Joe looked down at his brother deeply asleep on the air mattress. Joe
heard his brother get up about midnight He hadn't heard
him come back , so he must have been gone for a while Joe suspected
the content look on Frank's face and the peaceful slumber came from a
late night meeting with Nancy.
Normally Frank was a light sleeper, and his moving about the room
would have roused Frank. Joe suspected lack of sleep and Nancy meant
his brother wasn't waking for a while.
Just to be sure he called to Frank. "Come Frank let's go. I want to
see what you got me, bro." Joe kicked Frank's bed and waited for a
response. Frank merely rolled over with a grunt, and showed no
inclination of going anywhere.
Joe smiled to himself as he headed downstairs. Yup, his brother had
it bad. This was going to be great holiday for both of them. Frank and Nancy
really were a great pair. Joe intended to be sure his brother didn't
botch it. He also intended to have great fun at his brother's expense
doing so.
Joe heard his Aunt as he entered.
"Joseph!" His Aunt admonished before he even had a chance to grab a
mug of coffee.
"Morning, Mom" He grunted taking a swig from his coffee before turning
to deal with his Aunt.
He turned and could tell his Aunt had a lecture already primed. " It
was too early in the morning to deal with this." Joe thought as he
reinforced himself with another large gulp from his coffee mug.
"Good morning to you Aunt Gertrude Did you sleep well?" Joe asked.
His mother was cooking eggs and making pancake batter , and turned around and shot him warning
look and went back to cooking .
"Why was your brother sleeping on the couch last night?" Gertrude
demanded.
Laura turned and gave Joe a questioning look. Joe just shrugged
looking at his mother.
He turned his attention back to his Aunt. He decided playing dumb was
the safest option here.
"I didn't know Frank was sleeping on the couch. He was sound asleep on
the air mattress when I woke up." Joe added innocently.
"I heard him moving around, trying to get to sleep on the couch. He
said he couldn't sleep with all your snoring.". Gertrude scolded Joe.
"All that noise, the poor boy couldn't relax. It's no wonder keeping him up so late, Joseph."
Joe snorted into his mug almost spitting a mouthful of coffee
onto his Aunt.
"I didn't realize my snoring was that bad." Joe replied. "I promise
I'll talk with him about it when he wakes up. I doubt he'll be up for
a while." Joe smiled looking at his mother.
Laura heard amusement in his voice and looked at her son. There was a
hint of glee in his eyes. Obviously Frank had been up late last
night, but from the look in her son's eyes snoring had little to do
with it.
