Building Baby Brother (continued)

He carried his artificial sibling on his back as if he were toting a backpack. One of its arms was draped over each Josh’s shoulders. Josh was bent over like a dwarf hunchback, clutching the two arms together against his chest with his free hand.

I was tempted to bound over to help him, but I could tell that he was determined to accomplish this himself. I continued to watch his progress, breathing a sigh of relief when he made it down from the last step.

Josh looked surprised, and then grinned in his triumph. He had apparently been so engrossed in his efforts that he had seen me there. I smiled in return. His grin grew even larger at seeing that I was not about to scold him. I probably should have, but it simply didn’t cross my mind at that moment.

With a renewed alacrity, Josh carried his new mechanical brother into the kitchen.

#

And so it went for several weeks.

Josh spent a lot of time with his new synthetic sibling. He never once gave voice to any complaints about its limitations. If anything, he treated Gavin with the care and attention that he had always promised that he would give to a flesh-and-blood equivalent.

For the most part, they did the things that young boys do: created amazing constructions with Lego blocks, played video games, and watched television. Actually, except for the last, Josh did most of the creating and playing, while Gavin watched.

One early summer afternoon, though, things changed.

I had sent the boys outside to play. It wasn’t that Gavin needed fresh air and sunshine, but Josh did. After expressing some mild reluctance at being separated from his current video game, Josh agreed to spend some time with Gavin out in the backyard and away from the television screen. With practiced ease, he maneuvered Gavin into the second-hand wheelchair I had purchased, and headed outside.

As they stepped into the early summer sunlight, I realized that, before we got too much further into summer, I might need to figure out a solution to making Gavin water-resistant. It was unlikely that Josh would be willing go swimming without his brother. Sealing him up in a large garbage bag, while possibly effective, was also impractical.

Heck, I thought, if they can do it to watches, I can do it for Gavin. It was just a matter of scale.

I also knew that it wasn’t quite that easy.