The time my brother broke a window with a dolphin

Yes, you read that correctly.

Do you have siblings? I have one. My brother's name is Michael. I call him Ralph. Try not to think about it too much. (Now I also have two sisters-in-law, whoop whoop!) I am three years, five months, and eighteen days older than Ralph. (Michael. Don't worry about it.) When my mom told me she was pregnant, I said, "Good. I want a baby sister named Michael." When my dad came home from the hospital to tell me it was a boy, I said, "Welp, at least we can name him Michael." And so it was. My parents claim that they didn't let me name him, but I think we all know the truth.

My mother was determined that Ralph and I would be close, so she forced us to play together. We had limited screen time, so she would frequently kick us outside. Honestly, I don't know if we would have been as close as we were (and are), if it were not for Emily.

Emily was our next door neighbor. She was one year older than me and the only one who could keep us playing together longer. We would sneak over to Emily's house when we weren't allowed to watch any more TV at our house. There we would play with the peak of toy technology: the original Nintendo. We also climbed trees, played football, built pillow forts, jumped on the trampoline, and played many imaginative games together with action figures, Legos, and Playmobil.

Playmobil, if you've never played with them, are little plastic people, animals, and accessories. We loved playing with them.

Playmobil world

Our games with them often became animated. Sometimes, my brother would claim that Emily or I had "stolen" something that he was using. Usually we had found these treasured pieces under the bed or in the common pile. One day, rather than our typical elaborate story games, we took up a new kind of game. WAR.

Emily and I, as usual, were on the same side. You might think this unfair, but in fact, it was quite fair. My brother was, and is, very scrappy. Emily and I played against him in football and almost any time we could. I am more of a peacekeeper, so I could have never been on the same side as him. In our game of war, we each had a shelter. Emily and I were sandwiched between the wall and the bed. I don't remember where Michael was. Emily and I were laughing. In my memory, Michael was ticked, but he might have been laughing too. We flung various small toys back and forth at each other, ducking after we launched the toy. 

Suddenly, Michael threw with great intensity a bigger object than any of us had been throwing. He threw it hard and the window behind Emily and me shattered. He had pitched a Playmobil dolphin through the window. Many times, the games we played lasted for days. This time, our playing ended hastily, as Emily and I scurried carefully to get away from broken glass, but were able to rescue the plastic dolphin that shattered it. 

Fortunately, my mom has a good sense of humor. 

Real dolphins in the Straight of Gilbraltar