Lance Young

The Laundry Basket

For my brother: my unintentional non-hero hero

When I was in 1st grade, my 2nd grade brother gave a school presentation in which he described me as “just a stranger who lived in his house.” This comic misunderstanding stems from the fact that I am my brother’s polar opposite. If he were peanut butter, I would be jelly. Our parents are bread; the only thing holding us together. People always say we look similar, but I don’t think that’s true. His almond, mono-lidded eyes, coarse hair, and blocky eyebrows are yet again, the complete opposite of my own features. In elementary school, he dressed like a highlighter. His neon shirts would always match his neon shorts, and his side-swept hair would just touch the tip of his glasses. He was the most cookie-cutter Asian-American nerd who could ever exist. Even in elementary school, I knew that I was the more fashionable one. 

Now that we’re both in high school, my desk is a tornado of colors and art projects while his bare one is as clean and uncluttered as a monk’s head. Various gaming paraphernalia such as headphones, controllers, and even a steering wheel and gas pedal litter his nook, while mine overflows with canvases, paintbrushes, and various art supplies. Throughout middle and high school, my brother was my standard. If he earned straight A’s in all of his classes, that meant that I had to earn straight A+’s. As the offspring of two Asian immigrant parents, academics were our priority, and my brother became my biggest yardstick even though he was a grade older. I looked up to him, which meant I wanted to do everything he did…but better. Maybe when we were both toddlers we got along best–time traveling to imaginary worlds in a laundry basket where he was the knight and I was the princess. We spoke in our own language as Mom watched us from across the kitchen island with a confuzzled look. The next day we were ninjas who battled evil, parkouring through enemy territory (i.e. our living room). But when we grew up, my brother transformed from a knight in shining armor to an alien who just lived on the same planet. I miss that laundry basket.