My Brother Jack

I want to see if this helps shed a bit of light onto the root of my unique sense of humor. I think my sense of humor is an excellent amalgamation of my Father's dry wit and my Mother's quick intellect and quirky humor. This story will also add some understanding to just how different growing up in my Family had to be compared to all you "normal" people, and probably raise just a little pity and a ton of amazement for my Brother Joe. How that kid turned out as well adjusted...(well for a Works boy anyway) is beyond me sometimes. Also, you'll get to find out why my dear Friend Jacki is truly such an amazing person.

Now, my immediate Family consists of four of us, Pop and Mom Works, me and my Brother Joe. I am the eldest child, a whopping 6 years older than Joe. The day that Joe was born is the first day that I remember almost the entire day of, before that I have snatches of events and times but not a whole day. It was important to me, I was going to be a Big Brother and there were a lot of responsibilities that went with that. Mom and Dad prepared me for this a I have to say for his first three years I was a dutiful Big Brother I looked over him when he was an infant, watched him crawl and always keep my Matchbox cars and Tonka trucks away from where he might get hurt on them. When he was a toddler I would walk along side to keep him from falling...or at least run to tell Mom that he fell...again.

When Joe was three years old though my nine year old creativity and imagination got the best of me, well of Joe really. I started to make up stories for Joe about our older brother, Jack. How he was big, strong and could wrestle bears (just like the Legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant). Joe would listen, and smile and play along to the stories I told of Jack flying planes, climbing mountains and jumping out of airplanes just like Dad used to. Joe loved these stories, and I strung them on for probably more than a year until one day Joe's mind started to working and as any normal three or four year old's would.

"Bubba, why don't Jack ever send us birthday cards, or come home for Christmas presents?"

Unflappable and quick thinking even at nine I had an answer.

"Joey, I am not supposed to tell you, but Jack got ate by a bear while wrestling it in the circus in France."

Of course his sweet little face crinkled up and flushed immediately and as his first sobs turned to moans then plaintive wails of grief, I knew my proverbial goose was cooked ( if I'd known what proverbial meant) .

As Momma came into the room to see what was wrong, Joe ran to her and was near inconsolable.

"What's wrong my baby?" Momma asked the crying toddler.

"Bubba said Jack got ate by a bear Momma" my Baby Brother wailed.

"Well, that's not something Jeffy should tell you, come on its nap time now."

I listened as Mom took Joe to his room and sweet talked him till he fell asleep, had I knew what it meant I would have been waiting for the other shoe to drop as Momma came out of the room and pulled the door to behind her. I was in for it now, and she was gonna tell Dad about this too when he got home, things looked bleak.

"Jeffy, you really need to be more careful about the kinds of things you tell Joey. Remember you are his Big Brother. You shouldn't hurt his feelings like that."

That was it? Of course, I took Momma's words to heart and I guess more out of gratitude of not getting punished or have Dad sit me down for one of his talks, I never brought Jack up again. In fact Jack only made two more appearances in my Families Life after that.

The next time was when Joe was in Kindergarten and was asked to name all the members of his Family. Momma was volunteering in his class as a teacher's helper and had to correct him when after naming Dad, Mom, Bubba(me), Mawmaw and Pawpaw and Pepper(our dog at the time) he named his Biggest Brother Jack...

I am not sure how it happened but somehow poor Joe had gone all this time and not realized that our Brother Jack was just my imagination and stories. Better yet, willingly or not my Mother had become my accomplice in what is still my best hoax ever! I guess Joe thought after I had "let slip" the tale of poor Jack's demise that Jack had become something we just didn't talk about anymore, it was too hard and sad for the Family.

Incidentally, from that day forward Joe has never fallen for any of my crap, and to this day I still see that look of disbelief in his eyes when I tell him anything that might sound just a bit too much like a tall tale.

The next time Jack surfaced was about 9 or 10 years ago, somehow in retelling the tale of Jack to some friends I thought it would be fun to see if I was a good enough story teller to sell a grown up on the story of my brother who was eaten by a bear...in France.

(Jacki, I love you and I am almost sorry for putting this story out there...almost)

I had a darling new friend named Jacki, who is honestly the sweetest and most loving person I know who isn't my Mother. Early in our friendship I learned that Jacki trusted me enough that if I told her something was the way it was she believed me or would at least play along to help me get a few jokes in and then I'd let her off the hook and we'd all have a great laugh.

Well, after sitting around and having just finished telling my other friends about Jack, Jacki came in and inquired what we were talking about. I started telling her about my older brother and how I had admired him so as a child and how it crushed out family when he had been killed by a bear while performing with the circus...in France. I mentioned how hard a memory it was for everyone in my family and that all the men had an unwritten rule to NEVER mention Jack around Momma.

During the whole time I looked around at everyone who knew the truth about Jack, and saw them hiding smiles as they could all see that Jacki was wrapped in attention and falling for this story. Sometime after I finished the story but before I let Jacki off the hook, she had to leave. we all had a good laugh and argued about whether she had really fallen for my outlandish tale or not.

Then I didn't think about it again, until about two months later when Jacki came over to my parent's house with me to meet my Mom and Dad for the first time. Add to that fact that my Families Best Friends, my second Parents and Brother from another Mother, The Duffy's were in town to visit and this was a huge thing. I had warned Jacki about the root of my humor and how my Dad and Uncle Bill were absolutely incorrigible and almost merciless at the ribbing they would give someone. I warned her to be careful with everything she said to them because even the most innocent sounding question would lead her down a slippery slope.

Jacki was a champ that night too, she walked right into the living room was introduced to everyone and sat right down next to Mom and joined right into all the talk just like one of the family(which she is, by the by). She avoided all the verbal traps Dad and Uncle Bill put out for her, and even caught Uncle Bill at his own game when he asked her if she had ever seen a beaver.

"I know better than to even respond to that" she said

We all fell out as Uncle Bill insisted that he didn't know what she meant, that it was an honest question.

"I think this young Lady is too smart for you William Duffy" my Aunt Peg said and we all had a laugh.

That lead to Jacki getting to hear "The Dam Story"(which I will have to post up one day soon) and then as the conversation fell back into reminisces of our Families growing up, someone brought up the story of Jack. We talked about all the things Jack had done and Joe being so upset to learn that Jack had been eaten by a circus bear...in France.

With the most soft and sweet voice ever and kindness in her eyes Jacki looked over at my Mother and said

"I hope this isn't upsetting you, them talking about your loss so."

Silence...and then slowly all eyes in the room turn to me.

I squirmed under the stares of Momma and Aunt Peg, but reveled in the approving nods and winks of Dad and Uncle Bill and the raucous laughter already pouring from Sean.

"Young man, you didn't." Aunt Peg said

"OH YES HE DID!!!" My Uncle Bill's loud Brooklyn accent boomed through the room.

I sat there in disbelief, I had completely forgotten that I had tried to sell Jacki on the story of Jack and that I had never told her the truth of that story. But now it seems that I pulled off my greatest hoax a second time.

We all laughed and enjoyed the night as I laid out the truth of the story to her and how Jacki had now become an inseparable part of it.

Its still one of the best stories ever, but as Jacki and I have become better Friends and I have really learned just how intelligent and strong a Lady she is, I wonder how much of that night was just Jacki showing that she belonged in the room full of Works and Duffy and how much was her playing the part of the sweet young Lady that believed the things her Friend told her.