A Brother Like That
A friend of mine named Paul received an automobile from his brother as a
Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a
street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it.
"Is this your car, Mister?" he asked.
Paul nodded. "My brother gave it to me for Christmas." The boy was
astounded. "You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn't cost you
nothing?
Boy, I wish..." He hesitated.
Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish
he had a brother like that. But what the lad said jarred Paul all the
way down to his heels.
"I wish," the boy went on, "that I could be a brother like that."
Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added,
"Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?"
"Oh yes, I'd love that."
After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said,
"Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?"
Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He
wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big
automobile. But Paul was wrong again. "Will you stop where those two
steps are?" the boy asked.
He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back,
but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled
brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up
against him and pointed to the car.
"There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave
it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost him a cent. And someday I'm
gonna give you one just like it...then you can see for yourself all the
pretty things in the Christmas windows that I've been trying to tell you
about."
Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The
shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them
began a memorable holiday ride.
Their skeletal remains were found in a shallow grave in a heavily wooded area about six months
after they were reported missing. I guess those young lads really had no way of knowing that
my friend, Paul, was a homicidal pedophile.
Oh well, their Mom had probably warned them about talking to strangers...
Copyright �1999 by Brian L. Bennett - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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