The Big Ask - A Short Story

Hope shining in his eyes, the boy tells the interviewer about things he'd like to do with his Big Brother. Fishing, for sure, and other things, maybe.

Hope shining in her eyes, the boy's mother reveals how grateful she is for the positive male influence a Big Brother will provide, and for the fun her son will have.

She looks at her son and feels a pang of love for him. His hair is wavy; his shoulders are starting to fill out. How she wishes life were easier.
Simpler. How she'd like to be his mother, father and big brother, all rolled into one.

One month passes, then another. Soon summer holidays arrive, then the start of a new school year. The boy celebrates his birthday but his long-awaited Big Brother is not there to mark the occasion with him. Some days, the boy tries to forget he ever wanted a Big Brother. Other days, he just wishes his Big Brother would appear.

Finally, after some 700 sleeps "two birthdays in total and two full years of development later"the big day arrives. The boy meets his Big Brother for the first time.

Coincidentally, the two live in the same neighbourhood. They could have run into each other at the grocery store. Not so coincidentally, the Big Brother knows a thing or two about fish, so off they go for their first of many outings to the lake and other fun places, too.

What kept the Big Brother from volunteering sooner? He wasn't asked. For some time, he'd wanted to do something like this something meaningful and positive that would help a kid like the one he used to be. But work got busy, life got busy, and so the weeks and months went by.

Then came the ask. The Big ask. He opened the newspaper, and Big Brothers was asking. He listened to the radio: The same. Then he ran into someone who was a Big Brother, liked it and said he should sign up. He'd be good at it, the fellow said. At a certain point, the message sank in. He picked up the telephone. That was the hardest part.

As he sits at the lake with a fish tugging on the line, the sun sparkling on the water and his Little Brother grinning ear to ear beside him, only one question comes to mind. Not: "Will we catch it?" but "Why did I wait so long?"

Why wait? Tackle the hardest part.Contact the agency in your community today!