My little brother was very mischievous growing up. Always into something like getting all Macgyver and booby-trapping the outside of my bedroom door or something so when I came out one of his army guys would spring from across the room at me while another would fall from the door frame above onto my head and I would slip on a bunch of Lincoln Logs. With my mom, one time it was her flowers. She let him water her beautiful geraniums or maybe it was her impatiens. A short while later she found him standing next to his little kiddie pool full of dirt and flowers. He said he was giving them a bath. I guess he thought they were dirty.
After that story was told again recently, it must have still been in my subconscious because two nights ago I dreamed we were calling him Francis as in those Walt Disney movies of “Moochie”–”Moochie of the Little League”, etc. Anyway he was just little and he found some antique postcards upstairs. I will mention that my mother auctions old postcards on eBay. He started putting them under the kitchen faucet to wash them as if they belonged to him. Shocked and amazed, I thought I would at least help him so as to not ruin them. Since they were in protective sleeves I told him how he should place them with the opening facing down so the water wouldn’t get inside. What does he do? The exact opposite. That sleeve opened up like a cup and the postcard was surrounded by water. I happened to ask him whose they were and he matter-of-factly replied, “Mom’s.” I took off yelling for her like a banshee, knowing she was going to be …upset. She and my grandma were over at the house next door and when they heard me grandma came running like I have never seen her run before, mom following behind her. I assured grandma it was not an emergency; no one was hurt. Then I must have woken up. Strange how I am always dreaming of him as a little kid no matter how old I am in the dream. He must have been 9 or 10 in that one, and mischeivous as ever.
Now, he and his wife have a 9 year old boy and a 1 year old girl of their own. His son is extremely well-behaved and his daughter is just adorable. Just as he and I were conversely. From day one my mom insisted that for payback he is going to have a child someday just like he was, “It’s always the second one you have to watch out for” she warned . Hopefully he will never have to experience her throwing a fit like he did once in the middle of Kmart when he couldn’t have something he wanted. When my mom was trying to get him up off of the floor he was yelling, “Mom don’t beat me Mom, don’t beat me!!” Needless to say, she got him out of there as fast as she could. These days with cell phones, the police would have been there in a child’s heartbeat.
