Brothers At Last

Continued from Charlie and Florence and Mildred and Spider

Florence and E.D. work together in a barbecue place in Wilkinsburg.  Florence is a cashier.  E.D. is working part time as a busboy while going to college for a Bachelor’s of Science at Pitt University.  He lives at home, and his wages pay his in-state tuition.  E.D. recently withdrew for a semester after a bone-crushing breakup with a beautiful girl named Sandy.  He is back in school, though, and enjoying his new-found freedom, dating lots of girls and enjoying college life.

Florence would like one of her girls to catch E.D.’s eye.  Her youngest daughter, Beth, is a year or two younger than E.D., and they have similar outgoing personalities.  Beth is a pretty blond girl.  Her older sister Cathy would call her impulsive and contrary, but she thinks of herself as free spirited.  E.D. likes her just fine, but never really clicks with Beth.  Who he does click with, though, are the girls’ five brothers.

E.D.’s home life is relatively quiet, what with just the one sibling, a sister who is much older and more mature.  The noise and chaos of this charming family of 9 captivates E.D., and he really hits it off with the five boys.  They become friends, and though E.D. and Beth will never be a pair, he still comes around to hang out with and enjoy all those brothers.

Cathy, the oldest of seven children, is darker in complexion and personality than her bubbly, somewhat thoughtless sister Beth.  Cathy’s hair is curly and wild, a deep brown, except for a grey streak right at her forehead which is the result of a scalp wound, a too-rough tackle from one of her brothers during a family football game.  She is the archetype of the oldest sibling – responsible, sensible, hard-working, and E.D. thinks perhaps a little severe.  He’s not sure he particularly likes her much when he first meets her, but they get thrown together quite often and on occasion, when the family’s immediate needs are met and Cathy can let her hair down, they have a fabulous time together.  Cathy never went to college – immediately out of high school she began working as a secretary for a jerk who asks her daily to sit on his lap to take dictation.  She doesn’t love it, but puts up with it to bring in some money for the family.  She finds E.D.’s cavalier style and stories of university life to be a captivating escape from her crappy job experience, and they begin spending more and more time together.  She calls him Ed.

Like Ed, Cathy has just gone through a rough breakup.  She had decided to marry a young boy who had joined the military, but her mother forbade it, saying they were too young.  Cathy is tough as nails, but she is also an obedient daughter, and she had begrudgingly broken up with the military boy.  Knowing that her mother already liked Ed surely made it feel a little safer for Cathy to fall for him.

And fall for him she did.  Ed was falling for her, too, but fresh out of a serious relationship, he was sticking to his plan of playing the field.  One glorious fall afternoon, the two decided to wash Ed’s car together.  Teasing, flirting, hosing down and dunking ensued, and they had a fabulous time.  After a few hours, Ed looked at his watch and said he had to go, because he had to get showered and ready for a date.  Cathy’s sunny face turned dark in an instant, and she told him exactly what was on her mind: “Ed.  I like you.  You like me.  We are a great pair, and I love spending time with you.  But I don’t want to share you.  You go on your date, and you decide whether you want to keep dating these random girls you meet, or you want to keep dating me.  Because it’s gone too far for me now, and I either want all of you or none of you.”

Ed listened to this speech, and then turned wordlessly and left for his date in the newly washed car.  And Cathy sat on her front stoop and watched him go.