The Discontented Brother

By the end of summer vacation, Butch was ready for it to be over. It had started out great. He had played on his travel baseball team and turned out to be the star relief pitcher. They played some real exciting away games including one where they had an adventure on the way home. Grampie's car ran off the road in a rainstorm and he got to climb back up to the road in a safety harness. It was really cool.

But then they made it all way to the semi-finals in the playoffs, but they just couldn't win that last game. Everything fell apart in the early innings and he didn't even get to play. There was nothing to save at the end of the game. The worst part was that Grampie wasn't there and so he had to listen to Dad and Hal explain about how it wasn't so bad that they had lost.

The problem was that they were both so scientific that they had to analyze everything from the mistakes they made in the game to how losing builds character. Butch didn't really want any character. He wanted a win. And he didn't care that they hadn't made the playoffs last year. This year was totally different. After a while they were so interested in talking to each other that they were no longer talking to him. When they got home, they went into the living room to keep yacking and he went up to his room.

It really stunk that Grampie had to pick the last two weeks of summer to take Grammy and Trelawney away on a vacation. If Grampie had been there, he wouldn't have told him all about how good it was that they lost. He would have understood how bad it was and taken him for ice cream. Grampie might be an engineer, but he thought about more things than science.

Whenever Butch talked to Hal or Dad they always made him feel stupid, or like he was a kid. But Grampie was different. He could have man-to-man talks with Grampie and feel like he understood what he was talking about. He really listened. He didn't try to make Butch feel dumb or just talk to him about how he should be. It seemed like since Hal had gotten back from his science program he had turned into Saint Hal or something.

Hal was the smart one. He was the one who was so scientific. And of course Dad thought that if Butch just tried harder in school then he could be just as smart as Hal. And didn't he want to be just like his brother? No. Butch wanted to be like Butch. It wasn't hard for Hal to be good in science because he liked science. He worked on it when he didn't have to because he thought that it was fun.

Hal really stunk at baseball, but that was because he didn't care about it. But Dad never said that if he worked harder then Hal could be good at baseball. He never asked Hal if he wanted to be like Butch. It was kind of like being good at baseball wasn't as important as being good at science. He guessed that that was what happened when you had a scientist for a father.

And Mom had gotten totally weird now that Maisie was born. She was always with Maisie. And if Maisie wasn't taking a nap, then she was eating and then pooping. In one end and out the other as Mom's Cousin Liam said. Now, Cousin Liam was a really cool guy. He knew what it was like to have annoying little sisters. He had been stuck with one annoying big sister plus his two annoying little sisters for almost his whole life. But he had warned him that baby brothers were just as annoying in the beginning as baby sisters. All they did was sleep and eat and poop.

Butch was sorry that he had left so soon. They had some great times together swapping stories about annoying sisters. When he told him all about Prudence and how she spied and tattled and started fights with her big mouth, he told him that Emmeline was like that when they were kids. But he said that Sylvia was even worse. Sylvia was always so good. Everyone always said that Sylvia was a perfect little girl. And Christabel was their Mom's favorite.

But he got his revenge by playing tricks on them. He hid things that they needed. He left things in their drawers like frogs to scare them. But after a while, he stopped playing tricks on Emmeline because she was real good at getting revenge. Sylvia was more fun because he could make her cry. Christabel was a pain because she went running to their mother. Butch thought that Cousin Liam was the coolest guy that he ever met. Still, he also knew that if he tried to play any tricks like Cousin Liam that he would get in BIG trouble. Prudence was the biggest tattletale that ever lived.

But he also felt weird about his Mom. She had always been the one who understood him and tried to get Dad to lay off about his grades and being like Hal. But these days it felt as though she had just forgotten about him. It was almost like she wasn't his Mom anymore. She was "Maisie's Mum."

Hal was pretty weird too. He really LIKED having a baby sister. Sometimes when Mom needed to do something in the kitchen and Dad wasn't around. Hal would hold Maisie for her. Maisie would look at him as if he were, Butch didn't know, GOD or something. She couldn't smile. She could just stare at you. But when she stared at Hal it was kind of creepy. She looked at him like she knew it was Hal.

It was kind of funny, because after driving them crazy all these years about wanting a baby sister, now that she had one, Prudence wasn't happy. She was jealous because Maisie got most of Mom's attention. And she couldn't even hold her. Whenever she tried, the baby started crying. But Butch would cry too if he was a little baby and Prudence started wiggling all over the place when she held him.

Yeah, it was pretty rich. It was too much. He heard someone say that there was an old saying about being careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Well, this was the perfect example. There were some times when he felt that way too. After all, last summer they had all been wishing that Dad would buy Mom an engagement ring and marry her already. Hal even told him that they would lock him in a jewelry store if he didn't. But now he wasn't so sure.

When Mom was Nanny, she always had time for him. She always made him feel special and she always stood up for him. Now he knew that she loved him, but they never went out on special trips anymore for ice cream or anything. When he was feeling down, she didn't really notice anymore. He knew that if he came to her all upset that she would hug him and pat him on the back and say, "There. There." But he was too big for that. He wanted to talk to her.

Hal seemed to be able to talk to her about stuff, but that was because he didn't mind sitting with her when she was nursing Maisie. Butch couldn't even stay in the same room with them. He told everybody that he thought it was gross, but he was really embarrassed. It wasn't like he hadn't seen women's chests before. Martin Pulski had swiped one his Dad's Playboy magazines once and brought it into school to show all the guys.

They had looked at it during recess until their teacher, Mrs. Oliver, took it away from them. She called up Martin's Dad because she said that his son was corrupting the fourth grade boys with pictures of naked ladies. Martin said that his Dad just laughed at her and told her that, "boys will be boys." He even told her that she should be grateful to him for keeping the other boys out of trouble during recess. Butch thought it was funny but Mrs. Oliver didn't. She kept Martin after school for a whole week.

But this wasn't some sexy lady in a magazine. This was his Mom. It's not that he didn't think that she was pretty. He thought that she was the prettiest lady that he knew. He just was real uncomfortable about the idea that she could be SEXY. He knew that she and Dad, well, did THAT. After all, if they hadn't then Maisie wouldn't be there. But still, he couldn't watch Maisie nurse. Especially when she switched sides and they were uncovered.

Maybe he could have talked about it with Grampie, but not with Dad. That was too hard. After all, Mom and Dad had . . . you know. Hal told him to grow up, but he didn't want to grow up. Well, he did want to grow up, but not where girls were concerned. And his Mom, well, she was his Mom. He knew she was a girl, but he didn't want to think of her that way, as if she was that kind of girl.

Finally, Mom called up Mrs. Lenihan and he got to go over and visit his friend Tim for a while. He talked to Tim about it and Tim said that he was glad that he didn't have any sisters. He also said that he was glad because his Mom wouldn't have any more babies. Tim's parents were divorced and his Mom swore that she was never going to marry again.

"Why is that?" asked Butch.

"Because she still loves my Dad," Tim replied with a shrug. "Me and Mike think that she's crazy. He said that Dad treated her real bad and now he's treating us bad."

"Is he?" asked Butch, who couldn't imagine his own Dad ever divorcing his Mom and treating them all badly.

"Well," said Tim. "Right now he's treating Mike really bad. I mean if Mike hadn't gotten his scholarship, then he couldn't have gone to New York for college. My Dad makes piles of money, but he's a real cheapskate."

"Huh?" asked Butch. "But just because he doesn't give you lots of money doesn't mean that he doesn't love you."

"Maybe," said Tim. "But he picks fights with my Mom. He refused to go to any of Mike's plays or even his graduation. He's supposed to pick me up so that I can spend every other weekend at his apartment, but he doesn't want me to spend the night. I'm lucky if I get to see him for a couple of hours a week. Most of the time I'm sorry that I did."

"Oh," said Butch. "Why doesn't he want you to come over?"

"He has his new girlfriend living with him," said Tim. "My Mom told him that I wasn't allowed to spend the night if he and she were, you know, sleeping in the bedroom together, because they're not married and all. So it was me or her. And he picked her. And whenever he picks me up then she's always with him. She treats me like a baby and tells Dad how cute I am. It makes me want to puke."

"Oh," said Butch. "She sounds like a real bimbo. But if it was me, I wouldn't want to sleep there either with them, you know, doing it in the next room."

"Yeah," said Tim. "That's what I told my Dad when he asked if my Mom was forcing me not to go. I told him that it was embarrassing."

"What did he say?" asked Butch curiously.

"He said that my Mom was raising me to be a little 'prude,' whatever that is," he replied. "But it's just to hard to think about my Dad doing that with a lady other than my Mom. I mean, what happens if I get stuck with a little brother or sister. That would be totally embarrassing, you know it would be a half-sister or brother."

"Well," said Butch slowly. "Maisie is my half-sister."

"Yeah, but that's totally different," explained Tim. "Your Dad met your Mom after, you know, you lost your first Mom. And he really, really loves her. My Mom said that he treats her like a queen. And besides, Maisie was born long enough after the wedding that nobody would think that they were doing that before they got married."

"People really didn't think that," said Butch uncertainly. "Did they?"

"Well, I think that some people did," he answered. "I heard my Mom and Mike talking about it once. He was real upset because he heard some stuff that people were saying about Trelawney's sister. Mom told him to ignore it because there would always be people who had their minds in the gutter."

"Oh."

"By the way," said Tim. "Mike is real upset because he has to leave for New York before Trelawney gets back from her vacation. He wanted to say goodbye to her. He's been acting real weird since the night of that crazy storm, remember?"

"Yeah," said Butch. "Your Mom was totally nuts because the storm was so bad and she didn't know where he was. Where was he?"

"They never told me," said Tim. "But when he finally came home, they were both real upset. Remember? After you went back to your grandparents, he went to see Pastor Jason. I know that he wanted to talk to Trelawney, but she left before he could."

"But you never did find out where he went that night?"

"No," Tim shook his head. "Only that he went somewhere with Topher."

Butch was glad when they changed the subject. He knew that whatever was going on with Mike and his Dad was none of his business. He knew that he wasn't supposed to talk about his family business with anyone else, but he felt like Tim wasn't just anyone. He figured that Tim kind of felt the same way about him.

He really didn't think that Tim told lots of people about his Dad and his new girlfriend. He thought that it was really weird that they would just live together like they were married, but they weren't. When Grampie came home, he knew that he could ask him about it.

He was afraid to talk to his own Dad or Mom about it. He didn't want them to think that he thought that they had been acting like that before they got married. He didn't understand how anyone could think that. But Mrs. Oliver probably thought it, even though she didn't say it. And Martin's Dad had made jokes about it (although he did take them back).

But at least Grampie would be home soon. They would have a man-to-man talk and he would explain everything to him.

Mother and Son Time

Young Hal Everett awoke at the sound of his infant sister crying. Despite the fact that it was five am and still dark out, he smiled. It was as if since he had returned home from his summer science program two weeks ago, she had acted as his alarm clock. Maisie did not have a very loud cry, but he could still hear it through his closed door.

His ten-year-old brother Butch was out cold, sprawled on top of the covers. Quietly he got up and went across the hallway to his parents' bedroom. Like Butch, his Dad was oblivious. Just like all the other mornings, his Mom was sitting in her rocking chair nursing the baby. She had a soft smile on her face and as she looked down at the little girl she seemed to glow.

She looked up as he entered and nodded, as she always did. He padded in and sat on the floor cross-legged beside the chair. The position was a little awkward because he was so tall and his legs were long, but from that perspective he could look up and see his sister eagerly drinking. Initially, he had felt shy when his Mom opened her blouse for the baby. But then he realized that there was nothing embarrassing about it. To quote her, "That's what 'they' were for."

Butch thought that the whole idea was gross and refused to stay in the same room with them. Prudence had at first been curious and then jealous. That didn't really surprise him. He had been eight when Prudence was born and Butch, age four, had been very jealous. Not only was he no longer the baby, Prudence was a girl and everyone made a huge fuss over her for that reason. He tried to explain that to Prudence, but she wasn't interested. It had worried him until Mom told him that sooner or later she would come around and actually like being the big sister.

He had discovered that he liked this early morning time with Mom and Maisie. Sometimes, when Mom was finished nursing, she would let him hold her. Since the first time that she had put his little sister in his arms, he had fallen in love with her. When she looked at him it felt like she just knew that he was her big brother and that he would always take care of her. She never cried when he held her. He still couldn't believe how tiny her little hands and fingernails were, especially in comparison with his own huge hands.

When they sat together, he and Mom would talk about things that he felt like he couldn't discuss with anyone else. When they were all together as a family, he told them all about the classes in his summer program and all the neat stuff that he had learned. But he had also learned a little about girls that summer. For some reason he thought that it was easier to talk to Mom than Dad. Maybe it was because Mom was a girl too.

Most of the students in the program were guys, but there were some girls too. One of the girls, Whitney, was real smart and very serious about science. Whitney's dream was to be the first female astronaut to go into space. She figured that by the time she finished college and graduate school, the space program would be going to Mars. Unfortunately for her, she was also very pretty. Some of the other guys used it as an excuse to say that she was an airhead, but Hal just thought that it was because they were jealous. It didn't help their egos that she was also taller than most of them.

However, she was still a couple of inches shorter than Hal. She had long, dark-brown hair that hung down her back and swung back and forth when she walked. Because it was straight, she didn't have to tie it back or braid it like Trelawney to keep it from tangling. She also had large brown eyes and a great smile. She was an athlete, unlike most of the science students. Because she was so tall, she played volleyball, basketball, and was a softball pitcher.

In the chemistry class that they were taking, she was assigned to be his lab partner. Some of the other guys teased him because he had a girl for a lab partner, but Hal liked working with her. She took very careful notes and unlike him, she had really neat handwriting. They liked working together because they both liked to question and debate things and if they didn't know something, rather than ask the teacher, they would go the university library and look it up.

Hal told Mom all about Whitney and she said that she hoped to meet her someday. In Mom's little village back in England, she hadn't studied science. She thought that it was more of a guy thing. Hal had enjoyed his friendship with Whitney a lot. In fact, they spent so much time together that after a while they would hold hands if they went out for a walk to talk about things.

But Whitney was special because she was the first girl that he ever kissed. She was different from the girls at school, because she didn't try to flirt with him or get too close to him. Sometimes the girls there would lean on him or sit down right next to him so that there was no space in between them. He didn't like that. It wasn't that he didn't think that they were pretty or nice. It's just that he never knew what to say to them. And when they were right there practically on top of him, it didn't make it any easier.

But he never had trouble thinking of things to say to Whitney. They had so much in common that she never had to flirt with him to get his attention. She said things that he wanted to listen to and she really listened to what he had to say. Most of the girls at school would just look at him while he talked about science and pretend they were interested. He asked Mom about it once.

"Hal," she explained. "Some girls at your age don't know what to say to you any more than you know what to say to them. They want your attention because you're a very good-looking young man (Hal blushed at that) and you're a nice person. You should be flattered, but if you're not interested, you shouldn't pretend that you are. That's leading them on and in the long run you will hurt their feelings more."

"So what should I do?" he had asked.

"Just be nice and polite to them," she said. "If you don't have anything to talk about, they'll figure it out and give up. Hopefully they will try to find a guy who has more in common with them."

Hal had nodded and thought about it. And he hoped that they would find a guy who would respect them. He knew that some of the guys took advantage of the girls who flirted with them, or at least they bragged that they did. He thought that all the bragging that some of them did was very disrespectful. Whatever you did with a girl was between the two of you. And if you didn't do anything, it was very bad to make up stories. You could really ruin a girl's reputation that way.

It was the night before they left that Hal had kissed Whitney. It was a real kiss, not just a little peck on the cheek. But he didn't tell anyone about it, except Mom. He knew that he could trust her not to tell anyone else. When he told her, she had smiled and said that she was very proud of him for treating Whitney like a lady, and that made him feel very good inside.

They had promised to write to each other when they got home. Hal must have sat down hundred times to write a letter, but he couldn't get passed "Dear Whitney." Two days ago, a letter had come from her. Hal was glad that it didn't wreak of perfume the way that Miss Finley's had when she wrote to Dad a few years ago. It looked and smelled like a normal letter on the outside.

Inside she had written about all the stuff that she was doing at home and was planning to do when school started. He told Mom about the letter yesterday morning and they talked about it. Later that afternoon, he sat down to write and he discovered that it was a lot easier than he thought it would be. Mom had lots of experience writing letters to her family because she had traveled so much.

She had told him to just write the way that he would talk to her if she were sitting there. When he was done he mailed it right away before he could lose his nerve. Then he took her letter and put it in his chemistry book from the program so that no one (Butch) would find it. Butch probably wouldn't open a chemistry book (voluntarily), even if you paid him a million dollars.

But this morning he didn't want to talk about Whitney or the science program. He was worried about Trelawney. The day that he returned from the program, he, Butch, and Prudence had come back home. Once Mom had had the baby at home, they had decided that they needed to give her a chance to rest. So Butch and Prudence had stayed with Grammy and Grampie.

Hal realized that this was a very good idea. When they all came home, Mom had a lot more energy than she did when she was pregnant. With him and Dad to help, she had managed very well for the past two weeks. But for those two weeks, Trelawney hadn't been there. Grammy and Grampie had decided to take her on a vacation to Vancouver, up north in Canada.

So for the past two weeks they had been driving up and down the coast. Grammy said that they wanted to show her more of the US, but he thought that Trelawney missed Mom a lot. He didn't think that she was the least bit interested in seeing America if she couldn't do it with Mom.

"So Mom," he began. "Grammy, Grampie, and Trelawney are coming home later today."

"Yes, they are," she replied. "They need a day to get ready because Trelawney starts in her new school on Tuesday."

"Mom," he said tentatively. "Maybe this is none of my business, but why did they take her away all of the sudden? I mean it's not like the trip was planned. And Trelawney was crying when she said goodbye to you and Maisie. Prudence said so and I know that she wasn't tattling."

Mom was silent. Hal could see that she was thinking. He knew that she had been really sad when they took her away too.

"Well, Hal," she finally said. "Grammy and Grampie thought that it would be a good idea for the six of us to get used to living together as a family without them right up the street to keep jumping in to help smooth things over. Your Nana had wanted to have Prudence visit for a week, but we decided that it was better if she got used to living here with the baby before school started. It's a very big adjustment for her. In fact, I think that it's even bigger than it is for you and Butch."

Hal thought about it.

"Yeah," he said. "But doesn't Trelawney get to get used to having the baby around too? And I know that she really likes to spend time with you."

Mom looked off into space and sighed.

"It's one of those things that's difficult to say," she replied. "But I think that it has been good for us to establish some routines. I really do appreciate all the help that you've given us. I'm just worried about how much time you'll have to do that and your schoolwork when school starts up again."

Hal shrugged.

"Butch and Prudence are old enough to do more," he commented. "I'm afraid that sometimes Dad and I do stuff because it's easier than trying to teach them. But they need to learn to pick up more slack."

Mom smiled.

"As usual, Hal," she said. "I can always count on you to come up with thoughtful solutions. But you have to realize that you will have to be more patient with them, especially with Prudence."

"I know," he said smiling. "But I'm more patient than Dad. She knows it and that's why she works so slowly or does things wrong."

"I believe that you're right about that," she answered nodding. "Well, that's just one more thing that we'll have to keep working on. Would you like to hold Maisie for a while?"

"Sure," he said and reached out his arms for her. As usual, she looked back at Mom for a minute and then up at him. Finally, she snuggled closer. She looked very contented.

"Sometimes I think that she would smile at me if she could," he said.

"Well, give her time," answered Mom. "Before you know it she'll be smiling at you."

Hal grinned back at her. He wondered what the guys in school would say if they knew that he liked to hold his baby sister. They would probably think that he was weird. But he didn't care. If he told them about kissing Whitney, they would probably think that he was cool. But he didn't feel right about telling them. In fact, he would rather tell them about holding the baby. In this case, he would rather be weird than cool.

When he looked up from Maisie, he noticed that Mom was smiling at him in approval. It was as if she had read his mind or something. That used to bother him, but not anymore. After all, she had been his Mom for almost a year already. She knew him pretty well by now.

To be continued . . .