My Brother's Bedroom

In that old house in Drummond, my bedroom was right off of the kitchen. From my bed, you could see the table and sink area where it seemed mom spent a lot of time. I would wake up groggy and, for a few minutes, watch as she washed a dish or put something away. When I could finally focus my eyes, I would get up and go sit silently at the table until mom set breakfast in front of me. I would eat and go back to my bedroom or head for the living room and try to find cartoons on the TV. To get to my brother's bedroom, you had to go through my bedroom. So, if it was a school day, I had to keep out of his way because he was usually rushing around going from kitchen to bedroom to bathroom to bedroom trying to get ready in time to make it to school. I made the mistake of getting up early one morning and decided to play with my Hot Wheels in the middle of my bedroom floor. First he tripped over me and yelled at me. Then he stepped barefoot on one of my Hot Wheels and yelled at me. Mom asked why I was up so early and getting in Jeff's way. I said I was in MY room playing with MY toys. I wasn't bothering anyone. I was, in fact, in the way and I knew it. But I was mad that Jeff had to go through my room to get to his. There wasn't any other arrangement available, so I dealt with it the best I could. I usually got along with my brother except when he was either with his friends or in a rush. And most mornings he was in a rush, so I avoided him in the morning. One night I lay in my bed thinking about how I got the raw deal of being situated so close in the house to Jeff. He should have a room on the other side of the house or, better yet, we could build a room onto the roof and he could live there and I would have a double room situation. I could set up a Hot Wheels track that I could leave up at all times and play whenever I wanted and spread out my stuff and no one would bother me and....BOOOM!  The loudest clap of thunder that I could remember echoed through that house. I froze wide eyed in fear. Lightning flashed again and seconds later another explosion rattled the house. I high tailed it out of my bed, down the length of my room, into Jeff's room and jumped square in the middle of him. I said I was scared and I needed to sleep in his bed. He said he should kill me for jumping on him, but I could stay if I stopped squirming. I crawled under the covers and got as close to him as I could without being on top of him.  The lightning and thunder continued for a while, but it didn't seem so bad since I was in Jeff's room with him. After that night, I didn't complain about his bedroom being so close to mine. And I stayed out of his way when he was tearing through the house getting ready for school. The next morning I thanked Jeff for letting me come sleep in his bedroom since I was scared by the storm. He patted my head and said not to worry about it. Then, before he walked out the door, he said, "Oh, by the way, this is for jumping on me last night." And he punched me hard in the arm. I laughed and rubbed my sore arm most of the day, still happy to have a brother with a room so close to mine.

See some of the other things I'm up to at www.JonathanElmore.weebly.com