Additionally, a true story

What follows is as close a rendition of what I can remember about this incident as possible. This is a true story.

When I was 14 years old, my older brother met the girl who would later become his wife. Donna was gracious and beautiful and I could fully understand how my brother was smitten. Up until that time, my brother and I had been partners. We spent hours exploring forests and fishing and trying to out do each other on our bicycles. Later on we would ride around in his old Mazda 1200, complete with Mag wheels, racing stripes, shackles and the requisite 8-track. Deep Purple blaring, we sought out, back roads corner stores and using all our bravery, would go in and buy a girly magazine. Usually it took three or four tries before we found a clerk who didn’t look too threatening or judgmental and we would park and swoon over the naked beauties within. Not that we always got along so famously, there were times when we tried to kill each other but neither of us was able to stay mad at the other for very long. We always made up and got on with our ‘us against the world’ way of planning our day.
When he became involved with Donna, he grew up fast. He was 17 at that time, young and handsome, but the kid in him disappeared fast, at least from my perspective as a young teen. At first, I was a little jealous of her. He spent every moment he could by her side and even when he wasn’t with her, she was all he ever wanted to talk about. I can’t say that I minded that, he kept me abreast of all the developments in their budding romance so I felt like an insider, our partnership intact! I even got a firsthand immediate regaling of the evening during which he’d actually touched her boob!
Our father was terribly firm on the question of girls; he simply wasn’t going to have his sons out whoring around, so they were off limits, period. This heavy handedness simply tightened our bond. A secret and intense interest in all things female kept us co-conspirators and I relished our late night discussions of his voyage into manhood.
As my brother grew more and more in love, events conspired to keep him out late, again and again. There was no question in his or my mind that we could never tell our father about Donna so he stayed away as much as possible, courting like nobody’s business. It was on his return from one of these late nights that it all came out. My father figured something was up and waited up for my brother to come home. I too, was waiting up in my downstairs bedroom, anticipating my brothers’ arrival and the tales he would tell of the night’s adventures. I could hear my father’s footsteps creaking across the floor as he paced and waited. I knew this was bad, my Dad always went to bed by 11pm and here he was, up and around at 1:30 am.
My worries proved justified when my brother finally pulled in. I could here the gravel crackling in the driveway as he pushed his little car in. He would always get home and shut off the engine at the head of the driveway so as not to wake our father, lest he discover the time my brother had returned, then slowly push his car into the driveway and ever so gently, close the door. My brothers excuse for late returns had consistently been that he was working overtime. This night though, unbeknownst to any of us, my father had phoned his boss and discovered that my brother hadn’t been required to work overtime, not for weeks.
When the door creaked open, all hell broke loose. I cringed in my bed at the force of my father’s accusatory voice and I could hear my brother’s denials. In the heat of it all, I heard my Mother speak and all got quiet as her words shattered our world. She confirmed my father’s suspicions and further informed him that my brother was seeing a wonderful girl from a good family. I was downstairs in my room, but in my heart, I could see them all standing there as clearly as if I was there. My father, a look of anger, hurt and betrayal. My mother, one of conviction and moral certainty and my brother, a look of sincerity and hurt and love.
At this point in time, the thing my father should have done, was grasp his eldest son in his arms and hold him close and beg his forgiveness for having driven him to such subterfuges. My brother had told my Mom about his girlfriend but even Mom agreed that my father would never accept the innocence of the romance, so it was kept from him. Unfortunately, his reaction was not as pretty as it should have been.
I can still hear the sounds of my brother’s body thumping down the stairs. My father literally picked him up and threw him, then commanded him to leave his house that second and never come back. He never did.

Chapter Two

In 1945, Gordon Green met his wife. The war was ended and he took his bride to his home in Whitecourt Alberta. They bought two sections of land and began a dynasty, rich in love and the laughter of their many children the first of whom was born in 1946. Lee Green entered the world at 3:01 am on June20th/1946. He was a happy gregarious child who followed his father everywhere on the farm, helping him milk the cows and bring in the hay. He wasn’t alone in that he was followed by the births of four brothers and four sisters. The Greens were plain happy. The table was always filled with farm fresh goodness and their hearts were filled with love for each other. The third youngest of the Green children was a girl child they named Donna, the very same Donna who would later become the wife of my brother. When Donna was 6 years old, tragedy befell the Green family.
Lee had grown into a handsome popular young man, a rebel and a favourite of the girls. It was 1964 and his life was just beginning. On the night of his graduation party, the day before his birthday, he left home smiling amidst the well wishes of his brothers and sisters, his father and his mother (who was nearly nine months pregnant with what would prove to be their last child), and drove away for the very last time.
Sometime that night, in the early morn, after what I can only guess was an evening of innocent celebration, Lee was involved in a car chase. The car in question was his, and the chaser was a local policeman. Fog had settled in, and on a part of the highway that runs by Whitecourt, up a long steep hill, Lees car was driven off the road at high speed. His injuries were instant and fatal. For years after, the story was never quite clear on how the accident happened. It had been foggy and it was rumored that the over zealous policeman drove him off the road, or it was thought that Lee was terribly drunk and lost control. Whatever the cause, Lee and his 3 companions all died in fiery blaze. It was a story that rocked the community and caused Mrs. Green to go into labour. Later that same day, she gave birth to a son. The male child born that night remained un-named for a little longer than usual, understandable given the huge tragedy that had befallen the Green family. When the funeral had been attended to, an event that brought the population of the town to the gravesides of the four youngsters, Mr. and Mrs. Green found the time to give their attentions over to their newest son, Gordon Lee Green born June 20th, 1964 at 3:01 am. The exact time of his newly deceased brothers birth and the very same day. The coincidence was remarkable.

Chapter Three


As my brother was the eldest child, he held a special place in the eyes of my father. I knew it from a very young age and try as I might; I was never able to cause the same light to sparkle in my Dads eyes as my brother did. Within a few months, my Dad had approached my brother and all was forgiven. By this time, my brother had proposed to Donna and a wedding was set for September. My brother had gotten a little apartment in town and I spent every possible moment there. I knew I was gonna lose him all too soon and to give him credit, he made me as much a part of his life at that time as he could. The three of us would go to the theater and the drive-in and every now and then, Donna would (and rightly so) suggest to him that he should dump the little brother. I remember the first time she tried quietly to whisper this suggestion to him. He looked startled. I don’t think that even with his hormones raging, it ever occurred to him to abandon me. Luckily for him, I was a smart little bugger and I made myself scarce on those occasions.
As that summer passed, my brother went out to Alberta and met his fiancés family. He came back terribly pleased with the acceptance they had bestowed on him and he also had news for me! Apparently Donna had a little sister, whom my brother assured me was not as cute as Donna, but still real pretty. Donna had invited her out for the summer and my brother aimed to introduce us. I was 14 and so terribly curious about girls...and so terribly shy. I do believe I fell in love with Laura long before I ever met her, which was in my brother’s car outside the shop where he worked. She was the most utterly beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on. She was the first girl I ever held hands with, and the first girl I ever kissed. We four spent the summer together. It was the last summer of my childhood and an innocent time that I reflect on from time to time that always, always warms my heart. During that summer I had occasion to accompany my brother out to Alberta to attend a district assembly, and it was there that I met young Gordon Lee Green. Gordy was a spirited, good-natured 11-year-old kid and despite our age difference, we managed to become pals when I was at the family farm. Mr. and Mrs. Green welcomed me into their family like I was one of their own. It never occurred to me ‘til much later how strange that was, I mean, I was the brother of the boy who intended to marry their daughter. Yet, I spent weeks at that farm and never once was I made to feel unwelcome, they were and remain truly wonderful people.


Over the course of that summer, being close to the Green family, this is when I first heard the story of the older brother Lee. The exact birth dates and the timing of the death of Lee and the birth of Gordy fascinated me. It was kind of a family joke on the part of the kids to pull out an old faded picture of Gordy and ask who (in this case) I thought it was. It was obvious that it was Gordy in the picture and they laughed with glee at the look on my face when I was told that the person in the picture was Lee. The resemblance was beyond uncanny; they were virtually dead ringers for each other. I discussed all this with Gordy on one occasion. He laughed and agreed that it was weird but that it was all just a strange coincidence.
Later that year, my brother and Donna were wed in a typical subdued JW ceremony followed by a very untypical grand bash celebration. I’ve never seen a larger wedding reception. My brother looked happy and I got drunk for the first time. Hey, I had good reason; Laura broke my heart that night and left me for some other guy! He had a car.

Chapter Four


In the years that followed, my brother and his wife and I, grew apart. I dropped out of the religion that had kept us under wraps for all our lives while my brothers convictions in it, grew stronger. I still saw the Greens from time to time but as life would have it, they faded into my not so distant past and the Greens and all of their kids, including Laura and Gordy, became a memory. That is, until Gordy graduated. You see, Gordy drove off in his pickup truck on the 19th of June 1984, the day before his birthday, to attend a high school graduation party. I can only wonder if his departure elicited any feelings of fear in the hearts of his Mom and Dad. Sometime early the next morning, on a part of the highway that runs through Whitecourt up a long steep hill, Gordy crashed his truck into an unmarked-parked Grader at high speed. It was rumored that the police were chasing him at the time. It was foggy, so no one is certain exactly how it happened, but a blood test revealed that he had been drinking. The one certainty however, was that Gordy died that night, along with three others, in a fiery blaze.

The deaths of the four Whitecourt youngsters made the front pages of every newspaper in Alberta. The eerie coincidences between the death of Gordy and the death of his older brother Lee were never unearthed and never made public. The Greens were avowed Jws and determined that that information was better left off the record. They also refused to join the parents of the other 3 children in a lawsuit against the city for the parking of the unmarked Grader. The suit was settled out of court for huge sums of money. The Greens wanted no money, they wanted something else entirely and to this day, believe that they will see their sons in a new world order resurrection that is the promise of their religion.
On my part, I’ve always been astounded at the implications of what happened on that long steep hill in Whitecourt. Was Gordy...Lee? Was he the reincarnated soul of his dead brother? The coincidences are beyond belief and I can only presume that there are levels of spirituality in existence that we can’t even begin to imagine.