Read Online John Fitzgerald by Me, My Little Brain - Free Book Online Page A

shoe," I said.
        I gave him another hard whack. "That
was for kicking me on the shins," I said.
         I
gave him another good whack. "That was for kicking me on the shins,"
I said.
        I gave him another whack. "That was
for belting me on the head with the stick of firewood," I said.
        Then I gave him three hard whacks in a row.
"That was for throwing rocks at me," I said.
        Frankie let out a scream. That made me feel
good because I knew I was hurting the little monster.
        I gave him three more hard whacks while he
screamed bloody murder. "That was for letting the livestock and chickens
out," I said.
        He was really bawling as I gave him three
more whacks just in case I'd forgotten anything. Then I let him go.
        He ran crying and yelling out of the
woodshed. I walked out after him. Mamma and Aunt Bertha had heard him and were
running toward the woodshed, Aunt Bertha in the lead.
    "John
spanked me!" Frankie screamed.
        Aunt Bertha stooped over and held out her
arms. Frankie ran right by her and into Mamma's arms, carrying on as if I'd
tried to murder him.
        It took me more than an hour to round up
the livestock and chickens. Then it was time to go inside and discover what my
punishment would be for spanking Frankie.
        I walked to the back porch and into the
kitchen. It was empty. I could hear Papa's voice in the parlor and I thought Mamma
must not have been able to wait till suppertime for him to hand down his
punishment. She must have telephoned him and told him I'd spanked Frankie. I
squared my shoulders. I felt like a man going to face a firing squad as I
walked into the parlor.
         Mamma
was sitting in her maple rocker holding Frankie on her lap. Papa was sitting in
his rocking chair. Aunt Bertha and Doctor LeRoy were
sitting on the couch. Instead of hostile looks I was greeted by smiling faces.
I couldn't figure it out. And I'll be a yellow blackbird if Papa didn't take
out his purse and remove a silver dollar and hold it out toward me.
    "You did it,
J.D.," Papa said.
        I was so stunned I couldn't think straight.
"Did what?" I asked.
        "The spanking you gave Frankie made
him cry," Papa said, "and that enabled him to let out all the grief
and terror bottled up inside him. You broke his mental block and made him
remember."
    I took the dollar
from Papa and sat down.
        "Does he remember what happened in Red
Rock Canyon?" I asked.
    "I
remember," Frankie said.
        Mamma kissed Frankie on the top of the
head. "He was hysterical for about half an hour," she said.
"Just crying and screaming. And then he began to talk. He remembers
everything now."
        I was so curious I thought I would burst.
"Will somebody please tell me how Frankie escaped from the
landslide?" I pleaded.
        Dr. LeRoy said,
"Let him tell you himself, John. The more he talks about it the
better."
        Frankie slid off Mamma's lap and walked
over and stood in front of me. "You spanked me, John," he said,
"but I'll tell you anyway."
        I watched his eyes, red from crying, grow
wide and his lips begin to tremble.
         "Papa said we were going to town for
supplies," he said. "Mamma didn't want to go because it was raining.
Papa said we had to go. In the canyon was a big rock on the road so the wagon
couldn't pass. Papa got the crowbar from the wagon. Papa always took a crowbar
to move the big rocks when we went to town. Papa started to move the big rock.
My brother Willie and me were standing in the road
watching. There was a noise like a big thunder. Willie grabbed my hand and we
began running up the road. Willie looked back. He said the slide was below the
wagon and he was going back to help Papa unhitch the team because they couldn't
turn the wagon around on the road. Willie told me to keep running up the road
until I couldn't run any more."
        Frankie began to breathe heavily as he
relived the terrible experience. "I kept running until I heard a big