The Sabres

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Jackie woke up to a dark, dreary day. Groaning, he cracked open his eyes and peaked at the window to see a light rain hitting the glass. “Wonderful! Just great! Every Halloween it has to rain.” Frustrated, he threw the covers back over his head trying to go back to sleep.

His bedroom door flew open and a body pounced on top of him. “Get up you lazy bones!” Ulee shouted, while giggling as he tried to pull the covers off of Jackie.

“Leave me alone, Ulee. Can't you see it's raining. It's too dreary to get up.” Jackie grumbled, while trying to hold onto his blankets.

All of a sudden, his covers went flying off of him. Jackie sat up and glared at Ulee, then saw Talon smiling beside his younger brother. Jackie sighed and sat up in his bed, his hands moved to his eyes to try to wipe the sleep out of them. He couldn't stay mad at his brothers but he really wanted to sleep awhile longer.

Talon and Ulee looked at each other and Talon smiled even bigger. If Jackie would have been looking at them he would have seen the sparkle in his brothers eyes and Talon's deep dimples that forewarned of mischief. Talon nodded at Ulee and they both jumped on Jackie at the same time and started to tickle him.

Jackie started hollering in between giggles, “Get off of me you goofs.” Talon and Ulee didn't relent, they wanted their brother up and moving. All three of them started wrestling on Jackie's bed until Jackie finally had both boys under him. Breathing hard, Jackie giggled, “I have you now! My turn!” as he started to attack his brothers making them laugh even harder. All of a sudden, they all stopped and ran to the bathroom to relieve themselves before they lost all control on the bed.

Even though they were fourteen, eleven, and nine years of age they couldn't resist a good old fashioned sword fight while they relieved their bladders. They separated, Ulee and Talon going to their own rooms to get dressed, pushing and shoving each other along the way.

Jackie, born Jackson Perdu, was adopted by the Sabre family and is now Jackson Ezekiel Sabre. Getting out of the shower, he stared at himself in the mirror. He gazed at his reflection for a moment and started to brush out his long, jet black hair that fell to the middle of his back. He was five foot seven inches tall and had a trim swimmers build. Looking back at him were luminous, grass green eyes. He pulled his hair back with a strand of leather that his dad gave him.

In their own rooms, Talon and Ulee were getting dressed after their showers.

Talon, born Talon Michael Sabre, is average for his age with unruly dirty blond hair that he leaves just long enough to touch his shoulders. He is just a touch shorter than Jackie at four foot eight inches. His eyes are a steel grey with just a hint of blue in them. He has the deepest dimples when he smiles and just a smattering of very light freckles across the bridge of his nose, the tip of which slightly turns up at the end. He is the shy and quiet one and is often underestimated.

Ulysses Antinous Sabre hates his name and demands to be called Ulee (pronounced yule-ee). Being the youngest, he is also the most stubborn. Just like Talon, he has dirty blond hair but demands that his be kept cut in a Marine high and tight hair cut just like his dad's. He has piercing, crystal clear blue eyes that remind you of looking at the ice on a frozen lake with a thin grey band on the outer edge. He is only four foot five inches and pretty average, like Talon.

As they left their rooms, Talon playful shoved Ulee into Jackie who in turn grabbed Ulee and pushed him back into Talon. Continuing their brotherly scuffle down the hallway, shoving and pushing each other as they headed downstairs for breakfast.

They could smell the sausage and eggs and heard their stomachs growl from hunger. When they rounded the corner, they could see their plates on the table and their mother at the stove. Katie turned and smiled at her boys. “Did you have a good wrestling match to start the day?”

Kathryn Arianna Sabre, known as Katie to her family and close friends, was placing sausages onto a plate. Her forest green eyes smiled softly at them as she turned back to the stove. Katie gently pushed her mahogany brown hair off of her shoulders so it would hang to her shoulder blades of her back. Her slim, five foot eleven inch height made it easy for her to reach the top shelf of the cupboard to bring down the gravy boat for the sausage gravy she was making.

All three nodded, as they went over to help their mom take the food to the table. Katie handed the boys plates or bowls of sausages, biscuits, scrambled eggs and sausage gravy. The three boys joked as they put the food and plates on the table. Once everything was set on the table, they all sat to start breakfast.

All three boys started filling their plates when Katie asked “Are you still planning on going out tonight trick or treating?”

Ulee looked up from his plate, piled high with eggs, sausages and biscuits and almost overflowing with gravy and grinned, “Of course, why wouldn't we?”

“I really don't want to go Ulee.” Jackie calmly stated.

“You have too! You promised to be a pirate. You can't back out now.” Ulee shouted in disbelief and looked over at his big brother in shock.

Jackie sighed, “I'm fourteen now Ulee, don't you think I am getting a little old to go trick or treating?”

“NO, I don't. You gotta go, you promised” Ulee shouted, almost in tears now.

Talon just continued to eat, looking back and forth between the two. He really didn't want to go either but he knew that Jackie would give into Ulee and they would go. He shook his head and put another bite of biscuits and gravy in his mouth.

Katie looked at the boys and with her soft motherly tone said, “Ulee, what if you and Talon go while Jackie passes out candy at the house, he could still dress as a pirate.”

Silent tears started to flow from Ulee's eyes as he slammed his fork down on the table and said, “No, I want him there. He has to be with me. I need you Jackie. Please!”

Jackie looked at his little brother and just couldn't do it. He couldn't let him down. After all, isn't that what a big brother is suppose to do, be there for his brothers. Silent tears started to flow from his eyes then, “All right bro, we'll go. But this is the last year for me. Ok?”

Ulee jumped up from his seat and ran around the table to Jackie and gave him a big hug while very quietly mumbling “Thank you Jackie, I love you!”

Jackie held his little brother and whispered “I love you too lil' bro.”

Ulee calmed down and went back to his seat and continued to eat his breakfast as if nothing happened.

Talon, rolling his eyes, thought to himself, 'I knew it, guess this means we are going and I don't know how to tell Ulee that I don't want to be a pirate. Oh boy, am I going to be in trouble tonight when Ulee finds out how I am going to try to get around this.'

Smiling, Katie softly said, “Well, now that that is settled, let's finish breakfast. Do any of you need any last minute things for your costumes?”

All three boys smiled with their mouths full of food and shook their heads no.

When they finished eating, Jackie and Talon cleared the table and wiped it down while Ulee helped his mom by drying the pots and pans and putting them away.

The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to peak out from behind the grey clouds. Jackie headed to his wood work room to sand the fake sabre's he made for Talon and himself. Jackie just shook his head and couldn't believe that he let Ulee talk him into this. Ever since Ulee saw the play, 'Peter Pan' and they started teasing him about how he acted and stood just like him, Ulee was then determined to be Peter Pan for Halloween.

Then Ulee saw 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and decided that Jackie had to be Captain Jack Sparrow and insisted that Jackie looked a lot like Johnny Depp. Ulee then demanded that if Jackie was a pirate then Talon had to be Will Turner. Jackie laughed as he thought back to when he asked Ulee why he couldn't be Captain Hook to his Peter Pan and Ulee said “Because you are a good brother, so you and Talon have to be good pirates, not mean ones.”

Jackie worked away at the sabre's and after sanding the wood he started on the little dagger that he made for Ulee, just like Peter Pan's. He was going to stain them, but knowing that Talon was in his paint studio in the attic, he would ask him if he could paint them silver instead. He had already carved out handles for the sabres and dagger so he grabbed them also and headed to the attic.

“Hey, Talon.” Jackie shouted up the attic stairs as he was going up them two at a time.

“I'm up here Jackie! Whatchya need?” Talon shouted back.

Almost out of breath after running from the garage then up three flights of stairs, Jackie asked while panting, “Do you think that you can paint these and will they be dry by tonight?”

Talon laughed, “Cutting it close aren't you big brother? Yeah, I can do that and put them under the drying lamps to dry. No problemo.”

Jackie handed him the wood and walked over to look at some of the paintings Talon had done as Talon went over to his painting station to begin working on the pieces.

Talon had a talent with spray paint. He could use all different colors and various tools from putty knifes to ripped paper to create the most amazing scenes on canvas.

Silently leaving his brother to his work, Jackie went and found Ulee. Ulee was in front of his TV playing a racing video game. Jackie sat down next to him, nudging him over, and grabbed another controller to play with him. Ulee just smiled up him and they settled in to play for the afternoon.

Talon hollered down the stairs, “Jackie, I'm done!”

Jackie finished playing his set and while hugging Ulee told him that he had to go finish some things for their costumes. Ulee just nodded, and then continued to play some more.

As Jackie got all the parts from Talon, he was amazed at how he got the blade's and handle's to look so real. He blended the paint on the blades and used some kind of gloss to make them shine like steel. The gold, black and rust colors on the handles made them look old, kind of antiquated.

Jackie quickly thanked Talon and took off for his space in the garage and when he got there he quickly assembled the parts. He had made the scabbard's earlier in the week, they just had to hang everything off of their belts and would be set to go.

Just as he was finishing, Katie opened the door to let him know that dinner was ready. He smiled over at her and said, “I'll be right there mom, almost done.” She smiled back, nodded and headed to the stairs to holler up for Ulee to let Talon know so they could head downstairs for dinner.

After an early dinner, Jackie went back out to the garage and grabbed the sabre's, dagger and scabbard's then headed into the house. He gave each of his brother's theirs and Ulee gave Jackie a big hug as he didn't know anything about them.

They headed upstairs to get ready for the night out Trick or Treating. Ulee was the first ready and was impatiently waiting downstairs. He saw Jackie head down the stairs looking just like Jack Sparrow. The grin on Ulee's face let Jackie know that he made his lil' bro happy. It didn't matter that he didn't want to do this, seeing Ulee so happy made it all worth while.

Then Ulee saw Talon and shouted, “You are suppose to be the pirate Will Turner! What did you do? Go back upstairs and change right now, we're running late, we gotta go!” While he was shouting in his Peter Pan outfit, he placed his hands just above his hips, puffed out his chest and moved his feet apart just enough that Jackie and Talon burst out laughing because he really did look just like Peter Pan.

Ulee stomped his foot and clamped his teeth together, still in his stance and growled, “It's not funny, go change right now!”

Talon tried to get his breath and while taking short breaths got out, “No”, breath, “not changing,” breath, “going just like this,” breath, “ninja pirate.”

Katie placed her hand over her mouth to try to contain her laughter.

“Ninja pirate! What is a ninja pirate?” Ulee yelled still looking every inch of his character.

Talon finally got his laughter under control, took a deep breath and smiled showing his deep dimples while he calmly stated, “A ninja pirate is a ninja, which is what I wanted to be, and a pirate, which is what you wanted me to be, combined into this.” He stood up to his full height while moving his hand from the top of his head back down by his waist in a move that said “take a look.”

He was wearing his ninja costume. Attached to the belt, he carried the sabre that Jackie made for him and some fake ninja throwing stars. He placed a hat, similar to the one that Orlando Bloom wore in the movie, on his head and glued a fake mustache and goatee around his mouth.

Katie finally let loose her laugh and said “You have to admit, it still looks good Ulee. Let your brother have his fun, you can't control everything.” She pulled Ulee into a hug to let him know everything was going to be just fine.

Ulee sighed, exasperated he said, “But I wanted...”

Katie hushed him by placing her finger over his lips, smile down at him and whispered, as only a mom can, “I know what you wanted, but what you wanted and what Talon wanted weren't the same thing. Just be happy that he compromised and still tried to make you happy, while at the same time being himself. Can you do that?”

Ulee looked down, almost ashamed and whispered back, “Yeah, I'll do that.”

Looking over at Talon, from the safety of his mother's arms, Ulee told Talon with a mumble that he looked good. He tried to sound like it was alright but he was still mad inside.

Jackie clapped his hands together and said, “Great, now that that is over with, let's go. The earlier we get out there, the more time we have to get lots of candy.”

Ulee and Talon nodded and headed for the door. Katie rushed after them and gave each boy a quick kiss, handed them their sacks and told them to have fun as they headed out. She then turned on the porch light to hand out candy to those that came to their door.

All three ended up having a lot of fun. They even went to the cemetery, but found it locked up for the night with a guard at the gate. They were hoping to scare themselves with a ghoul or two but the guard wouldn't let them in, no matter how much they begged or how cute they tried to look.

They had met up with some friends and the whole group went house to house saying trick or treat as they went. At one house, the man that answered the door said, “You need to do a trick before you get your treat!” Jackie pulled the group back and told them all to rub their stomachs while patting their head at the same time. He had them block the man's view while Jackie helped Ulee get the rhythm down. As soon as Ulee had it, Jackie told him to keep going and told all their friends to get ready. Once the were all ready, they turned around, parted so the Ulee could be seen and started to rub their stomachs and pat their heads all at the same time.

The man burst out laughing at the site, once he got himself under control he told the group, “That was the most fun I had all night, you boys are alright. Here you go, and you even get an extra few since you were the only ones to even try to come up with something.” All the boys hollered yeah and went up to get their treats.

Later in the night, the boys parted ways with their friends and headed home. When they got there they went straight to the kitchen table and dumped their haul onto the table and started to separate everything out by kind of candy. They each had their favorites and the rest they evenly divided amongst them so that they all had the same amount.

Katie reminded the boys that they had school in the morning and they kissed her and headed off to their rooms to get ready for sleep.

All of a sudden, they heard a yell and ran out of their rooms into the hallway. Jackie looked at Ulee and they both looked towards Talon's room. Since he wasn't in the hallway, they headed that way and found Talon in the bathroom holding his upper lip.

“What's the matter Talon?” Jackie snickered.

“It hurt to pull the mustache off, now I don't want to pull the goatee off my chin.” Talon answered, while trying so hard not to let the tears fall.

Jackie, still snickering, walked into the bathroom and dampened a washcloth. He moved Talon's hand and held the cold cloth against his upper lip while using the bottom half to let the goatee get wet to loosen the glue. Jackie whispered to Talon, “I did the same thing once and used too much glue. I know it hurts but we will get the goatee off. Ready?”

Talon nodded, feeling a little better as the cold from the washcloth soothed his skin and that Jackie had done the same thing once. The goatee came off without any problems and Talon hugged Jackie without saying a word.

Ulee giggled outside the door the whole time while pointing at Talon. Jackie just rolled his eyes at Ulee and reminded him about school and sent him back to bed.

As they were settling in for the night, Jackie went to his window, sat on the window seat and looked out towards the marshes. He was looking for something, he just wasn't sure what. He had an idea but wasn't one hundred percent sure, only ninety-eight point five percent sure. What to do? He had a lot of thinking to do and not much time to do it in.