Since my brother has returned from his school trip to France*, he has become strangely aggressive, and answers to whatever is asked of him, "Do ya wanna fight? Do ya? Square on!" Face pulled into a comical squint, fists clenched. It's becoming repetetive and boring. I told him so. "Fight?" he demanded, forehead lunging in my general direction, yoof-esque trousers slipping dangerously low, barely clinging on. "Do ya?"

Occassionally he says it without a prompt, pronouncing it over the salt and pepper shakers into the silence of the first bite of food. He is permanently angered, as if some enormous slight had been performed against him.

"Put your shoes away", my mother might say, and he will respond with an over dramatic:

"Do ya wanna fight? Do ya? Oh my GAWD, you've RUINED my ENTIRE day!" At the back door where the shoes are kept, we might hear a rebellious "Square ON!"


I love him anyway. He notices my hair when I know no other male being would. Even remembered my birthday this year, where normally he doesn't, despite being in France on the day. I'm still waiting for a present - "something with a frog".

* Or is it since he's watched Fight Club, a delayed reaction perhaps? I point my fingers at the indirect source of the blame. ;)