An Exchange

Chapter Fifty-Five - Graveside Enlightement

Penny

Sacrament meeting had begun. I glanced around, wondering where the Hamilton's were. It wasn't like them to be late, and as time passed and we headed to Sunday School, I realised they weren't coming at all. I found Zoe and asked her where she thought they were and she shrugged. "It's just that time of year again."

"What time of year?"

"You know, when they go down to Arizona."

"But Prom is next weekend and graduation is right after that."

"It's fine. A couple of days off school won't make a difference to his grades."

She turned to focus on our teacher as the lesson started, but I was preoccupied with why they had gone. After church, I took Jonas out the back of their home. We sat on the bench and I asked him about Giles.

"He never told you?" he said.

"Never told me what?"

"About his brother."

"Giles has a brother?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but he died when Giles was nine. That's why they moved up here. His mom needed a fresh start. It was really rough on the whole family."

I stared at him stunned. "He never said anything."

"Well, you never asked. A couple of times I thought you would when the age difference between him and Sarah would come up, but you are too polite or something I guess."

"What happened?" I breathed in complete shock.

"He had some cancer, I can't remember what it's called. They thought it had gone away, but it came back and killed him. He would have been the same age as me, too. I think that's why Giles liked me straight away."

I stared at him in complete shock. Why had I never known this? They never mentioned it, they didn't have any pictures in their house of him... "They never talk about him."

"No, I think it's really hard on their mom. It's been almost ten years and she still avoids talking about him openly, so the rest of the family just doesn't bring it up. Giles was pretty close to him as well, and for the first year or so he would come over here and pretend I was him because he wasn't allowed to mention him in their house. It was quite sad really, and I was kind of bratty about pretending to be someone else, but Giles usually just ignored my complaining and forced me to play the games he used to play with his brother."

"That's so tragic. I can't even imagine."

Jonas shrugged. "I remember once in primary we were singing 'Families Can Be Together Forever' and Giles ran out crying. I thought it was so stupid at the time, but now I get it. He believed it was true and that he would see his brother again someday, but his mom would always shut him down when he tried to talk about it. I vaguely remember she stopped going to church for a while too."

"So they go down to Arizona this time every year to visit his grave?"

"Yeah without fail, for the anniversary of his death. It's the only time they ever talk about him."

I sat back and we stared silently at the dogs as they dozed at our feet. I wanted to do something for Giles, to make him feel loved during his time of grief like he always had done for me. "We should surprise him with something."

"Like what?" A crooked smile spread across Jonas' face.

"You know where their spare key is, let's break into his room and fill it with balloons that have notes in them saying why we love him."