Day 29. Motion Sickness. With thanks to Gumnut for the read-through.
John was the quiet one. The one who read books instead of playing sport or rough housing. The brother who would shy away from most activities.
John was also single-minded. A true Tracy. And as such he also had a streak of stubbornness. He wanted to go to NASA and space. And to achieve this, he had to develop a certain quality that he did not have.
Luckily, his big brother had this quality in spades.
Nine. A good age for developing fearlessness. Well, in John's mind. Scott had been a fearless speed freak his entire life, and when John had explained to his ten-year-old brother what he needed to do his face split into a wide grin.
Scott knew just the thing.
The fairgrounds came and went regularly, but there was a permanent fairground a couple of towns away, and Scott went to town persuading their parents to take them for the weekend. Once their other brothers – Gordon – realised what they were after their parents didn't stand a chance.
The fairground was huge, and Jeff and Lucy had enlisted Grant and Ruth in to wrangle all four boys – Alan was toddling along and Lucy had her hands full just with him. Ruth took Virgil and Jeff and Grant took Gordon – he was a handful – and Scott took John.
They made a beeline for the Pirate Ship. Scott was all excited, but John was mildly terrified. He never liked rides that went fast or turned him over on his head, and as they came to the front of the queue John hesitated.
Scott, ever the concerned brother, briefly put his hand on John's shoulder and he squared his shoulders. He needed to do this.
This was a huge mistake.
The first swing back made John pale. The swing forward had him covering his mouth. Scott shoved a bag into his hands and John clutched it like a lifeline. Oh god, this was such a mistake and he had so many more swings to endure before the ride was over.
It was on the fourth swing he threw up.
And the fifth.
And the sixth.
All the while Scott reached awkwardly over the restraints and rubbed circles on his shoulder. Eventually his stomach had nothing left to expel and he was just going through the motions.
Once the ride was over Scott had to help him off and over to the side, where John's legs promptly gave out and he sank to the ground, leaning against his brother. Scott said nothing, just waited until John was ready to stand up again.
The doubt in Scott's face when John stood up and tried to make his way back to the ship didn't stop him from helping his brother. He understood the need to do something he needed to do to fulfil his future goals.
Eight times. That morning they only did the ship. John's motion sickness was awful, but the Tracy stubbornness didn't miss John out simply because he was the quietest brother.
That afternoon they moved on to one of the rollercoasters. The screams were mostly in fun, except for John's – they were of pure terror. Once Scott got him off the ride he once again sunk to the floor. And he tried to throw up again.
They carried on repeating the ride.
By the end of the day John was pale and clammy, Lucy began to worry that he was falling ill, but after a good sleep on the way home he felt better. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast since he'd been pretty sure he would throw up.
From there on in their weekends followed a pattern.
Saturday mornings John and Scott would go to the local fairground and ride everything. And gradually John's motion sickness grew less and disappeared.
Until one day the pair spent the day at the fairground and John didn't even feel queasy once.
When John got into NASA and training began in earnest, he was one of a very, very select few that did not throw up in the centrifuge. Or the Vomit Comet.
And he thanked his lucky stars every day that he had a speed freak fearless brother that loved him enough to train his travel sickness out of him.