Chapter Eight - Brotherly Advice

"Chris, put that notebook down, you haven't left it since you've been home." Chris's older brother Aaron complained from by the coffee table, where he was playing an intense game of chess with Henry, one of Chris's other older brothers.

"Leave him be, I'm enjoying his silence," Henry joked as he moved his queen. "Checkmate." Aaron groaned, muttering a curse.

"I almost had you."

"No, you didn't." Henry leaned back in his chair, admiring the board. "Too easy."

"If Chris got up to play, he would put you in your place real fast," Elijah, another brother, called lazily from the desk as he studied a map laid out before him.

"Oh, yeah? Well, then why doesn't he come over here and show me his skills?"

"I'm busy," Chris muttered, scratching out another line on the page in irritation. It had been a few days since he arrived at his childhood home in the countryside to celebrate the holidays with his family, and, true to Aaron's words, he had yet to leave his notebook alone. But he was on a mission: Anne asked him for a poem, and though he couldn't indulge her before they all left from the train station, he promised her he would write one over Christmas.

But nothing was coming to his mind. He leaned his head back, resting his tired eyes from the effort of constant writing and brainstorming.

Henry got up and walked to the chair where Chris was lounging with his legs thrown over the arm. The notebook suddenly disappeared from his hands and Henry started to flip through it. "Someone's been busy, this thing is chock full." Immediately, Chris got up and reached for it, but Henry held it up high above his head, his long, trunk-like arms towering over them.

"Give that back," Chris said tightly, trying to refrain from punching Henry in the gut.

"Why should I?"

"I mean it, Henry. Give it back." Henry reached higher.

"Come on, reach, baby brother," he taunted. Just like old times, Chris thought to himself. Henry could never resist giving him a harder time than the other three brothers. Perhaps it was because Chris was the youngest of the bunch and was considered a weak target, or maybe it was because Henry's simple mind couldn't stand to tease two people at once. Whatever the reason, Henry was a class A bully in his own right. He may have had the anatomy of a bear, but he also had the brain of a brick.

As Chris opened his mouth to give Henry a well-deserved theoretical, philosophical verbal slap, Aaron got between them.

"Boys, stop this." The peacekeeper and voice of reason of the brothers, Aaron was always the first to try to break up a fight. Peace and goodwill toward all men, that was his motto; it made Chris want to gag. "If you two start something, Mum will have both of your heads." Knowing he was right, Henry scowled and offered the notebook back. Chris grabbed it quickly, flopping back down in the big red armchair he abandoned.

Elijah walked away from the desk and sat down in Aaron's empty chair. Out of all of his brothers, Chris got along the easiest with Elijah. He wasn't the warring or the peace-keeping type, but was more of an observer of the madness around him. Chris sometimes wondered how he managed to keep his sanity after years and years of listening to fights, but he seemed to pay no mind to what was going on around him most of the time

"Is Rudy coming?" Elijah asked quietly, trying not to be overhead by Ruth, the boys' mother, who was in the kitchen bustling around.

"No," Aaron sighed, sitting down on the floor next to Chris's chair. "I tried to talk to him about coming, you know, with you and Chris being home and all." He nodded toward Chris. "But he said he was busy."

"Christmas won't be the same without him," Henry said, earning a grunt of agreement from each of the men around him. Diplomatic and no nonsense, Rudy, the eldest of the five Holmes brothers, was the backbone of the family after their father abandoned them as children. He kept all of them in line, but seemed to grow tired of his overbearing role and almost immediately after Chris left for university, got into the daring and mysterious lifestyle of cross-dressing. He barely showed his face anymore at holidays, preferring the company of his clients to his own family.

"He'll come around," Elijah said, but he didn't sound too hopeful.

"Hopefully not in a dress," Chris teased with a smirk, breaking the tension and making everyone chuckle quietly.

"Dinner's ready, boys!" Ruth called from the kitchen and everyone got up, excited to finally get a home cooked meal. As the boys all sat down around the table, Ruth smiled at them.

"I'm so happy you're all here for Christmas with me," she said fondly, patting Chris on the head as she passed by him to sit down at the head of the table. "I hope you aren't waiting on me." She motioned to the food. "Eat up." They tucked away and bowls, plates and bottles were passed around in a flurry of motion. When the activity settled down, Ruth cleared her throat loudly, drawing each man's attention to her. Chris noticed Aaron watching the cat clock on the wall behind Elijah's head, and Henry was watching the watch on his wrist with a sly eye.

"So, how's university, Christopher dear?" Ruth asked.

"Fine." The shorter the answers, the better when it came to Ruth's questions.

"And Elijah, any new discoveries out in those old tombs in Egypt?"

"Nothing worth mentioning," Elijah said coolly, also noticing Aaron and Henry's behaviour with a shake of his head.

"Hmm." Ruth nodded, watching Henry and Aaron. "And you two." They looked away from their clocks. "Business at the store going good?"

"Yeah, quite good," Aaron answered.

"Yes, everything's fine," Henry confirmed quickly.

"Hmmm." Ruth started to take bowls of food and dish out her own portions. All of the boys looked at each other, a mixture of suspicion, worry and relief in their expressions. Ruth had yet to confront them, even though they had been home together for days. Maybe she had forgotten (unlikely), or maybe she was just tired from cooking all day. Either way, the usual speech's absence was a welcomed relief. A normal, guilt trip free holiday was very possible.

"You know, boys." Ruth's voice seemed to stop the air around the table. "You all have a responsibility to me as your mother." Elijah set his fork down, putting his head in his hand and mouthing what looked suspiciously like 'here we go'. "I have five sons, and it's only right that all of you find good women to settle down with and give me grandchildren-"

"Three minutes!" Henry shouted suddenly, making everybody jump. He reached his hand over the table toward Aaron. "Pay up." Aaron grumbled, reaching into his pocket to toss a note to Henry.

"Couldn't have waited another three minutes to bring it up, Mum?" Elijah's patient tone sounded very tired. "Look, all of us here know that you want us to get married. You don't have to keep reminding us."

"I just want you to remember, that's all. Rudy isn't going to give me any grandchildren." She paused, sniffling slightly and crossing herself. "So I have to depend on you four to pick up his slack."

"Mum, you have to give us time. We're all busy." Aaron motioned around the table. "Henry and I are running the store, Elijah's in Egypt playing tomb raider, and Chris is at university trying to get his life started. Cut us some slack here."

"But that doesn't mean you can't date in the meantime." The boys all groaned at their mother's incredulous tone. "Christopher." She pointed. "You have the perfect opportunity. You're at university. You have your choice of women." Not every woman, Chris thought to himself bitterly, a picture of Linda coming to his mind. He shook his head.

"I suppose so," he answered aloud. Ruth dropped her fork in irritation.

"You're telling me that none of my handsome boys even have girlfriends to talk about?" Her hands found her sides and she glanced around. "That's just horrible. I have worked hard to make sure you grew up decent men, and what do I get in return? All of you being single. It just breaks my heart-"

"Chris has a girlfriend," Henry suddenly said, ignoring Chris's balk. Aaron and Elijah froze, watching their mother's reaction, which went from down in the pits to high as the sky in a matter of microseconds.

"Well, now, is that true, Christopher?" she asked happily, clapping her hands together.

"We haven't been dating long," Chris said, shooting Henry a glare. "It's nothing serious-"

"He's lying," Henry cut in. "He's been writing non-stop about her since he got here in that notebook of his." He smirked, knowing he had Chris cornered. "Come now, Chris, tell Mum all about it; don't be shy." Chris's lips formed a tight line.

"Well, since we're not being shy here," he said lowly. "Why don't you tell Mum about your latest relationship? She would be happy to meet your partner; it's sitting on the table right now." Aaron coughed up his food, and Elijah rolled his eyes. Count on Chris to have the last word, he thought warily. Henry narrowed his eyes and slowly moved his right hand to his lap.

"Stop it, Christopher," Ruth said, giving her son a look that made him seethe. Aaron recovered from the shock of Chris's statement and wiped his mouth.

"Honestly, it's Christmas," he said. "Can't you two just leave each other alone for two seconds?"

"If he wasn't such a smart arse-" Henry started. Chris stood to his feet, ready to give Henry a piece of his mind.

"All right, that's enough!" Aaron yelled before Ruth could even open her mouth. "Henry, one more word and that fork will be going straight up your nose."

"I'll gladly put it there," Chris growled.

"Chris," Elijah said calmly, looking positively bored at the entire scenario happening in front of him. "Sit down before you hurt yourself." For a minute, Henry and Chris stared each other down, both of them wondering if it was even worth it to finish the fight, but with a sigh of resignation, Chris suddenly walked away from the table and out of the kitchen, slamming the front door behind him. Aaron started to get up, but Elijah stood and motioned for him to sit back down. He could tell Chris needed a more gentle hand to talk some sense into him, and Aaron was not the person at that moment. Besides, he needed some air.

"I hope you're proud of yourself," Aaron said to Henry after the front door closed again.

"Wasn't my fault he was trying to hide a girlfriend," Henry grumbled, stuffing his mouth full of peas.

"At least he has a girlfriend," Ruth said. "I surely hope Chris was joking about...well, I hope he was joking," she finally finished, eying Henry who shifted awkwardly in his chair.

Chris was standing outside in the cold night air, watching the luminous night sky and trying to calm himself down when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Trying to catch your death out here?" Elijah rummaged through his pockets as he stopped next to him.

"Cold doesn't bother me." His body betrayed him with a deep shiver.

"You know Henry," Elijah continued as if Chris didn't speak at all. "He can be quite the ignorant brute."

"And I got stuck with him as a brother. God must hate me."

"Stop being so dramatic," Elijah chuckled and lit a match. After a couple of seconds, Chris smelled cigarette smoke.

"Since when do you smoke?"

"I needed something to do out in the desert at night," Elijah said, taking a long drag. "Actually, it was when we were passing through Cairo that I started." He blew out the smoke nosily.

"Ah."

"Here." The pack was open. "Right of passage into manhood." Chris chuckled, taking a cigarette out of the box.

"Brotherly tradition is more like it."

"We could call it that, too." Elijah lit a match and lit Chris's cigarette for him. "Try not to choke." As soon as he said it, Chris took a drag and started to cough. With a deep rumble of laughter, Elijah clapped his little brother's back. "You need low tar."

"I don't need this at all," Chris coughed, lowering the cigarette down by his side to burn.

"Whatever you say," Elijah mused, taking another long drag and blowing it out. "By the way, who are you writing about in your notebook?"

"Anne."

"The girlfriend Henry was referring to?"

"Mmm-hmm. I'm trying to write a poem for her, I promised I would give her one when we got back to university."

"Poems on demand. Sounds like a future business," Elijah drawled, chuckling at Chris's eye roll. "But I assume it isn't going too well."

"I can't seem to find the inspiration," Chris admitted, taking a drag of the cigarette. "I keep trying to find the words, but they just aren't coming to me."

"Very unusual for you, you have something to say about everything," Elijah replied. "But, I can tell that you're not just writing about Anne, but someone else, too." Chris scoffed.

"Can't slip anything past you."

"I'm an archaeologist; my job is to find the truth behind the myth."

"If Linda thinks I'm strange, she should have a chat with you sometime." Chris sounded as though just saying that name caused him some pain.

"So her name's Linda?"

"Yes," Chris sighed. "For awhile, we were good friends, and then I tried to take things farther and she...well, she didn't exactly tell me no, but she definitely didn't say yes, either. So I moved on, or I'm trying to." And failing miserably, he finished silently.

"Hmm." Elijah threw his cigarette on the ground, stomping to put it out. "So, you want Linda, but you're with Anne. Pardon my painfully obvious statement, but that seems counterproductive."

"Anne's a very nice girl," Chris answered, the logic of their relationship taking over. "She's attractive, bright, and she thinks I'm the best thing that ever happened to her."

"To any normal man, that seems enough," Elijah said with a nod. "So, what about Linda? What makes her so special?"

"Linda is..." Chris paused, trying to sum Linda up in a sentence. "The most beautiful, brilliant, hard-headed, nervous, and overall emotionally blind person I've ever met. I'm convinced that in a previous life, she was an ostrich with a blonde wig." Elijah was pretty sure Chris was trying to sound bitter, but there was no mistaking the tenderness in the way he spoke about her.

"I'm sure the comparison would flatter her. Women love it when you compare them to large birds."

"She might punch me is more like it, but at least it would get her to notice me."

"Such a masochist," Elijah teased, making Chris scoff. "But in all seriousness, why are you with Anne? If anything, she's just a distraction from what...or who you really want. In my opinion, that doesn't seem fair to anyone."

"Linda is unbelievably loyal to what her parents want her to do," Chris said. "That's why I've left her alone. I got tired of getting rejected by her."

"Ah, I see now. You let rejection get to you. How very uncharacteristic..." Elijah trailed off.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Since when has rejection turned you away from a goal? Look at your chosen career. Your writing has been rejected numerous times, but does that stop you from trying again? Elijah glanced at his brother. "Remember when we were in primary school and you wanted to win the short story competition? You didn't win the first year, or the second year...or the third, or fourth or fifth year." Elijah chuckled. "The sixth year, you submitted something, like, twenty something entries under twenty different names just to ensure you had a chance." Chris smiled at the memory. "And you ended up winning...first, second and third place." The men laughed.

"But the point is," Elijah went on. "You didn't give up, even though you were rejected the first few times. Linda may not be a writing competition, but she is something more permanent: she's the woman you want." Chris took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"I thought your field was dusting off skeletons, not playing Cupid."

"It's just an observation, nothing more. Besides, don't patronize me, I couldn't shoot a bow and arrow to save my life and I would look horrid in a toga." Chris shook his head and smiled. "I don't usually dish out brotherly advice, but I'll tell you this: If you really want Linda as much as I think you do, you'll find a way to win her heart and you won't stop until you have her." Elijah waited for a few seconds to let his words sink. "But try not to go by twenty different names, it might confuse her." With a chuckle, he clapped Chris on the shoulder and started to walk back up toward the house, leaving his little brother by himself to think about his words.