Clearing The Mind

Chapter 8: Deluge.

One thing that Ethan hated in his life was how it could throw curveballs at him that he himself wouldn't be able to hit.

(12 years after the wedding.)

A lot had gone by in those 12 years. Seeing his older brother Christian move away with Aaliyah and even bearing children, to seeing his own romance with Rose blossom.

He smiled at all of those memories that he could reminisce of. He loved those 12 years, in pain and in work as he could, in bliss and in love as with Rose, all of which were still beautiful to think of, as long as everything was with her.

Witnessing that wedding, how Aaliyah and Christian loved each other so much, finally being together as one, that was what he wanted to do the most. He felt innocent in a way, only wanting to spend his life with her, nothing else. No other girl would give him any second thought other than his own girl.

Let him travel around the world with her, embracing in each other's arms by night, watching the world's beauty around them by day. Out of all the things he wanted to do in that bucket list of his, the most he wanted to do was to spend his life around with her.

Sadly, was that what fate wouldn't give him?

"What happened, Ethan? I've not seen you since New Year's even though you kept saying that you wanted to come back home?" A coffee shop in South Miami, Florida. Easily seen from Christian's point of view, Ethan looked tired. 

No, tired wasn't the word in describing him. Was he lethargic or something?
Honestly, he didn't know how to say it at all.

It was the wet season in Florida, late August. 
His eyes were the eyes of tiredness, his expression the feeling of distaste. 

Christian didn't even want to ask where Rose was. 

"Rose happened." 

Ethan's mouth looked as if it moved by itself.  Christian wondered whether he was reading his brother's mind or something, all that he knew was that Ethan wasn't in a good state as he is right now. 

"So, Rose happened? What exactly happened to her? You've not told us anything about this for weeks, we were worried sick!"

"Couldn't you hear it from how I said it? Christian, you were the one who taught me how to differentiate human emotion and how to tackle them just by how they talked."

At times, you could say that Christian took that blunder. He retracted it back, and looked at Ethan with more of a worried expression. "Well then, tell me. What happened to Rose?"

Those words threw Ethan back into a flashback of bad memories, now.

"It was about December last year when Rose and I were in a car accident."

"An accident? Why haven't we heard anything about this?" Christian was aghast. 

"You guys were on the other side of the country. Would you honestly expect us to burden you like that? Besides, you and Liyah had mom and dad to take care of, as well." Ethan shuffled his arms in.

"Also, do you see anything wrong with my body now, Chris?" 

Christian finally paid more attention to his younger brother's body, just to realize that there was close to nothing there.

"I only suffered a few minor scratches here and there. Fell unconscious for a few days before I woke up." 

"And no one told us?" Chris clutched his fist.

"It was Rose who chose not to tell you all. Her parents honored that, and kept that a secret that only a few of us knew what exactly happened that night."

"Then it was-"

"Yeah. Rose was the one who took more damage," Ethan felt uneasy whenever they were to touch about the subject. It hurt him a lot. "It should've been me, brother. I should've been the one on that wheelchair instead of Rose."

"Wait a minute, what-"

"Rose got quadriplegia. Her spinal cord was damaged till the fact that she couldn't move her lower body anymore."

"The hell?"

"I don't know how, but she was able to sustain the pain and was awake for the whole duration of the time. She dislocated her spinal cord, but still had the will to stay awake."

Christian was speechless. "How-"

A tear fell from Ethan's eye.

"So, her family paid for everything in the end. They were wealthy enough to do that, and I thank them for that. But still, they didn't deserve to see their daughter facing this."

"How is she now?" Christian's expression was indescribable. In a way, you should say that he was worried, and yet shocked. He felt the same misery his little bro had gone through, just by imagining if this had happened to Aaliyah, he couldn't cope with it.

"Through a lot of physio, she was able to gain a bit more control with her hands and fingers, but other than that, nothing else." Ethan sighed. He wanted more for Rose. Was it unfortunate that he wasn't able to give it to her?

"Could we go to visit her soon?" There was nothing else that Christian could ask. There was nothing else that he could say, nothing else that he could think of. It was all cut and dry for him, but perhaps it was different for his younger brother. 

"So what have you been doing for so long?" Christian asked. "You took care of her, now didn't you?" 

"What else could I have done?" Ethan smiled for a short while. "I resigned from the company in February after I learned the full extent of Rose's condition." He looked at the window past Christian, seeing a young couple in high school uniforms, hands held together as they ran through the sidewalks, both laughing with each other with full smiles only for each other.

"Of course you did." Christian looked at his younger brother. All that lethargicness, for all those times that he couldn't have called him back, was all because he put Rose in front of everything and everyone else, something that Christian himself would have done.

"Then, does Rose still have any plans for her recovery?"

Shit. Christian hit the dead-end point.

"Christian. It's fucking 2043, technological advances have gone everywhere just to make sure that we have more conveniences in every single aspect. Everything around the world has all sped in every single way but for some reason, one thing that people weren't able to do was-"

"A way to cure quadriplegia." Christian's voice was low. 

Ethan looked up to him with those hurt eyes. 

"Couldn't they try to artificially mend it or something? What's the use of medical advances if they couldn't just find a way to"

"They could, but there isn't any surefire way for it to be made sure of." Ethan looked sure of anything that could be done, has already been done.

Christian sighed. No wonder Ethan had been quiet for all those days.

Ethan's expression was already strong enough. To say that he had been holding those emotions back for so long, and he didn't break down, considerably said.

"So, what are you going to do for the rest of your life, then?" A bopping question that had been in Christian's mind for several moments now.

Ethan's lips quivered in the thought of it all. To face the facts in front of him, he had never gone to wonder upon what else he was going to do.

"To be honest, Christian, I don't know."

A/N: Hey, guys. This chapter will be part of a four-parter connected to my friend's rendition of chapter 7. It'll be a bittersweet one compared to the others, but hey, there're not many lives that could ever be passed as never-bittersweet. Thank you so much for reading and I'll catch you in the next chapter.