MY LITTLE BROTHER

THIS IS A CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT WRITTEN BY MY DAUGHTER ANNIE FOR HER SENIOR CLASS. I THINK IT IS A PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE AND CANDID DESCRIPTION OF HER YOUNGER BROTHER ROBIN...OUR SPECIAL DOWNY...

THANKYOU ANNIE FOR BEING SUCH A SWEET BIG SIS TO HIM!

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ROBIN:

Everything about my younger brother is absolutely unique.  That among many other things is what I love the most about him.  Being abnormally small for his age, Robin looks as though he is still nine or ten years of age, his tiny hands have somehow managed to stay an adorable size and are so flexible they are like playing with little rubber toys.  The almond shaped eyes which sit innocently beneath his slight unibrow are absolutely enchanting.  They are so FULL of just so much; everything about them is playful and happy to the point of having never known anything but carefree youth.

The times that I really love to watch my little brother is when he is playing with his many assorted toy cars.  There is a large step in my living room which separates my parent’s area from the rest of the house, and usually in early morning or evening I find Robin there zooming his cars back and forth across the step.  He makes the most hilarious sound effects, sometimes he crashes the cars and makes a loud “BOOM!” with his lips, or sometimes they zoom off the step and he whispers, “Ahh!” as they fall to the carpet. 

But what really is the most hilarious action that he does is chatter to himself insistently.  If he could be anything he wanted to be, it would probably be a story teller or narrator.  The words, phrases, and stories he comes up with are so original and thrilling.  Sometimes he’s sitting by the step and he will nod his head vigorously and say in his ‘John Wayne Voice,’ “Hey man, how’s it goin,” or, “Don’t you talk to me like that.”  Sometimes if I’m really lucky I’ll even catch him say, “You want a piece o me?”  That is probably one of my favorite phrases that he says.  At that point, however, May usually comes and takes him to the bathroom for a shower.  He does put up much protest; sometimes I can sit back and enjoy as he tears through the house with a jubilant grin upon his face and May desperately claws to catch him.  Though, these daring escapes generally end up with his running into the bathroom anyway and locking the door. 

Despite all of these amazing perks of having Robin as my little brother, I would have to say that my favorite attribute is definitely the look his face gets when he is happy.  When he’s not pretending or using his fluent language of Makes Believe, the real Robin is pretty beautiful to look at.  Those eyes of his are so hard to describe for me…it’s as if I have the words to tell about them I simply don’t know how to present them.  They’re not a special color, not amazingly huge, they’re just Robin, they glitter with life like bright stars and constantly seem to be smiling at you not matter what is happening.  It’s almost as if those eyes know all the wonderful secrets of the world and are trying to tell me something that I could never begin to understand.  

True, Robin’s not the smartest child in the universe, but with him it’s not about the knowledge…its about the understanding.  I don’t know what I did to deserve such a precious gift as Robin, but whatever it was I’m thankful.  Because even if he never becomes a Nuclear Physicist or something like that, he will always have a special perception of the wonder that nobody else can see.

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Ani Buongiorne

LWA

Creative Writing

Nov. 2010