I had been hauling water in a bucket into the field where a seedling tree was being planted. There was a hose for that purpose, but it was in use on the other side of the village. This tree was not in reach of the automatic sprinklers and it was drying out. I had been carrying water to it until another solution was found.
It was hot, around noon. I got the water from a standing spigot near the forge. I set the bucket down on the ground behind me and leaned my head into the flow of water. I was wearing a shirt made of cotton, unbuttoned in the front. The water felt good running through my hair and soaking into the shirt. I let it go on for almost a minute.
There was a crash behind me and I bumped my head when I raised it up too quickly under the faucet. I turned and saw a woman sprawled on her face in the duet. She was turning over slowly, holding her knee. I realized with a sinking feeling that she had tripped over the bucket I had carelessly left on the concrete express lane. Think of it: ambling along on ground that you trust to be free of all obstruction, suddenly you're sitting on the ground. Their system would only work with trust, and it had to be total; everybody had to be responsible all the time. I had been accepted into that trust and I had blown it. I felt sick.
She had a nasty scrape on her left knee that was oozing blood. She felt it with her hands, sitting there on the ground, and she began to howl. It was weird, painful. Tears came from her eyes, then she pounded her fists on the ground, going "Hunnnh, hunnnh, hunnnh!" with each blow. She was angry, and she had every right to be.
She found the pail as I hesitantly reached out for her. She grabbed my hand and followed it up to my face: She felt my face, crying all the time, then wiped her nose and got up. She started off for one of the buildings. She limped slightly.
I sat down and felt miserable. I didn't know what to do.
One of the men 'came out to get me. It was Big Man. I called him that because he was the tallest person at Keller. He wasn't any sort of policeman, I found out later; he was just the first one the injured woman had met. He took my hand and felt my face. I saw tears start when he felt the emotions there. He asked me to come inside with him.
An impromptu panel had been convened. Call it a jury. It was made up of anyone who was handy, including a few children. There were ten or twelve of them. Everyone looked very sad. The woman I had hurt was there, being consoled by three or four people. I'll call her Scar, for the prominent mark on her upper arm.
Everybody kept tailing me-in handtalk, you underatandhow sorry they were for me. They petted and stroked me, trying to draw some of the misery away.
Pink came racing in. She had been sent for to act as a translator if needed. Since this was a formal proceeding it was necessary that they be sure I understood everything that happened. She went to Scar and cried with her for a bit, then came to me and embraced me fiercely, telling me with her hands how sorry she was that this had happened. I was already figuratively packing my bags. Nothing seemed to be left but the formality of expelling me.
Then we all sat together on the floor. We were close, touching on all aides. The hearing began.
Most of it was in handtalk, with Pink throwing in a few words here and there. I seldom knew who said what, but that was appropriate. It was the group speaking as one. No statement reached me without already. having become a consensus.
"You are accused of having violated the rules," said the group, "and of having been the cause of an injury to (the one I called Scar). Do you dispute this? Is there any fact that we should know"
"No," I told them. "I was responsible. It was my carelessness."
"We understand. We sympathize with you in your remorse, which is evident to all of us. Hut carelessness is a violation. Do you understand this? This is the offense for which you are (-)." It was a set of signals in shorthand.
"What was that?" I asked Pink.
"Uh...'brought before us'? 'Standing trial'?" She shrugged, not happy with either interpretation.
"Yes. I understand."
"The facts not being in question, it is agreed that you are guilty." (" `Responsible,"' Pink whispered in my ear.) "Withdraw from us a moment while we come to a decision."
I got up and stood by the wall, not wanting to look at them ath d b te went back and forth through the joined hands.
I "e ae )a There was a burning lump in my throat that I could not swallow. Then I was asked to rejoin the circle.
"The penalty for your offense is set by custom. If it were not so, we would wish we could rule otherwise. You now r.-have the choice of accepting the punishment designated and having the offense wiped away, or of refusing our jurisdiction and withdrawing your body from our land. What is your choice?" a I had Pink repeat this to me, because it was so important that I know what was being offered. When I was sure I had read it right, I accepted their punishment without hesitation. I was very grateful to have been given an alternative.
"Very well. You have elected to be treated as we would treat one of our own who had done the same act. Come to
Everyone drew in closer. I was not told what was going to happen. I was drawn in and nudged gently from all directions.
Scar was sitting with her legs crossed more or less in the center of the group. She was crying again, and so was I, I think. It's hard to remember. I ended up face down across her lap. She spanked me.
I never once thought of it as improbable or strange. It I flowed naturally out of the situation. Everyone .was holding on to me and caressing me, spelling assurances into my palms and legs and neck and cheeks. We were all crying. It was a difficult thing that had to be faced by the whole group.
Others drifted in and joined us. I understood that this punishment came from everyone there, but only the offended person, Scar, did the actual spanking. That was one of the ways I had wronged her, beyond the fact of giving her a scraped knee. I had laid on her the obligation of disciplining me and that was why she had sobbed so loudly, not from the pain of her injury, but from the pain of knowing~she wouldhave to hurt me.
Pink later told me that Scar had been the staunchest advocate of giving me the option to stay. Some had wantedto expel me outright, but she paid me the compliment of. thinking I was a good enough person to be worth putting herself and me through the ordeal. If you can't understand= that, you haven't grasped the feeling of community I felt among these people.
It went on for a long time. It was very painful, but not cruel. Nor was it primarily humiliating. There was some of that, of course. But it was essentially a practical lesson taught: in the most direct terms. Each of them had undergone it during the first months, but none recently. You learned from it, believe me.
I did s lot of thinking about it afterward. I tried to think of what else they might have done. Spanking grown people is :. really unheard of, you know, though that didn't occur to me until long after it had happened. It seemed so natural when it was going on that the thought couldn't even enter my mind that this was a weird situation to be in.
They did something like this with the children, but not as long or as hard. Responsibility was lighter for the younger : ~a ones. The adults were willing to put up with an occasional bruise or scraped knee while the children learned.
But when you reached what they thought of as adulthood-_ r which was whenever a majority of the adults thought you . had or when you assumed the privilege yourself-that's when the spanking really got serious.