Gérard

In the summer, my aunts and uncles would spend all their time outside. This was a good thing for Grand-maman Rose since she always had a baby on her hip and loads of cooking and washing to do to keep the household going.

Gérard was a popular boy and was always good at any games going on in the park where he played with his friends from the neighbourhood. Although not many of them had been to the pictures, Cowboys and Indians were all the rage. The game was a bit of hide-and-go-seek, with house rules that included whooping and hollering (to stay in character) and using borrowed rope to tie up the unfortunate captives.  Indians divested themselves of their shirts, Cowboys didn't and they were off.  The game lasted for a good while with the kids using the trees and shrubs and walkways to hide and ambush their prey. 

Supper time came and the kids went home.  Gérard scrambled off, because being late meant going without.  Having spent the day outside, he ate with dedication.  It was only as his appetite was sated that he heard his mother remarking on the thunder clouds and wondering where the heck Raymond was.  She paced from her seat to the kitchen counter to the balcony window, becoming increasingly worried about Raymond's absence.

Gérard froze.  He hurried through his meal and he fidgeted in his seat, waiting until everyone was done - only then would he be excused.  "Hurry, hurry, hurry up!" he chanted to himself as his brothers and sisters took their time finishing the meal.  They sat around while the skies opened and the rain hit the hot summer evening in sheets.  The thunder clapped and the lightening flashed, and finally, with a worried frown and another look out the balcony window, Grand-maman Rose sent everyone off to their evening activities.

Gérard bolted out of the kitchen, down the hall and burst out of the house. Unheeding of the rain and the mud, he raced back to the park where his little brother Raymond, shirtless, was tied to a tree.  Gérard untied him and Raymond, afraid of thunderstorms, was shaking so hard he couldn't put his shirt back on. Gérard hustled his brother home, threatening to clobber him good if he told Grand-maman Rose anything about being tied to the tree.

Raymond, already frightened enough by the storm, took a tongue lashing from his mother and was promptly packed off to bed.

Gérard confided the story to Grand-maman Rose years later.  She smiled at him mischieviously.  "What?" said Gérard.  "When I found your wet clothes in the pile of laundry that night," Grand-maman Rose said, "I figured you'd learned your lesson!"