Harry juts out his bottom lip, ‘Sorry mum.’
‘It serves you right.’ Our elder sister Fiona says, poking at the cast.
All eyes turn to Fiona, and I’m glad they are not on me for a change.
‘Well seriously, what was he thinking?’ Fiona adds, huffing as she crosses her arms in protest to the scowls she’s getting from our parents. ‘And as usual, it’s all your fault, Charlie.’ This time, she sticks her tongue into her bottom lip to make a dumbest-move-ever face, at me.
I stick my tongue back out at her.
It was funny at the time, before it wasn’t.
My younger brother, Harry, is like a lemming in headlights; wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and constantly bumping into things. Since we could walk, Harry has had an unhealthy relationship with slings, casts and hospitals. And once again, here we are…
This morning, Harry and I rushed off down the garden to pick strawberries for lunch.
‘What are those white fluffy lines across the sky Charlie?’ he asked, shoving another strawberry in his gob.
He’d eaten more than in the tub, but at least it’d kept him quiet. Did I mention Harry also asks an unhealthy number of stupid questions?
‘Vapour trails, from aeroplanes,’ I replied with a smile. I love anything that flies. My favourite are the Chinooks that fly over our school on a Monday morning. They’re amazing! I’m going to be an RAF pilot when I’m older.
‘How do they make the patterns?’ Harry stared up in awe at the crisscross lines in the sky.
‘If you are high enough, you can just waggle your hand and create a trail.’ I stuck a strawberry in my mouth and chewed to stifle my chuckle.
He looked over to me in wonder. ‘Can we make a vapour trail?’
Bait and hook. ‘Yes definitely!’ I smirked.
A few minutes later, Harry had coerced me to dig out dad’s ladder from the garage. Between us, we carried it back down the garden to position it up against the shed.
‘This is high enough isn’t it, Charlie?’ Harry glanced upwards.
The ladder was twice the height of the shed, and I imagined in Harry’s eyes, and small brain, the top rung almost touched the clouds above us.
‘It’s worth a try!’ I grinned, holding the ladder steady as Harry started to climb.
Two rungs from the top, he let go with one hand nervously and started waving it in the air. After a few seconds, he turned and gazed back down at me. ‘It’s not working, Charlie,’ he whined with a forlorn face.
I stifled a snigger, but another one burst out unexpectedly. Then another, until I was bent over double in hysterics.
‘Why are you laughing?’ Harry tried again, this time taking both hands off the ladder to waggle them.
‘No Harry!’ I called out, a second too late.
Harry yelped as he lost his balance, falling sideways off the ladder and onto the shed with a thump and a groan. But he didn’t stop there. With limbs flailing, he rolled off the roof and plopped into the herb bed below.
Harry sat up with a sprig of lavender in his hair and I burst into laughter. But as the tears began to roll down his cheeks, I knew I had just become the horrible big brother!
Copyright © 2019 Lottie McKnight. All rights reserved.
This piece was inspired by the above photo prompt at Creative Writing Ink