All Over in an Instant

"Mom, tell Aaron it's my turn to play the x-box!"
"Nope, not your turn. Go play your baby games, you baby."
"Mommmmm!"

Lorna grimly closed her accounting books and sighed. The boys had been home from school less than twenty minutes and were at it already. She had known working was futile with them around, but tax season was coming up and she needed to be ready. If only they could get along together, maybe even act like brothers -

Sam's piercing scream shook her into action. The kids met her in the hallway: Sam holding his hand over an invisible injury to his forehead and sobbing for effect; Aaron protesting, "It wasn't my fault, mom, he shouldn't have had his head there!" Lorna had been here before; she knew reasoning was futile and that they would only begin to calm down if separated. She took Aaron by the arm and directed him through his bedroom door. Sam's cries quieted immediately at the perceived punishment of his older brother. He took his hand from his face and looked tearfully at his mother.

"Where does your head hurt, Sam?" Lorna asked, more patiently than she felt.

"Um - here," Sam pointed in hesitation to his temple - nowhere near where his hand had been a moment before.

"Okay. Well you aren't bleeding. I don't even see a bump. How about you two just eat your snack and go outside for a while? And I don't want to hear any fighting. You're brothers, you're supposed to love each other!"

She could almost hear their eyes rolling.

***

With Sam and Aaron busy outdoors and the house echoing peace, Lorna thought about the fight - about the endless fights. The boys had gotten along so well just a couple of years ago, but once Sam entered first grade the bickering started. They had been born so close together - just fifteen months between them - and Lorna had dreamed of them growing up as best friends, the way she and her sister had. Her husband, an only child, was surprised when the kids began clashing so strongly, but he said they would grow out of it. He missed the worst fights, anyway; when he was around they were entertained with hockey or baseball or other 'boy stuff' and seemed to get along fine. But Lorna still worried. What if they never became friends, if they spent their lives missing out on the closeness she shared with her own family?

Half an hour after the boys had gone outside, Lorna heard Sam yelling her name from across the yard. As he clambered through the back door, she recognized the panic in his voice.

"Mom! Aaron fell through the ice! Hurry!"

Lorna jumped hastily into the nearest pair of boots and pulled them on as she ran out the door. Sam was sobbing real tears now. They ran towards the far corner of the yard where a slope ran into the woods. There was a small river less than ten yards in; Sam and Aaron were not supposed to go further than the edge of the woods alone. As Lorna reached the creek she saw Aaron's head slide under the ice as he fought the current, his green mitten clinging to the broken edge within an arm's reach of the bank. She quickly pulled him out, crying tears of relief as he gasped for breath through purple lips.

With Aaron safely in bed after a warm bath, Lorna's hands still shook as she made supper for the rest of the family. Sam, his eyes still wide with concern, sat on a chair near his brother's bed for the rest of the evening. He left the room only in Aaron's interest: to ask for hot chocolate, another blanket, or for his father to turn down the T.V. because "Aaron might get a headache." When Lorna went in to find Sam at bedtime, she found Aaron reading him facts about dinosaurs from a book. Lorna's concern over the earlier incident was almost eclipsed at the sight of her sons finally befriending each other.

***

The next morning, Lorna woke her husband to show him that the silence had lasted. She blissfully imagined a future of brotherly love, shared toys, excellent manners, Mother's Day roses -

"Mom! He ate the last of the Lucky Charms and now there's only Corn Flakes left and I hate Corn Flakes ..."