Brothers, Food, and Humor
Sharing Life with a Bottomless Pit
Is this story truth or fiction?
As a boy, I suffered from an insatiable appetite. I ate anything and everything in sight.
Well, I didn’t exactly eat anything and everything. In full disclosure, prune whip and walnuts disgusted me, while the sight of shredded coconut made me gag. I still never touch those.
Most people accept my aversion to certain foods. For instance, whenever I visit my oldest brother and his wife, she keeps a nut-free zone, just for me, in the cakes and breads she bakes.
I almost failed to inform you that scallops make me vomit, so I avoid those, too. I had to stuff down six seafood platters over several years before I isolated the culprit responsible for near-death episodes of high fever and nausea. Each time, I spewed the boiling contents of my stomach before the suffering ended.
Bradley Paulson and I were best friends until he started junior high school in the seventh grade. Although we had never attended the same school, he ditched me because of my low status as a sixth grader in elementary school.
For years before Brad ascended, we were inseparable. On weekends, I often stayed overnight at his house. We rode our bikes everywhere and knew our city’s…
