My Other Amazing Brother

           

Brandon          Stec 3

One Of My Amazing Brothers: Random Memories of an Amazing Brother

         One of my brothers, Ted, joined our family when I was three.  He had the entire family wrapped around his finger right away. His precious smile and innocent eyes warmed my mom and dad's heart when they picked him up. We were inseparable right away and I could tell Ted anything. Ted told me lots of secrets too, like the time when mom put extra veggies on his plate, he would hide them under napkin so she wouldn't be upset. She always wants us eating healthy. The instant bond between us was truly one of my favorite parts of my childhood. Pretty soon we were going to preschool together and mom was taking us on car rides together.

         One time mom tried to leave Ted at home to rest and take me to the doctor. I screamed my head off until she ran in and corralled my brother and Ted sat next to me as the doctor did all of his tests and gave me shots. I squeezed his hand so hard I thought it would break when the doctor brought that little needle close to my arm. He was my bravery and I did the same for him when the doctor finished with me. Sometimes he'd volunteer to go first, so I wouldn't be as scared about the shot I was also getting. My brother was strong like that.

         Ted's creative stories and jokes at night often keep me awake longer than mom and dad like, but we'd giggle under the blankets and pretend we are camping. Ted told me his scary stories and I'd yelp at the punch line, and then laugh because Ted gave me the same smile every time he scares me. When the thunder and lightning of a storm scared me, he never laughed because he was scared too. As we got older, we got over it.

My neighbor and friend, Chucky, always wants to play with Ted and usually Ted says yes and will play cops and robbers with us or whatever else we wanted to do, but one time Chucky was a little rough with my little brother and he hurt his arm. I cried and screamed for mom and she came running as usual. When she saw what was wrong with Ted, she comforted me and Chucky and said she'll take care of him and he will be ready to play the next day. Ted was always quick to recover and as we got older, he got more bumps and bruises.

Ted was as good an amazing brother could be. His jokes were always funny to me. He loved the same TV shows as I did, especially Power Rangers and Barney the Dinosaur. I outgrew those shows before he did, but every once in a while we would watch anyways. Ted was also a really good athlete. He never won a wrestling match against his big brother, but we had some epic battles between Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker. I was The Undertaker because he was stronger and bigger than Hulk Hogan. We even made t-shirts but Ted's got ripped and mom threw it away the next day. She was not pleased when we left the t-shirt paint in the garage and Ted got covered in a rainbow of colors. He had to take a couple baths just to get the paint out, but he didn't complain. He always said baths were like having a private pool and every time Ted took a bath I went in next because I wanted to swim too. Even though he was younger, I always thought he had the best answers to the hardest questions.

When we lost Grandpa when I was 10, Ted was the only person I talked to about it. We were both sad, and didn't understand what happened. He comforted me by saying that Grandpa will be sleeping and waiting for the rest of the family in his happy place. He made me smile that day and his goofy smile never disappeared. Even when Ted didn't hit his growth spurt like I did, he was still able to keep up with me and when I learned to ride my bike and dad let go of the seat, I could hear my brother cheering me on and giving me the confidence to go on. What I didn't know is this would be the beginning of us losing touch with each other. I began to make new friends and going on bike rides. Since Ted didn't have a bike, he couldn't go with, so he would sit in our room and wait for his big brother to come home. I'd leave him for longer and longer periods of time until my confidence to grow and learn without my little brother became obsolete. One night I finally told him. We cried and hugged, but he was happy for me and to this day he is one of my biggest supporters. Occasionally I think back to our days of riding the dog, leaving a mess everywhere, and playing tricks on dad by hiding his briefcase so he couldn't leave to go to work and when I think of these times, I always smile and even laugh at how crazy we were as kids.

Ted has been with me many years and even if he is not there during a track meet or a basketball game or even my high school graduation, I know Ted is happy for me and his life has a purpose on its own. His skills were always vast so when he'd sing me a lullaby and create crazy jokes when I was hurt, I'd always known he was the best brother a guy could have.

My childhood best friend, younger brother was always family, but he's also always going to be my Teddy Bear for whom I spent my childhood learning to grow up until I was able to learn and pretend on my own. He is a keepsake. Every child had a best friend or brother that was a stuffed animal or something significant to them. They should never forget that family member, because even if it seems silly at the age of 28, it was amazing to have that brother or friend at the age of 8. Although this is fictional it still hits home as my favorite Teddy Bear still belongs to my family and I remember vividly enjoying having that piece of my family as I learned to be a part of the world.







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