Eli's Double Dose

It’s been almost a year and a half since I first met Eli. Despite the fact that he’s in the same grade as the twins, his birthday falls early enough in the year that he was playing on the same under-fourteen team as Noah was. The two of them became fast friends.

It’s hard to tell how much a boy is really growing when you see him on a regular basis, and I’m not sure a week has gone by since he first came to our house that I’ve not seen him (well, I guess the two two-week periods he was at camp, but not many more than that). Eli’s certainly grown a lot, but that’s what you expect from twelve and thirteen-year-old boys.

"We need to get home, Buddy. C’mon out," Todd Rice told his adopted son.

I like watching Todd and Eli together. There is no question in my mind that Todd couldn’t love Eli anymore if the boy was his biological son, and it’s obvious that Eli returns the feelings without reservation. And not just that, but Todd is a very caring and careful parent.

Just looking at the way Todd was standing, listening to the tone of his voice, I don’t think any of Eli’s friends would have even thought he was in trouble. Of course, it was Eli I was watching just then, and it was pretty obvious that he did know it.

"Hey, Noah," I suggested, as I watched Eli climb out of the pool. "If you need a player to even out the sides, why don’t you call Chuck? I bet he’d love to play."

Noah obviously thought that was a great idea and went to do it.

Todd and I waited while Eli grabbed a towel, dried off a bit, then pulled on an orange muscle shirt and stepped into his black sandals before turning towards his father.

When I first met Eli, he was lean almost to the point of being skinny. He’s still lean, but after a year of football and off-season workouts, it’s a much firmer, more defined lean. He still has that boyish, early adolescent narrowness through the chest and shoulders, but it’s very toned and defined now, especially in the pecs.

I know Eli has some body hair, though it’s usually covered, but as he lifted his arms to pull on his shirt, I noticed that he’s starting to get a bit of thickness under his arms as well. For that matter, though you couldn’t tell while he was wet from the pool, his lower legs are starting to get that silky sheen that seems to come when a boy’s about to begin growing leg hair.

Speaking of things one couldn’t tell while he was wet, I also noticed that his hair was getting longer. When school released for the summer, Eli had his head shaved pretty short on the sides and just a touch longer on top. He never wears his hair what anyone except maybe a drill instructor would call long, but I understood why he did it, even while I preferred it a bit longer. My hair has some curl to it, but Eli’s is curly. He normally tries to keep it shorter on the sides and styled on top so it spikes a bit, but it very easily turns into a mass of curls if he’s not careful. It’s cute, but I’ve been careful not to tell him that.

"Jack," Todd said to me quietly, as Eli finished dressing, "could we talk to you privately for a minute."

"Sure," I agreed without thinking, and the three of us went into the house.

"Do we need to sit?" I asked, thinking we could go into the kitchen, where Eli could sit on a stool without having to worry about dripping.

"No, I just have one quick thing I want to ask your opinion on. Eli, why don’t you tell Jack what happened Tuesday."

Eli had already apparently realized he was in trouble, but now he became very uncomfortable and blushed as he looked away from me.

"I got a whipping."

"I didn’t use the belt, did I?"

Eli shook his head, then explained, "I got a spanking."

I knew the difference. While I’ve not heard Eli use the term spanking around his friends, he’s spoken to me enough about his punishments that I know Todd uses spankings – literally, hand to bottom with the boy over the knee – for most stuff. For major problems, Eli gets the belt while he‘s bent across his bed, which he always calls a whipping.

"What for?" Todd prompted him.

"Because I didn’t mow the lawn like I told you I would."

Eli is normally well spoken, but I suddenly noticed that he was gaining a bit of an accent while he was under stress, and his ‘I’ was more of an ‘ah’ now. It was actually kind of cute.

"You know you’re in trouble now?"

"Yessir."

"Why?"

"‘Cause ah was supposed to be home already."

"That’s right. You knew your Mom had errands to run this afternoon, and you were going to watch the girls so I could finish up on the bathroom, right?"

Eli nodded.

Once again, I knew the family well enough to know that there’d been some problem with the parental bathroom. Todd was good enough with his hands that they’d decided for him to do the repair work, but also to do a few improvements. The problem is, his time is somewhat limited, and the family had been down to one bathroom for over a week now. I could understand why he was anxious to get it finished.

"Jack," Todd said, turning to me. "I don’t like using the belt. I try hard to reserve it for things I think of as really serious. The trouble is, I’ve been spanking Eli for years now, but now that he’s getting bigger and, thanks to football, tougher, I don’t think spankings are working anymore."

"They are," Eli assured us desperately.

"Eli," his father said patiently, turning back to him, "if they’re still working, why are you in trouble for practically the same thing – not doing what you were told to do, what you agreed to do – in less than a week.

I could honestly see both sides of this discussion. From Eli’s point of view, the spanking had hurt (even if it hadn’t really made him cry, like spankings had when he was younger), it’d been embarrassing, and considering how much he and Todd obviously loved each other, he had probably felt bad that he’d let his father down so much a spanking had been needed. On the other hand, Todd was looking at it like he‘d just said.

Of course, both of them were right, but they were also both wrong. Eli was wrong for exactly the reason Todd thought. Todd was wrong both because there are many reasons why a person makes a decision, and because, as hard as it can be to admit, people learn by repetition.

"So," Todd went on after a brief pause, probably to see if Eli was going to argue anymore, "if spanking isn’t enough, and I don’t want to use the belt, I don’t see any other option but to ground him."

Judging by Eli’s face, I’d say he hadn’t even been aware that that option was on the table. I certainly don’t think he was happy to learn it was. Miserable was much closer to accurate.

"The problem with that," Todd continued, "is that I hate grounding. My mom thought it was the perfect answer, and it sometime seemed that I spent more of my teens grounded than not. His mom and I are happy that Eli likes to hang out here and has so many friends. He’s never been a huge problem, or had a problem making friends, but it’s not only great that you and Bobby are around a lot to supervise, but you actually got him excited about fruits. Can you believe he asked his mom to buy mangoes the other day?"

"Actually, that was more Ryan than me, but I catch your point. And we’re happy to have him here. He’s a great kid…"

Eli smiled.

"Usually."

He collapsed just a bit.

"However, I’m guessing that, since you’re talking about this with me, you won’t mind a suggestion."

"With all the kids you’ve raised, I was hoping you could think of something."

"Well, one thing that I’ve found is a good alternative to grounding is what we call seclusion. The boy spends a day – usually one, though occasionally more – in a room, with no visits, no electronics, nothing. I let him have a book, and take his food to him. Besides that, he can spend the day thinking about what he should have done. Starting the day with a spanking is an option, but not required."

Eli’s eyes had grown bigger and bigger as I’d spoken, until it looked like they were going to pop free from his head.

"It’s harsh, but it’s over much more quickly than a grounding."

Todd was nodding, but he wasn’t looking much less dubious than Eli. On the other hand, he might have been considering where he could do it, since he didn’t have any convenient guest rooms in which to put the boy.

"I do have one other option, though…"

They both looked at me expectantly.

"Eli, do you understand why Todd thanks a hand spanking won’t be enough this time."

Eli obviously wanted to argue that it would be, but nodded.

"And do you agree with him that the belt or grounding wouldn’t be good choices?"

He nodded again, a bit happier to be agreeing with me, this time.

"Does that about sum up your thoughts, Todd?"

"Yes, sir," Todd agreed.

"Red."

Todd looked confused. Eli looked as though he wanted to take back his agreement. It’s been a while since he had a meeting with Red, but he obviously remembered it… and not fondly.

"He means that paddle, Dad," Eli explained sickly.

"Do you think Red is worse than the belt, Eli?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "No, sir."

"Do you think that’ll work, Eli?" his father asked.

Eli looked both sick and miserable as he nodded. Mostly, I’m sure he wanted to make one more stab at convincing his dad to try the hand again (or maybe wishing he’d just gotten home on time).

I sent Eli to get a towel and wipe up where he’d been dripping on the hall tile, while Todd and I went to my office.

Besides giving him Red, I also gave him a few hints on how to use it in a way that would make sure that every place got some attention, without giving any one spot too much attention.

As we left the office, Eli was coming back from the sunroom. The floor was already dry, so he must have hung the towel to dry again.

"Thanks a lot, Jack. I’ll have Eli bring this back tomorrow… If he stays out of trouble."

"Don’t worry about it, Todd. I quit using it on Barry, and the twins have their own copy, so you can keep that one."

"Well… thanks again then, and thanks for helping."

"No problem, Todd. And Eli…"

He looked up at me, not looking like he’d been planning to thank me.

"You’ll be more thankful tomorrow, when you’re rear’s not sore and you can go out and play. For now…"

I shrugged.

He shrugged back and nodded.



Eli did show up the next day.

"Jack?"

"Yeah, bud?"

"I am SO not going to thank you for giving Dad the paddle… But thanks for helping me get out of being grounded."

"Well, you’re welcome for that, anyway."







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