Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

This picture was taken the year after this story takes place!

March 13th is my brother Tom's birthday.  For some reason, I thought of this incident today when thinking about how to honor him. 

One day, when I was about 10 and my brother Tom was about 7, he and I had a knockdown, drag-out fight about something.  I don’t remember why, and it’s not important to the rest of the story.  But Mom suggested we spend the rest of the afternoon playing at separate friends' houses, to let things calm down.  Tom and his friend went down to the end of the alley that was behind our house to pick pomegranates from a tree that hung over a fence and were easy to get to. (It was a different world back then.  As long as we stayed “on the block” and checked in often, we’d be OK.)  A bully that he knew from school happened to come by and started to give Tom and his friend a hard time.  Because our mother didn’t raise no dummies, instead of getting into a fight with the kid, who was bigger than he was, Tom said he was going home to get his big brother to "kick the shit" out of the bully.  Tom ran home and told me that this kid was picking on him and that he wanted me to go and help his friend, who wasn't being allowed to go home by the bully.  I dropped everything and rushed down the street to help.  I walked both of the boys back to our house, but not before telling the bully that if he ever picked on Tom or his friends again, he would have to deal with me (all 90 pounds of me :)). 

Up until that day, Tom and I had had a lot of stupid sibling rivalry spats.  But this episode was, I think, the turning point for both of us.  I was proud that Tom would think of me as his protector, and in fact respected me as his older brother.  I'm glad that this incident happened the year that it did.  Because as I remember it, the following year Tom had a real growth spurt, and he was bigger physically than I was from then on, but the respect and brotherly love we shared for one another only grew stronger.

He was taken from us way too soon. 

I love you, “Little Brother”!  Happy Birthday!