A Father’s Duty    Three discussions between a father and his sons…  Just how did they get so smart…   

Rating – K – Intended for general audience 5 years and older. (4,725 words)

A Father’s Duty

Adam

Fourteen years old …

Ben supposed it was rather early to be having this talk with his eldest son, but Adam was such a mature boy and with his thick dark hair Ben suspected that he was going to have need of a razor earlier than most. As to the rest of it, he had no way of knowing just what the youngster knew and it was his fatherly duty to make sure that he filled in any gaps for him in spite of his reluctance to do so.

This was something that Ben had not been looking forward to. He had always had such a close relationship with Adam that he supposed it should come easy to him to talk to the boy in this way, but still he was embarrassed and at a loss as to how to express what the boy would need to know. He had steeled himself for this moment and now that it had come he felt quite anxious about it. Still … a man had to do what a man had to do … and Ben Cartwright had never been a man to shirk his fatherly responsibilities, no matter how difficult they were. He owed it to his son to have this conversation with him and have it he would!

Ben took a deep breath before opening the door of Adam’s bedroom. “Are you busy son?” he asked, hoping that the answer might be yes and he would have an excuse to put this off.

Adam looked up. “No,” he said. “I’m just reading.”

Ben nodded and closed the door behind him. He walked over to the window and began to fiddle with the curtains that hung there. Adam watched him silently for a minute. “Is there something wrong Pa?” he asked finally.

Ben shook his head. “No,” he said and then cleared his throat. “I just thought that you and I might have a bit of talk, that’s all.”

Adam closed his book and looked at his father expectantly, but when Ben began to fiddle with the curtains again, Adam spoke. “Have I done something wrong?” he asked.

Ben shook his head again. “No son,” he said. “I just thought that we might talk about …” he cleared his throat again and then came and sat opposite to Adam on the bed. “You’re growing up fast,” he began.

Adam grinned. “Thanks Pa,” he said proudly.

Ben nodded. “Yes.”  There was silence for another moment. “Well … what I wanted to talk to you about is … um … well …. when a boy grows up there are certain things that … well, I thought you and I should have a talk about growing up,” he said. Adam waited, looking somewhat puzzled while Ben cleared his throat again. “There are … um … certain things that you might need to … well … know,” he said. He stopped and cleared his throat yet again. “Things about … well … about your body to begin with …. and well  … girls and things like that,” he continued.

Adam nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I know those things.”

Ben gave his son a strange look. “You do?” he asked.

Adam nodded eagerly. “Yeah,” he said. He reached up and took a book off the shelf above his head. “There’s lots of information in this book,” he said eagerly ruffling through the pages to find it.

Ben looked somewhat taken aback. “What book is that?” he asked.

Adam held it up so that his father could see the front cover. “It’s a biology book,” he said. “It’s one of the ones that Mr Hudson my teacher lent me.” He continued to look through it. “There’s some … here are they!” he said, showing Ben the pages. “See Pa? These are diagrams of the human body.”

Ben nodded. “I see,” he said. “But surely they don’t … it doesn’t have anything about …”

Adam looked up. “About puberty?” he asked. “That’s what it’s called you know Pa … it says so in the book. No, not really … but you can work it out if you look at these diagrams here. See?” He thrust the book under Ben’s nose. “They have adult male and female ones.” Ben nodded feebly, not quite knowing what to say next. Thankfully, Adam didn’t sound the least bit embarrassed about the topic, but Ben wasn’t quite sure that this was the way that this conversation was supposed to go. He suddenly felt as if he needed to take charge of it as a father and guide the conversation. Before he could open his mouth, however, Adam spoke again. “Do you need to know something about this Pa?” he asked. “You can borrow the book if you like.”

“No thank you,” said Ben quickly. “I know all that son.”

Adam grinned sheepishly at his father and gave a short laugh. “Yeah, I suppose you do,” he acknowledged.

Ben cleared his throat again. “I was really wondering if you had any questions about … well … reproduction,” he said, for want of another term.

Adam gave his father a quizzical look. “No,” he said. “It’s fairly obvious, isn’t it?”

“Obvious?” Ben replied weakly.

“Sure,” said Adam. “If you look at these diagrams and then think about what the animals around here do, it’s obvious.” He gave his father an intense look. “Was that what you wanted to talk to me about Pa?”

Ben blinked a couple of times. “I thought you might need to know some details,” he said.

“No thanks,” said Adam casually. “I’m fine. It’s all rather logical anyway, isn’t it … once you put all the information together?”

“I suppose so,” said Ben, wiping his hand over his face. “You … um … well, there is one other thing.”

Adam looked at his father expectantly. “Yeah?” he asked.

“Well I know that fourteen is rather young,” began Ben. “But you really will begin shaving soon. You’re going to need a …”

“I’ve been using your razor already,” interrupted Adam. “I didn’t think that you’d mind.”

Ben looked aghast. “You’re already …”

Adam ran his hand over his chin. “I guess I could do with my own razor if you don’t want me using yours,” he said. “I just didn’t want to bother you about it.”

Ben was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he said finally. “We can get you one when we go to town next week.” There was silence between them again.

“Is there anything else Pa?” asked Adam.

“No son, I don’t think so,” replied Ben. “Only … you will ask me if you have any questions, won’t you?”

“Sure,” said Adam, opening his book again. “Only I don’t think I will have any. This book kinda gives lots of information. If I think of anything though, I’ll let you know.”

“You do that son,” said Ben, gratefully standing up. “Well … goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” said Adam casually as he began to read again.

Ben left the boy’s bedroom and walked down the hall to his own room where Marie was rocking their toddler son Little Joe in a chair near the window. “How did it go?” she asked.

Ben sat down on the bed and shrugged his shoulders. “Fine,” he said. “I really didn’t need to talk to him at all. He’s got a biology book from his teacher and he says that the rest of it is just logical.” He thought for a moment. “Do you know that the boy is already shaving? He didn’t even tell me … said he didn’t want to bother me.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Marie with a chuckle.

“You’re not?”

“No,” she said. “You know what Adam’s like … very independent and mature. He probably didn’t really feel he needed your help.”

Ben sighed. “Well, that was the one thing out of all of this that I was actually not dreading,” he said. “A father should have the chance to teach his son how to shave after all.”

Marie smiled at him. “Don’t look so miserable my love,” she said. “You’ve still got two more sons to teach yet. I’m sure that they will give you the chance to teach them.” She kissed the now-sleeping Joe on her lap. “Strange to think of this little one ever getting to that age,” she added.

Ben smiled tenderly at the beautiful picture his wife and little boy made. “Well, hopefully by the time I have to have this talk with young Joseph here, I’ll be quite the expert,” he said. “Even if Adam didn’t need me … at least I’ll have had practise with Hoss by then.”

Marie nodded. “Yes,” she agreed. “I’m sure that you’ll have had practise with Hoss.”