15. Scott and Gordon – Bandit
"Scotty, please, please will you play with me?"
Teenage Scott, weighed down by term papers and looming exams, sighed and set down his book.
Gordon was still young and sometimes the years seemed to stretch out between them. Sometimes Scott felt so old. He looked at his second youngest brother and was about to shake his head. He was about to say, "No, Gordo. I can't play. I'm sorry. I've got too much to do."
Those were not the words that came out of his mouth. How could he say such a thing? Gordon was standing there, dressed in a cowboy outfit with two plastic pop-guns holstered at his skinny hips. He stared up at his brother, his eyes deep and brown and pleading.
So the words Scott meant to say didn't come out of his mouth.
"Sure, Gords," he said, pushing back his chair.
The scrape of the chair leg on the wooden floor was overshadowed by the enormous grin that spread across his little brother's face.
"Really? Oh, wow!"
And with that, Scott had a sheriff's badge planted on his shirt front – and Gordon pulled the kerchief from his neck up over his face.
"I'm the bandit and you're Sheriff Scotty," he said, breathless with excitement. "And you'll never git me, you nasty varmint!"
With that, Gordon took off, tearing through the house, laughing like a maniac. Scott stood and fingered the badge on his chest, then looked back at his books.
Just an hour of playtime couldn't hurt, could it?
And at that thought, he tore off after Gordon, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"You'll never git away! Bandits never win!"
But of course, in this case, the bandit had won, after all.