"Brothers Till The End Of Time: Part 1"
Written by Laura Speidell.

"Taylor! Come on!"
The little boy pressed his nose up against the window, flatting his palms on the smooth glass. I watched the spectical from a distance, stopped when I had realized that I was alone. The woman grabbed the little boy’s hand from the glass and held it firmly in her own. She gently pulled him away from the window. The little boy whined and yanked his hand back out of her grasp, dashing back to his spot on the pet shop glass. The puppies were on display that week. A happy site for all the kids, myself included. Except I knew when it was time to move on.
“Mommy!” The blonde haired blue eyed child yelled. “I wanna get a puppy! Pwease!”
“Maybe Santa will give one to you for Christmas,” the mother said soothingly. “But you have to be a good little boy. Santa’s always watching you.”
“But Christmas is forever away!” The child whinned. Three months did seem like forever espesically to a child. “I want one now!” The woman placed her hand on her buldging stomach. This child was a piece of work sometimes and people couldn’t help but glance at what was going on. I felt embarassed standing there only a few feet away. The little boy was one who got whatever he wanted, all he had to do was smile. Everyone was always stopping to comment on how cute he was, even at his current age of two years, almost three. His hair was a perfect blonde, his eyes were an ocean blue, and he had the smile to win over everyone.
The pregnant woman glanced up at me, I tried to look away but we made eye contact.
“Isaac! I thought I asked you to hold your brother’s hand and not to let him go!”
“Sorry, Mommy,” I replied. I walked over to my little brother and took his hand of the cool glass. “Taylor, we have to go back home before Daddy gets home,” I told my little brother.
He looked up at me, his blue eyes wide. “Why, I-sick?”
I rolled my eyes at his babyish pronounciation of my name. “Because Daddy’s going to take us to dinner tonight, just the three of us.”
Taylor looked up at Mom to see if I was telling the truth. She nodded at my little brother. Taylor looked back at me and let me hold his hand once again. I followed my mother out to the front of the mall where we would catch the bus to go back home, holding my brother’s hand tighter this time so he couldn’t pull away again. My mother was counting on me, I couldn’t let her down. I shivered in the cold air at the bus stop. I didn’t want to let go of my brother’s hand to zip up my windbreaker. I should have listened to my mother and worn my winter jacket, it felt like december.
There were other people crowded around all waiting to get on the bus to go back to their own homes. “Aww how cute!” One woman gushed. She was standing next to my brother and I on Taylor’s side. “How old are they?” She asked my Mom.
I noticed Mom was smiling. She placed her hand on the top of my head. “This one’s five in November and.” she put her hand on Tay’s hair “he’s two.”
“They’re so beautiful!”
“Thanks,” Mom accepted.
“When are you due?” The woman asked.
“Next week actually,” Mom replied placing her hand on her stomach.
“Honey you should be at home resting! Don’t you have a husband to take care of these two?”
My mother grabbed my hand defensivly. A few people have talked to her like this and she didn’t like it. I often heard her crying to my father when she thought Taylor and I were asleep. “My husband is involved in a job to keep us living,” Mom replied in a shaky voice. She tried her best to keep calm. “We can’t afford any babysitter right now and it’s almost Halloween. Someone has to do it.” A bus pulled up, she yanked my hand as she checked out the number on the front of the bus. “Now if you will excuse me, this is our bus.” She pulled me close to her as the group of people surrounded the entrance to go home, all anxious to get to their own warm houses and families. The grip I had on Taylor’s hand tightened as I was pushed towards the bus by the crowd. I was getting squished, everyone was so much taller and bigger than I was. We had left the mall at the worst possible time, the time when everyone wanted to leave.
Finally Mom pushed her way to the entrance and pulled my brother and I on board with her. She flashed her bus pass to the driver and we shuffled down the aisle to the back of the bus to find a seat. Thankfully we had left the stroler at home today.
I scrambled to grab a window seat before my brother did and I sat down proudly. Mom picked up Taylor and placed him down next to me. “Looks like I’m going to be standing,” she told me. “You two stay seated the whole time, all right?”
“Yes Mommy,” I assured her. There were still people piling onto the bus and there were no seats left for anyone to sit.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” A man behind Taylor said to my mother. She turned around and they started chatting. He stood up and let her sit down.
“Thank you, sir,” Mom gushed. He smiled at her and grabbed the hand rail as the bus pulled out onto the busy street.
We were in for a long bus ride and I looked out the window at the lightened buildings to pass the time. I did my best to point out the sites to my brother allthough he had seen them hundreds of times before. “See Tay, that’s the White House,” I said pointing at the glorious white building filled with lights. We had pulled up right next to it.
“It’s boo-tiful!” Taylor said in awe. He loved seeing the city even though we had been there for months.
A light went on in one of the rooms. “Taylor! The president just went to bed!” I told him.
“Mommy!” Tayloy shrieked pointing excitidly at the window. “The president just went to bed!”
Mom leaned over my head to look out of the window. “Wow!” She exclaimed. “Isn’t this exciting!”
I nodded. The bus pulled away. I looked back at the White House for as long as I could see it. I loved going to the White House. Daddy had taken Mom, Tay, and me once and I had so much fun. There were so many rooms and so many nice people. Daddy took me four more times when he had off from work, just the two of us. We went there and to the Capitol Building then we had lunch next door to the Capitol. We made a day of it and got excited for the next time. Daddy and me took Taylor with us one time because he begged us to let him go with us but he wanted to go home after an hour. Daddy and I didn’t even get to do our tradition, going to all the rooms and acting like we didn’t know what was going on. That day we didn’t even get to eat next to the Capitol.
We passed the Capitol and got onto the parkway that lead to Arlington, our home. I was so happy we had moved from Oklahoma. It was boring there. Daddy’s job had moved us to Virginia. At first I didn’t want to leave my friends but now I knew that it was better in Arlington. Tulsa had nothing, Arlington had Washington, DC, the capital of the United States. I had learned that in school, that Washington DC was the capital. My teacher, Miss Fitch, told us that we were incredibly lucky to be living in Virginia, espesically near Washington. We had already been on a field trip to see the FBI building in September. Daddy said he was jealous of me and one day I would have to show him it. I promised that we’d see it within the next few months. Dad said we couldn’t go until after the baby was born...
That baby was ruining everything. I traced a pattern on the foggy window of the bus. Our trips to the White House stopped because of the baby Mommy was having. Daddy said that until it was born we had to wait to go on anymore of our outtings. Why were they even having it in the first place? Weren’t Taylor and I enough? I glanced at my little brother. His eyes were closed but he was sitting up.
“Taylor,” I said softly. He forced his eyes opened and turned his head to me.
“What I-sick?” He asked.
“Are you asleep?” Taylor nodded and closed his eyes again. He leaned his head onto my shoulder and fell back to sleep. I let him be and kept tracing my pattern on the window. I must have dozzed off sometime because the next thing I knew my mother was patting my head. I glanced back at her.
“Hey, honey, we’re almost there,” she said smiling at me. She leaned over and kissed my forehead.
“We’re not stopping at Aunt Betty’s?” I asked. Aunt Betty wasn’t really my aunt. She was Mommy’s best friend who lived in Arlington and we’d sometimes get off at her stop and play with her kids while Mommy and Aunt Betty talked in the kitchen.
“No, Sweety, Daddy will be home soon.” She smoothed my hair back. I nodded and glanced out the window. “What’s wrong, Isaac? Does your tummy hurt again?”
I shook my head. “I was just thinking.”
“About what?” Mom asked.
I took a deep breath and looked up at her. “Why are you having a baby?”
She smiled but quickly tried to hide it. “Honey, we went over this when your brother was born-”
“No, not HOW did you MAKE the baby!” I whinned loudly. Mommy turned red. “Why are you HAVING the baby? Isn’t two enough? Are we too much trouble?”
“O baby!” Mom exclaimed. “Honey! We’re not trying to replace you!” She hugged my neck and kissed my cheek. She grabbed my sleeping brother into our hug. “You two are my life! Three including your father.” She smiled. “Soon to be four. Isaac, I love you and your brother. Your father and I want a big family with lots of kids so none of you will ever be bored. I love children and we both come from big families so we know how fun it is to have lots of brothers and sisters. Isaac, don’t you think it will be fun to have someone different to play with all the time?”
“I liked it better when it was me, Daddy, and you.”
“You remember that?”
I nodded. “In Tulsa... Then you had Taylor. I love Taylor and everything but he is annoying.”
Mom laughed and hugged me tighter. “Isaac, when you get older you are going to be so happy you have two other sibblings that you will be thanking me.”
“I doubt it,” I said slumping down in my seat. A few minutes later Mom was standing up, clutching the bags to her stomach and shaking Tay awake. I grabbed Taylor’s hand and led the sleepy boy out of the bus after my mother. The bus doors closed behind us and it sped away, taking it’s heat with it.
“Button up, kids,” Mom warned as we started the long familar walk up the hill that led home. I let go of my brother’s hand, knealt down in front of him, and zipped up his coat. I did my own next, taking Taylor’s hand back when I was done. Taylor and I walked slowly after our mother.
“Mommy?” I asked after a few minutes of walking. “Guess how many days till Halloween!”
“How many?”
“10!” I replied happily. “Are you going to take us trick-or-treating?”
“Maaaybe,” she said carefully. “It depends on how long the baby takes to come into this world.”
“Where will the baby sleep?” I asked curiously.
“Well, remember how Aunt Betty and I were talking about making the den into a nursery?” I nodded. “Well Daddy and Uncle Hank think that’s a great idea so they are going to build it this weekend.
“What will the baby sleep it? Taylor’s crib?”
“NO! MY BED!” Taylor screeched. “IT MY BED! BABY CAN’T HAVE MY BED!”
My mother looked at me. “Isaac, have you been listening to Daddy and my conversations again?”
I nodded proudly.
My mother stopped walking and leaned down to my baby brother’s level. “Taylor, honey, how would you like to sleep in a big boy’s bed?”
Taylor shook his head repeatedly. “No! NO! NOOOOO!”
“Not even one like Isaac’s?”
“MY BED!?!?” I said. “He can’t have mine!”
“Not yours, one like yours. Taylor... what do you think?”
“NO!” Taylor cried. “NO! NO! NO!!!”
“OK, honey, OK.” Mom soothed. She started walking again. “Isaac, your father and I have to have a chat with you about something called ‘eavesdropping.’”
“I’m sorry Mommy. I love you.”
“I love you too Ike, but we are still going to talk to you about it.” Mommy stopped walking again.
“What is it Mommy?” I asked her. I looked around. We were almost at the top of the hill but when we got there we had to walk down our street until we got to our house, 1022 Zachary Place.
“Nothing, honey,” she said. “I think I felt the baby kicking, that’s all.”
“Can I see!” Taylor asked, suddenly zapping out of his defiant mood and becoming excited.
“Not right now, Jordan Taylor, when we get home,” Mommy told him.
Taylor pouted but this time it was apparent he wasn’t going to get his way.
“Let’s try to hurry home,” Mommy suggested. We walked quietly to the top of the hill, crossed the street, and hurried down our block. Mommy stopped walking again when we were in front of Mrs. and Mr. Kelly’s house. She was holding her large stomach. “Isaac, can you go up and ring Mrs. Kelly’s doorbell? Please?”
“Why Mommy? What’s wrong?” I was starting to get worried. We were a few minutes from our own house and Daddy was waiting.
“Isaac, take your brother with you, please!”
“Ok, Mommy.” I took Taylor with me up to Mrs. Kelly’s and rang the doorbell. Mommy’s friend answered.
“Hello, Isaac!” Mrs. Kelly said. Her smiled faded when she saw the look on my face.
“What’s wrong, Sweetheart?”
“It’s Mommy!” I exclaimed pointing towards my mother on the sidewalk below. “She isn’t feeling well!”
Mrs. Kelly glanced past me. I looked at my mother. She waved and clutched her stomach. Mrs. Kelly looked down at Taylor and me. “Let me get my jacket!” Mommy’s friend disappeared but reappeared with her jacket on seconds later. She ushered the two of us down the steps to our mother bellow. “Is it time?” She asked. Mommy nodded. “We have to get you to the hospital!”
“There isn’t time,” Mom replied. “This baby’s coming.”
I looked at Taylor. My mouth dropped. “Mommy’s having the baby!” I exclaimed to him. I grabbed both of his hands and we jumped around in a circle. A few minutes ago I thought having the baby was the worst thing to happen to me since Taylor was going to be born. Sure I don’t like to admit it but I loved having the little squirt around even though he was annoying, he wreaked most of my toys, and he got all the attention. I loved him anyway. I didn’t want to admit that I wanted another one either. Taylor was fun to be around even though he annoyed me. He was great to talk to even though he didn’t really get it, and he was fun to torment. Daddy told me that he’d get better once he hit ten. Daddy said I’d love to have him around and once we got to be really old, almost thirty like he was, than we’d really have fun being together. Mommy and Daddy both said that having a brother was like having a best friend that could never go away, we were stuck together for life whether we liked it or not, and we were probably gonna like it. So naturally when I heard that the baby was coming right that minute, my dislike went away and I was so happy.
“Boys, go run to your house and tell your father to call the doctor,” Mrs. Kelly instructed Taylor and I. Mommy was leaning on her walking slowly towards us. “Run!”
Taylor and I dashed down the block towards our own house, running at top speed, me running ahead of my slow brother. “I-sick!” Taylor yelled after me. “Slow down I-sick! Slow down!” I ignored him, turning into our lawn and dashing up the steps. I pounded on the door until my father answered.
“Isaac! What’s wrong?” He asked. He was still wearing his suit from work.
“Call a doctor! The baby’s coming!” Dad rushed towards the kitchen.
Just then Taylor caught up. “I-sick!” He yelled excitidly. “I-sick!” He tripped over the bottom step, landing hard on the stone. He started wailing at the top of his lungs. His sobs echoing all over the neighborhood. I noticed some of our neighbors coming to look out the windows to see what was happening.
I knew I couldn’t leave him down there alone so I jumped down the stairs and reached him just when Mom and Mrs. Kelly were coming up to the house slowly. Taylor looked up at me, tears and blood mixed together streaming down his face. I flinched. The fall had caused some major scratches on his cheeks, nothing too serriously just extremely bloody. “I-sick!” Taylor whinned. He held up his palms. They too were scratched, but not bleeding.
“What happened here?” Mrs. Kelly asked.
“Taylor took a little spill,” I said, picking my little brother up off the floor. “You better go inside, Dad’s calling the doctor right now.”
“Are you sure you can handle this?”
“No problem,” I said. “Just as long as my baby brother or sister is going to be OK.”
I brushed the dirt off Taylor’s clothes and led him inside after my mother and neighbor. I explained to Dad what had happened while he and I cleaned out my brother’s cuts. Mrs. Kelly and Mommy were in Mommy and Daddy’s room. Mrs. Kelly wouldn’t let any of us in there but she came out every once in awhile asking for towels, wet washclothes, my father... But Daddy never stayed in there long, he’d come out five minutes later telling us that he was kicked out and that everything was going great.
Mommy’s doctor was on her way over but by ten she had still not arrived. Daddy had to make Taylor and I dinner in the kitchen instead of going out like we had originally planned. Taylor and I were in our pajamas already. Over pancakes and sausages I ventured to ask, “why isn’t Mommy at the hosptial like when she had Taylor?”
“Mommy had me,” Taylor sang in his own little tune. He swirled his pancakes around in his syrup. “Mommy had Taylor in the hospital. Mommy and Daddy made me. Mommy and Daddy had-”
“Taylor, that’s enough,” Daddy scolded. Taylor pouted but went on singing his song softly to himself.
“The closest hospital is an hour away,” Daddy told me. “Mommy thought by the time she got there the baby would be here. Mommy’s doctor told me that it was pefectly healthy if she has the baby home and she said she’d be here soon enough.” There was a knock on the door. Daddy pushed out his chair. “I will be right back. That’s probably the doctor.”
Daddy left Taylor and I alone while he went to get the door. “Taylor, don’t talk about what Mommy and Daddy did to make you in front of Mommy OR Daddy,” I warned him.
“Why not?” Taylor questioned innocently.
“It’s just not something that grown-ups like to talk about.”
“Oh,” was the reply. “What about you? Do you like to talk about it?” I made a face and sat up straighter in my chair. “I’m a grown-up.”
“No you’re not!” Taylor shot back.
I scoweled. “Well compared to you I am!”
Daddy came back into the kitchen. “The doctor is upstairs with Mommy now. Are you two ready for bed? Don’t you have school tomorrow, Isaac?”
“Daddy it’s Saturday!” I told him.
“You have church tomorrow morning.”
“But Daddy Mommy’s having Baby!” Taylor protested.
“All right, all right...” he smiled. “I was just kidding with you, I wouldn’t be able to sleep either. I’ll clean up in here, you two go watch some television.”
Taylor and I cheered. I jumped down off the chair and Taylor slid down off his booster seat, causing it to crash to the ground. Taylor picked it up and placed it back onto the kitchen chair and followed into the living room. I picked up the remote control.
“This is mine,” I informed him. “I’m the oldest so I chose what we are going to watch.”
My brother nodded. I turned on the TV set and put on Nickelodeon. I was disappointed to discover that it was not a cartoon like I had hoped but a show no color in it. I flipped around hoping to find a cartoon. I found myself on a channel with music playing and people with big blue hair dancing around.
“Isaac,” a voice said from behind me. “Please turn this off.”
I glanced at what channel it was. “Aunt Betty’s kids watch this channel all the time. It’s only MTV.”
“MTV!” Taylor echoed.
“MTV is for the older kids. You know the rule in our house, you can watch MTV when you are older, not when you are in kindergarten. And espesically when it is almost midnight, that’s when the wackos come on TV. OK, kids?”
“OK Daddy,” I told him. I put the no-color show on Nickelodeon back on and waited till Daddy left. I debated on whether or not to put MTV back on and then finally decided against it. I flipped through the channels for a little while and started to get tired. I looked at Taylor to ask if he wanted to play He-Man or something but he was curled up in a little ball on the edge of the couch. I glanced over to see if he was asleep and he was.
I yawned. “No Ike,” I told myself out loud. “You can’t fall asleep.” I yawned even harder and leaned my head on the couch cousion. “OK, maybe just a little nap, but that’s all. Just a nap.”
When I woke up it was because Taylor was jumping on me. He jumped back into a sitting position on the couch, his feet in his favorite pajamas out in front of him. “I’m He-Man!” He exclaimed, jumping up on the floor.
I stood up. “So am I!” I pointed to my matching pajamas. We started wrestling like He-Man versus his enemy except as usual we were both He-Man, so it was He-Man versus He-Man. We had gotten matching pajamas for a visiting gift from our grandmother when she had come to visit in August from Tulsa and we both slept in them almost every night. Mommy said we looked like twins when we wore them and that she espesically loved the built-in feet. It was the first we had ever seen that had feet on them. Now we saw them everywhere. They had come into style quickly and were great for the cold weather that was coming up, according to Mommy.
“Boys!” Daddy called from the top of the stairs. “Boys!” He appeared at the doorway. He was smiling and crying at the same time. “Come upstairs and meet your new baby brother!”
Taylor and I looked at each other and ran up the stairs after Daddy.
We walked into Mommy and Daddy’s room and saw Mommy laying in her and Daddy’s bed holding a small thing wrapped in a blanket in her arms. “Isaac... Taylor...” Mommy said. “Come here, sweethearts!”
“Don’t be afraid,” Mrs. Kelly said tapping my shoulder to make me move towards the bed. “Go meet your new brother.”
Tay and I walked closer to our mother. The doctor was standing next to the bed, she looked as happy as Mrs. Kelly, my father, and mother. Daddy was now standing opposite the doctor. He beakoned towards us. I stood in front of him and Taylor stood next to me.
I starred down at the blanket in my mother’s arms, inside of it was a small pinkish looking little person. The face squinted and moved, the arms flailed.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” Mommy said.
“He’s goregous,” the doctor responded. “Congratulations.”
“What’s his name?” I asked.
“Zachary,” Mommy told me. She slid her hand into mine. “Zachary Walker Hanson.”
Daddy put one hand on my shoulder and the other on Taylor’s.
“Can I hold him?” I asked.
Mommy smiled past me at Daddy. “Sure, sweety, just sit down right here next to me.” She moved over a little bit and patted the bed. I sat down. Mommy placed the tightly wrapped baby in my arms. His face stopped squinting and he looked into my eyes.
“He’s smiling!” I exclaimed. “Zac’s smiling at me!”
Mommy patted my back. “Yep, yep he is. Zac, this is your big brother Isaac.”
“Me too!” Taylor said jumping around. “I like the baby! I wanna hold him! Pweeeease!!!” he stuck his head over my shoulder so he could see the baby smiling.
“I like him too,” I told my mommy. I glanced back down at him. “Zachary Walker Hanson... Welcome to the Hanson family. This is Mommy, Daddy, and Taylor. We’re all going to take really great care of you.” I kissed his forehead gently, as carefully as possible. “You may think that having two other brothers is going to be annoying, or not fun. But when you get older we are going to have so much fun together; just you, me, and Taylor. Brothers till the end of time.”