A very painful memory
Original Fiction – for adult eyes only
He resumed his position on the carpet in
time to see the headmaster stride across the study towards a low-backed
armchair. He tucked his cane under his arm and in one smooth movement swivelled
the chair so that its back now faced into the room. He stood by its side and
slipped the cane into his hand. He thwacked it against the padded apex of the
chair.
George Harkness hurried towards the bus-stop, late for
work. A fascinating discussion about the failing economy in Venezuela on The Today programme had delayed his
departure from home. If he hadn’t been late he would never have seen the young
man.
He saw him as he turned out of The Avenue. He was
equally in a hurry. George Harkness sucked in breath. There could be no
mistaking it. The dark (almost, but not quite) black hair cut close to the
scalp. The long thin drawn face, covered in acne. The gangly gait the young man
had as he weaved his way through the busy pavement, his painfully thin body
dodging mothers with strollers.
It was Will Rigley.
Will Rigley, as George Harkness lived and breathed.
Unmistakable.
Except that this man was about twenty years old and
Will Rigley, like George Harkness himself, was thirty-eight.
George Harkness watched the man disappear into the
distance. It was Will Rigley. An exact likeness. How could this be? George
Harkness chewed his bottom lip, his heart suddenly racing. He hadn’t seen Will
Rigley in twenty years, was it possible that this man was his son?
As George Harkness waited patiently for his bus to
arrive, he was transported back in time. It was 1997, Will Ridley and George
Harkness stood uneasily in the headmaster’s study. Literally on the carpet.
St. Francis Independent Grammar School was fighting
the tide of progress. Dr. Cuthbertson loomed over the boys, his grim, lined,
grey face, a little flushed. Between his hands he flexed a stout but supple
rattan cane. George Harkness watched intently as the ageing headmaster swished
it through empty air. It made a terrific swooshing noise as it went.
Corporal punishment had been abolished in state
schools a decade earlier and most private schools had voluntarily given it up.
Not so St. FIGS. It was a traditional school; traditional curriculum,
traditional school uniform and traditional discipline. St. FIGS was trapped in
aspic, somewhere just after 1945. George Harkness and Will Rigley stood to
attention in the headmaster’s oak-panelled study, weak light streaming through
mullioned windows. All three buttons on their green-and-gold blazers were
fastened. Striped ties were tightly knotted. School caps were perfectly
positioned on their heads. They were the perfect embodiment of the post-war
schoolboy. First formers at the school still wore traditional grey short
trousers and knee socks.
Dr. Cuthbertson wore a gown over his tweed suit, a
mortarboard cap on his head. He glowered at the two sixth-formers before him.
George Harkness shivered at the bus stop, uncertain if
it was caused by the nippy autumnal air or the memory of the visit to the
headmaster’s study. George Harkness and Will Ridley were eighteen years old.
Legal adults. Old enough to vote. Old enough to join the military and kill
people. Old enough to have sex – even with one another. The exams started in
three weeks’ time and then they would be out of that place.
Dr. Cuthbertson cared about none of this. They were
pupils of his school. They had broken the rules and should be (and would be)
punished. He swished the cane once more. “Take off your caps and blazers and
put them on my desk,” he intoned. Will Rigley, anxious to get on with
proceedings, quickly unbuttoned his jacket and slipped it from his shoulders.
He was no stranger to this. It would be Six, he knew that. It would hurt like
blazes, he knew that too, but the pain would quickly dissolve into a throbbing
before turning to a dull ache. He would
live.
George Harkness knew none of this. Unlikely though it
might sound in a school like St. FIGS he had never been beaten. He was
relatively new to the school, having joined the sixth form when his father
moved to Brocklehurst to take up a directorship at the borough council. Caned
for the first time, aged eighteen. What the hell would they say at his former
school if they ever found out?
George Harkness watched as Will Rigley put his blazer
on the headmaster’s desk and then carefully placed his cap on top of it. He
returned to his original spot on the carpet, clasped his hands behind his back
and stared intently at the floor. He seemed very calm. Unlike, George Harkness.
George Harkness couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. They would not at first
obey his instruction to unbutton his coat.
“Come along boy, we haven’t all day,” Dr. Cuthbertson
growled and menacingly flexed the stout curve-handled cane between his hands.
Sweat started to soak the back of his shirt as George
Harkness at last slipped the blazer from his shoulders and with trembling hands
he placed it next to that of Will Rigley. He too resumed his position on the
carpet in time to see the headmaster stride across the study towards a
low-backed armchair. He tucked his cane under his arm and in one smooth
movement swivelled the chair so that its back now faced into the room. He stood
by its side and slipped the cane into his hand. He thwacked it against the
padded apex of the chair and barked, “Rigley, you first. Step forward.”
George Harkness held his breath. His heart pounded and
his shirt was by now soaked in sweat although it was cold in the study. He
watched intently as Will Rigley took three paces forward. That was enough to
leave him standing behind the chair.
“Bend over.” It was a curt command. The headmaster was
in charge. He gave orders and others obeyed. That went for the schoolmasters as
well as the pupils. Not, of course, that he ordered his masters to bend over
for a swishing. Well, there had been that one very junior English master, but
Dr. Cuthbertson was certain the wretch would not have shared the details of his
ordeal with others.
George Harkness had a perfect view as Will Rigley drew
a deep breath, rubbed the palms of his hands together and went over the back of
the chair. It seemed to George Harkness like Will Rigley had dived into a pool
of iced water. Will Rigley gripped the soft cushion of the chair. The back of
the armchair was low and there was a gap of several inches between it and Will
Rigley’s stomach.
“Head low, bottom high, feet further apart.” The
eighteen-year-old obeyed each command. He was now ready to receive his
thrashing.
George Harkness had never had cause to think about it
before, but now watching Will Rigley present himself he realised how impossibly
thin he was; almost unhealthily so. Will Rigley had legs like pipe cleaners and
his bottom was but two pimples, his bum looked awfully small against the
headmaster’s stout whippy cane.
George Harkness watched intently as Dr. Cuthbertson
sawed the cane across the centre of Will Rigley’s bottom. He took careful aim,
then lifted the cane away from the seat of the pale grey trousers, before
whipping it back with terrific force. A tremendous crack as cane connected with
backside echoed around the study. Air hissed through Will Rigley’s clenched
teeth. His buttocks swayed under the sting, but he quickly settled himself for
stroke number two. George Harkness watched in awe as a white line appeared
across the seat of Will Rigley’s trousers. He imagined a thick red welt must be
throbbing across Will Rigley’s buttocks.
Dr. Cuthbertson resumed his sawing, a little lower
this time. He took his time, finding a spot on the under cheek, close to where
the buttocks meet the thighs. Then he let fly. Will Rigley did the hissing and
the buttock swaying again. This time he added a little knee bending. But, as before,
he quickly settled, inviting the headmaster to deliver the third cut.
George Harkness’s temples throbbed. His head ached.
Saliva drained from his mouth. He gave a throaty cough. The third stroke was
aimed higher, near the crest of the mounds. Will Rigley now had three parallel
welts, perfectly delivered. The pain was intense. Will Rigley felt his eyes
welling and screwed them tight. He wouldn’t give the old goat the satisfaction
of tears.
The headmaster paused, took two steps back and then
slowly paced the study. George Harkness stood fascinated. The headmaster was
admiring his handiwork from every conceivable angle. He took particular care to
study Will Rigley’s face and neck, which were as red as his backside
undoubtedly was. George Harkness saw Dr. Cuthbertson’s tongue dart through his
pursed mouth before slowly licking first his lower lip and then the upper, all
the time his gaze was on Will Ripley’s tight buttocks.
It seemed like an eternity to George Harkness (and
also probably to Will Rigley) before the headmaster once more took up position
behind and slightly to the left of the prostrate sixth-former. Will Rigley
tensed as he felt the cane tap-tap-tap against his thigh. Whack! Total agony.
Will Rigley fought to suppress the yell he desperately wanted to make. The back
of the thighs was the most sensitive part of the body on offer to the
headmaster. Many schoolmasters would agree it was bad form to beat a boy there.
A caning should only be on the buttocks; that’s what God had made them for.
George Harkness screwed his eyes tight, he could not
bear to watch further. What he failed to see was the headmaster alter his
stance slightly. Now, he sawed the cane from the lower left buttock to the
higher right. He used every ounce of his considerable strength to lash a
diagonal cut across Will Rigley’s bum. He howled. Will Rigley didn’t want to but
he had no choice. It was the most natural reaction his body could make to the
utter agony he felt. The cane had flogged across the previous cuts reigniting
the pain in them all. Blood gently oozed at the points the cuts intersected.
Dr. Cuthbertson moved position once more. This time
the cane rested from the lower right to the upper left cheek. Whoosh! When Will
Rigley later inspected his bare bum in the boys’ bogs he would find a perfect
“X”. For now, he clutched the soft cushion of the armchair as if his life
depended on it. His hips wriggled, his buttocks swayed and his left leg
entwined the right. He gulped in draughts of air like a goldfish out of water.
He wanted to leap to his feet and rub away at the intense burn that engulfed
him. His bum had been ripped to shreds. He knew he must not do this. It would
only encourage Dr. Cuthbertson to award him extra strokes.
The headmaster resumed his stroll around the study.
Will Rigley’s bottom was now still. It jutted out once more at a perfect angle
to receive the headmaster’s administrations. Dr. Cuthbertson tucked the cane
under his arm, approached the teenager and gently rubbed the palm of his right
hand across the contours of Will Rigley’s buttocks, making circular motions as
he caressed every square inch.
“You may rise. Harkness take his place.”
George Harkness felt a jolt in his back. A man in the
queue behind him was pushing forward. The bus had arrived. George Harkness
reached into his pocket for his pass and made to board the bus. It was full and
he had to strap-hang the whole journey. He had not thought of that incident in
twenty years. His first and only caning. He had not taken it well. Tears flowed
at the first cut and by number three he was howling like a banshee. It
embarrassed him greatly. It took more than a week for the marks to completely
disappear.
He left the school a few weeks later and went away to
university. Will Rigley went away too and George Harkness never heard of him
again. Corporal punishment was eventually outlawed (even at St. FIGS). George
Harkness quickly forgot about the school and Dr. Cuthbertson until one day in
2005 his mother sent him a cutting from the Brocklehurst
Bugle. Dr. Cuthbertson had committed suicide one day after police raided
his house and found a dozen or so
commercial video tapes, some depicting scenes of “headmasters” spanking
“sixth-formers”.
Picture
credit: CP Services London
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