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The Creature Cometh

Some people come into your life in attack mode, like a storm trooper or a terrorist. Perhaps it is unfair for me to hold that analogy when speaking of him, but my brother Wayne was truly was of those people. Devious, amoral, likable and unlikable at the same time, he assaulted our lives in ways we were never prepared for. From the time he first joined our family, he had a shit-eating grin that would drive me absolutely crazy every time I saw it. He was adopted when he was seven and I was ten. I remember sitting at the breakfast table eating cereal. My sisters and I were huddled around the table, slumped over our oatmeal when my parents came into the room and asked us if we would like a brother. Paying more attention to our bowls than to them, we droned, "yeah, yeah, sure". It was the sum total of a family discussion about such an important issue. My sisters were far more accepting of this stranger than I

The hidden agenda of the game plan was that he was supposed to be the son my father never had. It was only voiced to me once, right in the beginning. It was a sorry proposition from the start. Not that Wayne wasn't sweet he certainly was but that boy could lie like no tomorrow, looking you straight in the eye and smiling. He would hold a broken vase in his hand and say it was whole and nothing had happened. You can't really blame him. His life was torn apart at a very young age. His parents were driving one night with his youngest sister and the car crashed, killing all three. There were seven remaining siblings and they were shuttled from relative to relative until all of them ended up under their uncle's roof. Four girls slept in one room and the three boys were in another. Kids were exploding out the walls. Even my ten-year-old mind cringed when I saw that crowded bungalow with mattresses everywhere and a bare, postage size yard.

His uncle was a member of my father's congregation (Dad was a minister). Members of the parish talked it over and decided to adopt some of the children. One brother went to a politician in Washington's family; a sister to a loving family nearby. The oldest was almost legal age so he stayed with the uncle as did the youngest boy. The rest found homes all over the tri-state area. To the extent it was possible the siblings were kept in touch with each other. The siblings lost touch with the oldest, but he was in and out of jail once he hit seventeen.

But Wayne . . . he was totally unique. He hit our family like a tsunami;

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