The Funniest Thing That I Ever Saw

The funniest thing I ever saw happened one day when I was chasing my older brother Mike. He always was a stinker, just like any other older brother. He would hit me and and run. I would start to chase him determined to smack him back. Inevitably I would be the one to get yelled at. All my parents ever saw was me going after him.

As a kid I seethed inside. Sneaky son of a gun. I'd get him one way or the other.

At the time we lived in Wantagh, NY. I was in eighth grade and he was, if I remember correctly, two years ahead of me. The house we lived in was a split level on a street called Manchester Road. Now anyone who knows what a split level house is, knows that a series of steps separated one floor from another. The basement had stairs up to first floor that had a bedroom and a bathroom. The first floor stairs to the living room, dining room, and kitchen, on the second floor. Then more steps went up, and on the third floor, was another bathroom and three more bedrooms. A large house for a large family of eight.

Now on the second floor the stairway down had a wall above it. I call it my favorite wall. Anyways, he would hit me run and I was chasing him as usual. But this time he decided to take a leap and skip the seven or so steps down to the first floor. He thought that he'd get clean away again. As I chased him, I watched him attempt to jump down to the first floor landing. And smack, he slammed into the wall above the steps. He slid down to the floor in a crumple. I stopped for a second, not quite understanding what I had witnessed. Then It hit me. I started to laugh, I laughed like I never had before. I laughed until my sides hurt. Apparently one of my sisters also saw the whole thing. She ran over to him, I was still laughing and he was out for the count. Not for long, but long enough for me to finish rolling on the floor.

Luckily he wasn't hurt. Except maybe his budding male pride. I loved it. It made up for years of losing. For years of him throwing acorns on my head and singing, Mary monster to me. For the rest of my life, I got him. I got him and I never laid a hand on him.

It was the funniest thing I ever saw, and the best day I'd ever had. And it still is.