Lesson of a Lifetime - Who'll Watch the Watchers Part I

He knew right where to step so the old plank floor wouldn't squeak. Slowly, barely breathing, eight year old Orin crept toward his sister's room. He'd heard the crying and groaning often lately, but wasn't sure what it was. Mornings after the noises, he'd ask his sister why she was crying. She'd just look at the floor. “it's nothin' Orin,” she'd say. “Just mind your own business.”

The door was closed but Pa was mean had and kicked a hole in it one day when mama ran out of beer money. Pa got raving mad when there was no beer in the ice box. The shoe hole was way low. Orin crouched down silently and squinted up into his sister's room.

Not much to see but Pa's fat naked ass pistoning up and down. Bell was sobbing and kept saying, “stop, stop, stop. Please Daddy, you're hurtin' me!” Pa just kept grunting like a pig, raising up and thrusting down. He finally groaned loudly and stopped moving. Pa got up on his knees, and Orin saw his ham like arm go up. There was a loud slap. Bell cried out in pain, then went quiet.

Pa rolled off the bed and muttered, “that was real good, Bell. 'Member, tell your mama and I'll have to kill y'all. Her 'n you 'n yer brother Orin.” He wiped his sweaty face on a filthy tee shirt. “This is our special secret.”

Back in his own bed, Orin lay awake that night thinking about what he'd seen. He couldn't stop thinking about it all the next day. He questioned his older brother “What's a man doing when he sounds like an animal and making a girl cry?”
Wylie told him, and Orin promised himself to get a little girl and try it as soon as he could. He couldn't imagine anything better.

Growing up, Orin enjoyed his new sport every chance he got. When he was sixteen he made a big mistake. A girl who's name he never knew, was more scared of her own pa than Orin's threats. She got home bruised and bloody, and refused to tell her brother or mama how it happened. Then, her daddy came home and swore she'd get another whippin' if she didn't tell him. Through her tears she told what Orin Swank had done.

In the seventies, people in the Florida 'glades frequently meted out their own justice. The seven year old's daddy was a two hundred sixty pound citrus truck driver. He was tough, simple and justice was black and white. When he got done beating Orin Swank unconscious, he thrashed Orin's daddy too. When old man Swank got out of the hospital Orin got yet another beating.

Lying in a white hospital room recovering from cuts, bruises, and a broken leg, Orin swore he's see that no little girl would ever tell on him again.