Brody, the Devil Incarnate

Brody is now four years old and is the son of Maggie and her husband Matt Schmidt. There is something seriously wrong with the child. For instance, he started speaking in full sentences when he was barely two years old. About six months after that I said to him "Brody, I liked you better before you could talk". He looked at me and said "Yeah, too bad". I didn't learn sarcasm until I was about 8 years old.

Episode One:

When Brody was two and a half years old, his mother Maggie put he and his four year old sister, Annie down for a nap. Brody has an elevated bed. It is about five feet off the ground with a ladder going up to it. About 45 minutes after putting them down, Maggie went in to check on them. Annie was asleep in her room but when she looked up to Brody's bed he was gone. Maggie ran through the house checking for him but not a sign. The heavy sliding glass doors were closed but she noticed there was only one dog in the backyard. What the little shit did was let himself out, shinny up a five and a half foot wrought iron gate and pop the latch on top. His weight swung it open and one of the dogs ran out with him. They live on the top of a hill overlooking a big wash that is often filled with coyotes.

She was crying and yelling for him, nothing. About a half hour later she heard his voice in the neighbors back yard. She found him holding a Tonka truck that he had left the week before and talking to the neighbor. Maggie was crying him and telling him she couldn't find him and he wasn't in his bed. Brody said he only went down into the wash for a little bit.

Fast forward one week. Maggie puts them down and a half hour later thinks "I better check on that little shit" , so she goes in his room and looks up to his pillow and sees scraggly blond hair sticking up. She smiles and turns to leave the room but her eye catches a little hint of green on the pillow. She yanks the covers back and Brody was gone and had put a two foot "Yoda" doll in bed and pulled the blanket over him. It was Yoda's head and hair that were on the pillow. Now I know how to do that because I've watched 115 prison escape movies. The Brode figured that one out himself.

A week later Maggie was marveling at what Brody pulled and I told her "He didn't do that to trick you, he did it to reassure you". She said "What"! I said "You don't know how we think. The goal is to get out and do what you want. But, how many times last week did you say to him "You weren't in your bed"? She said about 10 times. I said - So there you have it, he wasn't going to not do what he wants to do but he didn't want to upset you.

Tom Higgins, Jr.