Umm, Where Do I Start?

NaBloPoMo Daily Plan: Write about someone. But who do I start with? The first person is monumental. Right? Doesn't first mean favorite? I don't have one! I can't pick my most influential person. There isn't just one. Could never be one. Unless I have a child. Then that can be the most important person in my entire life. As I'm sure it will be.

So let's start with Abe. My youngest brother. The one who I will always see as a 12 year old boy. That's the age he was when my parents started the divorce. And the age where he virtually disappeared from my life. Even though he's graduated from High School and entered the Real World, I still don't see him as an adult.

Abe was born a month early. I remember the night he was born, I snuck down the stairs to watch all the people in my living room. He was born at home, but rushed to the hospital where he spent weeks in an incubator. Tubes in his mouth and needles stuck in his head. They said he would have asthma. He doesn't.

Years later, one evening at home, my parents were calling his name and laughing about how he was ignoring them. He wasn't. He couldn't hear them. Because he was premature, he lost most of his hearing. As a child, he wore hearing aids. Those ugly tuck-behind the ear kind with blue ear molds. Now days, he watches you when you speak but he wears nothing to aid him. It's quite amazing, actually. For as little hearing as he has, he functions wells and I often forget that he cannot hear as well as I can.

Abe was my favorite sibling growing up. We meshed well. Our other brother looks more like me, but Abe and I are more alike. Abe had a wonderfully scratchy voice as a baby, and I love watching home videos for that reason. One of my favorite clips happened one morning when he was still a baby. I was mad at my mom, and I took a stuffed Grover and started smashing him against Abe's crib. I kept saying "I'm tired of you!" each time I whacked Grover and Abe laughed so hard he fell over.

Now days, Abe lives at home with my mom. He came back to us two years ago, just out of the blue. It's hard for him, I think, to accept that our dad isn't worth us. I feel bad for him because he's been cut out of that part of our family. While I'm still somewhat accepted, he's being punished for leaving my dad after standing by him so long. But Abe couldn't take it anymore. I don't know how he lasted so long. Insanity and irrationality isn't easy to put up with, especially when you are a 17 year old senior in High School. They already push the limits, and to have a father who grounds you for weeks at a time would be quite frustrating. Even though Abe isn't the poster child for a young adult, he's certainly not a bad egg like our other brother. Abe might be quick to fall in love with a girl who pays him any attention, or be easily influenced by someone else, he's trying to make something of himself. To make a life for himself that will be better than the one our dad or our brother have chosen.

Even if he's a four-eyed, brace-face right now.