The Feather Duster

Oh, the games boys play

Jason hadn’t noticed the gray and blue feather duster on his dresser, mainly because it wasn’t there before this morning. What did his mom expect him to do with it, dust? Seriously?

Then he got to thinking, “Maybe she knows how I like to bug Brandon so much that she bought it just for that.” Brandon was two years older and slept in a lot because he was often out late at night.

At 13, Jason was a foot shorter but 30 pounds pudgier than Brandon, which also meant he was slower when his brother finally ran after him. It was never pleasant for Jason when he did catch up, but he was able to get a few licks in before being pummeled. Such is the life for two brothers.

Against his mother’s expressed wishes, Brandon was out until midnight the night before. Today was Saturday and she was already at work for half a day, but Brandon was in bed snoring away with no evidence he’d be waking soon.

Jason grabbed the feather duster and tiptoed into Brandon’s room. Since his brother was a heavy sleeper and it was still early, there was almost no chance of him waking up.

Giggling over what he was about to do, Jason pulled the feather duster across his brother’s upper lip. Brandon wiggled his lip and nose for a second.

“Perfect,” Jason whispered.

He dragged the duster across Brandon’s neck and then once over his lip, and yanked it away.

Brandon again crinkled his nose and lip. Then he rolled over, and in doing so, pulled the covers and exposed his feet.

“Good,” Jason said. “This is soooo so good.”

Jason took the logical next step and ran the duster across Brandon’s bare feet.

Brandon pulled his feet back under the cover and said, “Jason, do that one more time and see what happens. Remember, Mom’s at work and she can’t protect you this morning.”

Jason thought, “Did Brandon just say something or was I imagining things? Eh, just one more pass of the feather and I’ll find out.” He looked down at his feet and smiled.

His running shoes were on and tied tight.

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