Transcript for Brother

I was brought up in the suburbs,

in a small red house, under power lines with my mum,

my dad,

my brother,

and our bird - Janette.

Dad used to be an acrobatic clown with my uncle.

They were called "The Flying Trapinos" and toured the world.

Until my uncle slipped on his own ???

And Dad become a ???

Then slowly,

an alcoholic.

Mum cut the old people's hairs at the local nursing home.

And on Saturdays, sold pies at the football.

My brother was a year older than me,

and for a while, had to have the lense of the glasses blacked over

to let his other eye get sharp.

He also had asthma, and had to carry his spray around with him all the time.

Mum tied it around his neck because he was always losing it.

We did everything together.

On Saturday mornings, we'd watch hours of cartoons,

and eat honey on toast.

We'd then run into the backyard to swing on the clothes line,

or kick the football at Dad's undies.

We'd chase the chucks (?),

or burn insects with a magnifying glass.

When we run out of things to do,

my brother would pinch money from Dad's wallet while he was asleep,

and leave a peppermint on his tongue.

We'd then jump on our bikes and go down to buy lollies from Ruby's shop.

Ruby was old and short-sighted.

She had purple hair, and big twisted veins on the back of her legs.

I remember how her nipples poked out and looked like big walnuts.

While she counted our lollies,

my brother would try and steal something.

Anything.

Once, he took a pair of pantyhoes -

which he threw in the creek on the way home.

Sometimes, we'd visit Mum at the football,

and collect cans for money.

My brother also collected cigarette butts,

and had 2 ice-cream containers full of them.

On the way home, we'd try and find some fresh concrete to write our names in.

We never put our last name.

My brother put other people's names,

and even their phone numbers.

If it was raining, we'd stay inside and draw.

He was great at drawing.

He drew all sorts of things.

I remember a picture he drew of us standing by the letter box.

He didn't give me any arms.

We also played with my brother's lizard, Beef.

Beef lived in his room, and ate dead flies off the windowsill.

Sometimes, we'd feed him snails to eat aswell.

On Saturday nights,

we'd have to have a bath together.

Once, my brother did a poo,

and was sent to bed without any baked beans.

Sometimes, I wish I was sent to bed without any dinner.

Especially when Mum cooked tongue.

She said if we didn't eat our tongue,

we'd be sent to a boys' home in the country where they'd shave our heads and make us eat tongue.

Everyday.

At school my brother got the blame for everything.

He got blamed for doing a noise with his armpit,

and he wasn't even there.

He was at home with the chickenpox.

His best friend was Matthew Welch.

Matthew Welch could turn his eyelids inside-out and drink milk through his nose.

Once, they got caught trying to smoke a teabag behind the bike shed.

My brother's face went all white,

and he threw up his ??? lunch.

My brother worried me.

Often I'd go and visit Mr Stuart next door.

He had Macrocephaly which made his head really big.

We'd sit for hours, talking.

I asked him if my brother would go to hell.

"Only prostitutes and accountants went to hell", he said.

"But a thing called 'Karma' might get him".

And he was right.

Karma gave my brother nits.

The nurses found them when they came to school to check our heads.

He had to wait outside the sick bay to be sprayed,

while all the other kids walked past and laughed.

Nit-kids were like the Lepers.

The boy in the grade above me said that I had nits too.

And that I had got them off my stinking, drunk Dad.

He squashed his bubblegum into my hair and pushed me into the girls' toilets.

When my brother found out,

he punched him in the eye and was suspended for a week.

He didn't look for trouble,

it seemed to find him.

One of his chores was to bring Janette in at night,

and put a blanket over her cage.

Once, he forgot,

and Mum found her the next morning, frozen to her pirch.

We had a funeral beside the compost and everyone cried.

Despite his problems, my brother struggled on and actually had a dream.

He wanted to be an acrobat like Dad, and would spend hours in the backyard practicing with Dad on the side, coaching through blurred eyes.

One morning, I went into my brothers room to tell him about a colouring competition.

He was laying, all still.

He'd had an asthma attack.

I sat and started at him for a long time before I went and got anyone.

He's room was all quiet, except for the sound of his lizard eating a fly.

Memories of you, I will always keep.

God saw you were tired,

and put you to sleep.