Brothers

My Uncle from Louisiana is visiting. He’s so polite with his soft southern lilt that I can’t hold a thing against him, even voting Republican in a swing state. He’s got this way of being humbly stubborn--it’s apparent that there’s no point in arguing, although my dad spent the day trying anyhow.

He’s the youngest of 8 and my dad’s the oldest. Fifteen years apart, but they look strikingly similar, particularly because they share mannerisms. With so many brothers and such an age difference they hardly know each other, but they are perfectly in sync. Never before have I realized that blood is so binding. It makes me wonder about my long lost half brother. I’d always been nervous about the very notion of him, for some reason just assuming that he’s probably a psychopath or an asshole. Maybe he isn’t, maybe he has got a whole brood of kids who walk and talk and think just like me. It might be worth knowing about. Then again he could be a psychopath or an asshole.