WeekendFreeWrite: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Hi There 😊

It is time for another #WeekendFreeWrite. This time, before looking at @mariannewest's 3 prompts, I decided, I wanted it to be in our world. So, with that mind set, I clicked on the first post and as if she heard me, it was the perfect start to my story. So off I went, my fingers having a field day, while my mind tried to catch up.

My brother was doing that thing he did. That thing with the rag in the sink

Not again!!! I had already told him it was a bad idea. Not just told, we'd even done it. But apparently his friends had tried it, and it was fun to watch. As much as I didn't want to be a part of this, I couldn't let him do it on his own.

"So what do you do again?" I asked, not that I didn't know, but I was trying to buy time in the hopes that something else will distract him.

"You stand over there... a little closer, a little bit more... ok stop. You have the lighter?"

I nodded.

"So remember, when I say now just light it from there. Wait, let me turn on the camera first. Ok.. Ready?"

No not really. Not Now... Not Ever. My heart was beating so fast, same as it did the other times. It had failed every single time though. Nothing really happened except clean up after. But here we were again and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew this time it was going to work. And what exactly was "work"?

"You ready?"

I nodded in unison with my heartbeat.

"Here we go....", he whispered, more to himself than me.

He started pouring the kerosene over the rag. Just enough for it to drip into the sink hole. My heartbeat got louder. This was the umpteenth time we were trying this. And yet, it never failed to scare the bejeepers out of me. Please don't let this bad feeling be the start to a bad day. Please, please -

"NOW!!!" he whispered as loudly as he could trying to contain his excitement.

I lit the lighter on cue. Nothing... and even as I was about to let out a sigh of relief, I saw the flame. It worked this time. Nooooo... I knew it, I knew it! The rag caught fire, at first it seemed like it was going to go out. And then, the flames got higher, my eyes got bigger and my heartbeat louder.

Only uncle Bill thought that this was funny.

"We are so dead ...", I muttered under my breath as I turned to get Mum.

My brother caught my arm, shaking his head. "We'll put this out! Let's not wake her."

You see, Mum did the night shift, and she was fast asleep. The routine was, back from school, eat, clean up, do our homework and then just muck around until she woke up. As long as we were quiet, she never gave us any Do's and Don't's.

The rag was still burning, but the flames were too high to reach for the tap to run the water. Everything felt like it was in slow motion.

"Call Uncle Bill" he said.

Of course I thought. When my brother told everyone at the dinner table about his friends experiment, Uncle Bill guffawed . Only Uncle Bill thought that this was funny. Everyone else just shook their heads. Uncle Bill had to justify his laugh and went on to talk about his own experiments as a kid. Then all of a sudden everyone else at the dinner table chimed in not wanting to be left out.

And Mum being Mum accommodated and laughed along. She was really easy going and just had faith we'd do the right thing. She never really stopped us from anything and so she didn't feel like she needed to tell my brother that he shouldn't try it.

But I don't think she was going to appreciate this. But even as my brother suggested Uncle Bill, we both knew that Uncle Bill was never easy to get a hold of and this was not the time to try. My brother tried to reach for the tap again but it was time to think of a new plan. And it suddenly came to me.

"A blanket! A blanket.... I had seen that on TV. Use a blanket to cover the fire and it will die." We both turned to look in the direction of Mum's room. That's where it was.

"Don't, she's sleeping", my brother said.

"She's going to find out anyways."

I ran into the room as quietly as possible. She was asleep but she heard us and muttered.... "everything ok?" My brother who was right behind me said Yes before I could respond. "Just need the blanket."

the buzzing of the lies grew louder

All I could hear was the guilt. And yet, I echoed after my brother. "All good Ma. ..."

As Mum went back to sleep, the buzzing of the lies grew louder . .... or was it the sound of the fire? Does fire make a sound? I ran after my brother.

We didn't have to say anything to each other, we just knew what to do. I held one end, and he the other and like a sheath, a cloak, we covered the sink. The fire went out but the sprinklers came on. Great!! The sprinklers were catching the sun's rays and throwing little rainbows on the walls.

"How do we turn it off?"

"I don't know. We need to wake her up now. We have to tell her."

"No, no!! Don't she's sleeping!!"

"And she is going to wake up to this mess."

"I know!! I know!! Turn off the main pipe. I know where it is."

He ran to the back as I started grabbing the cereal boxes and break to save it from the water sprinklers. The sprinklers stopped. My brother came running back in.

"Quick, let's clean this!!"

Is he kidding!!!! But as usual, I followed through. We got the towels and wiped down whatever we could. Thank goodness we didn't have many things in the kitchen. I started mopping. I hated mopping.

We tried to be as quiet as possible. Time to empty the bucket again! I shouldn't have let it get so full. Turn slowly now....* ahhhhh*

There was Mum at the kitchen door. My brother had already spotted her and was now standing still looking at her, waiting... just waiting. I froze too.

"You can explain later! Give me that pail!!" she said.

This story is loosely based on something that really happened when I was a kid. My brother had run into the TV aerial while playing Police and Thieves on the rooftop. He had a big gash just below his right eye. It was bleeding very badly. My mum was indeed catching up on her sleep as she worked the night shift. We were standing over her, discussing if we should wake her. I thought he needed to go to the clinic to get stitches and he was too scared to wake her. She obviously woke up with all that whispering!! And she was as cool as a cucumber and my brother did get stitches.

So if you would like to see where the prompts take you, head on over to @mariannewest for the #dailyfreewrites which gives you one prompt or the #weekendfreewrites which gives you three. Then let your fingers do the storytelling...

’Til we meet again over text, pics, videos, maybe even coffee - Steem On!!