You Look Like You Needed It

This one time when me and my little brother were really tiny little punkass shrimps we were in the toy isle at some supermarket.

And he walked up to this poor little kid that was even littler than we were, I din't even notice the kid until my brother walked up him.

And this little kid was looking all sad and deflated or something, like he just knew that his parents couldn't afford to buy him some toy that he really wanted, and he wasn't even gonna ask, 'cause he didn't wanna have to put his momma through the whole ordeal of feeling sad that she couldn't buy him whatever it was that he wanted, and so he was just staring at some stupid toy and getting sadder and sadder and sadder and swallowing it down, just like all the other poor kids who have to grow up really fast tend to do.

Which was a tune that me and my little brother knew pretty well, 'cause we came from a dirt poor family too heh.

Anyways, I dunno what toy this other little kid was looking at, I wasn't really paying attention to that part of it, I was way more wondering what my little brother was up to, walking up to this kid, y'know, when yer close in age with yer brother and spend all of your time standing next to the guy he becomes super predictable to you and you end up sorta like twins.

And when yer twin does something that you don't expect it really kinda catches you off guard and shakes yer shit up a little and makes you pay attention, time slows down like yer in an accident and everything gets all dramatic like yer suddenly in a black and white movie.

Anyways so I watch my brother walk up to this kid and he puts his hand on the top of this kid's head and they just stand there like that for a second and its truly bizarre with the little kid looking up at him all sad and cute (heck they were both kinda cute little poor kids heh).

And then my brother messes up this little kid's hair and the little kid smiles.

It was all silent and super weird, neither of 'em said nothing.

And then without a word between either of 'em my brother just turns away from the kid and comes back over to me.

And I'm all like "wtf was THAT all about?"

And he's like "he just looked like he needed it."

My brother was only four years old when he did that (I was the wise old bossman with six whole years of experience on planet earth under my belt heh).

And it made me think about how I would've just went about my business without doing anything for that sad little kid, I woulda just sorta ignored him or whatever.

And all that little kid needed was somebody to go over there and fuck up his hair or something to turn it all around heh.

Anyways I never let my little brother forget that weird story, he's an old guy now with kids of his own but we still do the "he just looks like he needed it" gag and we laugh and its kinda awesome how we're still the exact same guys we were when we were six and four years old and all it takes is that weird little spark of random shit to send us all the way back in time to that stupid toy isle in the supermarket with that sad little kid that he made smile.

Which reminds me of something.

Sometimes you just need to stare at a picture of a car sitting still with some music that makes you wanna get up and do anything else in the world besides sit there and stare at a picture of a car sitting still.

It's true.

Yah well I dunno you just look like you needed it.

Hey, if you wanted smiles then you came to the wrong brother heh.