The brother I won´t forget

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I smiled into my little brother’s face, his body weighing lightly in my arms. Michael snored gently, and the smell of baby shampoo filled my nostrils. It was so hard to believe that he was my baby brother - I always thought this kind ofthing would happen to my best friend, Daniel, never me.
I turned my head and smiled at Mum. Those long, painful nine months......they had paid off. Never could we have expected a more beautiful baby. Mum seemed to read my mind and kissed the top of my head.

‘See? Things do get better- you just have to be patient.’ she said, placing a hand on my shoulder and staring lovingly at Michael.
‘Yeah, they do, don’t they?’ I agreed, and I turned back to look at my little brother. A premonition of me coming home from University and Michael running up to me flashed before my eyes. That’s when I realized that this was just the beginning, and there were many more happy times ahead.
*
Michael was crying. I could hear him screaming from Mum and Dad’s room. I wanted to think: Someone shut that baby up, can’t you see I’m trying to catch up on my beauty sleep? But all I could think was: Poor Michael, what are they
doing to him? Of course, I knew Mum and Dad weren’t doing anything except rising in sitting
positions feeling every bone of their bodies protest. I could imagine Mum saying to Dad, ‘You sleep, darling. I’ll get him.’ and Dad smiling gratefully, probably wearily and still half asleep and his head hitting the pillow. Then I heard Mum and Dad’s bedroom door opening and Michael’s screams getting louder.

Mum was singing to him in a low voice to try and settle him down as she walked over, I imagine, to the overhead light switch, turning it on. Then I visualized her settling down in ‘his’ chair, unbuttoning her nightshirt. I rolled over onto my back and closed my eyes. When you want to become an author as much as I do, you can lie in bed or sit in an armchair and ‘watch’ a scene unfold in your mind. I ‘saw’ Mum bringing Michael up close to her breast and then his screaming immediately stopped. So that was it - he was just hungry. I was almost disappointed in him, waking Mum in the early hours of the morning to just demand a feed, but then I saw his gorgeous angelic face gaze into my eyes in my vision and his little hands curled up against my stomach and I forgave him, guiltily thinking that I, too, would have done the same thing only sixteen years ago. For a moment I considered getting up out of bed and into the lounge room to offer to help Mum, but I realized that it was impossible for me to muster up that kind of energy. So I acclaimed for lying in bed, dreaming of all the fun we, my mother, father, little Mike, Gidget (our dog) and I would have when little brother was just a bit older. Already, I saw him wobbling unsteadily towards me on his runty feet. Already I saw Mum packing his school lunch and me accompanying him and Mum as he prepared for his first day of pre-school. My eyes misted over. Oh, what wonderful times they would be. And the most wonderful part a...