned and my mind wandered.
I remembered the book I had read some months before. It was about the methods of discipline used in victorian days by fathers in the wealthy households. If a boy was to be beaten it might be with cane or birch, he was made to dress in a frilly set of underwear and a girl's dress for a while before and then during the punishment.
It must have been humiliating for the young boy to walk about in the house with his brothers and sisters, as well as the servants, seeing him this way, them all knowing what was to befall the child at some point in the day.
This must have been one of the more eccetric things of the age but it did happen in fact.
I looked across at Ben who smiled back at me. I wondered what he would look like dressed in a pair of girls frilly underpants and a pretty pink party dress.
To be continued.