AC/DC The Young Brothers: Growing Up

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Margaret Sr. sets Malcolm and Angus into their playpen, “You boys play nice, your siblings and I need to decorate the house for Christmas.” she informs them before leaving the room to help Stephen get the Christmas lights down.

Malcolm stands up, he stumbles a little his fat chubby legs aren’t good for much, “Ang, you wanna go?”

Angus nurses on his paci; he nods his head; he wants to play in the snow or play with one of his many siblings, anything but the playpen. Malcolm pulls a toy screwdriver out of his diaper and manages to get the latch up, “Go! Go!”

Angus crawls as fast as he can without harming himself Malcolm toddling behind him quickly they manage to make it to the kitchen before William Jr. spots them, “Malcolm? Angus?” 

They both bolt out the doggy door into the backyard of their English home, snow soaks through their indoor clothing and they begin to get very cold. William Jr. pulls them inside; he sets them in the playroom instead of their playpen, the door blocked by a baby gate. The boys pout and fuss but it’s no match for their older brother he ignores them and goes back to helping their mother, Malcolm kicks a block and winces.

Angus rolls onto his back and flails his limbs around, “You’re right, Ang! We got to climb the gate!”

Malcolm climbs the baby gate, Angus crawls to it bumping into it and looks up at his brother confused. Malcolm dangles himself over and lugs his baby brother over dropping him on his padded bum, Alex spots them, “Boys!”

Malcolm drags Angus as they run and dive into a random room hiding behind the door, Alex runs past hollering for them. Malcolm leads Angus to the kitchen once again, they steal snacks from the pantry and eat happily. Margaret Jr. heard a racket come from in there and thought they had mice, she got John to check on it and caught the boys too stuffed to move or even show remorse for their crimes. Stephen the oldest brother lugged the boys into their shared nursery and kept the door closed.

“Oh I’m too stuffed!” Malcolm whines pathetically, as he rubs at his belly laying on the fluffy white rug.

“Ba!” Angus squeals from his crib sounding angry and upset.

Angus was stuck in his crib bouncing around and looked pissed that his freedom was taken from him, “I got it!” Malcolm shouts in triumph he scoots over the toy chest and climbs on it he manages to unlock the door only to see William Sr. in the hall their father heard of their boys escape act from their mother and many older siblings and he’s just came home from his second job, he’s pissed. William Sr. storms in there, he has his belt in hand. Malcolm runs over to Angus’ crib and holds his arms out, “H-Hurt me not Ang!”

William Sr. agrees to this saying Malcolm did all the wrong and led his baby brother down the wrong path to life. Malcolm is stripped down nude and laid on his belly on his toddler bed, he’s forced to keep his arms at his side as he father lashes him all over his backside, thighs, and back. Angus watches in horror from his crib suddenly terrified of the man he called “da”.

“Da!! Da!!” Angus shrieks from his crib, “No! No! No!”

William Sr. keeps hitting the two-year-old until his arm gets sore and by then Malcolm is bruised and bleeding, “I’ll get Junior in to clean ya up.” he left the room.

Malcolm winces as he sits up tears pouring down his cheeks, “I-I hate him.”

It looks like Malcolm soaked the sheet as he was being beat and is now sitting in a wet spot of his own urine. William Jr. finally shows up; he places Malcolm in the bath and changes the sheets. Angus forces William Jr, to put him in the bath with his brother.

After that Malcolm took any punishments for Angus he was known as the problem child of the family and not to be trusted with much, but it was worth it as long as Angus never got a hand placed on him. The only punishment Angus got was a light swat on the bum from their mother for eating sweets before dinner. And Malcolm thought he was going to die when William Sr.’s  office got messy since Angus was looking for some pencils. William Sr. beat the shit out of Malcolm till he was bruised and battered then forced Malcolm to clean his office and scrub the back porch floor, Angus helped him with both punishments.

One thing Malcolm will never forget is when Angus took his first steps. Angus was behind other kids; he still crawled at the age of three and no doctor could figure out what was wrong with him. They just said he’ll do it when he’s ready and if he’s not walking be age four send him back. Malcolm was four years old at the time playing with his toys, their other siblings and their parents left the two alone to go do some yard work. Angus grips onto the coffee table, Malcolm raises his head curious was the wee thing that slobbered and shit itself about to walk?

Angus takes off toddling as hard as his chubby legs can take him, “Mal! Mal!” 

“Thata boy, Angus!” Malcolm cheers reaching out to him, “Come! Come! Walk to Mal Mal!!”

Malcolm watches as one of Angus’ socks comes off and the three-year-old collapses in his brother’s lap very pleased with himself. Malcolm worked on Angus’ walking  after that and the boy turned out very fine after that.

Once Malcolm was eighteen he took seventeen-year-old Angus with him. He refused to leave the boy behind him. That was his job as an older brother was to protect his baby brother no matter how old he’s gotten. They bounced around from place to place and from band to band. Malcolm recalls once Angus got so pissed drunk he demanded they go to the little 24/7 grocery store for more booze. Even though it was 2:10AM and they have to stop selling booze at 2AM, Angus still stumbles over to the locked up beer case, 

“Why is the beer all locked up?” Angus slurs looking bleary eyed between his brother and the clerk,

“Sorry sir, we stop selling beer at 1:45AM.” the clerk tells them

“Noooo!” Angus cries hugging the casing making Malcolm laugh and the clerk hides her giggles.

Angus hangs his head and walks over to the frozen pizza section. Just as he reaches for the handle the lights in the freezer turn off to start defrosting,

Angus looks at the clerk and starts crying, “I can’t buy a pizza either?!” and he says that very loudly.

The clerk and Malcolm laugh hard and the poor clerk helps Angus get a frozen pizza and she helps count out the change for him. As soon as the door closes Angus races back in Malcolm yelling at him to stop, Angus slaps two 50£ notes on the counter, “You’re so nice to me, my own brother isn’t even that nice to me. You need a tip.” he then throws up by the door and stumbles out as Malcolm offers to clean up the mess. That’s still one of Malcolm’s fondest memories of Angus and one he remembered quite well even as his memory started to go bad in their golden years.

They managed to join a band called AC/DC and make heaps of money off of it, and they were living the good life. But then Malcolm’s memory was going bad. He retired at sixty-one-years old.

Malcolm is staring at the most beautiful stranger he's ever seen. She explains she's his wife. He has dementia. Malcolm smiles and takes her hand as their grandchildren jump around the room. Life good, you've lived a good life. Suddenly he's staring at the most beautiful stranger he's ever seen.

When he was sixty-four-years old when he passed from the effects of dementia, he passed away peacefully, his family at his bedside. Angus was affected by grief. He lost two brothers in the same year and it hurt him greatly. He’s learned to cope with the grief alongside his surviving siblings William Jr., John, and Margaret Jr. who would pass away in 2019.

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