Week 11

I stood beneath an orange sky

With my brother standing by

With my brother standing by

I said Brother, you know you know It’s a long road we’ve been walking on

Brother you know it is you know it is

Such a long road we’ve been walking on

-Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky Lyrics

I've played AYSO soccer since 1996, and I have never injured myself. My last game of my last season of AY, I break my ankle. Irony in it's finest. I've been stuck doing extremely limited activities in my house for the entire weekend, and considering I'm always doing something I've all but gone insane. And the song that I posted above has been put on repeat by my mother all weekend, and is now tattooed in my mind.
So besides being stuck on crutches for homecoming, where does this leave me? I'm trying to be positive by catching up on homework, doing college apps, and reading. But I've spent an extraordinary amount of time with my brother. This all started when I first got home after my accident. Being left without a cast, or crutches, and no one being home I decided that the most practical thing to get from room to room was to army crawl, it worked even if I looked a bit ridiculous. So after doing this for a while, I notice that my younger brother Grant, has been watching me the entire time. I ask "Grant, help me into my room?" Grant looks down at me and goes "Nope, this is better then T.V." Thank you Grant.
The thing is, Grant has always been my best friend (and Gray to, but he's still too small). The pure reason for this is we spend less time together then any of my other friends. When I'm home he's asleep. When he's up I'm out. I go days to a week without seeing my brother, our only middleman being the texting or our parents. We don't fight, because we hardly see each other, and I've been told by friends that we're practically twins (in the way we act). Grant and I couldn't look much more different. While, Gray and I could be twins if he was older. Grant lacks our pink complexion and round faces. He is naturally dark skinned, and sports the famous Italian nose. But in humour, we are identical.

Needless to say, with being so busy, Grant and I haven't had much bonding time. So this weekend, we watched movie after movie, went to church, and actually ate dinner together. It's hard for me to look at him sometimes, him being almost six feet, with his deep voice and the girls call and ask for him. All I can think is this is the kid who wears a Snuggie around the house. But I guess that's what makes siblings close, the fact that you know their mannerisms so well, and you share the bond of blood. So having that working for us, and and through the fact that we listen and have never judged each other, makes my brother my greatest ally in the Goodman household.

Grant has always been the most sensitive of the Goodman three, with Gray being logical, and me just being tough skinned, that meant Grant was left to shoulder Gray's and mine emotional baggage. When our parents fight, Grants the one that freaks out, or when someone gets sick, it's Grant that gets upset. When my Grandma passed away this summer, it was the first death that any of us children had experienced of a close relative. I witnessed Grant being torn from being a "man" and what that entails, to being his normal emotional self. Grant's emotional side gave in, and when we went in the hospital room to say our final goodbyes, he made me come in with him. And while holding my hand, he spoke his goodbyes for both of us. That night neither one of us slept, and with Gray in between us, stayed up in the family room in silence. Grant might be the same as me in humour, but I could never have opened up like that so rawly, and that's where he comes in. I complete him by being tough, and he lets me be emotional through him. One day when Gray is older he will come in to the equation, and complete us even more. But until then, it's just Grant and I, and it's nice to know that my best friend has my back.