"Baby Brother"
"Hunter, sweetie come here." Helen Bradley called her son over.
"Mommy!" two-year-old Hunter Bradley said toddling over to his mom. "Baby?" Hunter asked seeing a baby wrapped in a blue blanket in his mother's arms.
"Yes sweetie. This is your new baby brother Blake. You're a big brother now." Helen said.
"Big brother?" Hunter repeated.
"Yes Hunter, come here, we need to talk." Michael Bradley said picking his son up. He said him down on the sofa then sat next to the toddler. "Hunter, remember we had a talk about you getting a baby brother?"
"Yes." Hunter said nodding.
"OK. Well Blake is your baby brother now." Michael explained to his son.
"Daddy Bake not look like me." Hunter said.
Michael fought a laugh back at his son's attempt at trying to say Blake then thought of how to explain this so that Hunter would understand. "Blake doesn't need to look like you. What matters is that you are his big brother and as his big brother you will have to protect him."
"Tect?" Hunter asked.
"Yes. Take care of him. Make sure he stays safe, no matter what."
"Yes Daddy. Hunter take care of Bake." Hunter said proudly.
"That's my boy." Michael said hugging his son. He let Hunter down from the sofa and Hunter went to his room.
A few hours later, after Helen and Michael had gotten Blake to sleep and had gone to the living room to watch some TV they were startled by a baby's cry.
"Blake…" Helen said getting up. She walked into his room and found Hunter throwing toys in Blake's crib.
"Hunter Daniel Bradley what do you think you are doing?" Helen said pulling the toys out of the crib.
"Daddy say take care of Bake so I play with him." Hunter said wondering why his mother was so upset.
"Sweetie, that's nice but Blake is too young to play with your toys. Your toys are for big boys and Blake is only a baby. Now clean this up and let Blake take a nap." Helen said.
Hunter retreated to his room and piled his toys back in his toy box and plopped on his bed. He wanted to make his dad proud so he was determined to take care of Blake. His little mind worked on this problem for awhile then he decided he couldn't take care of Blake if he couldn't see him. He went in the nursery and used a chair to see over the rail of the crib and then he reached over and started to pick up Blake. Blake started to cry.
"Shhh." Hunter instructed.
"Hunter Daniel Bradley! We told you to let Blake nap." Helen said running in.
"Bake no listen." Hunter said ignoring his mom.
"What?" Helen asked.
"I say 'shhh' and Bake no 'shhh'" Hunter said as if frustrated.
"Blake wants to sleep and I think it's about time you took a nap too." Helen said picking up Hunter and taking him to his room. "Now take a nap."
"No nap." Hunter said getting out of bed.
"Yes nap Hunter." Helen said closing the door behind her.
Hunter stomped to his bed. He was beginning to wonder if Blake was worth the trouble he was going through, after all because of Blake he was being forced to take a nap now. He got in bed and lay still awhile thinking. Hunter couldn't stay still for very long though. He got up and went to the nursery and saw that Blake was gone. He went around the house looking for Blake and found him laying on a blanket in the living room. Both his parents had fallen asleep on the sofa.
"Bake go bye bye now." Hunter said softly as he wrapped his arms around Blake and started to drag him to the kitchen. Hunter got him into the kitchen and opened the trash can lid and tried to pick Blake up. When he couldn't he turned the trash can on its side and tried to slide Blake in. This is when Blake started to cry and Helen and Michael came running into the kitchen and caught Hunter trying to throw away his brother.
"What are you doing?! Hunter!" Helen said.
"Bake go bye bye." Hunter said frowning.
"Blake not go bye bye. Hunter go to room." Helen said taking Blake away from Hunter.
"No." Hunter said.
"Hunter, get to your room now." Michael said.
Hunter went to his room a very angry little boy. He didn't understand it. He couldn't take care of Blake and when he tried to get rid of him that didn't work either. He paced around his room, picking up random toys as he went. Nothing could hold his interest for too long though. Hunter was the type of kid who was very active and if left to his own devices for too long would most definitely get into some sort of trouble. It wasn't even a question of if he would get in trouble. The only question was how bad it would be and how much would it cost to fix. Hunter was also the type who loved his parents very much, especially his father, and the idea that his father asked something of him and, try as he might, he couldn't get right really bugged him. To Hunter nothing felt better than his father's praise…except for maybe taking off with his neighbor's skateboard and sneaking off when his parents weren't looking. That is one thing Hunter loved, skateboarding, but his parents insisted he was too young to have one and wouldn't get one till he was at least 10. To a child Hunter's age that seemed like a life time away. However, his neighbor was 15 and he had a skateboard that he would leave in the front yard a lot and Hunter would go over when he could and take off with it. Being barely able to walk Hunter would rarely stay on the board for any length of time, but to Hunter falling was half the fun because it meant new gashes and cuts to show off at daycare. What Hunter really wanted though was to get a dirt bike. On the weekends his father would go to the local motocross track and ride and to Hunter that looked so fun. He couldn't wait till he was big enough to ride. For now his little Power Wheels bike would have to suffice, not that he didn't cause problems on that. Just the other day he had built up a ramp with some wood from the garage and he had ridden his bike over the ramp and nearly given his mother a heart attack. She wondered what she would do when he was a teenager if he was already this daring now. She also wondered how much hair color she would need to cover the gray hair that Hunter was sure to cause with his antics. She hoped Blake would be a quieter child as she was unsure she could handle Hunter Part 2. One was plenty. Not that Hunter purposely caused trouble. He just enjoyed having fun.
Right now however, he was having anything but fun.
Hunter was now more determined than ever to take care of Blake in some form or another. It was all a matter of how.
The next day Hunter finally had an idea. He went to the garage and pulled out a big box and took it to Blake's crib and tried to put Blake in the box. He succeeded in this and closed the box up. He drug the box across the house and put it outside for the mailman to pick up. He sat by the box waiting for it to be picked up when he heard his mom.
"Hunter, I don't suppose you know where Blake is do you?" Helen asked.
"Bake go to I Land." Hunter said.
"Iceland? Hunter, what did you do with Blake?" Helen asked.
"Bake go with mailman." Hunter said.
"What? Hunter?" Helen asked noticing the box next to Hunter. She pulled him away from the box and opened it and found a sleeping Blake. She sighed with relief and picked the baby up. "Hunter, that's enough. No more putting your brother in the trash, no more trying to mail your brother to Iceland, no more trying to get rid of Blake at all." Helen said.
Hunter frowned and went next door and took the skateboard. He got on the board and tried to skate, this time though he didn't just fall, he fell into an ant pile. Hunter started crying as the ants bit him. He ran inside.
"MOMMY!" Hunter cried.
"Hunter? What's wrong?" Helen asked running to her oldest son.
"Buggies bite" Hunter said.
"Oh, looks like you fell in an ant pile. Ok come here let's clean you up." Helen said taking care of her son. "How did this happen? Were you skating again?"
"Yes, but Hunter not skate never again." Hunter said sternly. While Hunter wasn't afraid of much, ant bites were the one things he wasn't too fond of and he meant it when he said no more skating.
After he was cleaned up Helen walked Hunter to his room.
"Mommy nap with Hunter?" he asked.
"OK, I'll lay down with you for a little while." Helen said getting into bed next to her son. A few minutes later Blake started to cry. "I'll be back after I feed Blake."
"Mommy stay." Hunter said.
"I'm sorry Hunter, Blake is hungry. Mommy needs to feed him." Helen said.
"My Mommy." Hunter stated.
"Blake's Mommy too." Helen said hugging Hunter before leaving the room.
This was the last straw. Blake had taken his Mommy away now. Hunter knew he had to get rid of Blake once and for all. He came out of his room later for a snack and saw Blake in a bouncy chair…just the perfect thing to make a sling shot. He walked over and pulled the chair back as far as he could and was about to catapult baby Blake across the room when Michael walked in.
"Hunter! What are you doing son?" Michael said grabbing the baby.
"Bake fly." Hunter said.
"Blake doesn't fly. Oh Hunter…come here." Michael said putting the baby on the adjacent sofa and picking up Hunter. He sat down and put the tot on his lap. "I thought we talked about you taking care of Blake, not hurting him."
"Bake take Mommy." Hunter said.
"Hunter, it's true that Mommy and Daddy will spend time with Blake, but he's a baby. He needs us. You're a big boy and you can do some things yourself. But we still love you very much Hunter, nothing will change that. But we do need your help to take care for Blake." Michael said.
"How Hunter take care of Bake?" Hunter asked.
"You keep him from getting hurt. You don't always have to watch him. You can still play with your friends…just check on Blake and make sure he's ok sometimes." Michael said.
"Hunter do that." Hunter said.
"Yes Hunter can do that." Michael said hugging his son.
Just then Hunter noticed Blake about to roll off the sofa.
"Bake no fall!" Hunter cried running over and grabbing his brother to keep him from falling.
"Oh dear…good Hunter. See you protected Blake." Michael said picking up the baby.
Hunter smiled. "Hunter always tect Bake now."