My Childhood Arch Enemy
Who was your arch enemy when you were 10?
To be completely honest I didn’t have any enemies at the age of ten. Ten was a good time of life for me. I had just moved to a new state, had met some new friends, lived in a brand new house. It was good all around.
When I was nine years old though it was a different story. I had an enemy, oh did I ever. He was ten, I was of course a year younger. He was my cousin and I was living in a trailer outside his family home with my mom. We had moved there for a family emergency — and as a sort of convenience, because my dad (who was in the Army) had just been sent to Korea for 2 years.
My mom thought it would be good for us to be around ‘family’, even though I had never met any of them before in my life. She didn’t want us to be alone so long.
That first year turned into a time of intense one-sided competition between me and my cousin. He always had to 1-up me: If I had a toy, he wanted two; If I dared to jump from the swing set, he had to jump from higher; If I built an impressive structure out of Lincoln Logs, he had to knock it down and build something ‘better’. He just didn’t enjoy having a new ‘boy’ enter the household. He had grown up being the center of attention and he was determined to stay in exactly that position.
So that summer when I met a young girl named, ironically enough, Summer, it goes without saying that my cousin wanted her for himself.
She was more than willing to be friends with the both of us, but I think she quickly picked up on his nature and wanted nothing to do with it. She tried showing a polite distance, but when that didn’t get the point across she finally just dropped all pretenses and would sneak off with me every chance we could get. This of course infuriated my cousin, who would spend the entire day ‘hunting’ us, for lack of a better word.
Summer and I were the same age, so we weren’t doing anything aside from spending time together, but when my cousin would eventually find us he would harass us to the point where Summer would eventually go home, simply trying to make peace. I won’t go into all the evil things my cousin did that year to try and keep me and Summer apart. It is enough to say that his day wasn’t a happy one unless he was making me and Summer miserable.
It got to be too much for her after awhile and she stopped coming around. I can’t say I blame her, I would have left too if I was able. I didn’t see her again after that. She was my first crush. That was the last year I ever spoke to my cousin.
May 5th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Well that just plain sucks! I can't say I ever had someone in my life that was like your cousin and after reading this post, I am glad I didn't. I can't even imagine going through this and as a nine year old at that! Its a shame that in the end, the girl ran away from the both of you just to keep sane and the peace. Thats just so so sad =/
May 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Karma caught up with him in the end. He ended up going to jail on drug charges and grand theft auto. Seems like he had been headed towards something like that his whole life.