Pepper looked around at his surroundings in confusion. He was currently standing in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a single thing made by a human within sight. There were a few scrub trees, a lot of dirt, a few cacti, and not much else.
He asked, "Where's the hotel?"
"What hotel?" Donny asked amused by the question.
"You said this is where we are staying for the night," Pepper said.
"That's right," Donny said.
Pepper said, "So where's the hotel?"
"We aren't staying in a hotel," Donny said.
Rose giggled at the expression on Pepper's face.
"So where are we staying?" Pepper asked.
He was beginning to wonder if they were having a problem communicating.
Pointing down at the ground with the forefingers of both hands, Rose said, "Here. We are staying right here."
"There's nothing here," Pepper said blankly. "Where are we supposed to sleep?"
Vincent said, "I swear that he is the dumbest man in the world. I really think we ought to make a call to the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records."
Rose was too busy laughing to make a comment.
Donny said. "We are sleeping on the ground."
"There are liable to be animals around here," Pepper said looking around frantically.
He really didn't like the idea of being around wild animals. He was pretty sure that all wild animals attacked people.
Rose said, "We are in the wilderness. I can guarantee you that there are animals around here."
Worried, Pepper asked, "What will we do if something shows up?"
Donny said, "If it is small and furry, I suggest that you piss on it. If it is big and dangerous, then we'll kill it with our guns. If it is between those two extremes, we'll just hold a world conference to decide what to do."
Rose broke out laughing. She said, "I can just picture Pepper running around after a jack rabbit with his pants around his ankles trying to piss on it."
Vincent chuckled and said, "I can just imagine the head guy at the United Nations getting up in front of the General Assembly and saying, 'A cow showed up at their camp, whatever should they do?' I figure they would come to a decision, a couple of years after the cow dies of old age."
Irritated at being the butt of so many jokes, Pepper said, "Quit making fun of me."
"Stop saying stupid things," Donny said.
"I've never been out in the wilderness," Pepper said in protest of yet another attack against his intelligence.
"Welcome to the real world," Vincent said while gesturing to their surroundings.
Donny said, "Look around you, it doesn't get more real than this. If you strip away the houses, the cars, energy, appliances, tools, and clothes that have become so essential to most people's lives, you're left with you, and this. It doesn't get more basic than that."
"That can't happen to us," Pepper said.
He knew even while protesting that it had just happened to him and he wasn't happy about it.
"It can happen at any time. If you spend enough time out here you'll come to appreciate that civilization is just a thin veneer over what is real. Circumstances can lead you to where it is you and nature. Nature has all of the advantages. There are things that will eat you, weather that will freeze you, and things that you can't see that will make you sick," Donny said.
Vincent said, "You can fight nature, or you can go along with it. If you fight it, you'll lose. If you go along with it, you'll lose. The point is that you'll last a whole lot longer if you go along with it, than if you fight it."
"Old Doc Taylor likes to say that life is a terminal disease -- we're all going to die, someday," Rose said.
Vincent said, "The preacher says that we all owe God a death."
"What we saw in Los Angeles goes against nature. The people there have come to the mistaken conclusion that the veneer is what gives them strength rather than the reality underneath. They posture and pose while spouting ideas that just don't hold water. They've never learned the basics," Donny said.
Pepper asked, "What are the basics?"
Rose looked over at Donny and smiled.
She said, "You live so that you can raise a family."
"You protect the family, so that it survives," Vincent said.
"You protect what is yours so that your family can grow," Donny said.
He put an arm around Rose and hugged her.
Rose said, "You sacrifice yourself, so that those you love can live."
"That's the simple version of the basics," Vincent said with a smile. "It's the implementation that gets a little complicated."
Looking at the sun, Donny said, "Speaking of implementation, I suggest we get camp set up before night falls. I don't want to go looking for firewood in the dark."
Pepper's store carried charcoal in paper bags and little bundles of firewood wrapped in plastic.
He asked, "Where will we buy firewood?"
Shaking his head, Donny asked, "Do you see that tree over there?"
"Yes."
"What is that stuff under it?"
"Branches that have fallen off the tree," Pepper asked.
"Those branches burn," Donny said. "There's our firewood."
"Oh," Pepper said. "What about the owner?"
"If the owner comes by, we'll politely ask him if we can stay the night here," Donny answered.
"What if he says no?"
Vincent said, "We will apologize for having trespassed and then we'll pack up and go."
Seeing that Pepper was about to ask another question, Rose said, "Before you ask, we'll take turns driving through the night."
"Dumbest man in the world," Vincent said looking up at the sky.
Glaring at Vincent, Pepper said, "I'm sorry. When I travel, I stay in hotels and eat in restaurants like you're supposed to. I don't park out in the middle of nowhere and burn branches to cook my food."
Donny went over to the car and returned to stand behind Pepper. He grabbed Pepper and pulled him to the ground. Pepper squawked like a hen at finding himself being manhandled. Vincent went over and sat down on Pepper's legs. Donny went around to Pepper's feet and put on a pair of hobbles with ankle cuffs that locked.
Once the ankle cuffs were in place, Donny said, "You can get off him now."
Indignant, Pepper asked, "What did you do that for?"
While unlocking the wrist cuffs, Donny answered, "We don't want you to run off when we free your hands."
"Oh," Pepper said watching what Donny was doing.
After the locks had been removed, Donny undid the strap on one of the cuffs.
He said, "You can get the other one yourself."
"I never thought I'd be able to move my arms again," Pepper said working on the other cuff.
"You'll have plenty of opportunity to move your hands," Donny said. He pointed to the tree and said, "You're in charge of collecting firewood."
Pepper looked over at the tree. He didn't want to collect firewood. He wasn't even sure what it meant.
He was about to object when Vincent said, "Do it. Don't complain. Just do it."
"I can only move my feet eight inches," Pepper said after trying to take a step forward.
"Then I suggest you carry as much wood as possible each trip," Donny said. "We need enough to burn for three hours."
"How much wood is that?" Pepper asked.
"Just keep bringing wood until we tell you to stop," Rose said.
"I'll get out the sleeping bags," Donny said.
"I'll make the fire pit," Vincent said.
"I'll get the stuff for dinner," Rose said.
Rose always ended up getting the stuff for dinner whenever they went camping.
She looked over at Vincent and asked, "Who makes dinner when I'm not camping with you?"
"We eat it raw," Vincent said with a wink.
Donny said, "I do."
Everyone went to work on their various tasks. Pepper shuffled his way slowly to the tree and looked around at the branches. He reached down and picked up a thick one. It was so old and dry that it broke. He picked up the rest of the branch, which broke into two lengths of four feet or so. He carried the three pieces back to camp.
Vincent looked up at him and said, "You'll need to carry more than that each trip. You should try for three times that much each load."
Pepper made his way back to the tree shuffling with six-inch steps.
He mumbled, "They are making me do all of the heavy work. It is not fair. I didn't do anything to deserve this."
He picked up a bunch of branches and headed for the campsite. He had to be careful not to trip over anything while shuffling his way back.
He muttered, "They're treating me like a slave. I don't have to do this. I'm not going to do this."
When Pepper reached the camp, he threw the branches to the ground. He crossed his arms and, like a petulant little child, announced, "I'm not doing this."
Vincent looked over at the car and said, "Rose, get the switch."
Rose climbed out of the car carrying a long horsewhip. She tried to hand it to Vincent, but he said, "Keep it for now. Donny!"
Donny and Vincent picked up Pepper and carried him over to the front of the car. They pushed him down so that he was bent over at the waist with his hands resting on the hood. They held onto his arms to keep him there.
Donny said, "Give him five to start with, Rose. If he still refuses to work, give him an additional ten. If he still refuses, give him an additional twenty."
"Let me go," Pepper shouted.
"You want me to do it?" Rose asked.
She swung the whip back and forth making a nice whishing sound. Pepper didn't think much of the sound.
"We're holding him down," Vincent answered.
Pepper was struggling to get loose, but his actions were not successful at all.
"You can't possibly intend to hit me with that thing," Pepper said his voice was an octave higher than normal.
His head was spinning at the idea he was actually going to be whipped. This was barbaric. His parents had never spanked him when he was a kid. It was their belief that they could talk him into behaving nicely.
Rose asked, "What do you do to a slave that is misbehaving?"
"According to those history books we read in school, you are supposed to whip the slave," Donny answered.
"I'm not a slave," Pepper said. Of course the leg restraints and being held down like that tended to argue against his claim.
Vincent said, "I think he changed his mind about working for us until Sonny comes home. We can just shoot him here."
"I haven't changed my mind," Pepper said.
A bolt of fear shot through him. He was positive that they would kill him and leave him there for the coyotes.
He growled at Rose and said, "Do it, bitch."
Rose was going to be firm, but gentle until Pepper had added that last word. She wound up and laid one across his butt with every ounce of strength she possessed. There was the thwack of the whip when it hit, a short moment of silence, and then a bloodcurdling scream when the pain finally registered. He was lucky that he was still wearing his pants, or his ass would have been cut by the blow.
Vincent said, "Don't forget to count and thank her."
"One, thank you," Pepper managed to get out.
He had never experienced anything so painful in his entire life.
Rose let loose with another swing of the whip. Pepper screamed even louder this time. Tears started flowing from his eyes.
After taking a couple of breaths and further prompting by Vincent, he said, "Two, thank you."
By the fifth swing, Pepper was sobbing.
When it struck, he screamed out, "Five, thank you."
Vincent asked, "Are you going to collect firewood or do we have to give you ten more?"
"I'll collect the firewood," Pepper said. He honestly believed that he would not survive another ten strikes of the whip.
The two men released him. He staggered backwards finding that the chain was making it hard to keep upright.
Donny said, "Then get to work."
When Pepper was out of earshot, Vincent looked over at Rose and said, "If Donny doesn't propose soon, Calvin and I can hold him for you. I bet it would only take fifty swings of the whip before he was begging you to marry him."
"That's not a bad idea," Rose said swinging the whip menacingly. She grinned at Donny and asked, "What do you think of the idea?"
"I'm trembling in my boots," Donny said dryly.
"Ooh, tough man," Vincent said.
"I'm a smart man," Donny said. "I'll start begging her to marry me, before the first swing."
Rose laughed. Her laughter died when she looked down at the whip. She asked, "Were we too hard on him?"
"I don't think we were hard enough," Donny said. "He's got a lot of garbage to get rid of in his head. At least he finally tried to show a little spirit."
"Miniscule amount of spirit. He looked like a five year old boy about to have a temper tantrum," Rose said.
Donny said, "I'll never forget the first time that Uncle Dan took a switch to me. I mouthed off to my momma, and he overheard me. He gave me five licks with it. Each time he had me say that I would respect my elders. It hurt like the dickens."
Rose said, "My mom was the one that disciplined me. She had an old wooden paddleball paddle that she had gotten from somewhere. I decided one day that I wasn't going to do my chores. She would hit me with that paddle, explain how everyone had to pull their weight, and then ask me if I was going to do my chores. I lasted until the eighth one before I decided that doing chores was a better alternative."
"Dad used a big old leather belt on me. He would double that belt up so that when it hit it would make this really loud sound. He'd just lay that old belt across my butt so hard that the world would spin. All he had to do was reach for it and I was already feeling it. I used to lay awake at night dreaming of burning that belt," Vincent said.
"I remember that belt," Rose said.
She could remember Vincent and Calvin yelling when her daddy was punishing them.
"He's still got it," Vincent said.
Rose laughed and said, "I figured you or Calvin would have hidden it away from him by now."
While watching Pepper pick up some more firewood, Vincent said, "I used to think that Dad was really angry when he took the belt to us. Then one day I heard him talking to Mom after he had lit into Calvin. He was saying how much he hated punishing us like that, but the fastest way to a boy's brain was through his butt. He sent Mom over to Calvin to comfort him a little."
"Dad used to comfort me after Mom paddled my ass," Rose said.
"Dad was never angry when he punished me. If he had hit me with that belt when I was five with the same force he used when I was twelve, I would have died. Nope, he hit just hard enough to really hurt and not do any damage," Vincent said.
Rose said, "I was watching television and they were talking about spanking being a form of child abuse. They were saying that a parent was supposed to discuss the matter with the child in a logical adult fashion. I don't know about that. All of us kids were stubborn as Missouri mules. Talking to us like adults would have been about as effective as talking to a wall."
Donny said, "When I was a little kid, my Dad was the one who punished me when I was bad. After he died, I kind of figured that I could get away with anything. Dan and Joe set me straight on that idea. Dan was always a little harder on me and Sonny than Joe. I realize now that I could have turned into a real mean bastard if they hadn't stepped in to administer the occasional whipping."
"There were times when I did something knowing that if my Dad ever learned of it that he would blister my butt. I did it anyway, but I knew even while doing it that I was doing wrong," Vincent said. There weren't shades of gray. He knew right from wrong very early in life.
"I know what you mean," Rose said. "When I was caught, I knew what was coming. The weird thing is that even when I wasn't caught I felt bad after doing something wrong. I'd look at Mom and Dad and think that they would be so disappointed in me. After a while, I just stopped doing things that I knew were wrong."
Donny said, "Someone should have paddled Pepper's butt when he was a kid. He might have grown up knowing that actions have consequences. If he had known that, Sonny wouldn't be in trouble, and Pepper wouldn't be a slave."
"We better get back to setting up camp. It is going to be dark soon," Vincent said.
The three of them went to do their chores knowing that everyone had to pull their weight. It was a lesson they had learned early in life.