I was home on leave before my permanent change of station to Korea from Fort Benning, Georgia. One night, my brother, Craig, and I stopped by my parents’ house for a few minutes to chat with my mother. While we were there, my youngest brother, Dave, came home with his fiancée. At least, the girl he was with was introduced to me as his fiancée. My youngest brother was a “daddy’s boy.” He was my half-brother by birth, and he really was my stepfather’s son. When I say he was my stepfather’s son, he was my stepfather’s only son. My stepfather made no secret of the fact that he married my mom for just one reason and one reason alone. That reason was that she was a “boy” factory. My mom only made boys. She did not make girls. My stepfather wanted a boy in the worst possible way. That’s it. That’s why he married my mom. That’s a pretty goddamn bullshit reason to marry somebody if you ask me. Of course, nobody asked me. My stepfather also had two daughters. The younger of the two would have nothing to do with me and my ‘full’ brothers. The older of the two was a real trip. My mom used to give me money when I was in high school just to take her along with me when I went out with my friends at night. I really hated to do that because I hated to have a shadow tagging along with me. Seriously. Think about it. Imagine your worst nightmare personified. That was it. My half-sister had an uncanny ability to embarrass the shit out of me in front of my friends. And let me tell you something. She could not hold her liquor at all. We’re talking one beer action. That’s all it took. One beer. One beer and she would be drunk off her ass. God forbid she drank hard liquor, especially the sweet shit. Cuz that shit would make her as sick as a dog. You had to make damn good and sure she wasn’t within one hundred feet of your car when she drank that shit. Cuz there was no doubt about it. That shit was coming right the hell back up. You know. Upchuck-a-wucca. Vomit. Puke. Need I say more. Yeah. I learned how to camouflage, conceal, and cover long before I ever joined the Army. But I digress. My youngest brother, a.k.a. my half-brother, Dave, had come home with his fiancée. I thought that was rather interesting until the two of them disappeared into Dave’s room. I looked at Craig and asked, “What the hell’s up with that?” Craig looked at me and snickered and said, “Oh, she more or less lives here with him.” “What in the hell do you mean by that?” “Just what I said. Dave’s fiancée pretty much lives here.” “What in the hell kind of bullshit is that? You mean to tell me that the old man actually let’s him openly bring an unwed woman into the house and shack up with him?” “Yup. That’s exactly what I mean.” “What in the hell kind of bullshit is that? Did you know that I had to climb out of my goddamn window at night to go see my girlfriend then sneak back in my window when I came back home because all of the goddamn doors were locked? Whether it was summer or winter, raining or snowing, I had to climb in and out of that damn window just to go and see my girlfriend.” “I know. I know. We all did. Everybody except Tom and Dave.” Tom was my oldest brother. I knew that my stepfather had shown favor toward him. I think that was because Tom had taken Dave under his wing. I looked at Craig and asked, “Why did all the rules change for Dave? Was it because he’s daddy’s boy?” Craig replied, “I think you already know the answer.” “Yeah, I reckon so. That is such bullshit. If you or I had tried doing some stupid shit like that, we would have caught all kinds of shit.” After we had left the house and we were cruising around in the car again, Craig began to speak once more. He said, “You saw the double standard that we live with ever since Dave started dating. But once you left, none of us other brothers could ever speak out because we would get punished severely. You stood up to him and protected us. But once you were gone, nobody watched out for us.” “What about mom? She had to have been seeing what has been going on? She doesn’t say anything?” “Come on, Wright. You know better than that. She couldn’t stand up to him. Why do you think we all got the hell out as soon as we could?” “Good point. I noticed that you all scattered to the four winds just as soon as possible. I know that wasn’t a coincidence.” “Hell no. We all got out for a reason.” “I heard that. Do you know the real reason that I joined the Army instead of going to the Air Force Academy or to West Point?” “I always thought it had something to do with the fact that you didn’t get into one of those academies.” “Not at all. I flat turned the Air Force down because they wouldn’t let me fly jets. As for the Army, I refused to go to West Point after I finished basic training. The real reason is because that jackass refused to sign on my student loan for my first year of tuition at Boston University. I had a three-year full ride at Boston University. All I had to do was get in and pass the first year with a 3.0 or better GPA. That was a cakewalk. But that sonofabitch would not sign. He had no problem signing off on a loan for Tom to go to college. But me. Oh, hell no. That shit wasn’t going to happen. No way no how. No can do. His pen ran out of ink. He forgot how to sign his name and all that shit. He had a 1000 excuses. Well, I was tired of his bullshit. So, I got the hell out.” “Yeah. That was good for you, but it was bad for us.” “Only for a little while. Am I right?” “I reckon so.” “I’ll drink to that. Let’s go get a beer.” So, we went and grabbed a beer or two and talked about the good old times that we hadn’t been having. We talked about our worst nightmares. It was funny how we agreed that our worst nightmares were focused on our stepfather and our half-sister. Every situation involving those two always seemed to devolve into a nightmarish exercise in futility.
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