Ebony Mystique

Growing up I thought my dad had all the answers. Mainly because he had all the answers to every question I ever asked. Obviously, in my youthful mind, dad just knew everything. He was cool, never rattled about anything. And on top of that, he could build a basketball hoop out of a bed frame and some plywood. Clearly he was awesome.

My mom worked extremely hard. She was a RN. Her jargon was completely medical. Everything could be explained with medical metaphors and that infamous pathology book. She wasn’t laid back at all like my father. And her sense of humor was – well, medically morbid. My friends found her scary. She wasn’t one you’d want to test. My brother took a mean right hook from her once so I don’t blame them.

My brother Steven, the recipient of the before mentioned right hook, was my hero. I thought he could do no wrong. He was athletic, all my brothers were. But he was the oldest and in my eyes that made him bigger and stronger than the other two. He also had an uncanny habit of doing my spelling and math homework whenever he was talking to girls on the phone. All I had to do was wait until he got on the phone and ask for help. God bless him.

Brian, my very strange middle brother, is more like me than my other two siblings. Though he didn’t say much, I blame that completely on the headless chicken incident, but when he did I always found myself hanging on every word! It was normally a single word like ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Or a shoulder shrug. You have to love the shoulder shrug. It conveyed so much of his emotions. Even with the silent body language, I knew my weirdness matched his weirdness and that was a bond we’d always have.

Now on to my brother Tim, affectionately called Tim Tim by my parents and Timty by me. As a child he was humbly introverted. Wicked temper though! The boy could hold a grudge like a dog with a bone! He was two years older than me. I use to tag along behind him as much as possible. He was smart. Smarter than the average bear. His brain was like a sponge. He retained every drop of information he heard. It was like living with an encyclopedia. A well of knowledge was walking around my house and I loved knowledge. So of course I followed him everywhere. I was picking his brain.

This was my immediate family. The people who provided the many experiences that made growing up a Williams so memorable and so worthy to be told about.