Bradford Lad: The Day I Kept My Brother Hanging On
Mike Coatesworth tells of the day when he tested his even-tempered brother to the limit.
My elder brother is a jolly person, a man who always wears a smile. In all the years I have known him I have never seen him really angry. I can't remember ever having had an argument with him, even when we were kids. Something really bad would have to happen to take the smile from his face.
When we were kids my elder brother had a large wooden box in which he kept his personal belongings. This was secured by a combination lock. My younger brother and I often fiddled with this lock, trying to discover the combination. One day, in our toilet of all places, I found a folded piece of paper on the floor. There was a number written on it. I was excited. I thought I had found what we had been looking for. At last we would find out what was in that box.
After checking that nobody was around, I went into my brother's room and turned the tumblers of the lock. The lock did not open.
Then I heard laughter behind me. My elder brother came out of hiding. He had set me up. He had planted those wrong numbers, and I had fallen for the trick.
We never did manage to open his box.
Our parents were very strict, insisting that we must come home at whatever time they had stated. One morning while I was in the bathroom I heard a loud scraping noise outside. I opened the window and peered out. There was a figure below me. My brother, clinging to the drainpipe for dear life.
Open the window wider, he requested in a loud whisper, I want to get in.
I grinned as I firmly closed the window.
He called out to me again, and the words he was using were not very nice. He had climbed higher on the drainpipe. Now he had his hand on the window and was trying to push it open. My grin broadened.
At that moment I heard someone coming up the stairs. Thinking it was my dad, I told my elder brother to get inside quickly. It wasn't my dad though. It was my younger brother, who promptly closed the window on my elder brother's fingers.
There was a muffled cry of agony.
Even then my elder brother didn't lose his temper. He laughed about what had happened.
Mind you, he made the two of us weed the garden.
