Power of M

Chapter 2

2. When I said I was a gentleman I didn't mean I was a gentleman, gentleman.

After my episode with that woman whom I now call a witch, some instinct made me want to hide the tattoo and getting the perfect idea I wrapped it up with a bandage. I hated deceiving my sister Ash but I trusted my instincts more than my heart. But she's a lot smarter than me (isn't everyone?) so she obviously knows something's up. I've told her that I had a bad fall but that's never happened to me before. She knows I'm not that careless. Going to buy a burger has never been a dangerous mission and we both knew that. It wouldn't be long before she confronted me and I'd have to tell her everything.

Yeah, I could follow my number one golden rule which is to 'deny everything', but I can't really say no to my sister. I guess I'm just too nice. You are probably rolling your eyes right now but I hold on to the truth. I'm a nice person. Also Ash is pretty much all the family I have (talk about depressing) so I didn't exactly want to get on her bad side. Anyway forget it. I was right. Ash made me spill the beans and guess the worst part. She didn't think my burger being stolen had any importance at all. She even refused to let me sue the witch for that filthy crime. Why am I taking advice from a fourteen year old?

I guess that's the way it's always been. I'd never tell this in front of her but I might actually be sort of lost without her. That's an irrelevant fact which you don't need to know about. Forget I said that as soon as possible. I think she's hiding something from me now. Recently she's been wearing socks, which is weird because she hates socks. She even refuses to wear socks with shoes which mean her shoes smell terrible. Right. Shouldn't have said that. I'll shut up now. I've been wondering if she has a tattoo too. I know I've jumped to an impossible conclusion but since we're related I'm guessing we are leading the same weird hell of a life. Hey, I didn't ask to be related to anyone and I didn't ask for a freak show of a life either so try not to blame me for everything weird that happens. I'm a good guy.

Ash is asleep now in her room and I'm about to do something very unmanly that no proper gentleman would ever think of doing. I was going to sneak into her room and just you know, take a quick look at her feet. Pfft that's like a totally normal thing to do. Don't look at me like that. I had to know otherwise it makes me seem like this weird mutant from outer space that can burn tattoos into his own body. Pretty normal huh? Anyway I'm not asking for permission. I sneaked into her room.

She was wearing light pink bunny pajamas that she had grown out of years ago. The trousers were now up to her knees. For a fourteen year old she looked pretty cute, her feet hugging a pillow tightly. I looked down at her feet and nearly swore out loud. She was still wearing socks. She was definitely hiding something from me. "I can't believe I'm doing this" I whispered to no one in particular and I quickly folded both socks trying to avoid contact with her feet and then examined them closely and suddenly yelled out loud. There was a tattoo but hers was bright pink.

But forget it. I yelled. So obviously Ash woke up. She was so mad she was shaking. "What kind of moron comes into my room and takes off my socks huh?" she yelled. I shouted back. "You could've told me you were weird too" and she just quit yelling and smiled her eyes twinkling and a dimple dancing across her left cheek. "I thought you already knew that."

We cracked up and she let me sit on her mattress which I thought was a pretty good sign. "Why don't you tell me the whole story?" I prompted. She drew her legs close to her chest. 

"Normal day. My foot hurts. I look down. Tattoo burnt." She recited. 

"Wow and I thought my story telling was bad". She swatted my arm. 

"Alex, this isn't a story. It's reality and that's not always a story." When she said that then I remember thinking wow, she is so smart. But when I thought about it later I realized she was just stating the obvious, like saying something like 'Alex, this isn't a piece of paper. It's a ticket and that's not always a piece of paper.' I guess she just sounds really smart. Ash was a philosopher. I was a food critique.

As you can see I am clearly the disappointing child of the family. If we had one. News flash, Ash and I are homeless. We used to live with some woman but as soon as I turned sixteen we were thrown out of the house. My fault again. Now we live in a sort of two roomed shed. With one mattress which we swap from time to time. So we sat there just staring at each other debating what to say to each other next.

Awkward silence. I knew Ash inside out and she knew me the exact same way. But for some reason I couldn't think of what to say. "I wonder how we can burn tattoos into ourselves like this." I said lamely. She nodded trying to carry on the conversation. 

"Yeah". Silence. The awkwardness made me just be myself. "Ok show me your tattoo and I'll show you mine." She rolled her eyes but removed her right sock and helped me remove my bandage. It was the first time she saw my tattoo and all she commented was that it was black. This was weird because that was exactly what the witch said.

"We both seem to have the letter M" I said. "Except yours is written pretty neatly." She suddenly stood up and went to a small ledge where we had some paper and pencils. "Let's sketch out the tattoos and decide what we think these tiny crazy pictures mean." Ok maybe she was smart. How is she related to me?

I looked at what I had drawn and labeled. I wasn't exactly the best at art but this seemed pretty accurate. I decided that on the left side of my tattoo it was a skull and a broken bone and on the right side it was some kind of snake. Ash's tattoo seemed to consist of a feather (left side) and a weird whirly twirly heart thingy. As you can probably understand our results were the total opposite. Mine was black and skeletons while hers was all pink and princesses. Why were we weird like this? I felt like punching a wall. I had so many unanswered questions. Who did this to us and why was it only showing up now? I wish I was dead.