Taking Advantage of a Brother

I thought that this deserved it's own entry since this was a classic, very classic moment in my childhood, one that is clear as day and I think there might be a lesson learned in there somewhere.

The summer months and the times off from school would be spent doing whatever we could think of and when there was nothing else to do and it wasn't raining, we would be skating.  The norm was to skate down the hill on "53rd."  John and I were the ones who were "chicken" and who usually played it safe most of the time, this meant that when going down that hill (or skating in the street at all) we would be the ones that stayed as close to the parked cars as possible so we didn't get hit by the cars that were moving in the middle of the road.  The jokes would come from Ody and Michael, well actually in hindsight, they actually weren't jokes and they were more of a warning.  The concern was that we were riding so close to the parked cars trying to be safe that we were going to end up hitting the parked cars or the side mirrors and get hurt that way.  John and I thought that we were the masters of our own domain and there was no way that was going to happen, we were just being safe!

Until one day (you were waiting for that weren't you?) John was going down 53rd and towards the middle of the hill he clipped the side mirror and lost his balance.  He wasn't going that fast if we take a look at it now, but when we're that young, going down 53rd was as if we were going 75 MPH!  So as John was going 75 MPH and him losing control by hitting the side mirror, he fell to the street and rolled and rolled ... and rolled ... and rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill.  He laid there in the street with blood and cuts from falling down not moving.  We quickly came down and saw if he was alright and he said that he couldn't move, not from breaking any bones or anything to do with paralysis ... but from the pain of all the cuts he had from falling and rolling down the street.  We found a way to transport him back up the hill and to the house, I think we put him on his board and rolling him back since he couldn't move.

He stayed in his bed and started to watch Baywatch ... or Knight Rider as we were standing around his bed looking at him moaning in pain.  It was as if we were visiting someone in the hospital as we were there "visiting" John ... his brother was in the proper place by standing right next to his left side.  We talked to him and tried to make him laugh, but there was no laughter since he was in pain and couldn't move much, but we did talk to him and tried to cheer him up.

Michael being the caring brother that he is, asked John how he was doing and John would answer back with a moan and then telling him that he was in pain and couldn't move.  Michael again with this voice of concern asked him if he was alright and asked him if he could move even just a little bit but John said that he couldn't because of all the pain that he was in.  Michael is a very sharing and caring brother, so as what any other brother would do in this situation, he would share something with John, something so close and so intimate.  As John was on the left edge of the bed and Michael by his side, Michael turned around with his back towards John and silently let some of that flatulence (fart) come out right by John's head!  There was an immediate reaction from John as he smelled it right away, but he couldn't move out of the way of the fart that was consuming his entire body!  John struggled and struggled as we stood there laughing at his efforts, but he couldn't get away, the mixture of the pain and the smell was just too much for him, so he just laid there ... trying to blow the air away from his face.  That's all he could do ... as he cursed at Michael for being too sharing that day.  

So is there a lesson to be learned from this?  Don't play it too safe, because if you do, you'll end up hitting the side mirror and roll all the way down the hill where you'll get cuts all over your body and can't move, then your brother will take advantage and fart in your face as all you can do it take it all in.

+ mon