A painter's game - Tom Kaulitz

2001

(Made up story, not their real lives.)

Germany year 2001

I was in the garage while trying to glue together Bills plastic airplane. The wing was broken so I tied it together with some tape that I had found. It was cold outside but I couldn't stand to see bills face when his childhood toy broke,
So I had to fix it. He had it since he was 5, he got it for Christmas and had it with him wherever he went, it was like his child. But today, it fell off the shelf when our mom threw the beer bottle against the wall. All I wanted was to see my brother happy.

It was now the middle of November and the air was getting cold. I had my leather jacket on aswell as my finger gloves. My hands were getting pale and red when I finally had fixed it. I put it up with my hands to see if it was done.
It didn't look completely fixed but I hoped that Bill could get some joy from it.

I placed it down, satisfied with my work when I heard some light footsteps. I turned around to see Bill run and then stop when he saw me.

I saw his black short spikey hair and his blue jacket.

"Mom said you have to come now if you want food-" he stopped.

He stopped his sentante when he saw what was in my hands. His face lit up with joy as he ran towards me. I started to smile when I saw his joy.

He stood beside me as he laughed and smiled while holding up the airplane.

"You fixed it!" He shrieked.

"I'm sorry I couldn't completely fix it" I mumbled.

"What are you kidding me? I love it" he expressed while admiring it.

He snapped and put it down, he then took my arm.

"We have to go inside, mom wants you to come now, remember?" He said while dragging me outside of the garage.

We walked out of the garage and to the door. We opened it, it was warmer inside but not enough to take off our jackets, so we kept them on.

Our house was small and old, barley fitting everyone.

We walked towards the kitchen, I took a deep breath as I could smell something burnt.

I could see two sandwiches laying on the pan. I could smell something was burnt but it didn't look burnt. I reached my hand out to get one of the sandwiches but before I could reach it, bill dragged away my hands.

"Watch out! The stove is still on." He warned.

"Oh." I replied.

He pressed a button then went to grab a fork.

He then turned the sandwiches around, and then I saw that one side of the sandwich was burnt. Mom had forgotten to turn the stove off. Or maybe it was just broken again.

I sighed as I now was able to grab one. I scraped off the burnt side with a knife. I then put the sandwich in my mouth and took a bite. It was a relief to finally eat something after 4 hours. We only ate lunch but if we were lucky, sometimes night snack or breakfast. But that wasn't often.

As I was eating the bread, I glanced over to the sofa that we had on the other room. Mom was sitting there while having a cigarette in her mouth. She always had a cigarette in between her lips while reading the newspaper.

I finished eating my sandwich while leaving her alone. She was always sad or depressed, and that triggered her being angry too.

I knew mom liked bill better, but I didn't mind.

Because me and bill was inseparable, we were always together, always. I mean we were twins. Not a day would go by without seeing each other. I would do anything to see my brother happy, we were the same age but I always knew that my role was the older one even though I was only 10 minutes older.

I think my mom liked bill more because she thinks it's my fault he almost died. Bill was going to die but the doctors was able to save him when we were born. And that made me feel like I had responsibility over him, protect and be there for him. But bill was like that towards me too, we were like that to each other.

Our mom was in a lot of dept which made us this poor.

I walked up the stairs to the room that me and bill shared. We had some comic books laying on a shelf which I reached out for. I grabbed one and was just going to start reading when I heard someone shout. It was mom. She was calling my name.

"Tom! Get down here" she said, but not in a sweet voice.

I stood in the doorway, looking down at the stairs. Ready to be beaten or shouted at the second I got down. My body getting shivers as I was getting myself ready for whatever she was going to make me do.

I walked down the stairs and met her in front of me.

Her face turned angry as her cig was in her mouth. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards the kitchen.

She gripped my wrists so hard that i wanted to shout and scream but I didn't. I knew that if I cried, it would make her even more mad.

I closed my eyes as I let her drag me. Feeling her cold hands tighter on my wrist.

She pushed me down to the ground and I let her.

"Do the fucking dishes." She screamed while standing over my body.

I got myself up from the ground while feeling my heavy body weaker.

I got myself together and ran to the dishes. I was quiet as I started the water. The water ran down my arm while I scrubbed the dirty dishes. I tried to hide my silent cries. I looked behind me to see her behind me, watching my every move, I looked behind her and there was bill. His face looked worried and scared. I knew he wanted to help and fight for me but he was just scared. And I understood it.

I continued to scrub the dirty plates while feeling the pain of the bruises on my wrist.