"Why'd They Have To Build Missouri So Far Away?"

The house sat at the dead end of a lonely country road. 'Most anything could happen there and no one would even be around to know about it. The young girls huddled together in their room as the intruder slammed into their bedroom door again and again. They could only imagine what would happen to them if he broke through their door. Not the type to cry, they waited until it seemed that the person had stopped, realizing that the hinges were going to hold. They slowly opened the door, seeing that the hinges were almost torn from the door. One of them spoke, "Brent, you are going to be in big trouble when Dad finds out you almost broke our door down."

Sure, you know him as a fun-loving, laid-back gentleman, but it has not always been so. Once, he was a fun-loving, excitable little kid. But, that's Brutus for you. He spent several hours trying to fix the damaged hinges when Dad did find out. Of course, there was no fixing the black plastic nose that came off of his pound puppy after bashing it against that same door.

Brutus was never the bravest of the brave. One dark pre-Halloween evening, Dad took the four young LavyKids into the orchard for a story. It was about an old woman who still roamed their haunted orchard at night, doing dastardly things to young kids who were unfortunate enough to be out in the orchard in the dark. As the story came to an end, behind the kids came an apparition seemingly floating through the darkness toward them. Their mom had consented to dress in a flowing white sheet and it looked much like a ghost in the pale moonlight. When Dad told them to look behind them and began screaming for them to run to the house, Brutus took the command seriously. At one time there were five rows of apple trees at the Lavy orchard. After that fateful evening there were only four, as Brutus mowed tree after tree down on his flight to the safety of the house.

One year the Family Vacation took us to Branson, Missouri. We started from our house in Pleasant Hill at about six in the evening. Many hours later as we travelled through the night, little Brent asked sadly, "Why'd they have to build Missouri so far away?"

Any way you look at it, Brutus is the number three kid out of four (or five, if you count Dudley, which I guess we must do) and we would be in big trouble with all girls. So, let's all give a big "HOORAY" for Brutus.