Brother's gift request seems odd

My brother, Michael, never ceases to amaze me. He is our “bad boy” of the family. He is the adventurous one. He is the railroad aficionado. He is the one voted least likely to succeed. And he is my favorite. Don’t tell my other brother, David. David is also my favorite, but for other reasons.
Michael likes nothing better than to go fishing after a long day spent at a model train show. He much prefers being outdoors to doing anything in the house that doesn’t involve model trains. Weather doesn’t seem to affect him.
When he was little, he would go down to the creek and catch fish, snakes and turtles by hand. Those guys on television who catch catfish by hand, a process called “noodling,” are mere wanna-be’s compared to my brother. He once stuck a pop can in my face and said, “Look, Sissy!” just as a snake popped its head out of the opening. He laughed uncontrollably when I shrieked.
He is a mechanic who works on semi tractors and trailers for a living. He has been known to explode plastic pop bottles to relieve stress. The cars he drives rarely cost more than a week’s pay. In short, he is the definition of the word, “redneck.” That is why it surprised me so much when he told me what he wanted for his birthday.
A couple of years ago he purchased an abandoned lot on the outskirts of a little town near our mother and our other brother. He has spent many a pleasurable hour cleaning up the mess that was left there over the years. He has visions of someday building a house.
Honestly, I will be surprised if the house ever materializes. I see the property serving as more of an excuse to be outside piddling around than as a future home. He enjoys cleaning out the overgrowth.
He delights in finding the treasures left by previous owners. Burning piles of brush fuels his love of fire and if there happens to be an old aerosol can buried underneath the organic matter, well, the resulting explosion just adds to the fun.
Last year he bought a tractor just because it reminded him of the one that met its demise when the barn burned down. He didn’t set it on fire on purpose. He had rescued a potbelly stove from said barn and left it burning while he took a friend home. In his absence, the stove deposited sparks on the dry timbers and up it went, taking the tractor and everything else with it.
So what was it that he asked for as a birthday present? In the past he has asked for warm socks or some other practical thing. He never turns down train memorabilia but as I know next to nothing about trains, I rarely get train stuff for him. Tractors and such are way out of my budget.
Fishing stuff is usually an easy option and I have a fishing lure started that I intended to make for him for Christmas but it isn’t even close to being done yet.
This year he asked for the last thing I ever expected. He wants a rose. Specifically a peach or yellow climbing rose bush. Michael is not a gardener. Not a single houseplant graces his residence. He has never planted a garden. Flowers are simply not his thing. Yet, he wants a rose bush for his birthday.
He wants to plant it on his property and has the perfect spot picked out for it. As it is way too soon to be planting roses, I will wait for a few weeks before I start shopping. After the weather warms up for good, I will pick a day when he doesn’t have to work and the two of us will plant his new rose bush along with something for it to climb on.
It will be nice to share my love of flowers with the brother whom I adore. Maybe he and I aren’t so different, after all.[[In-content Ad]]