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Summer 2014
It was just one of those summer days. One of those summer days that could be considered lazy. One of those summer days that could be considered sultry. One of those summer days that could be considered not so motivating. And, one of those summer days that a lot of college students might want to sleep in. Of course, David Ingram had that luxury because his full-time job didn’t start until tomorrow. His younger brother Brody, however, had to be up bright and early because he was going back to his internship today. It was seven o’clock in the morning, a time when both David and Brody would normally be sleeping on a weekend and in the summer. Their dad came into their room just to wake up Brody, since he knew he needed to be up by now. David was let off the hook. Well, at least for now. He could celebrate his last free day with wine and baklava if he so chose. Brody would have to celebrate later. Toby was already awake, and most likely playing video games in the common area. David and Brody looked very comfortable when they were sleeping. David was, as normal, sleeping on his side. His comforter was lying on the floor, and his head was buried under one pillow. His left arm was wrapped around another pillow. Brody, as normal, was sleeping on his stomach. His comforter was also lying on the floor, and their dad found this somewhat humorous. Their dad realized that he needed to do something in order to get Brody out of bed. “Wake up, Brody,” Mr. Ingram announced in a sing-song voice. “No,” Brody replied in his pillow. “Guess what today is?” “Time for you to get a watch.” “Now, you don’t get sassy with me, B-Rodes,” their dad remarked humorously. “Just let me sleep,” Brody said, his voice muffled by his most comfortable pillow. He moved over on his right side, and he also buried his head under a pillow. “Today’s your first day back at your internship.” “Dammit.” “Would you like another thirty minutes to sleep?” Brody nodded in his pillow. “Okay. But when thirty minutes are up, you’re up. Got it?” Brody nodded in his pillow again. Their dad smiled and left. He shook his head because he has always known that David and Brody have never been morning people. Since the two boys were little, their parents knew that the struggle to wake them up would be real. When Brody was very little, try four years old, he would always pull the funniest gag ever. When he was really sleepy, he would literally fall asleep on the bottom stair and wait for one of their parents to pick him up and carry him to his bed. A few weeks ago, on a weekend when Brody was home from college, he was very tired. He tried pulling the same gag that he did when he was four years old. The boy fell asleep and waited for their mom and dad to pick him up and carry him. However, their mom and dad would not let him get away with it this time around.
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April 2024
“You ready for Boston next weekend?” Levi Cranston asked his friend, David Ingram, over the phone.“Most definitely. Brody, McCalsky, and I have had our suitcases packed for a week now,” David replied. “I guess the one thing you’re not looking forward to is the long flight from San Francisco.” “That’s the one thing, but it will be nice to be back in Boston after a while.” “I’m looking forward to it,” Levi said. “I talked to my brother, Brett, last night. He, Brody, Graham, and Olivia are taking the train in from New York. They’ll be in Boston for a couple days,” David replied. “It will be a nice little reunion.” “Yea, it will be.” “In June, Brett, Dawson, and Toby are coming out to San Francisco to see us, as well as our cousins. That will be a nice little reunion as well.” “Where did you guys meet last year?” “Back in our hometown.” There wasn't really a lot for the kids to do for a while. Hide and seek might have been the best option, even if the kids are at least twenty years old. Other games, like football, flying disk war, and other games were possibilities as well. But there were some people who wanted to play hide and seek.
Or reverse hide and seek. Where only one person hides, and everyone else seeks. A game that has been played before and proven to be quite fun, the kids thought that would be a better idea than plain old hide and seek. Why not change things up a bit? What's wrong with being different for a little while? Being conventional could wait for another time. When they had all counted to thirty, they heard Levi running. But they weren't quite sure where he was headed off to. All they heard were his fast footsteps that probably led to a small house with a porch. "Well, it looks like he's gonna go for it," Caleb said after they all counted when Levi ran to his hiding spot. "Where do you think he is?" Bradley felt compelled to ask. "It would be interesting to find out." "Probably not in an easy place." "Oh, absolutely not," Caleb remarked. "I don't think he's that....you know...." Bradley tried remembering a certain word. "Um....what word are you thinking of?" "I can't think of it." "He's bold." "Well, yes. He's very bold and stubborn." There were quite a few buildings around the area. They just figured that the small house with the porch was where he might be. The roof was a gable shape, with clapboard siding. The porch looked nice enough. But there was absolutely no way Levi could have hidden here. The only door leading into the house was locked. And all of the windows were locked as well. There was absolutely no basement. The kids didn't really know where to look next. The small house with a porch was out of the question. They moved on to the next small house, but without a porch. The house looked a little similar to the previous house, but the siding was made of some weird off color of lavender vinyl. It was a cool house nonetheless, but it didn't seem to be a possibility either. However, with this house, there was a basement. But Levi could not be hiding in the basement. He is way too smart to pull that off. Because of this, the hide and seek game could take a while. That was for sure. Fifteen minutes later, and the kids still could not find Levi. They knew he had to be around here somewhere. That was the rule of the game, to not go farther than the end of this so-called park. If it is even a park. More or less a bunch of small houses just thrown on some vacant land that dates back to 1982. Maybe the year is a bit off, but one would get the idea. But Levi was here somewhere, but he was most likely going to shock everyone with his hiding place. There were at least ten houses around this area, and Bradley, Claire, Brody, Caleb, Jack, Andrew, and David had only looked at two of them. Twenty percent completed. Eighty percent more to go. On to the third house. A small house with a porch, this place had a hip roof that looked like it had just been renovated. The porch also looked renovated, with a soda machine just outside the front door. The pop machine did not look renovated, however. It most likely dated back to the 1950's or 1960's, so basically when soda machines were so popular. There were so many cool things about this house, including the kelly green shutters, the scarlet red roof, and the royal blue door. It was locked, as everyone had figured. And there was absolutely no basement. So Levi could still not have possibly gone into the basement. But, did anyone really know if Levi was hiding here? No one could find him. A few minutes, however. That changed. The seven kids were wandering around aimlessly in the area when they heard some feet jump off something. Whoever made this sound did not jump hard. It sounded like he or she might have taken some time to get closer to the ground before making a jump. The seven kids turned around to see who might have made that noise to their dismay. It was Levi. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, with his head facing the ground. Very similar as to when someone finishes their morning run. Only it wasn’t morning. And he wasn’t running. Levi’s chest was heaving once he was able to get back on the ground. He didn’t want to just jump off the roof because it was high enough that he could hurt himself if he had done that. He sat up against a large boulder, which happened to appear out of nowhere, according to the eight twenty-some-year-olds. "Levi! Where did you hide?" Jack questioned his best friend. "I climbed up on a roof after running up that hill," Levi replied. "You okay, man? Wanna relax a bit?" "I might need to. I was so shocked that you didn't see me." "You hid yourself well," Jack said. "I was nervous, man," Levi remarked. "I was watching you guys keep passing where I was, and I was trying to keep my breathing to a minimum." "Oh wow." "My body wanted me to breathe hard, but I didn't want to breathe hard. So I tried to hold my breath as long as I could, but it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. And my heart was pounding so hard while I was trying to hold my breath. I was that nervous." "Does your chest hurt?" "My chest is a little sore, but I need to actually breathe." “You gonna pull through?” “Absolutely.” April 2024
“I wish David Savino could come with us to Boston,” David Ingram said on the phone to his friend, Levi Cranston. “Yeah, poor nutjob is down with a bad cold,” Levi replied. “I know he and his roommates are all sick with a cold, and they hung out together in the common area and watched TV for the whole day.” “Didn’t you and your brothers do that once?” “Oh my god, yes. This was when Brett was a junior in high school, I was a sophomore, Brody was a freshman, and Toby was in fifth grade, I believe. Fortunately, Dawson was on his own by then, so he didn’t have to deal with whatever germs we may have had,” David said. “Yes, I remember that. You all had a bonding day in your common area by watching TV the whole day,” Levi said. “Yeah, it was actually not a bad day, given the fact that we were all sick. We were all in the common area, wrapped in our own blankets. We watched TV and played video games. Then we also ordered pizza for dinner.” “We’ve done similar when we were sick.” “I remember it actually worked out quite well, since my parents were celebrating their anniversary that day. We called ourselves the Sick Boys Club. Just because we all happened to be sick.” “Oh my god. You all crack me up.” August 2012
Brody Ingram was drawing cartoons at the dining room table. He wanted to do absolutely nothing else. It was a little hot outside, so he didn’t want to practice tennis. And, for that matter, David didn’t want to practice tennis either. David, his brother, had just finished playing video games and got a little bored after a while of playing, so he saw Brody drawing a picture of what looked like a cat. He just wanted to find out for himself what the drawing was of. The two boys were the only ones at home, so there was not a lot to do right now but possibly draw cartoons. "Who is Petey Anderson?" David asked when he saw Brody drawing cartoons. "He's someone I made up," Brody replied. "What does he like?" "Hot sauce, penne pasta, and Chinese food." "And I see that he tripped on a banana peel," David remarked. "Yes, he did," Brody answered. "Petey looks very familiar, too." "Oh, he does?" "Is he a cat?" "No. He's a dog." Summer 2006
It was ten o’clock in the morning, and the only kids who were awake were Dawson, Brett, and Toby Ingram. Their parents were sitting on the patio, enjoying the cool and crisp morning. The three boys, however, were playing video games on a classic gaming system. The usual on a summer day. Dawson did not have to go to his internship today. Brett did not have bowling practice. And Toby did not have anything going on today either. And, for that matter, neither did David or Brody. Today was probably going to be a day spent with the family, meaning that today was going to be good. No matter what the Ingram’s were planning to do today, it was going to be a good day. Dawson, Brett, and Toby played video games for an hour and thirty minutes, and then they decided to sneak up to David and Brody’s room and wake them up. At first, they were not sure what they were going to use as a prank. However, Toby was going to look in a closet and find random objects. Dawson and Brett were going to come up with some strategies. “What are we going to use to wake up David and Brody, and how will we wake them up?” Brett asked his older brother. “Well, Toby is looking in the closet for the rubber mouse, and I say we should just stick to that,” Dawson replied. “So, no pouring water or cake smearing?” “No. Neither would be a good idea today.” “Why not?” Brett asked, slightly disappointed. “Well, for one, we don’t have a cake,” Dawson remarked. “Oh. I forgot.” “And secondly, David and Brody would chase us around the house if we poured water on them.” “Oh. That, too.” “Do you think the rubber mouse will work perfectly?” “Probably.” So, Dawson, Brett, and Toby were going to stick to a simple prank as that. When Toby finally found the rubber mouse, he placed it on Brody’s chest, since he was lying on his back. Brody was wrapped in his comforter, with a pillow over his face, and his hands were under his head. Honeybunny was sitting by his feet. David, however, was on his side. Felicia was keeping him company by sitting by his head. She was pawing at his hair, which the boys who were in their waking moments thought was hilarious. The room was surprisingly dark. The dark blue curtains were closed, and, of course, the lights were turned off. The science posters were visible. And then there was Brody, who looked very comfortable. He was still on his back, with the rubber mouse moving up and down with his breathing. His comforter and blankets were all over the place; he was wrapped in his comforter, and his blankets looked as if they had just been thrown on his bed, which is really more like a futon than anything else. And the ceiling fan was turned on. Dawson, Brett, and Toby now had everything all figured out. They were going to locate the CD player in the room and play music at full volume. Then, they were going to jump up and down as hard as they could in order to get David and Brody stirring. Then, Dawson and Toby’s mission was to wake up David and chase him around the house. On the other hand, Brett was going to wake up Brody the rough way. “Here goes nothing,” Dawson said. “Give me a reading.” “Once upon a time….” Brett began. “No! Tell me if Brody looks like he might wake up.” “Oh. No. Turn the music up loud. Now!” Dawson found the CD player in the room, and he turned some rock music up to full volume. Brody and David didn’t move. They just lay there comfortably. Now, came the really fun part. And it was everyone’s job. “And….now!” Brett commanded to everyone. All three boys jumped up and down as hard as they could, in order to wake up both David and Brody. The younger brother who was sleeping in woke up slowly. He rubbed his neck with his hand, and then Brett decided that it would be a good idea to wrestle him. In the meantime, Dawson and Toby chased David down the hallway. The chase was endless. David ran out the door to the front yard, and Dawson and Toby continued to pursue him. David ran as fast as he could around to the back yard and nearly fell into their built-in pool. Once he passed the pool, he attempted to hide behind a bush. He could feel his heart popping out of his chest as he was very scared of what would happen if he was caught. Silence for a couple minutes. During this time, David took the few minutes he had to concentrate on his breathing and make sure he could regain his composure before Dawson and Toby found him. David sat behind that bush, and while he was trying to calm down, he tried to keep watch for Dawson and Toby in case he was caught. Two minutes passed. “DAVID!” Dawson and Toby shouted simultaneously. David screamed and dashed out of the bush where he hid. He tried going past the pool, but before he could make it completely past, Dawson shoved him into the deep end. Once David came back up to the surface, Dawson and Toby splashed water at him. After the fun with the water was over, Dawson and Toby laughed very hard. However, David was not laughing. He was more worried about catching his breath. “DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!” David shouted at Dawson and Toby. The two, of course, were not quite finished with their laughing spells. This was the most hilarious thing that had happened today. Or, at least, according to them. March 2017
David and Brody Ingram were the only ones in their apartment in Merrillville, Indiana. Their friends and roommates, Adam Levistad and Andrew McCalsky, had gone grocery shopping and were probably going to be back in a couple hours. Adam also needed to look for a birthday present for a relative, since their birthday is coming up shortly. So, this was a very quiet and somewhat peaceful morning for the two brothers. But it was raining outside. It was nine o'clock in the morning, and David's alarm went off, sounding like an old alarm clock. The loud ring woke David up very slowly. He was sprawled out on his bed, with his head on a pillow toward the head board and nightstand where his phone was going off, and his feet toward the other side of the bed. David was sleeping on his stomach, with his comforter on top of his back. He obviously looked very comfortable, and it took him a while to wake up. David was wearing his college hoodie and jeans from yesterday. The night before, he, Brody, Adam, and Andrew had gone to some bars close by, and when they returned, David did not feel like changing into his pjs. They came back to their apartment at 1:30 in the morning, and they wanted to watch some comedy shows for a bit before they went to bed. For some reason, they had also decided to plan their move to San Francisco. They are hoping to go out that way by fall of this year. David still stayed in bed. He slowly turned off his alarm, but then he decided not to get up quite yet. He and Brody were planning to go over to the courts to play tennis later this morning, but Brody was probably not awake either. David had the absolute hardest time waking up, especially with the weird weather that has been going on lately. He could hear the rain coming down pretty hard from his window. Somehow, he must have set his alarm clock to snooze. Because he fell asleep again, but his alarm had gone off an hour later. It was ten o'clock in the morning now, and Adam and Andrew were probably not back yet. They were pretty sure they were going to spend a lot of time with grocery shopping and finding the perfect gift for Adam's relative. David slowly woke up and turned off his alarm clock. "Hey, David?" someone spoke somewhat quietly as he opened the door and slowly turned on the light in David's room. "Hello," David responded quietly, closing his eyes as they were adjusting to the light. He was obviously not ready to wake up yet. "We've been waiting for you for about an hour." "Wait. What?" "We're planning to play some tennis," the guy stated. "Oh. Adam? You're back already?" David replied, still quietly. He was wrapped around in his comforter. He looked very comfortable. "Yes. It's me. Adam. Andrew and I did not go grocery shopping this morning." "You didn't? Why?" "We're going to tomorrow. And you guys are coming with us." "Alright. Now what's this thing about tennis?" "When you start moving, we were gonna go to the courts." "Okay. I'll get up now." March 2017
Brody Ingram had just received news about his new IT job for a good company out in San Francisco, California. His girlfriend, Julia Jaconetti, is going to move with him. She has been considering graduate school for marketing, but she is currently a full time online tutor, and her hours are a bit off. While maintaining this gig, she will look for a full-time opportunity out in the Bay Area. Brody’s brother, David, is planning to go to a university in San Francisco next fall to study IT, as well as Brody’s best friend, Andrew McCalsky. Although they are planning to move to San Francisco, they are not going to do so until summer 2017, so that they can get organized for the time being. It was 8 o’clock in the morning of moving day, and Brody was supposed to be awake by now. When David walked into his room to check on him, Brody was still sleeping soundly on his futon. He looked pretty comfortable, too. His comforter lay loosely on top of him, with part of it already on the floor. One of his pillows was on the floor, touching the farthest point of his comforter. Brody was lying on his stomach, on top of his blue body pillow that he has had since he was in seventh grade, shortly after he had his tonsils taken out. Even though David wanted to let Brody sleep for a little while longer, he knew that he had to wake up Brody. His new job will start at the beginning of April, but Brody and Julia needed a little bit of extra time to get moved into their place, which they will be sharing with Brody’s cousin’s friend, Kevin Iacobucci and his girlfriend, Lesley. Brody has been battling a cold for a few days, and this was most likely going to put a damper on his moving experience from Merrillville, Indiana to the West Coast. Brody, being as he always is, will make light of today, even if he isn’t feeling 100 percent. There were a couple other things that David needed to help Brody pack, such as his futon and bedsheets, toiletries, and his laptop. David, Toby, who is David and Brody’s younger brother, Andrew, and Adam Levistad, David’s best friend, were going to help Brody and Julia move to San Francisco. David asked his fiancée, Olivia Flavenshevich, if she was available to help, and she said no. David walked over to Brody and gently shook him. Within a few minutes, Brody slowly woke up. Then, he fell back asleep. Even though he has been excited about moving to San Francisco, he was not feeling too well this morning it seemed. His nose was all stuffed up, so he couldn’t breathe out of it. All he wanted to do right now was to sleep in as late as he possibly could. “Hey, Brody,” David said to his younger Irish twin brother. “What?” Brody answered in his sleep. “Julia is here.” |
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