Precious Panda # 3
Triple Axel
“All I’m sayin’ is that if Nancy Kerrigan were still around, she would kick Michelle Kwan’s skinny ass” my brother Patrick shouted as he tossed me a baseball on our front lawn.
“Not a chance…Kwan is like a Power Ranger on skates. I seriously believe she’s going to be around for a while,” I said, firing the ball back to him.
This was one of many hypothetical sports discussions Patrick and I had growing up. I have four siblings but he is my favorite. Pat is six years older than me but it never seemed to matter when we were kids. Well, it usually didn’t matter. I remember once, when he was 16 and I was 10, mom and dad left the two of us alone when they went away for the weekend for their anniversary. Patrick told me to shut up and stay in my room all night since his girlfriend Julia was coming over. I did just as I was told, and spent the next two hours playing Super Mario Brothers 3, but I eventually got bored and decided to sneak out of my room and have some fun. Pat and Julia were curled up on the couch making out while watching the movie “Ghost,” so they didn’t notice me quietly crawling behind them. When I blew an air horn I had smuggled out of my dad’s office right over their heads, Patrick jumped eight feet in the air. The look on his face was priceless, and was worth the pummeling he gave me later.
Oddly enough, I only saw that expression on his face one other time—when he got the call telling him that his unit was being deployed to Iraq. When he left, his daughter Shannon was two months old. He missed her first word (dad, ironically), her first steps, and countless other precious moments that occur in the first year and a half of life. Although he was and remains personally against the war, Pat never once complained about being sent away. As he put it, “my country asked for my help.” I love him so much. Patrick came back last fall, and one of the first things we did was play catch on the lawn.
“Kwan has NINE U.S. Championships, Pat. NINE. All I’m sayin’.”
“She was hit in the knee with a pipe and still got the silver. What does Kerrigan have to do before you’ll say she’s better than that little poser, kill Godzilla?”
“All I’m sayin’ is that if Nancy Kerrigan were still around, she would kick Michelle Kwan’s skinny ass” my brother Patrick shouted as he tossed me a baseball on our front lawn.
“Not a chance…Kwan is like a Power Ranger on skates. I seriously believe she’s going to be around for a while,” I said, firing the ball back to him.
This was one of many hypothetical sports discussions Patrick and I had growing up. I have four siblings but he is my favorite. Pat is six years older than me but it never seemed to matter when we were kids. Well, it usually didn’t matter. I remember once, when he was 16 and I was 10, mom and dad left the two of us alone when they went away for the weekend for their anniversary. Patrick told me to shut up and stay in my room all night since his girlfriend Julia was coming over. I did just as I was told, and spent the next two hours playing Super Mario Brothers 3, but I eventually got bored and decided to sneak out of my room and have some fun. Pat and Julia were curled up on the couch making out while watching the movie “Ghost,” so they didn’t notice me quietly crawling behind them. When I blew an air horn I had smuggled out of my dad’s office right over their heads, Patrick jumped eight feet in the air. The look on his face was priceless, and was worth the pummeling he gave me later.
Oddly enough, I only saw that expression on his face one other time—when he got the call telling him that his unit was being deployed to Iraq. When he left, his daughter Shannon was two months old. He missed her first word (dad, ironically), her first steps, and countless other precious moments that occur in the first year and a half of life. Although he was and remains personally against the war, Pat never once complained about being sent away. As he put it, “my country asked for my help.” I love him so much. Patrick came back last fall, and one of the first things we did was play catch on the lawn.
“Kwan has NINE U.S. Championships, Pat. NINE. All I’m sayin’.”
“She was hit in the knee with a pipe and still got the silver. What does Kerrigan have to do before you’ll say she’s better than that little poser, kill Godzilla?”
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