CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A local Betoota Heights dad has just been informed that he has a political shitstorm waiting for him when he returns from work this afternoon.
Tony Cottee, 47, says he knew this day would come eventually – but he’d always hoped that he’d be there to mitigate the immediate fallout.
After a week and a half of school holidays, it seems that his teenage sons are getting restless – and hostilities have descended into active combat this morning.
With limitations placed on screen time, and both parents juggling work hours to ensure that the kids don’t end up running the joint – Tony’s wife Stella was left to deal with a major power shift in the family dynamic by herself today.
According to the phone call he just received from Stella, it seems that Tony’s oldest son and youngest son have had a bit of a blue.
This is usually the type of domestic disturbance that resolves itself, with the animal kingdom dictating who wins and who loses based on age and size.
Except today isn’t any usual day.
Tim (15) has lived his entire life knowing that his pindick brother Ned (13) doesn’t stand a chance against his superior strength and keen wit.
Historically, any brouhaha between these two results in Ned exploding in tears and hiding in his room for an hour or so until both boys forget that anything ever happened.
But Tony is learning it didn’t go down that way today.
At 11:15 this morning, Tim got rocked.
Not just laid out on the ground, but laid out by his younger brother. Ned. Ned the pindick.
It is believed that with the antagonist middle child sister (Michaela) throwing fuel on the fire, and Tim shaking his younger brother around with a headlock, Ned found the strength to break free and put his brother on the back foot, before winding him with a knee to the guts, and then eventually putting him on his arse with a hammer punch to his collar bone.
It’s all over. Ned is the big dog.
Tony knows that this moment is now a core memory for every member of his family, and he really wishes he was there to see it.
He also knows that Ned is going to be feeling himself a little too much, and might not realise that this could be a one-off.
On top of this, he’s extremely aware that Tim might react to this slight on his manhood with extreme juvenile stupidity. Tony’s starting to think he should actually head home directly before his oldest son’s wounded ego leads him back into the living room to take back his crown.
