Brothers

My brothers were always causing me problems. Tom, the oldest, wasn’t too much of a problem because he’s ten years older than I am and wasn’t around too much during my formative years. The twins were another matter. Phillip and David were always jealous because I was the baby boy and in their eyes the mere fact that I was alive bothered them. I was not only better looking than either of them (and still am) but bigger. When they figured out they couldn’t whip me by themselves, they enlisted the help of the rest of the boys in the neighborhood. I learned to fight at an early age and fight to win. I didn’t care how bad I got hurt as long as the other guy was hurt worse than I was. A bloody nose and a black eye became my badges of honor and I wore them proudly.
Aside from the almost constant fighting we managed to play a couple of games as well. During the spring and summer one of our favorites was to play what we called “Deer and Dog.” For those who don’t recognize this game, it is a country version of “Hide and Seek” combined with “Chase” that we played in the woods behind our house. The “Deer” were usually given a slight head start and the “Dogs” would chase them through the woods until they were caught. Once caught, they became “Dogs” as well and the chase continued till everyone was caught. While playing this one hot summer weekend, my brother David had a pretty bad scare.
David and a family friend named Barry were the dogs. There were about a dozen guys playing as the deer. I’d found a nice briar thicket and crawled into it staying as quiet as possible to avoid being caught. David and Barry came upon the thicket from the opposite side of where I was hidden. They began to crawl through the thicket until they came upon a bobcat that was bedded up in there. The bobcat screamed, David screamed, and so did Barry! The bobcat ran one way and the boys ran the other. Barry was a big boy, bigger than me, and he created a new trail through the briar patch with David right behind him. They both ran all the way back to our house, hollering all the way. Mom came out to see what the ruckus was and all David could tell her was, “There’s a big cat Momma, a damn big cat!”
Barry looked like he had been a couple of rounds with the bobcat and lost. The briars had just about shredded his clothes and he had bloody scratches all over his exposed skin. David, who had run behind Barry, only had a couple of scratches.