Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Short Story #3: Outed

My brother, Garrett, is extremely good at video games and highly competitive. A deadly combination. I think a lot of his success (in games) comes from his ability plus his willingness to keep trying.

One game that he is truly master of is Guitar Hero and/or Rockband. He and I used to play Guitar Hero 2 all the time. We had one rule: Expert Only! He would play the guitar part while I tried to rock the bass.

I used to think I had some talent and made a small contribution to our cooperative effort, but really my brother carried us through most of the time. One particular song I liked to play had a devastatingly hard guitar part while I coasted through on the bass. My brother would miss more notes then I had to play in the entire song.

My other family members like to play these games too and we'd set up band practice when they came into town. One time, when my sister and her husband were visiting, my brother, rather boastfully, lamented that he would not be around to help us out on Rockband. Not to be outdone by my brother, my brother-in-law suggested a name for our band as we were creating our game characters: We Don't Need Garrett. My mom, sister, and I (the rest of the band) agreed that this was somewhat mean but too funny not to use. We decided to keep the name on the DL so nobody would get offended. We made great progress as a band. My mom, or "Flossie" as she is known as in the Rockband world, was a good sport to play the drums.

Alas, our triumph was short-lived. The next time my brother came over, my dad spilled the proverbial beans and told him the name of our band. My brother was less than thrilled. He found little humor in our musical comedy. No secret is ever safe.

Fortunately, life intervened. With new degrees, new jobs, and new babies, Guitar Hero and Rockband no longer take the center stage at family functions. I'm sure in five to ten years my brother will have gotten over this sufficiently.