brotherly love

Jaal and Lev spent so much time together. I think our going abroad brought them closer together. They were all each other had for a while. Other friends would come and go, but they were the constant - a love/hate or annoy/tolerate relationship.

They were as different as two boys from the same parents could be in many ways, but they learned from each other. I think Lev taught Jaal tolerance, creativity, and when to back down from an argument (which I think was never in Lev's mind).

The year we lived in Puerto Rico, when Lev was in kindergarten and Jaal was in third grade they spent a ton of time together in the water and on the beach.

Jaal and Michael would gather crabs and make crab wars, which Lev loved to watch. They both learned to snorkel together and they were equally poor surfers. Luckily they had lots of day off school, since there was no substitute system, and I wasn't working, so we had lots of time together. They served the milk at lunch in bags that you had to puncture with a straw. Lev loved getting chocolate milk, and he would jab in with a straw, spraying chocolate milk on his white uniform shirt every day.

Finally I told him that he either needed to get white milk or learn to poke the bag without it spraying on himself. Sure enough he quickly learned not to spray it on himself, or maybe he knew how all along and just enjoyed the effect.