I spent the rest of my South Africa visit playing with one of my other cousins: My Twin Cousin had an Older Brother and a Younger Brother. The Younger Brother was the one I played with, because he was home, and he was close enough to my age that we could find fun things to do.
The Older Brother didn’t really hang out with us, being old enough that our games were no longer interesting to him. He was older, and very smart, and seemed very mature to me.
The playroom next to the children’s bedrooms was mostly taken up by one thing, a model train set that belonged to the Older Brother, and only to him. It was very large, and sat on a special table so that everything was the right height. The tracks went every which way, taking the train past perfect miniature trees and houses and villages. I would have wished for a dollhouse as detailed and precise as his train set, if I could have imagined such a thing and then imagined not being afraid to play with it.
But he wasn’t afraid to play with it, and one day he showed me how the whole thing worked, how he could make the train go from one track to another, or anywhere he wanted it to, by flipping a switch. It all belonged to him, but he was happy to let me watch, and he was very pleasant company while I did.
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