Ben watched the cattle grazing on the hill. Most of the herd were cows, but there were a
few horses and an ox. The ox was his
favorite. It lounged lazily under the
shade of the ancient sycamore tree. Ben
loved to watch the animals roam throughout the pasture. There was nothing more peaceful. Occasionally he wished that he owned the land
himself, but he was honestly content working the land for his brother. He even helped him with his work from time to
time. In fact, Ben was waiting for his
brother to meet him at that moment.
He was standing against one of the fence posts when his
brother walked up to him. Andrew carried
a post hole digger in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.
“Hey, bro. Ready to
rebuild some fence?” He walked over and
set the digger down on the ground. “I
brought some sandwiches. Sally made ‘em.”
Andrew untied the plastic bag and dug around until he found
one of the sandwiches.
“Hey, will you run back to the house for me? I forgot the water bottles.”
“Yeah, sure.” Ben
pulled off his gloves and dusted off his pants.
The house wasn’t too far, just over the hill a ways. He walked in the door of his brother’s house
not ten minutes later. His sister-in-law
sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cherries and reading a magazine. When she heard him enter the room, she
smiled.
“Did you get the sandwich I made you? Egg salad is your favorite, right?”
“Oh, yeah, it is.
Thanks!” He turned his attention to
the refrigerator and opened it. He
grabbed a couple of bottles from one of the shelves and closed the door.
“Will you stay with me for a little while?” Ben looked toward her from his place by the
door. She had a pouty look on her face
and her shoulders slumped a bit.
“Are you okay? I’ve
gotta head back and fix the fence soon.”
Sally stood and walked slowly toward him, looking more
feline than feminine. She walked toward
him until he was stuck between herself and the wall. When she reached him, she reached out with her
hand and touched his face.
“Sal, what are you doing…?”
She kept leaning closer and closer until Ben finally had to
grab her and hold her away from him. It
was then that Andrew walked in the house with the intention of finding out why
his brother had not returned. When he
walked in, what he saw stopped him cold.
Sally was the first to react.
“Andrew! Make him let
me go! He’s hurting me!”
Ben hands let go almost instantaneously. Before he could tell his brother what really happened,
he came at him swinging. Ben tried to
back away and tried to explain the truth, but his brother could not be reasoned
with. He was forced to run. Andrew chased him all the way to the
creek. Ben was only able to escape by
crossing the water and praying that his brother still had his fear of
water. Once on the other side of the
water, his brother yelled curses at him.
Ben sat down on the bank of the creek and prayed. That night, he walked to the neighbor’s house
and slept there.
Not long after Ben had crossed the creek, Andrew had
returned home. He wanted to believe that
everything that had happened was not true, but he wasn’t sure what to
believe. He slept on the couch that
night and dreamt. His dreams were filled
with memories of his brother. He had
several of them, but the last one was the most important. In the dream, Andrew sat on the couch and
watched the exchange between his brother and his wife. He woke up sweating. Though he had been confused when he had
fallen asleep, nothing seemed clearer than his brother’s love and loyalty.
It took him a few days to find his brother. When he found him at the neighbor’s house, he
begged for his forgiveness. Ben looked
at his older brother with the biggest smile and just nodded.
Author's Note:
I chose to write about the tale of the two brother's because it really stuck out to me when I was reading about it. I tweaked the story a little bit so that it was a modern retelling. I did this because it is something that I could easily see played out today. In fact, I'm sure that there a tons of pop cultures references to this kind of thing.
Bibliographical Info:
