CNF; A Picture is Worth 516 Words

            Here my brothers are with each other, John in his dinosaur costume awkwardly holding Robbie in the pumpkin costume. Looking at them now you’d never believe they had a close relationship. But looking at this picture makes me remember how close they used to be.  It’s 1996, Robbie’s first Halloween, I had to ask my mom and she remembers it like it happened yesterday.

            Robbie is four months old, he’ll never remember being in the hospital, going through so many tests, being a premature baby and barely surviving. He won’t remember this picture being taken, showing his chubby cheeks that he didn’t have when he was born because he was barely 6 pounds. His pale skin; I find shocking to see compared to how tan John is, and his huge eyes stare past my mom who is taking the picture. John is five, showing his toothy grin, his pin straight dark hair is poking out of the dinosaur costume hood. John will remember what it’s like being an only child and we’ll all remember how happy he was when I, his first sibling was born. He was grabbing random people in the hospital yelling at them, “Come see my new, beautiful baby sister!” John is holding Robbie nervously but proudly, he loved being an older brother, now looking at him you would never think that he felt that way.

            John’s hair will be curly and we will all look so much alike. But John will have a quiet personality and it will seem as if he doesn’t care about family. He focuses on school and work more than people just like Dad. He’ll follow in Dad’s footsteps by going to Stanislaus and in the summer he’ll be the best boss ever, I would know considering he’ll be mine. John will be protective of me someday and funny, sometimes. While he’s in his third year of college we’ll try and gain that brother-sister relationship, by then it will be really hard to accomplish because the distance will get in the way.

            Robbie will be babied all his life. He’ll have life easy except when he’s expected to live up to John and I. John and I try ridiculously hard in school to please Mom and Dad, Robbie doesn’t care if they are happy about it or not. Robbie and I become close after John leaves for college because his best friend and video gaming partner left. When John comes home they just fight because John never stops picking on him. Robbie will always be really skinny and he will hate it! He’ll be really funny and he’ll become one of my best friends. He won’t really care for anyone at first but later in life he’ll start being more sensitive and loving.

            It’s crazy when I look at the pictures and see us all together with genuine smiles on our faces. Now mom has to beg us to all take a “happy” picture together. We still love each other but things change rather quickly.