11-Oct-2019

  • 1

11-Oct-2019

This is what big brothers are for.

“Do you want to see it?” Bobby asked.

Bobby’s little brother, Kyle, gave him a skeptical look and shook his head.

A quick look at the front seat showed that his parents were still talking to one another and not paying attention to the two boys. Bobby reached across the seat and held out a single, red, twenty-sided die. “It’s not going to hurt you. See?”

Kyle leaned away. “Mom!”

Bobby scowled and turned forward.

“What is it?” their mom asked as her eyes appeared in the mirror in the flap on the window. She looked at Bobby, expecting him to be torturing his little brother.

Before Kyle could spoil his plan, Bobby spoke. “It’s kind of hot back here. Can you open the windows?” He made his hand into a fist below the seat where his mom couldn’t see it and pounded it into his other palm.

Kyle gulped, then nodded. “Yeah. It’s hot.”

“You got it, guys,” their dad said in his usual, chipper tone.

The van windows cracked a few inches each, and suddenly Bobby’s shaggy, blond hair was whipping everywhere. “Thank you,” he said. When his parents went back to talking, he turned to Kyle. Apparently he was going to have to be more drastic. “You’re such a chicken.”

“Am not.” Kyle pouted.

“Are so. You won’t even touch this.” Bobby rolled the die around in his fingers. The light glinted off the surface and seemed to make the inside glow.

“I don’t want to.” Kyle folded his arms across his chest.

He wanted to. Bobby could tell, because Kyle’s eyes kept drifting to his hand.

“You’re not even curious if the legends are true?” Bobby glanced up to make sure his parents weren’t watching. They weren’t. Actually, opening the windows had provided enough background noise to keep his voice masked.

“I don’t care.” Kyle turned his head away this time to look out his side.

“Come on. I spent all summer looking for this, but you have to toss it out.”

“Do not.”

“If you don’t do it then it won’t work.”

Kyle finally turned back to Bobby. A hint of anger filled his voice. “I said I don’t care. It’s stupid. It probably wouldn’t work anyway.”

“We won’t know unless we try.”

Kyle glared. “I won’t do it.”

“Fine.” Bobby sighed. “I guess I’ll just keep this thing and always wonder that if we would have rolled a twenty if a dragon would have appeared.”

“Dragons aren’t real,” Kyle said.

“Who told you that?”

“Mom.”

“Grown-ups have to tell kids that. It’s like a law or something.” Bobby infused his voice with as much adult-ness as he could.

“You’re lying.”

“You’ll never find out.” Bobby tossed the die a few inches then caught it.

Kyle glanced at his mom then back to Bobby. “Why haven’t I ever seen one?”

“Because, you have to roll a twenty on a die just like this while you’re riding in a car on a road trip. That’s the only time the youngest member of a family can call a dragon, and the only time the dragon will bond with you.” They’d been watching dragon movies for a few weeks. He knew Kyle would try this, if he could convince his little brother that it would work.

“You’re making it up.”

“I tried once.”

That got Kyle’s attention.

“Uncle Drake told me about it, found a die and I rolled it out the window.”

“When?” Kyle scowled.

“On our way to grandma’s.”

“And?” Kyle couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice.

Bobby shrugged. “I must not have rolled a twenty, because nothing happened.”

“That’s because it’s dumb.” Kyle let out a huff.

This was Bobby’s chance. He leaned over and spoke so soft that Kyle had to lean in to hear him. “I probably rolled a nineteen, because I did see a dragon.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t.”

“I did. In the sky. Behind us. Mom and dad couldn’t see it, but Uncle Drake did.”

“He didn’t.”

Bobby folded his arms. “You ask him. He’ll tell you.” Then Bobby narrowed his eyes. “Then you were born and I wasn’t the youngest anymore.”

Kyle’s eyes were now wide.

“You sure you don’t want to try?” Bobby held up the die again.

Kyle tracked the object with his gaze. He licked his lips.

Bobby held it out, below the seat so his parents wouldn’t see. “It has to be a secret.”

Kyle looked at the die, licked his lips again, then slowly reached out and took it from Bobby’s fingers.

Bobby held his breath as Kyle studied the die.

“All you have to do is throw it out the window.” Bobby’s heart was beating fast. He tried very hard not to smile. “Do it.”

Kyle gathered his courage, sat up, glanced at his mom once, then threw the die through the opening at the top of the window.

“Wahoo!” Bobby let out a holler.

His dad’s eyes looked at them in the rear view mirror. “Did he do it?”

A grin tugged Kyle’s lips. “He totally did it.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Kyle shouted.

Bobby and his dad laughed. “Good job, Bobby.” He checked his watch. “That may be the fastest time ever.”

“Thanks.”

Kyle glared between them. “What is this?”

“Just a little thing we do on your first road trip after you turn seven.” Their dad smiled. “You owe me a new die.”

Red climbed up Kyle’s cheeks. “Do not.”

Bobby laughed. “Do too.”

***

That made me laugh. I don’t have brothers, but I can totally see this happening in my husband’s family.

Genre – Tall Tale

Random Object – Dice

Setting – Road Trip


1 Comment

Georganne Lynch

October 11, 2019at 4:07 pm

So cute, I loved it!!!

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