Upside Down

Accepting the Truth

We're finally here, the great Oʻahu. I know that Michael and I just got here, but everything is so different. More buildings, more pollution, and much more people. We walked to the gate and gathered our luggage, while exchanging odd looks from people. I guess it was because they recognized us from the news. I hated this. I didn't want to live here and I definitely didn't want my parents in the hospital. I just want everything to go back to normal. I just want to be home having our normal Saturday movie night.

Michael must have been reading my mind because he said "Nothing will ever be the same. No matter what we will ever do this will never go away."

I looked at him realizing the weight and sorrow of our situation and blinked away the tears that were fogging my vision and asked the only question that I could get out of my mouth which was "How did you get so smart?"

He smiled through his candy stained teeth and looked up at me and said "I was always this smart, it was just that I was too busy being your little brother so I didn't bother showing my smarts off. And now that dad is gone and mom is in a coma I have to be smart. I have watched enough movies to know that when something like this happens to two kids like us you, the older one has to raise me and lie to me about how everything is going to be alright, but we aren't like the movies and the only way that we are going to survive this is through the truth."

I felt fat drops of sorrowful tears swelling and clouding my vision, I tried to stop, but I couldn't. I finally gave in and let the tears roll down from my eyes. Michael was now hugging me and he said "Not to ruin this moment of you accepting the truth, but everyone is staring at us and a weird lady is walking toward us."

I looked up and a super skinny women with dirty blonde hair wearing a sunflower dress was walking cheerfully toward us. She smiled and said "I am so so so very sorry about your parents. I am Vivian your Uncle Ikaika's fiancé, I'm sorry he couldn't be here. He's at work building stuff." She cackled and I could already tell that I was not going to like her. She seemed happy that my parents were in a coma. There was definitely something odd about her. Then again, Uncle Ryan was my favorite Uncle and was like an older brother to me, so of course I wouldn't approve of anything less than the best.

Michael and I just stared at her for most of the ride knowing it would make her uncomfortable but it didn't work so as my brother stared into her soul I said, "I'm just wondering, how bad does the black-mail on Uncle Ryan have to be for him to get engaged with you, some white haole chick you could pick up from the sidewalk in Sesame Street." Michael and I smirked in unison because we knew we broke her, we just got inside her head. It was a trick Michael and I had since his birth. It was like our sibling power and we usually used it to get what we want which now was for her to bring us to Uncle Ryan and feel guilty.

Vivian just smiled to tease us and said "The car's right there but first we can go to the house and drop your stuff off. We have to go pick up my daughter, Anuanu. You know Leah, she is actually the same age as you and your gonna go to the same school as her starting tomorrow. I'm sure that you'll love it there," she said with smirk just as evil as mine. Who did she think she was? There was something definitely wrong with her and I was so going to find out.