If We Were Heroes | ONC2022

chapter four

chapter four: I interrupt a very important video game

'Ethan?' I knocked before entering his room, the familiar sight leaving me hollow. It left me with a cold shock to realise that I'd miss his brightly colored posters and the chaotic mess of a bedroom he had.

He looked up from his video game, holding one hand up for a split second as to acknowledge my presence. 'Hi.'

'Did your mom tell you?' I asked, watching him demolish everyone on the screen.

'Tell me what?'

'I'm moving schools,' I said, watching his face fall as he stopped mid action and turned the computer off. I hated seeing Ethan upset.

'Oh.' He couldn't seem to find the words to reply. 'Forever?'

I shrugged. 'I don't know.'

The corner of his mouth rigged up in what could almost resemble a smile, but looked more like a grimace. 'You'll come visit right?'

Again, I didn't know.

'Where are you moving to?' he asked, trying a different tactic. 'Maybe I can come over?'

I shook my head. 'It's not near anything. Even my parents said they can't visit often.'

'I'm sure my parents would let me.'

'I don't think so.'

He nudged his glasses up his nose, as if it could hide his expression. 'I'll miss you,' he offered.

'Yeah,' I said. 'I'll miss you too.'

'Promise to write?'

I smiled. 'Every day. You'll be sick to death of my handwriting.'

He picked up my hand, then dropped it quickly, as if it were made of ice. His cheeks pinked. 'I'll write too. And I'm sure my parents will let me visit.'

'Yeah. I hope so.'

'Bye Olive,' he said, waving. 'I'll come see you off, I think.'

'Bye,' I replied, eyes widening as he stood up and embraced me in a warm hug. I fitted perfectly in his long armed grip.

I pulled away. 'Bye Ethan.'

He smiled, a real one this time, crinkling the corner of his eyes. 'See you.'

I left, not knowing that the next I'd ever see Ethan would be in six years.

/

Ethan did not come to see me off. My parents made sure no one knew when I was leaving, or where I was going.

My mom and I took a plane in the middle of the night, silver stars still unblinking in an indigo sky, holding all the secrets of the universe. I wondered if they'd ever seen anybody like me before, and if fate had worked out for that person.

If it did, their story never got told. Even I, dumb as I was, knew that unhappy endings didn't get told. Only heroes had their names etched into the dusk.

Maybe, somewhere, there was a place where everyone who was forgotten, could've been remembered, a collage of everything they'd ever been in a single gigantic photo book.

I'd like to go there, I thought, and paint them, the faces of the forgotten. I didn't care how bad it was, just so long as their souls became tangible in a way I could see. That the whole world could see.

If only a single person remembered, then I would come.

Sighing, I traced the pink trims of the clouds, echoing the slowly rising sun.