My Fat Brother
by Jim Keeble
Extract
Tears are flowing down his cheeks, he's lost it, and now lots of people are laughing, perhaps less with him than at him, the twenty-somethings giggling like teenagers.
'I said I was sorry. Are you okay?'
'Just,ha,ha...a bit,ha,ha,emotional,ha,at the,ha,moment.' Jes takes out a white handkerchief with which he dabs at his eyes. 'Oh,God,' he splutters, gasping for non-humourous air. 'You killed Norman!'
Then he focuses on me once again, and I wonder if the belly-flop onto my chest is imminent, Big Daddy, WWF Night of Steel, but instead he smiles and says, 'I hated fucking Norman. He scared the life out of me. I was so happy when he burst.'
And we both laugh like loons. It feels good, a shared monent, a connection.