The year was 1979; I was eight years old and somewhere in the second grade. I can still remember the day, as if it had been branded permanently into my brain by the day's events that follow.
The clouds floated softly across the vibrant turquoise skies, suspended like angel driven hot air balloons bumping gently against one another. The warmth of the day caressed your skin like an old lover, yet wasn't so hot you couldn't stand to bask in it's warmth. Each deep breath brought the sweet succulent scent of blossoming flowers and tree leaves which lulled me into a false sense of security.
Now I will take the time to introduce you to my brother, Leroy. Lee was, as always, four years older than I, about three feet taller, and about seventy-five pounds heavier to boot. I know to this very day that my brother loved me beyond the measure of most older siblings. He was ever willing to allow me to tag along with him and his more sophisticated friends. This meant the world to me for years to come, but of course it never stopped him from using me as a prop for his friends amusement. As I look back I often wonder if this isn't the motivation behind letting me come along as often as I did.
Again, I'll remind you I was eight and had always been a slight built girl with long dark hair and big brown eyes that appeared to be a bit to large for my head. Lee was twelve that glorious day and we were out playing next to the side of our beautiful white house in the country. My brother and his three friends, Will, Jeff, and Matt, decided to experiment with something they had heard about and wondered if, perchance, it were true. Making a human chain my brother placed the smallest person there at the end. You guessed it, me!
Towing impishly behind, embarrassed to be holding a boy's hand, I was tugged along to the dogs' run that ran the length of the house. Our Border collie CT had a bad habit of being an excellent jumper. Thus, mom and dad had recently installed a glistening silver wire that ran along the top of the fence. Though the charge was small, it was enough that the dog had learned his lesson, and I was about to learn mine! I still can see my loving brother's face grinning back at me as he reached out. And of course, in all of my infinite wisdom of eight, I grinned back and waited for the idiot to get shocked.
Now I'll never be able to conquer the science involved that day…but somehow, when my darling brother grasped that wire, a bolt of electricity coursed through our human chain, building in velocity and strength throughout the water contained in our bodies and the connection of our hands. At least that is what I have been able to deduce, being slightly deficient in math and equations necessary for scientific deductions.
As the electricity coursed through my tiny little body, stupidly agreeing to be last on the chain, I flew back what seemed to be a good three feet and took a full minute to be able to breathe again. As the blackness faded to form a fuzzy pattern of dancing spots before my eyes, I could soon see those nasty boys dancing happily about giving each other whopping pats on the back. Conquering their masculinity and amongst their great cheers of intelligence, my brother cried out with glee, "Cool! Let's do it again!"
Lucky for me, I was able to learn just about as fast as the dog had! I politely declined and proceeded into the house, happy to defeat the conquering heroes by running to our mother sobbing, "Mom! Leroy just tried to kill me!"
I'd like to tell you now that from that day forward I had learned my lesson and was no longer gullible to my mischievous brother's whims. Unfortunately that wasn't to be the case. But I can say that I am definitely wiser, smarter, thinner, and prettier than my brother is. And that somewhere, in the back of my mind, I like to believe that somehow that shock he gave to me graced me with these glorious attributes to lord over my brother.
After all, fair is fair!
