The Bookcase
Even though brothers often fight with each other, there is always a deep family love for one another called “brotherly love” that binds them together. Sometimes the fights result in deep wounds that take a while to heal, but in the end the brotherly love takes over and the wounds heal. Here is my story.
The Bookcase
In April of 1959, I was 16 years old. My brother Craig and I were fighting about something and I was chasing him around our house on Stark Street in Phillips, Texas. I had just punched him and was running from him when he picked up a boot and threw it at me. The boot missed me, but it hit the bookcase that I had just brought home from my woodshop class at Phillips High School. The bookcase was a masterpiece of perfection and I was extremely proud of it. I looked at the top of the bookcase and there was a one inch gouge in the top of my masterpiece bookcase where the boot hit it. I saw red and told Craig I was going to throttle him and he ran out the front door. I caught him on the front lawn and pounded him pretty good. Now he was seeing red and he started after me and I ran through the front door slamming it behind me. On the front door, we had a 3 foot by 3 foot pane glass window. Craig put his hand up to stop the door, but instead of hitting the wood, he hit the pane of glass. Glass went every where and we looked at his hand and arm and it was sliced all over with very deep cuts. We wrapped his arm in towels and headed for the emergency room at the Phillips Company Hospital. They put about one hundred fifty stitches in his hand and arm. We forgave each other and life went on. In the year 2001 after our mom and dad passed away, we were at their house getting things ready for a garage sale. I saw the bookcase and showed Craig the gouge on the top where he had hit it with a boot. Craig immediately showed me the scars on his arm and told me he thought I got the best of him on that day. We spent some time reminiscing about the good ole days after that.
My brother Craig and I sometime after the wounds healed.
Thank you for reading The Bookcase,
Hawg Jaw Bill