Monday, September 22, 2008

Tormenting My Younger Brother

As you can tell from this blog, I’m a little on the dramatic side.

And as a child, I was prone to making up vivid stories; causing everyone in my family to go insane.

My younger brother and I have a nine year age difference between us, but were very close growing up together. He’s a wonderful human being and has a very kind soul…so I felt terrible having the need to torment him.

Because I was older, my parents allowed me to baby-sit whenever they would go out on a Saturday evening with friends. My grandparents lived very close by, so if I ever needed anything, they were just a phone call and a short drive away.

Most of the time, my mother would have my brother already in bed and asleep before she and my father left for the evening. And once asleep, he always slept like a rock, and rarely ever woke up.

So basically, all I had to do was watch T.V. and eat whatever I felt like, until I decided to go bed.

However, because I have such a wild imagination, I would often hear strange noises in the house…

….like someone walking up the basement stairs, getting read to kill me.

…or someone outside, trying to break in with a butcher knife.

…or someone upstairs, hiding in one of the closets, waiting to jump out and strangle me.

I would sometimes get myself so worked up, that I would be tempted to call my grandparents and ask them to come over and stay with me until my parents got home.

However, I didn’t want them to think that I was a BIG BABY, so I would wake my brother up out of a dead sleep and try to convince him that he had heard noises too.

I would run up to his room and flick on the lights; gently shaking him awake saying…

“TOM…TOM…get up, get up…I think someone else in the house with us.”

Tom (half asleep): “What do you mean?”

Me: “I keep hearing strange noises.”

Tom (listening): “I don’t hear anything.”

Me: Listen…listen closer….do you hear that?’ Like footsteps walking up the basement stairs.”

Tom (listening): “No, I don‘t hear anything, Ronnie”

Me: “Sure you do, listen.”

Tom: “No…I don’t.”

Me: “Yes, you do.”

Tom: “No…I..

Me (shaking him): “OH FOR GOD’S SAKE…OPEN YOUR EARS AND LISTEN!!!!!”

Tom (listening harder): “Well…maybe…yea…maybe…yea, I think you’re right, I think I do hear that”

Me: “SEE...I TOLD YOU. Someone is in this house right now, getting ready to murder us.

Tom (scared): “Oh my god, Ronnie…what should we do?”

Me: “Are you scared, Tom?”

Tom: “Yea.”

Me: “I mean, REALLY scared?”

Tom: “Yea.”

Me: “ Are scare you enough, that you think we should call Mama Moo and Pop-Pop to come over and stay with us until Mom and Dad get home?”

Tom (crying): “YES…YES…I’m really scared Ronnie…I think you should call them”

Me: “Ok…if you say so”

So off I went to call my grandparents. And when they asked me what was wrong I said…

“It’s silly…but TOM keeps hearing strange noises in the house and he thinks that someone might be trying to murder us. He’s crying and very upset…and asked me to call you to come over immediately, so please hurry.”

I'm sorry, Tom.