Welcome to my annual rant about my Favorite Brother on his birthday. Usually I would post a photo, but I have such a strong image of our last visit, I thought I'd share that instead.
We were all together, at the beach house in North Carolina. Too many for all of us to fit, so Betty and I stayed at a big log cabin on the water down the street. The road from one house to another is fine during the day, but at night, there's just black sky and stars.
One night in particular, we all stayed up until at least 2am. Betty had gone home early which left me to get home on my own. Of course, Rick said he would walk me home. And of course, I took him up on it. Not just because it's in the middle on nowhere and I think it's a little creepy at night, but also because I'm afraid of spiders.
If you know Rick, you know he is often covered in paint, which suits him. But on this particular night, he was wearing clothes that I had given him….khaki JCrew shorts and a pink Brooks Brothers button down shirt, untucked of course…and barefoot, I think. He ran in front of me down the long dark road waving his arms wildly so that none of the webs that may have been made during the night would get on me. I ran behind him and held on tightly to the tail of the pink shirt.
We stopped because we realized it was the perfect night to see shooting stars. We sat in the middle of the street and looked up. A star fell out of the middle of the universe and dropped right down the middle of the sky. There's nothing like a Carolina night.
The moment was quickly disrupted by loud snorting right next to us. Really, really loud snorting. We jumped up and ran through the darkness to the cabin and never looked back. I'm pretty sure that Rick would have left me in the dust if I hadn't been able to keep up with him. (Turns out NC has wild hogs....who knew)
We ran right past the cabin and out to the long pier. We sat there talking for a long time. About life, about family, about art, about the future. When it was time for him to leave, I watched him walk down the long road alone in his pink and khaki clothed self and I smiled and thought about how lucky I am to know him.
Happy birthday my Favorite Brother. You can't imagine how much I love and appreciate you.