Imagination So Great, It's Hard To Remember Anything Else

There we were, standing still in my front yard staring confused and frightened at the face of the huge mountain that stood next to my house. It was neither hot nor cold, the sky was hazy and grey and the sticky air had no movement at all. I stood there with my hand holding on tight with my brother’s and I could feel both of our hearts beating faster. Slowly but surely a swarm of giant spiders started towards us from the top of the mountain. They crawled down faster and faster and their size increased by the second. Not knowing exactly what we should do, we stood there in disbelief that in only a matter of seconds we would be attacked by these humungous creatures.

“Come on! What are we waiting for lets run!” my brother said. He started for the door and with my hand in his; I was pulled in the same direction. Breathing heavily we raced towards the two solid glass doors that led into an old army base I called home.

“Andrew! Andrew! They’re coming closer, hurry and open the door!” I said. We were running out of time and the spiders that were after us didn’t slow down. We locked the door behind us and ran in opposite directions in hope to find some duck tape.

“Here, give it,” my brother said and grabbed the tape out of my hands and started to tape up the door. Hairy legs started to shake the door and poke through the tape. The room became darker as more and more spiders covered our windows in hope to get in.

“I’m scared Andrew” I said as I peered up into his eyes. We sat down in the opposite corner of the room and squished ourselves against the wall. He grabbed both of my hands and said,

“It is okay, me too.” The door began to give, and as I looked into the eyes of the spiders I started to scream and then I woke up.

“Andrew! Andrew! Wake up! I am scared!” I said. I was half awake and without being able to see straight I shook my brother until he woke up.

“Stop! Why are you scared? Don’t do that I had a bad dream.” He said.

“You had a bad dream?! I dreamt we were outside and…” I said. Quickly like always we finished each other’s sentences and realized we had the same dream.

My brother is the most amazing influence on me I have ever recognized in my entire life. He has been my brother, my best friend and my twin all my life. In fact he actually isn’t my real brother, he is my cousin. We both practically lived in the same house up until a couple years ago and we can count the number of fights we have had on one hand.

Because I always wanted to be just like him, and him being three years older than me, I have seen myself mature faster then others my age. Being the youngest in my class, this helped a lot with my social and work life.

From playing wizards and aliens when we were younger to having deep philosophical conversations over coffee, my brother has shaped me into a person I am proud of. He has expanded my mind and because he never judges me, I am never afraid to think and let my mind wonder into beautiful or wretched places.

I was 5 years old when I had that dream and my brother was 8. I don’t know if whether or not we really did have the same dream or if it was because our minds were so full of imagination that we figured it was possible to have the same dream. Either way, it was because of that I realized that we were twins and I didn’t have to explore this big scary world alone.