By Kelleys-Creations

Ever since I can remember my little red-headed brother has been hyper. Up until the age of 10 he had nine emergency room happenings. I can still see the skin peeling off of his little baby shin with his little white toddler shoes on. He had put his leg into the bathroom sink and turned on the scalding hot water. This was our first trip to the Emergency Room.

My parents used to have to tie him up on a long rope in the backyard to a tree. We would be outside with him, my mom sitting on the back porch cement step watching him and playing with him. I can remember sitting in the sandbox with him and playing. All of a sudden he’d get up to run, and just like a dog, fall down when he ran out of rope and scream his head off! You see, even though my mom was right there watching him, she was not fast enough to catch him on his wild whims to get up and run away! One of the neighborhood ladies could not stand my mother. She thought this was child abuse. Even though I was only 10-years-old or 11-years-old, I told my mom to ignore her as it was better that my little brother was safe instead of getting run over by a car on the road.

I remember the time we were at a cemetery looking at the old family tombstones when my little brother decided to go by the old wood shed the lawn caretaker used. Some way, some how he put his hand through the window. Lo and behold we were off to the ER yet again.

Or the time my brother’s neighborhood friend had his bike sitting in our driveway. You would think a bike sitting in a driveway would be innocent enough, but no, this bike had no seat on it. A big rusty chrome pipe or something was sticking up waiting for a banana bike seat to be screwed back on. My little brother decides to ride this bike in his own hyper way and he falls off of the bike with his mouth and chin getting ripped to shreds by the bicycle seat. Here we go another ER visit again and this time my brother has the scares to prove his wounds. This was back in the late seventies and early eighties otherwise my mom says she would have been in jail for all of the ER visits!

I’ll never forget the time my little brother at about age five was standing on my parent’s car hood. He decided to pee on the neighborhood boys! They ran home like maniacs crying. Their mother called as I could hear my mother nervously apologizing. The neighborhood boys immediately went home to shower through their tears. Being a kid myself, personally I thought it was hilarious and we looked at it as boys will be boys! (Of course I was thankful it wasn’t me who was peed on!)

Through the years my brother did some odd things. It seemed wherever he went and whatever he did, he always came back with an exciting story to share.

In his teens he would ride in the field behind our house on his ATV. The field was a farmer’s field and the farmer did not want people riding on his field, most likely due to insurance purposes and the fact that the field was for corn to grow and sell. My brother had many stories of being chased by this farmer who was in his forties driving his truck to “get” my brother. I’m not sure if he ever succeeded. I know my brother would laugh and get mad at this “idiot” farmer.

Numerous times he’d outrun cops on his snowmobile for riding places he should not be also. I just remember thinking to myself if I ever have kids, Lord let them be girls!

High school was not fun for my brother or the teachers for that matter. By this time he was addicted to smoking cigarettes. He would be in trouble constantly for breaking the rule of smoking in the school bathroom or on school property. My brother would have the school nurse call my mom at least twice a week to come and pick him up from the school. The nurse knew he was playing a game. My mother was a huge worry wart and my brother knew just how to play her. He would tell my mother if she did not come and pick him up from school, he would walk home. I told her she should let him. We lived seven miles from school. If he walked home it’d be the last time he’d threaten that! But being the obsessive worry wart that my mother was, she would pick him up so nothing would happen to him.

My brother just could not sit still in school. Finally, my brother just ended up dropping out of school.

At age 18 my brother had the world by his fingertips. He had a great job, tons of friends and nothing but fun to be had. At this age he met his girlfriend. She was a plain looking brunette; you know one of those girls you think looks like a lot of other girls, yet nice. The story went his now girlfriend hung-out with two other blonde girls. My brother went out with one of the blonde girls when he was 16 years old. The two of them decided to just be friends. My brother wanted to go out with the other blonde girl, but she only wanted to be friends. Finally he asked out the plain Jane and she accepted. She even felt bad that she was his last choice! If you ask me, I would’ve said no, I’m no one’s second choice let alone last choice.

This relationship ended up to be one monumental disaster. My brother needed a girl with ambition and, well, a brain. My parents would let plain Jane sleep downstairs in the basement with my brother that became their little love nest. They had a huge bedroom and a very large living room down there. Plain Jane claimed for two entire years she did not live there because all of her ‘stuff’ was not there. As the older sister by six years, I would get so upset with them living off our parents! Granted they were young but when you start to get into your early twenties like PJ (Plain Jane) and no job–it’s time to get moving on! My brother worked all day as a brick layer. They would eat dinner that my mom did all of the preparing of and all of the dishes. PJ and my brother would then get ready to go out and have fun at the bar! They would stay out until Wisconsin bars closed which is 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. depending on what season we are in.

My brother and girlfriend would wake up my parents when they arrived back home to go back downstairs into their little homey place. That morning my brother would be up and at it to get to work another hard day out in the scorching sun. Oh, and my mom would pack him his lunch.

PJ would then proceed to sleep until 2:00 p.m., yes 2:00 in the afternoon!

She would get up and lazily read a book. Get something to eat out of my parent’s refrigerator and go back downstairs. Would she offer to help my mother, who worked part-time, with the dinner? Oh no–never! She never even offered to do the dishes that she ate on night after night! Well, my brother would get home from work and the cycle would start all over again.

Needless to say these two married and it was a disaster. PJ ended up flirting mercifully with our other brother. Both marriages were broken up and PJ and my other brother proceeded to get married.

Anyways, this drove my red headed brother crazy. He wanted to stay best friends with his brother but it was hard with his ex-wife around all of the time. The two of them drifted apart.

By now my brother lived in a cabin in the woods that was owned by our grandparents. Our grandparents lived about 1/8 of a mile down by the lake. Soon the cabin was given to my mom and her two brothers. My dad eventually ended up buying out the two brothers. Now my brother was going to buy the cabin and live there for the rest of his life or so the plan was.

My brother found other girls that he dated. Some girls stuck around. He never had problems finding women. He is 6’, his hair has now turned to more of a brownish color with a tint of red in it, rugged all American face, nice build due to now working as a masonry, friendly personality, caring and he always had an adventurous story that made women want to be with him.

The odd thing was my brother would get so out of hand and do such dangerous things that the girls would end up breaking up with him. Whenever a girl or by now we’ll call them woman in their twenties to forties (ya, he liked mother figures with a hot body) would break up with him, it would turn into a horrific downward spiral in his behavior.

Our family and friends, even his friends could not believe how wild he would become. He would do dangerous things on his ATV or snowmobile depending on the weather.

In the late night hours my brother and one of his friends thought it would be fun to take their snowmobiles and jump them on the open water of the lake. Parts of the water were frozen and other parts were wide open. My brother’s friend fell in. My brother was proud to say that he saved his friend’s life, but his snowmobile sank in the lake. They tried to get the snowmobile out of the water in the dark at about 2:00 a.m. Finally they gave up and figured they’d try to recover the snowmobile in the morning so they could see well. Meanwhile, one of them took off his helmet and gloves and forgot to pick them up before they went back home to the cabin.

The following morning, there is a break-in on the news channel that someone has fallen in the lake. An elderly lady spotted the helmet and gloves beside the open water and called 911.

My mom was on her way to visit her parents on the lake. She spotted a crazy amount of cars, police, and ambulance over by the lake. My grandma filled her in with what was going on. Apparently, my brother had already called my mom that morning to tell her how he saved his friend’s life on the lake. When my grandma told her what had happened, my mom rushed over to the crowd, in a shy manner and told the police what had happened. The police and about seven to ten others in diving suits were very grateful. An expert dive team was about to go under the ice cold water to try to find the missing person or persons who had fallen into the lake.

This is just one of the many unbelievable things that happened to my brother. I could go on and on about the dangerous and thrilling things that have happened to him in his 38 years of life. After awhile it gets old as you cannot believe that this many unreal situations have occurred to one person. Now I believe they really did as I understand why these things always seemed to happen to him.

The last three years have been complete turmoil to my parents. There were blips of quietness but not for long.

Three years ago all of a sudden my brother became very paranoid. He swore every cop around was after him. He started to say very odd things. He thought the cabin he lived at was bugged. He would try to protect himself by carrying about five guns around in his truck. He would drive erratically and my parents and I would call the police. They could watch him, but not do anything. This seemed so strange to us as why should one have to wait until someone gets hurt or worse, dies?

We found out my brother was doing all types of drugs. We tried to get him admitted to a facility to get help. It would not work as he had to want to help himself. You cannot commit someone unless bad situations occur with the person, in other words he has to be a danger to himself and to others. It is so hard to admit anyone before things get so out of hand that it is too late. Something seems wrong to me in this picture. Although I guess it is to protect those that lie about another person, and if this happens, innocent people would be committed.

My brother drove to Milwaukee on one of his episodes with his guns all in a gun rack on the back of his truck window. He was mad at a guy who owed him money for doing a masonry job. The guy would not pay him and so my brother went to his house and they got into an altercation. My brother got so frustrated with the guy he just took his truck and crashed it right into the guy’s garage! He went back home and called everyone the following day to tell us what had happened. He was so mad at the guy for not paying him, he showed him!

It seemed my brother did more and more masonry jobs for companies he worked for and side jobs on his own. He claimed more than half of the people owed him money. People were just not paying him. He wanted to buy the cabin but he had to wait until he got the money.

Finally after many odd happenings my brother is diagnosed with bipolar. We finally know why he acts so dangerously, talks 900 miles a minute, goes for days without sleeping, and seems to have 100 things to do yet nothing is getting done. He argues he is not bipolar. The doctor wants him to go on medication. Finally he agrees and after a few weeks of medication, he calms down back to a more normal pace of life.

My brother hates how he feels. He feels so dead and boring. We try to tell him this is how you are supposed to feel. He hates it but keeps taking his meds.

Meanwhile, while he is on his gentle keel of a personality, he met another girl that we thought was so nice. She was very outgoing and loved our grandparents, uncles and aunts in their nineties. I even tried to get her to work at the nursing home I worked at as she was so good with older people.

Before you know it, this girl is living at the cabin. Neither of them is paying rent. This girl works part-time for her mother who has her own housecleaning business cleaning banks and offices.

We find out what a mess this girl is for my brother. One of the symptoms of bipolar is not being able to control your money spending. In no time, this girl is saying her mother is mad at her yet again and she gets weird like that sometimes. She tells us she racked $25,000 up on her mom’s credit card bill. My mom and I shake our heads, oh just a little reason her mom is weird! Why should her mom get mad at such a high credit card bill?!

The two of them still are not paying a dime to my parents to live at the cabin even though my parents told them they need to pay rent and save money for the annual property taxes. Oh sure, no problem they tell them. Months go by, no money.

My brother is talking faster and sharing more adventures. He tells how his girlfriend’s mother hates him because he took some of her Oxycontin. Never mind that it is okay for her to SELL it to him, just don’t take it without asking. It seems both he and his girlfriend were stealing the drug from her.

We can tell he is not taking his meds. He says he does not have bipolar. We try to talk to him as this is one of the symptoms of bipolar. The person with bipolar will think he/she is getting better and quit taking the meds. It is a vicious cycle. His girlfriend yells to my mother and I that he does not have bipolar. (At this point, we are thinking she has it, too.)

My brother gets into an accident with his truck. The insurance company gives him $7,500 for repairs as the truck still has a bank loan on it. My wise brother takes the money and spends it on God knows what?! We pretty much figure it is on Oxycontin. Now he has no money to fix the truck. My parents start to freak out as this is a felony. My dad bails my brother out again by paying to have the truck fixed. While my dad is at it, he’s been paying for my brother’s truck payments every month and insurance as well. He figures at least then his son will make it to work. We all complain that he does not need a big fancy truck to get to work.

About one month later, I am at the lake visiting my grandparents in the house below and decide to walk up and see my brother. When I reach the yard, my blood starts to boil! I know he has not given my parents a penny and the cabin is painted, has a new gorgeous outdoor furniture set that is better than mine! They planted more trees which I know can be expensive. My brother has another new big truck that costs more than any of our vehicles and we pay our bills!

My brother’s girlfriend wants to take me in to see the inside of the cabin. I felt like smacking her when I looked around! A new floor in the kitchen and new stove. Walk into the large living room and there is gorgeous new furniture, painted walls, new items hanging on the walls, a new computer and printer, new 42 inch flat screen TV, wood stove, and more! I told them how nice it looked which it did, but back outside I gave my brother a dirty look and pulled him aside. I told him instead of buying all of this stuff; he should be paying my parents rent!

He quickly agreed. More lip service to big sister. He rattled off to me how he is going to build three little houses on the two acres he lives on to rent out to people to help pay for the rent of the cabin and to finally buy the cabin. His girlfriend and he are going to buy some expensive trees; I do not remember the name of them but for some reason black walnut comes to mind. Anyways, her uncle sold five of these trees for $500 each and they were going to do the same. Never mind, that this tree takes years to grow!

Slowly but surely my brother is showing the effects of not taking his medication. He is walking around in circles with a clipboard with all of the things he has to do. Along the side of the paper it says, “I do not have bipolar.”

He starts to build one of the houses on the property. No building permit. I see the “shed” he is trying to build and it is strange as no one would want to live in it! Well, maybe an escaped convict trying to hide out, but that is about it.

His girlfriend starts to only come to the cabin during the day. She cannot stand being by my brother for more than that as he is in high mania gear. He cannot even function at work. He will go to the job site and leave for two to three hours.

A little time goes by and his girlfriend has stopped coming to the cabin. According to my brother her mom is trying to keep her away from him. She is a bitch, he tells me.

I see my brother two months later and he has lost 55 pounds! He is just so busy he has no time to eat. His shorts are literally falling off of him as he tries to hold them up with one hand. He looks like he is 18 years old again as he lost all of his manly build. He is friendly but just did not seem “right.” He was back to living at my parents house.

The reason my brother is back at my parents house is because he got into an enormous fight with his girlfriend’s mother. He called her every name under the sun. His girlfriend would call our family up and speak her mind when we barely knew her so I thought GOOD for my brother!

This is another cycle that happens. When my brother and a girl break up, he starts to live at my parents.

When I am at the house, he is locked in his old bedroom listening to country music and chain smoking cigarettes. I feel like crying because it is like who is this person and where did my brother go? My mom just looks like a stressed out mess. She cries on a whim. I feel so bad for her and my dad.

A few days later, my mom tells me my brother makes her take him to the bar for a soda. He gets agitated very easily and she listens to him. They have a soda and leave. The town they are in have different countries flags on each telephone post. When my mom drives past the Canadian flag my brother says, “Oh good mom, now I’m safe. You see we went past that Canada flag and now we are in Canada. Now the cops cannot get me.”

My mom replies, “We are not in Canada! Canada is eight hours away!”

My brother gets extremely upset and yells, “You are so stupid! I wish dad was here, he would understand!”

The following day my brother wants to go to the bar and drives his truck which he is not supposed to drive. He had his license revoked awhile ago. He drives it anyways. He gets to the bar and orders a soda. My mom is sleeping and at midnight she gets a phone call. My brother needs money to pay for his soda. My mom drives out to give him the money. When she goes into the bar, a couple comes up to her and gives her a hug and buys her a drink. My mom is happy that they know her son and they tell my mom to go home and rest after she has had her drink. They know the story and want to give my brother a ride home so she can be at ease.

The couple safely bring my brother home. The next morning I call my mom. My brother answers and I cannot understand a damn word he says. He is anxious and wants my mom to take him somewhere. He will not say where. She tells me she better go before he takes off with her car.

About two hours later my mom calls and tells me this unbelievable story. My brother wanted to get his truck at the bar. Before getting out of my mom’s car, he grabs my dad’s hunting knife and says, “I have to take care of business.”

My mom tries reasoning with him to leave the knife. She tries yelling at him and nothing works. Finally my mom sees a police car and frantically honks to get his attention.

The cop comes out of a building and my mom explains that her son has a mental illness and what he said while carrying a hunting knife.

The cop sees my brother take off in his truck. My brother sees the cop and starts to speed up trying to get away. My brother then jumps out of his moving truck and starts to run! The truck is driving all by itself and thankfully no one was in the way. Now more cops have come into the picture. When my brother is running they are yelling for him to “stop” and all have their guns drawn. My mom said she is yelling and pleading with the cops not to shoot him because he has a mental disease.

My brother stops running and is close to a bar and says, “If you give me a soda, I’ll listen.”

He repeats he just wants a Mountain Dew. (My husband says this would make an awesome Mountain Dew commercial.) He still will not surrender and my brother runs into the bar. My mom ran in the bar, too. The cops start to use a taser gun on my brother. My mom yells at them not to do it too much as it’ll kill him. (About six months ago a man with a mental illness was tasered too much in Milwaukee and died.) The cops end up using the taser gun five or six times all the while my brother is kicking the crap out of them. My mom said she felt like she was in a slow motion movie. The bartender’s eyes were as huge as saucers.

The cops cuff my brother and tell my mother that he is going to jail until he calms down and then to a mental facility. My mom asks for her husband’s hunting knife. The cops tell her they cannot give it to her as it is evidence.

A few hours later, the cops call my mother and tell them that they ended up taking my brother to the ER (yet again!) to see what is all in his system. Then he is taken to the mental ward.

While in the mental ward he calls my parents about twenty times a day to pick him up. He threatens to leave but they know he cannot as he would have to get past three locked doors. My mom sounds so at peace knowing her son is safe. My mom finally gets a decent night’s sleep.

My brother is given meds to take to get him back to earth. My mom is visiting him when he is given his meds. The nurse has her back to him and my mom sees my brother spit the meds out. My mom tells on him and now he has to get a shot in his rear every two weeks to make sure he takes his meds. After three weeks in the mental ward, my brother is taken to high security jail. He is coming down and back to his old self. He barely remembers the things he did, but tells my parents to tell everyone he is so sorry.

How odd it must be to have a mental illness that you cannot control your thoughts and actions. Once you take your meds you can see what is reality and what isn’t. Now my brother sits in jail waiting for another two weeks to see what his fate is. Will he spend a year in jail? Five years in jail? Will he get sent to a mental facility for a few years? If only he had taken his meds.

1 Comment »

1. This is why I like http://www.shortstory-blog.com. Surprising posts.

   Comment by Frances — March 11, 2010 @ 12:50 pm

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