Page 79 - Reason To Sing by Kelita Haverland

Chapter Thirteen

My Big Brother

I have so very many memories of my eldest brother. Jimmy.
Jimmy had a ferocious appetite for raw potatoes and
science fiction novels, and he’d be up all night devouring both,
flashlight under his blankets. Down in the dungeon.
He was outgoing, charismatic and extremely mysterious.
Everyone was drawn to him, including me. But he was also
called the black sheep of the family. I’m not really sure why. All
I know is that he was a ‘handful’ as a child and both my mother
and Grannie use the term ‘holy terror.’ Jimmy even had to wear
a harness when our mother took him anywhere in public or
he would run wild. Then there’s the story he and Frankie were
playing with matches and burned down the big barn on the
farm. I wonder if they got the wooden spoon or the strap that
day? I have a feeling it might have been both! Glad I wasn’t
born yet.
In his teenage years the troubles with Jimmy got worse.
I remember more than once hearing Mommy cry because of
Jimmy and Frankie. I never really knew why. There were always
so many secrets in our family.
I think Jimmy lived in his own fantasy world. I guess that’s
where some of the mystery came in. He’d go off riding bareback
for hours at a time and when he’d return, his face would be
streaked with red and white war paint like a native Indian.
He always wore a white bull’s horn attached to a leather strap,
dangling down his bare chest. Jimmy called himself Cochise,
after one of the most noted Apache leaders of the 19th Century.

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