A Trip Down Westleigh Drive

  Picture being a carefree young girl who no matter what was going on in her life, there was always a smile on her face, a spark in her eye, and a twinkle of wonder around her. Many including her family never seemed to get her, she was in her world is what she would hear from many of them, and no matter how much they criticized her, she was still fancy-free and did as she pleased. She learned at the young age of three that she was born different than the rest of her family, that was until she turned four and was blessed to become a big sister to an amazing “little” brother. He was just like her, if not even more eccentric in his way.

Life, before he was born, was filled with let us say not many pleasant memories, by the time he was 3, and she was seven, that all changed and life began to sparkle and shine even more. They were two peas in a pod, the minute that they would wake up on a Saturday morning, there was no school so they would head out to the backyard, which by the way was so majestic! They were blessed to live in the country and would see deer leaping through the yard on that one particular spring day, there were three. They had headed to the swing set with blankets their babysitter gave them to make a fort on the two seated swings, and a shovel, an empty paper towel roll, and later a picnic basket filled with tuna and peanut butter and fluff sandwiches appeared with little cutie drinks, napkins of course, and a book for her to read him, a few trinkets of mixed candy, and twine to make a loop to bring the basket up to their ship, which was the top of the swing set. This was their fort when their parents were not home.

Ah, so as she assisted her “little” brother up first, she handed him the end of the twine, and he pulled up the picnic basket, and then she jumped up next to him, and they set up their picnic area. The first thing they did was drink as both of them had felt thirsty from all the hard work of getting up there. They both laughed hysterically when they looked at each other’s faces and saw hers was covered in purple as well as her tongue, and he was blue, their babysitter even knew their favorite colors. Ah, as they laughed they both remembered they were no longer on the ground, and both of them held on tighter, grateful they didn’t fall. They laughed even harder to where tears were rolling down their faces. He was wearing his favorite Spiderman shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, and his cowboy boots, she was wearing her favorite pink skort, a pink flowered shirt that said Happy on it, and a pair of flip flops she got the day before at Woolworth, their favorite store, besides lifeguarding. He even had his fireman hat on, lo and she was wearing her crown from Mc Donald's from the day before when they had lunch with their Grampa, at the local park.

Then, they decided to dig into the peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, this was even more hysterical as she got it in her ponytails as the wind blew and her hair got stuck to her face. He had it drip down to his knee, and they both decided to lick it. She got hair stuck in her mouth, and his tongue got dirty from the dirt on his knee. This led them to laugh even harder. Next, it was time to pretend they were pirates, and the M&M’s was used to be the booty they found and they rationed those out. Ah, their hands turned all different colors and he decided to fingerprint the wood in front of him, and she did too, both leaving their handprint( which would get washed off later when it rained). The one thing they never worried about was being able to laugh and talk about everything, they were visited by a ladybug who decided to land on the book she was getting ready to read, this led them to talk to her, he named her Sally and they talked to her about their adventure until she blew away. Once Sally blew away, she picked up the book his favorite “In a People House” by Dr. Seuss and she began to read to him. As they were halfway through the book, the clouds started to darken the sky. They put the book down, and decided to just watch the storm roll in, and then pick up the items they didn’t want to get wet, and climbed down to sit on the grass crossed legged and watch the clouds turn from white and fluffy to dark and then their pup Jamie a Lhasa apso came running out the backdoor with their oldest brother to tell them to get inside soon. He realized they were ignoring him on purpose, he had just gotten home from lifeguarding and teaching swim classes for the day, and he finally decided to just sit down on the ground next to them, and stare at the clouds as well. He saw a pirate ship, she saw the fairy, and their “little” brother saw the gold, which ended up soaking them through to their skin. They all laughed hysterically and stuck out their tongues drinking the rain until they saw lightning and they all then bolted into the house and ran to the bathroom off the playroom where their babysitter left them towels and one even for Jamie.

Before they knew it, their babysitter even had a bath drawn in each bathroom for them, and clean clothes, they all bathed, got dried off, and dressed into their jammies as it was now time for them to watch a movie before bed. The bond between the girl and her “little brother only strengthened up until the day he passed away when he was 39. Her “little” brother grew up to be afoot and two inches taller than her and he still to this day almost seven years later, is her hero.