"I want to hear how Nick broke his arm," Eugene said.

"Which time?" Victoria asked since Nick had broken his arm twice.

Nick frowned as the family laughed at him. He had a sneaking suspicion which story Eugene wanted to hear but that was not Nick's fault altogether; since his big brother thought it sounded like a good idea.

"When he jumped off the roof trying to fly," Eugene smirked.

Maggie was sipping on tea and choked back the laughter when Eugene said that. She had heard of some of her husband's adventures but she had never heard this story. She finally recovered and said, "You thought you could fly?"

Nick glared at Eugene, "I had help with that," Nick then turned to glare at Jarrod who laughed at the memory.

Melanie asked Jarrod, "You helped Nick when he tried to fly honey?"

Jarrod smirked as he answered, "I helped him with the feathers once he gathered them all..…."

Nick interrupted Jarrod, "You did more than that. When I was having second thoughts, you convinced me to go through with it."

Jarrod shrugged his shoulders and said, "You were scared so I merely chose the right words to help gain your confidence."

"Hmph. I ended up breaking my arm because of your words."

Carl asked, "How old were you two?"

Jarrod answered, "I was ten and Nick was six."

Heath added, "Old enough to know better."

Jarrod answered smoothly, "Maybe but that's all Nick talked about for a solid month how he wished he could fly like an eagle. He got the hair brained idea to start gathering all the loose feathers around the yard and make some sort of cape with the feathers. He had chicken feathers, crow feathers, you name it; he had it."

Nick mumbled, "It took me a month to gather up all those feathers."

Jarrod said, "While he was gathering the feathers I convinced him he needed to practice," Jarrod broke into a gale of laughter while Nick glared at him.

Carl asked, "Practice?"

Jarrod nodded his head as he finally stopped laughing. "I told him if he was serious about flying he needed to practice." Jarrod heard his mother mumble something while the rest of the family giggled.

Sally asked, "What did you have him practice?"

Jarrod wore an evil looking grin as he looked at his sister-in-law and said, "I told him he needed to run and jump around the yard as he flapped his arms," Jarrod started laughing again.

Nick grumbled, "That's NOT funny."

Jarrod quit laughing and said, "Oh yes it was. To watch you run and jump around the ranch while flapping your arms was hilarious and you were so serious about it." Jarrod started laughing again and said, "I remember father caught you doing that and the look on your face when he asked you what you were doing..." Jarrod shook his head as he started laughing again.

Victoria asked, "Your father saw you doing that?"

Nick's was blushing as he answered quietly, "Yes, he asked me what in the world I was doing," he looked at Jarrod and pointed his finger at him, "Big brother was supposed to warn me if someone showed up but apparently he forgot."

Jarrod grinned and said, "No I didn't forget, I wanted to see what you would tell father."

Maggie asked, "What did you tell your father?" She tried not to laugh but failed.

Nick cut his eyes at his wife and said, "This is NOT funny." But the family ignored him and started laughing again.

"You know now that you mention it your father did say something to me about it but I didn't take him seriously," Victoria said.

Silas added, "Mr. Tom came into the house shaking his head mumbling that Nicky done went loco."

Nick continued to glare at his family, "I was only doing what Jarrod said."

Jarrod shook his head as he laughed, "I was merely trying to help you prepare for your maiden flight."

Heath asked with a mischievous grin, "My question is what were you planning on doing with all the feathers?"

Nick answered, "I thought if I got enough feathers they would help me fly." The family started laughing again.

Audra asked, "How were you going to get the feathers to help you?"

Nick glared at Jarrod as he pointed at him, "That is where he came in. I knew I had enough feathers so I asked Jarrod; who I may add gladly helped me."

"So you gathered all the feathers and didn't have a plan?" Eugene asked.

"I was counting on Jarrod's help since he's so smart," Nick stated.

"And you helped him?" Eugene asked.

"I didn't want to at first but he whined and complained so much I finally gave in, after all he had been practicing," Jarrod heard a few snickers behind him. "The trick was to be able to use the feathers he had gathered. We couldn't tie them together without tearing them up so we decided to start getting glue from school. We took turns sneaking glue from the school house and once we thought we had enough we started getting ready for..." Jarrod started laughing again. Melanie nudged Jarrod to stop him from laughing so he could continue. "To get ready for his maiden voyage."

Susan asked, "Do we even want to know what you glued the feathers to?"

Victoria answered, "His clothes, boots and hair." She heard the family start laughing again.

Jarrod added, "Was the ugliest damn bird I ever seen in my life," he bent over he was laughing so hard.

Maggie asked curiously, "You glued the feathers to your hair?"

Nick answered, "I didn't Jarrod did."

Jarrod started laughing again, "Nick thought the more feathers he had on him the better he would fly so he asked me to help him glue the feathers to his clothes and hair."

"I was only six at the time," Nick added.

Melanie asked her husband who was still laughing, "You really glued feathers to your brother's hair?" Jarrod simply nodded his head because he was still laughing. "No wonder the boys are so bad, they get it from their father."

Jarrod quit laughing to protest, "Whether I helped Nick or not he was going to do this, so I thought if I helped he wouldn't get hurt too badly. And our boys are not bad they are just..."

The family interrupted him and all said at one time, "Busy." Jarrod rolled his eyes at all of them.

Sally asked, "So after you got all the feathers glued to him what happened?"

Jarrod smirked as Nick answered, "I started running around the yard jumping and flapping my arms..."

Jarrod interrupted him again by repeating, "ugliest damn bird I ever saw," and started laughing again.

Heath asked in between gales of laughter, "So I take it you never got off the ground?"

"Only if I jumped as I ran," Nick grumbled. He glared at his family as they continued to laugh at him.

"How long did you run around the yard?" Susan asked.

Nick shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno. Seemed like forever to me." He looked at Jarrod who had finally quit laughing, "It was Jarrod's idea to jump off the roof."

Jarrod raised his arm to object, "Not quite Nick. I suggested the loft from the barn but you didn't think it was high enough."

Maggie looked at Jarrod, "The roof from the house, that's more than forty feet."

"Not this house," the attorney stated. "Father hadn't built our present home, the house Nick and I grew up in is now the foreman home."

Carl asked, "How did anyone not see you two?"

Silas answered, "Mr. Tom and Mrs. Barkley were in town for a meeting and I was in the kitchen cooking. Should have known those two was up to something cause they was being so quiet."

"That may be true but sneaking around with him," Jarrod pointed to Nick, "with feathers glued to him was not that easy. But we found the ladder in the barn and between the two of us we moved it to the house."

Maggie asked her husband, "So you were just going to jump off the roof hoping the feathers would do their job?" She covered her mouth so Nick could not see her smirking.

"Hmph. The roof did not look that high until we got up there. So we sat up there for a little while before I decided I didn't want to do this any longer." Nick pointed at Jarrod, "But he talked me into doing it."

Melanie scolded her husband, "Jarrod, why did you do that to your brother? Didn't you realize he was scared?"

Jarrod frowned at his wife, "I was ten and bored. Besides Nick was the one who wanted to do this and I wanted to watch."

Victoria spoke, "Bad boys." Nick and Jarrod both looked at her and smirked.

Audra asked, "So what happened?"

"Once Jarrod had convinced me to go through with it I figured if I ran as I was flapping my arms it would work and I wouldn't fall to the ground and I would fly."

Eugene asked, "And?"

Jarrod answered deadpan, "Once he took that last step off the roof he crashed to the ground." Jarrod shook his head as the thought his baby brother was dead. "I climbed down the ladder and was relieved to see he was still breathing so I ran and got Silas."

"Scared me to death. I didn't know it was Mr. Nick till I got up to him cause he was covered in all those feathers." Silas shook his head, "He woke up and first thing out of his mouth was did it work? I knew right then them two boys done had another crazy idea."

Jarrod added, "It was Nick's idea not mine."

Victoria answered, "It doesn't matter whose it was all I know is when Tom and I got back home we found Silas trying to get the feathers out of Nick's hair with Jarrod watching."

Jarrod added, "Father was so angry. I wasn't sure what made him madder, Nick's broken arm or the fact they had to shave Nick's head because they couldn't get all the feathers out of his hair."

Maggie asked, "They had to shave your hair?"

Nick glared at Jarrod, "Yes, apparently big brother put a double dose of glue in my hair to make sure the feathers stayed put." Jarrod grinned as he shrugged his shoulders.

Audra asked, "Did you get into any trouble?"

Jarrod shuddered as he answered, "Oh yes. Father took me to the tack room and then I had to do Nick's chores since his arm was broken."

Nick added, "They should have shaved your head."

Jarrod laughed, "One shaved head in the family was enough."

"Took me a year to grow my hair back," Nick added.

Silas said, "You would have thought after that them two would have stayed out of trouble but..."