I grew up with two people in my life that I would do anything for. They were by no means the only people I would stretch out to help but they were the ones who I would choose to spend my free time with and till this day I would call and want to just be around. These guys are my cousins Aaron and Brandon, and I want to tell you just a little bit about these fine gentlemen. I was the oldest of the three of us but Brandon was the closest to me by three months. Growing up Brandon had it easy as far as we were concerned. He was a little bit of a cry baby and sometimes when he would spend the night at either of our places he would complain about how he wasn’t quite so comfortable there. I can remember on several occasions how Aaron and myself would try to scare him into peeing his pants after staying up all night watching movies. He turned out to be the only sane one in our little trio. Aaron had a spirit of adventure and would easily become bored if he had to sit in the house and do something us regular people did often. He just had to go out and get into something and many times that made the stays at his place very memorable. I can remember many near tragic accidents that happened to me in particular because of his wild schemes. One time we were swinging on a tree rope in the hood of East St. Louis and I fell like 15 ft. flat on my back into a mess of broken 40 ounce bottles. I was cut and bruised and I almost blacked out a few times. Another time I was chasing a ball into the street and a car came flying down the wrong way of a one-way street and hit me. I panicked and froze up like a deer in headlights and wound up inches away from the tires running over my head. I was completely under the vehicle but I wasn’t scared just shocked. It was all the hanging out with my cousin that got me to thinking at a very young age that God must have some kind of plan for my life. We were bad kids, I mean every single time our mothers turned around they were either rushing me to the hospital or being forced to clean up our messes. Still I would wait all year long for the summertime to come back around the corner so that we could spend that ever so cherished time again.
Now we are men and the time we spend with one another has grown short. Aaron has spent four years of his adult life in the penitentiary and since being freed, his girlfriend has given birth to a healthy baby boy, making him a father. Brandon has spent the last few years working a decent paying factory job in the union near St. Louis. He wed his high school sweetheart about a year ago and since is now the proud father of two, a boy and a girl. I, on the other hand, have returned to school and am searching for that adventure that used to be so prevalent in my life. I am searching for the fellowship I used to share with those two men in the faces of new friends but nothing seems to hold a fair comparison.