I turn around to see if her brother is behind me for some reason, but I see nobody. “B-brother?” I ask, turning back to look at her, “What are you talking about? Yes, I know we have been trying to find your brother, but…” By now, I’m really confused.
She pulls out a photograph from her front pant’s pocket and hands it to me, “Do you remember this?”
The picture was of someone who resembles her and I at an old amusement park we would go to when we were younger. Also, there were two other people behind us. “Natsuki? Who are these people?”
“It’s you and me, silly!” she smiled, sounding like a seven year old, “Do you not remember?”
I instantly saw a blank and was transported into a flashback of my childhood.
It was 8 years ago. Natsuki was 6 and I was 11. Our parents always took us to our favorite amusement park, which I could never remember the name of. “Yuudi!”(you-dee) my sister would always call me since she was young and not that good with pronunciation yet. It was cute, and I liked it. Mum and dad were always so loving and kind. They would let us do nearly anything we wanted such as buy cotton candy, ride on a certain ride, go bike riding almost any time of the day, or stay up late some nights. They took us on the ferris wheel—our favorite ride, the Tornado—a rapid spin ride, and some other rides also. We would always have so much fun together.
I flashed forward ahead about a year later.
Mum and dad were about ready to set off for a so called ‘nice’ hike in the forest. I, for one, didn't know which forest, but Natsuki did. She wasn’t supposed to, but she overheard it. Mum, dad, nor my sister would tell me where my parents were going, otherwise from what I’ve experienced, I’d have stopped them. They never returned back after they left. We waited hours, days, weeks, months. Because of this, I ended up being in charge of the household and Natsuki. None of the rest of our family lived close enough to pick us up to stay with them, so I had to step in. Three to four weeks since their ‘journey’, I started getting fed up with everything. I just stopped caring. We were running out of money and food, and I had no way to keep us surviving. I started ignoring Natsuki because of stress and one day, I woke up and she wasn’t home with me. I waited a day or two and realized she had just run away. That was my dark time I’d call “Yuudai alone”, meaning multiple things… Eventually, our house became foreclosed and I became homeless for some time. I stole maybe 10 to 12 pictures before I left. That was all I had. Until a man found me and took me in to work for him. He rented me a home and gave me a job. He eventually left and let me keep the house to myself—the small house I live in now. And that’s that.
I came back to reality, shaking my head back and forth. “I remember. I remember it all!” I exclaim to my sister.
“That’s great!” she cheered, “Can you stand? I’m really sorry…”
Slowly, I remove the bloody pants and stand up; she does the same, “I guess so!” I smile, “You don't need to apologize, sis. I’m sorry. I guess I’m no hero after all…”
“No,” she places her hand on my shoulder, “You are a hero, just like your name states.”
“And you are hope,” I smile, holding her hand that’s placed on my shoulder, “just like your name states.”
She smiles and we head back to my humble home; I’m limping, and she’s squeezing the shirt around the wound on her arm. “The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing,” she softly recited from her heart.
“And I’m blessed to be with you once more.”
-End-
Author's Letter:
Hey, guys (whomever is even reading this... LIZZY)
Thank you so much for actually taking your own time from your lives just to read a silly short novel I wrote. It really means a lot to me. I know it took forever to actually upload everything, but ey. It's all here now, and its all over now. It was really fun to write "Brother"; being creative and throwing in quite a few Legend of Zelda references. I actually enjoyed this.
Again, thanks for being a part of the audience !!
See ya~
--KawaiiNeko2001
