Bro's Song And Dance

Night was humid to say the least and dinner had long since been eaten. Tinned spaghetti had always been one of Dave's favorites, even if Bro didn't always let him eat it straight from the can like he loved. Still, supper had been a fiasco of energy and brotherly teasing, a bite only being given when Dave gave Bro a smile. Dave couldn't even skip out early; Bro would always tell a joke to get the smile, and when a bite was earned, it had to be taken.

The bathroom was the source of commotion now, Dave brushing his teeth with a red toothbrush. It was especially fun because the handle was a train. Bro said he'd had one like that when he was little, but it was orange like his eyes. Dave brushed away busily as Bro took off his hat, ruffling his hair and rinsing his face occasionally with water from the running tap.

Dave's spit dribbled down his chin as he tried to void his mouth of the foam, watching it run down the plug hole before Bro shut off the tap and gave Dave's lips a brush with the end of his shirt to clean him up. "Come on, bud, bedtime," he murmured, taking the toothbrush and setting it in its cup as the young boy clambered down off his stool. "Bro," Dave mumbled, "I'm not even tired. I'm five years old, I don't feel anymore tired."

"Oh, really?" Bro asked with a smirk, "Tired is for four year olds, then?"

"Yep," confirmed Dave as he led the way to his bedroom, having to get on tiptoe to turn the handle. Bro followed close, taking Dave's timidness in stride before he could reach up and pull the string that clicked the light on. "Alright, get in bed. Just lay down if you're not so tired." Compliant, Dave clambered up over the white sheets, poking each of the shapes as he went: red hearts and diamonds, black clubs and pointy spades. It was a real big bed, too. Bro told him a tale once about how he had to fight a king for this bed, and won in their duel of rap. Dave wanted to rap just like Bro. He wanted to be just like Bro.

"So, lil man," Bro asked, fetching the nightlight from the computer desk littered in coloring pages and broken red crayons. That particular nightlight was Dave's favorite. He had a whole box of them, but that one was the best because it was shaped just like Johnny Bravo. Johnny Bravo was a lot like Bro, which made him cool too, just not as cool as Bro. Only Dave was allowed to be as cool as Bro. "What'll it be tonight? Story? Rap?"

"Song."

Dave smiled faintly, licking his lips, which tasted like artificial berries. Dave wondered where artificial berries grew, because they tasted a lot like sugar. Sugar was sweet and Dave liked sweet stuff. "Which one?" asked the elder Strider, trying to wriggle the nightlight into its socket before turning off the overhead bulb. "Candy Mountain," Dave demanded, wriggling where he sat. "You ask for that one a lot," Bro pointed out, "you sure?"

"Positive," Dave remarked, twining his fingers with his toes as Bro finally got the nightlight in place and glowing yellowish and yanked the long cord to snuff out the brighter light. He pushed Dave back against his pillow quite suddenly, making Dave giggle in playfulness and kick as Bro tossed the covers up to his chest. As he sat, Dave's little feet calmed, waiting for Bro to start his little show.

It seemed Bro was prolonging the beginning, though. He cleared his throat, cracked his knuckles, and ruffled his hair again a few times to wake it up from its long slumber under his hat, generally making Dave an anxious bundle of impatient five year old. "Come on, now you're just stallin'."

"Am not," Bro pepped, leaning close to the young boy with an appearance of aloofness. "Gotta get ready, don't I? It's a big order to cook up." Dave nearly gave his brother a light kick, but he saw Bro was sitting fully upon the bed, so he assumed the song of the night was beginning.

"One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning,"

Dave's favorite part was when Bro enacted the song with his hands. The wide palms came together to drift below the ridge of his blankets as the setting sun, then appeared again as a mass of wriggling fingers acting out fire and all its licking tongues. Bro spun up from his seat on the bed quicker than Dave could keep track of, standing stooped and marching in place as the young Strider watched, enraptured.

"Down the track came a hobo hiking,
And he said, 'Boys, I'm not turning.'"

With this, he spun on spot, his marching halting for the time being as he recited the old wanderer's words.

"'I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fount.'"

Pointing off at some distant thing out the dark window, Bro caused a giggle in Dave's throat. He himself gave a smirk, happy to be the cause of a joy. He beckoned to Dave with an open palm, as if ushering him to follow.

"'So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains.'"

Bro crouched at the side of the bed, only a tuft of his hair visible from where Dave lied, knowing that if he sat up properly, the show wouldn't be the same. Bro always loved theatrics, even so simple ones like this.

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,"

His sun-palms rose over the bed's horizon, fingers wriggling a hello to the boy before disappearing twice as quick, much too quick for Dave to grab as he giggled to himself.

"Where the handouts grow on bushes,"

Each hand appeared what seemed like dozens of time, speed playing tricks on the eyes as Bro made the 'handouts' appear to sprout and get snatched up by the wanderers that needed them most. Dave once again tried to snatch one up, to no avail. Bro sprang up from his hiding place all at once and stretched out on his back next to Dave.

"And you sleep out every night."

Dave gave him a childish shove, Bro playing along with it and catching himself on his hands as he fell from the edge of the mattress.

"Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day,"

Those finger-wiggling palms were rising over the bedside again, Dave managing to catch a finger before Bro's song continued and the hands began to shift into more elaborate characteristics of the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

"On the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

From a little fist-made bumble bee to a cross-thumbed bluebird, Dave kept hold of Bro's index finger, laughter spilling forth as he was yanked and tugged with every quick repositioning. Bro was up and away again in a flash, though, this time standing near the door and waddling back.

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs."

He knelt down quick, there to nip softly at Dave's outstretched hand. The boy cried out in surprise, though not saddened in the least, more rather excited.

"And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs."

Bro pretended to lay an egg upon the carpet, much to Dave's delight. The toll of acting it all out was beginning to show, as he sat out the next few verses on his invisible nest while he pretended to observe all the produce overhead.

"The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay.
Oh, I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow,"

At this, he pretended to shiver, holding himself...

"Where the rain don't fall,"

...hold a newspaper over himself, shielding from rain...

"The winds don't blow,"

...and get blown onto his side, dislodged from his nest by the winds that blew him over.

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

Gathering himself up, Bro sat up at Dave's feet, observing how he was slightly less eager than before, his eyes nearly glazed as he watched on. Bro flipped up the end of the covers, scratching lightly at the soles of his brother's warm feet.

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks."

Bro reached up as Dave smiled, knowing what was to come and closing his eyes in preparation for Bro's rough-skinned fingertips ran from hairline to chin, a smile met along the way. Bro took a second to give Dave's lower lip a gentle pinch, smirking when he pouted.

"The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind,"

While Dave's garnet eyes remained closed, Bro covered both with his hands. Dave quickly pulled one down to peer up at his older brother, a smooth tongue leaving young lips.

"There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

Bro pretended to paddle the bed about, Dave playing along and making lazy paddling motions with the arm that dangled over the mattress edge. It could only mean Dave was that much closer to sleep, and sleep meant rest for Bro as well. He stood slowly, approaching the door with a light knock on its sleek surface.

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin."

Dave tapped a nearby soda can, the empty metallic sound ringing for Bro's benefit. The elder Strider made his way out as he continued on, returning just as swiftly and shutting the door once again.

"And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,"

He pretended to shoe a spade into the earth, bending down for the appearance of being so short.

"No axes, saws nor picks,"

Each was acted out in turn, from swinging an ax, to shoving a saw, and bringing down a pick before wiping his brow for the invisible sweat he worked up as a miner. He could see Dave near nodding off, and with a smile, he flopped on his back across the unused footspace of the mattress.

"I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work..."

Bro mimicked lynching up Dave, who smiled faintly as he rested against his pillows, sticking out his tongue in mimed death.

"...In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

Bro's words turned to a light whistling, his shades pushed up to his brow as his knuckles rubbed at his eye, hoping Dave would be bedded by the time he was done, or else he'd have to act it out all over again. He tuned down his tune, looking over and seeing a motionless little brother, tiny chest lifting in an even breath that ensured Bro was off the hook.

"I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains..."


Dave didn't even ask why Bro had been sleeping in his bed come morning.