Jacob's Ladder
​
​
​
​
Jimmy and Joe were the best of friends as children, but Joe did something that his big brother could never forgive.
Joe lied.
Joe was taller and thinner than Jimmy. He took after his Mother in his looks whereas Jimmy was the spit of his Father. Jimmy wanted to follow John to the ends of the earth; Joe just wanted to follow Jimmy. So, everything Jimmy did Joe also did, and that worked fine. They did everything together, the best of pals. It warmed Janet’s heart. Jerome thought she did not notice that he was being excluded. Jerome always thought that he was not noticed, but of course he was.
Jimmy and Joe did everything together. They were brothers in arms.
Then Joe lied.
​
*
**
Joe lied about his age.
​
*
**
Because he was tall and slim, he got away with it.
Joe followed Jimmy everywhere and eventually followed Jimmy into war.
Even though he was only seventeen.
​
*
**
It was the first and only row they had ever had. Jimmy was furious. It was the first and only time Joe realised that they were not the same - that Jimmy looked down on him in the only way that an older brother can.
They were not the same.
Joe was not the same after the war. Jimmy was, as ever, practical, continuing to use his skills in the silversmiths. It was a craft. It was a skill he had inherited – both John and he were always good with their hands. It was not hereditary. Joe was not adept with his hands, never had been. That was not the problem.
Joe was not the same after the war.
Joe could not move his legs.
Such is life.
​
*
**
Jimmy took care of him, even after his own marriage. June understood that before the wedding; where Jimmy lived, Joe would live there too. She accepted it, it was part of the package, so Joe stayed with them. He was part of the family after all.
Jimmy nursed Joe in his final illness. They were, after all, brothers in arms.
In all the years that followed they never argued.
Not once.
​
Joe
