when you were my father

brian

"Who's Brian?" DJ asks, looking around and not following.

"Someone. Just help me up?" I ask, looking directly at him. He nods slowly and brings me to my feet. I link my arm around his shoulder and he helps me make my way over to where I saw Brian.

"Hi," I say once we are standing in front of him.

"Hi... what are you doing here?" The boy, who now looks about a year older than me, questions.

"I came to the beach with some friends. If you don't mind me asking, what did you just see?"

"I... I was listening to music on the radio, when this voice came through. You two were there and I was talking to you. But you didn't answer. So, that's why I asked what you were doing here."

The not so young boy looks so confused again and I would like to tell him what's going on. But not even I know.

"We heard the voice too." I tell, while DJ just looks around, confused and probably somewhat in shock. "But I didn't see you, otherwise I would have answered."

"That's okay...is this one of your siblings?" Brian asks, trying to figure out what the boy next to me is doing. Which makes sense, he looks like there's a swarm of flies circling his head with all the shaking and whipping he's doing with his head.

"Oh, no. This is DJ, he's kind of confused."

"Kind of? What the hell just happened? You know each other and act like that didn't just happen and I mean where did everyone go, and then where did he even come from?" DJ bursts out, his words kind of hard to understand, talking fast then slow and all in such a rushed tone.

"It's not normal for us, its just something that's been happening strangely often recently. I'm really sorry you were here when it happened."

"What even was it? And like seriously where did he come from?" DJ continues to question everything and send annoyed looks at Brian. His confusion and questions only make me realize how little I understand. And it's not a good feeling.

"Just calm down. I don't know what that was, and I don't really know where Brian came from. I'll tell you everything later, right now can we please just call someone. Don't forget, my leg hurts like crazy." I tell him, hoping he'll listen instead of just ask more. I can barely feel my leg anymore and it's really concerning me.

"Right. Sorry, I'll call someone now." He says, quickly grabbing his phone out of the sand and dialing some number.

"Thank you." I say to him, and he simply smiles.

Brian just sits here, watching us. He seems strangely confused, but maybe jealous at the same time? I don't know, there was just something in his eyes while he watched us talk.

"Hi Dad, well, Kamaile hurt her leg and said it really hurts, can you come pick us up and take her to the hospital?" He asks, waiting a minute while his dad responds, "Thank you. See you then."

"So?" I ask, hoping his dad said that he's coming to help really soon.

"He's coming. There's a lot of traffic, so it'll be a minute, but he's trying his best."

I sigh. Somewhat in relief but also out of lack of patience.

"Just hang in there." He tells me, and I try to smile.

A cool breeze came over us, and I remember that I am soaking wet and in my barely covering swimsuit. Shivering, he notices. "Oh, right. Want your clothes?"

"Yeah. Thanks." I say, as he hands over my shirt and shorts from where I left them in the sand. I'm able to easily get the shirt over my swimsuit top, but just leave the shorts since it's my leg that's hurting and it hurts to try and move it like that. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a different shirt, changing into it after pulling his original shirt off. He was probably colder than me.

*********

Minutes later his dad pulls into the parking lot and rushes out to help me. I link my arms around his and DJ's shoulders and together we slowly make our way into the car, where I try to sit comfortably in the back row. DJ run's back to the beach to grab his phone and I see him talking to everyone who was still hanging out in the water. None of them seem at all concerned about why I'm leaving so abruptly, how rude. He runs back and sits next to me, patting my knee. It sounds weirder than it was. His dad swerves out of the parking lot and drives us to the nearby hospital.

**********

"This is the third member of your family we've seen this week." The doctor who's helping with my leg tells me, amusement in his face. "What are you doing that's causing ya'll to come here so often?"

"I don't know, I guess we're just a dangerous family."

"Well, luckily it's not majorly broken, only fractured slightly. But, you will have to wear a brace for 6-8 weeks depending on how your leg heals, and use crutches. We'll have you come back in a few days for that brace, for now just keep the bandages wrapped around it and stay off of it. Is your mom coming?" He asks, noticing that she's still not here with me.

"I haven't called her yet." I tell him, realizing that she might still not even be awake.

"Right, well why don't we have whoever came here with you do that and we'll get your cast on?"

"Okay."

"Good, you can come in." He tells DJ and his dad, who per request are waiting outside since I'm not related to either of them in any way.

"Can you please call her mom?" The doctor asks them, and DJ's dad pulls out his phone from his jean's pocket.

"What's her number?" He asks, he's never met my mom before, so it does make sense that he's never seen her before.

"615-2647," I tell him and he quickly dials it, while stepping out of the room. DJ looks at me with his kind, warm brown eyes, then follows his dad out.

*********

"Hey," Micah says calmly, entering the room I'm waiting in. Isla, DJ and his father follow him. Instead of saying anything or even acknowledging my presence, my little sister she sits down on a vacant chair and works on a drawing.

"Where's mom?"

"She couldn't make it, so I came. We're here to bring you home."

"Can they do that?" I ask, turning to the only adult in the room, who's standing in the corner, staring at his phone.

"I think so, but I'm not sure. I'll talk to someone who works here." He tells me kindly and walks out of the room.

The four of us are left, with nothing to do except wait for him to return.

"What even happened?" Micah asks, realizing he doesn't really know what the reason for me being here is.

"It's hard to explain, I'll tell you later."

My brother just nods. I want to tell him, but know that I'm too tired to make any sense. Giving up on asking about what happened, my brother turns to notice the one who helped me get here.

"Who are you?" He asks, looking DJ up and down.

"Huh? Oh, I'm DJ."

"Cool." But he doesn't say it like it's cool, I wonder what he's thinking. I can think of a lot of weird assumptions that sound like ones my brother would definitely make.

Awkward minutes later, DJ's dad knocks and opens the door.

"I talked to a nurse at the front desk, you're free to go."

"Just like that?" I ask, thinking it can't be that simple.

"Well, it's a busy day, and you're fine. So they trust your brother and I to get you home. Now, can one of you help her up and we'll get out of here."