Spring 2019

“Toby, you’re awake,” Brody Ingram said to his younger brother. They, along with their three other brothers, were in Door County, Wisconsin for a road trip. Toby was sick with pneumonia, so Brody kept him company while everyone else explored the area.
“I had a really bad dream,” Toby replied quietly, he was lying on his stomach, with his arms wrapped around his pillow. His eyes were half open.
“Like a fever dream?”
“Yeah, I think that’s what it’s called. I thought you went on a run.”
“I did, but I’ve been back for about an hour. I’ve been playing video games since then,” Brody said.
“My heart’s pounding. Like not really fast, but it’s beating really hard through my pillow,” Toby remarked.
“It was really scary, wasn’t it?”
“Mhm.”
“Take a deep breath, and if you need to squeeze my hand, just let me know. You’ll be okay.”
“I hope so. That was probably one of the worst nightmares I’ve ever had.”
“You gonna try to go back to sleep?”
“I need to, really want to fight this bug off.”

Summer 2014

​David and Brody Ingram sat on the sofa, not saying a word. They knew how their mom was going to respond to their all-nighter. Not that she would at all be mad. However, she knows how they are when it comes to sleep. And these boys need all the sleep they can get.

Their mom sat in the dining room with a cup of tea in one hand and a business journal in another. David and Brody peered over to see that she was there. She had a great appearance; her hair was neat for long and wavy light brown hair, given the fact that she is only four years older than her husband, who is fifty-eight. She wore a blue sweater and blue jeans.

Mrs. Ingram was definitely ready for the day.

“Did we play video games all night long?” Brody asked.
“I think we did,” David replied.
“I think we stayed up longer last night than we did at school.”
“Oh, when you and your friends would stay up and play video games on Friday nights?”
“Yeah, but last night we didn’t order Chinese or anything,” Brody pointed out.
“We did have baklava, though,” David remarked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Oh yeah. I almost forgot.”
“Do we have anything that we have to do today?”
“I hope not.”
“I hope not either.”

David and Brody definitely could feel their eyelids getting heavy. So, with this in mind, they wanted to say “good morning” to their mom and then head off to bed. They could not remember if they had anything going to today or not. It was Saturday, so no one had to be anywhere today. Which was probably a good thing, given the boys’ circumstance, er….all-nighter.

When the two boys seated themselves at the dining room table, they had an idea that their mom knew they were up to something. Nothing bad, but nothing saintly either. Just the fact that all four boys had basically spent the whole night playing their favorite video games. And that they would have to pay the consequences today. Unless David and Brody headed toward their futons now and slept in until at least one o’clock this afternoon.

“Good morning, boys,” Mrs. Ingram said as she still sat at the dining room table. She still had with her a cup of tea.
“Morning,” David replied.
“Morning,” Brody responded.
“You guys are still up,” Mrs. Ingram stated.
“We pulled an all-nighter,” David remarked.
“Why?”
“We couldn’t stop playing video games, I guess.”
“We were planning to go to your dad’s parents’ house today.”
“Oh. Whoops.”
“You should go to bed now since we were planning to go over at four o’clock.”

David and Brody headed toward their bedroom. When climbing the stairs, they could feel their weight being brought down by gravity. In their minds, they couldn’t decide whether this meant that they were truly tired, or if they were truly lazy. The two boys couldn’t possibly be lazy. They just wanted their bed, and their bed just wanted them.

David and Brody finally made it up to their bedroom, and then to their futons. In a matter of minutes, David was out like a lamp. Brody, however, could not go to sleep so quickly. As a matter of fact, it was his pounding heartbeat that was keeping him up. For some very odd reason. Brody walked back downstairs to his mom because he was feeling scared.

“I can’t sleep,” Brody said sleepily.
“No?” Mrs. Ingram asked.
“I feel like my heart’s going to pop out of my chest.”
“I believe you’re really slap happy.”
“I’m so scared,” Brody remarked as he folded his arms over his chest.
“Your heart’s not going to pop out of your chest,” Mrs. Ingram pointed out.
“I hope not.”
“Believe me. It won’t.”
“Will you make sure?”
“Okay.”

Mrs. Ingram smiled and laughed to herself and put her hand on her son’s chest, so that she could clearly feel his snappy heartbeat. Brody put one of his hand over her hand so that he could have the reassuring feeling that his heart was not actually going to pop out of his chest. To Mrs. Ingram, this was pretty ridiculous. She was wondering why the boys had stayed up so late. She wondering why the boys would do that to themselves, since they are not morning people to begin with.

​“Is my heart going to pop out of my chest?” Brody asked, even more sleepily than before.
“No, Brody,” Mrs. Ingram replied, quite amused.
“Are you sure?”
“I could feel your heartbeat, so I’m not worried about it.”
“What should I do?” Brody asked. He was completely out of it.
“I think you should try to get some sleep. I am not completely for all-nighters,” his mom stated.
“Why? All-nighters can be fun.”
“Your sleep schedule is destroyed, and you’re not a morning person to begin with.”
“Oh yeah. Right.”
“So, get some sleep!”​

Spring 2024

“Cats are weird,” Toby Ingram said over the phone to his older brother, David.
“You telling me?” David replied.
“Sav and I went skateboarding this afternoon, and Jerzy and Bubsy thought it’d be a cute idea to shred all the toilet paper in the bathroom.”
“That’s pretty funny! They just decided to have a nice little shredding party then.”
“Yes,” Toby said.
“Thankfully that hasn’t happened to any of our cats yet. Let’s just say, yet,” David said.
“Also, we are convinced that my girlfriend’s cat is a lesbian.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I was at her place the other day, and we were just cuddling. She was lying on the couch reading a book, and I was snuggled up to her with my head on her chest. Her sweater and her cami underneath exposed her belly, and her cat came up and rubbed her face against it. Then, a few minutes later, her cat licked her belly and then made biscuits on it. Her cat really likes her belly, I don’t get it.”
“Yup. Mia’s cat is similar to that, but not extreme.”

March 2018

“So I had my hernia ultrasound today,” Toby Ingram said over the phone to his brother, David Ingram.
“How did it go?” David asked.
“Kinda embarrassing, honestly. When I had the ultrasound done, my stomach decided to be super loud.”
“Oh jeez. Do you know if you’ll for sure need to have surgery?”
“I am 99% positive I will need surgery for this hernia. Just don’t know when yet, since I’ve got a lot to catch up on with school and all,” Toby responded.
“Hopefully soon. How do you feel otherwise?” David asked.
“I feel okay, really exhausted. But that’s all part of recovery. I went back to school last week.”
“That’s good. I remember Brody having a similar experience when he had his appendix out.”
“For sure. I can eat most food, but I’m still having a hard time with spicy food. I started feeling more like myself a few days ago. The first few days were brutal, since I felt like I had a really bad stomach bug. On top of that, I couldn’t shower for 48 hours after my appendectomy, so I felt super gross after a while. So all this for my damn appendix. I felt better when I had my tonsils out at 15.”
“Knock on wood that I don’t ever get my appendix out.”