Let the Good Times Roll

I don’t remember what he said that made me laugh so hard. All I remember is that we were playing the Narnia version of Stratego. We had to be about 10 and 11, or parents had left for the night, and it was just the two of us. He mentioned something about the white witch that left me rolling on the floor laughing out loud. It took minutes for me to stop; even then, I had to splash water on my face, to stop the tears because I was laughing so hard.

Thomas always made me laugh, that’s one thing I know for sure. He would tease me, pick on me, laugh at me, and be a nuisance but he still always found some way to make me laugh.  His brown hair matched mine in color, and if it was not an exact match, it was only a few paint chips away, although his lacked the lighter highlights, and he never dyed his purple.  Our eyes were just about the same as well, the color of a Hershey’s bar. When we were little, people used to think we were twins, but in truth he's seventeen months older than me.  Sometimes people think we're cousins and not brother and sister because we "get along too well to be brother and sister."

The memories we share are endless, from “sleepovers” in each other’s rooms, to “garage sales” in the upstairs hallway, and the “the bank” we made behind the couch. We used pencil cases to store our money, and paper sticky-tacked to the wall as our deposit logs. I flash back to the days to driving our “bus” of four plastic chairs and teddy bears as the passengers. Recalling the stories my mother has told telling me how he potty trained me in a day always make smile.  Apparently, when I was only two years old, he had just turned three, and was newly potty trained, and said to me something along the lines of “It's time for you to be a big girl now and use the toilet like everybody else,”  then gave me a pair of underpants and there I had it.  We used to put on these dance performances for our mom and dad, they gave us a standing ovation, although we never really could dance. We used to play ‘make-believe”, but noting like princess and prince. We were secret agents many times, each with a special number.  We would build forts out of pillows, blankets and chairs; that would always be out spy headquarters.  I reminisce about pretending to be Harry Potter characters.  Thomas would be Harry, and I was usually Ginny, solely because she’s a badass.  We used our suitcases and pretended we were at platform 9 ¾. Every Saturday morning was spent in front of TV, we always watched Fox; we would watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yugi-oh! and more.

We spent the summers of playing outside on our swing set, and playing with neighbors in the sandbox that our dad built, as well as kickball in the front yard. We would hang with Laura Petrocelli, our best friend from a couple streets over. We would sing, “We’re working, working for free-dom,” as we pretending to do all sorts of tedious tasks. The thing was, Thomas always had to say “dom” because dumb was a bad word and Laura and I didn’t want to say it. We would play with Sam Bowers from next door in our sandbox and on the swings; we always liked making “muck” (water and sand), sometimes we would even mix in the wild berries from the front yard.  When we played kickball, (which was often) Dad was always the pitcher, and we played with “ghosts” who would take your place at a base if it was your turn to kick again.   

Other summer days were spent at Martin’s Fantasy Island, a small amusement park nearby.  Many times, our friends Erin, Ryan, and Ben, along with their brothers Brendan, Kyle, and Evan, would come along.  We would ride the “dragon coaster” repeatedly.  We would become junior sheriffs after we watched the Wild West show, and the gun blasted always freaked Brendan out.  We would then set sail and canoe around the lake, and later, get soaked on the log flume ride.  We would share cotton candy and ice cream, but no matter what, no matter how drenched we got a the water park, or how many times we went on the "dragon costar", it was always a great time.