Jess & Jorgie

It was turning fall and the leaves cluttered Charwood Street as Jess looked up into the sky. He was looking at the clouds that gathered above as he waited for his brother Jorgie to catch up with him. They had been down the street when their mother called for them. It was time to go home. The days were getting shorter and soon, night would fall even before suppertime.

“Hurry up, Jorgie”, said Jess, “You don’t want Mom to ground us, do you?”

Jorgie just pedaled the same and rolled his eyes at his brother, whom he considered to be too uptight for his own good. At home, their mom would be waiting with supper on the table. Jess hit the driveway first and let his bike fall in the grass next to the car. Jorgie followed suit. Jorgie ran across the porch to get to the door with his brother. Jess had not gotten the door opened the first try and Jorgie ran in to him crushing him against it.

“Dang, Jorgie. You almost killed me!” Jorgie grinned slyly and shrugged. Jess sized up the situation and decided to save he payback for later. He tried the big brass latch again and this time it worked.

As they opened the big red front door to their house, yellow light came invitingly from the kitchen and the warm inside air carried the smell of something good to their noses. Jess ran to the table excitedly, as he was starving. He sat down in his chair to wait.

“Uh, uh, Mister”, his mother said as she shot him a look, “you need to go wash those hands! Where is your brother?”

Jess looked around, but Jorgie was not in sight. He had been slow to get to the table and heard Jess get it. He was already in the bathroom washing his hands. Jess scowled and got up from the table. His sisters tittered from the other side of the table.

“Shut up!”, he growled.

“Jesse Taylor!”, his mother said sharply, ”you better get your little behind in there and wash those hands!”

Jess snubbed his tormentors with a “humh” went to the bathroom to find his brother.

He found Jorgie sitting happily on the toilet, singing and merrily swinging his feet. He had left the door wide open.

“Jeez, Jorge! Don’t you even know how to close the door?”

Jorgie, of course, felt no need to respond with words and kept to his business. Jess was already mad and now he was getting stunk out, too. As he finished washing his hands, he looked for a towel, but there was none to be found. Remembering the incident at the front door, he quickly reached over and wiped them on Jorgies’ shirt and bolted from the room.

“Maaaam! Jess wiped his hands on me!”

Jess heard his mom from the kitchen. “Jesse Taylor!” He hated it when she used his middle name. “Mister, you go sit on you bed until dinner is ready!”

By this time Jess had had enough of everyone else and went gladly to his room and didn’t even turn on the light. He laid down on his bed and looked out at the night sky. Through his window, which was very wide, he could see the front yard, at least the upper half, anyway. In their front yard were two sweet gum trees. Both were very old and very tall. For where he lay, the tops of the two giant trees seemed to come together in a great arch that looked quite like a dome. He lay there and imagined himself walking around up in the darkness of the branches. In his mind, he even let Jorgie come. After all, it was not much fun going anywhere alone. He imagined that his hiding place in the trees could not be seen from the ground, but that people looking up would see only the deep blue of the sky coming through the tree tops. Soon, Jorgie came in the room and lay down beside him.

“Watcha doin’?”, asked Jorgie. And Jess related to him all that he had seen and thought. Jorgie looked out the window and he too could see the hideaway up in the trees. Soon their mother called. It was supper time so they went to the kitchen and sat down to eat.

The five of them sat at the dinner table and ate. His sisters talked constantly about school and clothes and boys. Jess sat and ate without saying anything. He looked across the table at the empty chair where his dad used to sit and sighed. It had been over a year since his dad had sat there at the table with them. It had been over six months since he had even seen him. Jess stirred his broccoli and thought about the last time they were together. “Jess, you need to eat that, not play with it,” came his mother from the right. He roused from his thoughts and began eating. Jorgie looked at him curiously from across the table and made a face to try and cheer him up. Of course Jess laughed because Jorgie spared nothing when it came to making faces. Jorgie was a real goofball, but Jess was glad he was there.