The Promise

51) Joe

Ibiza. Interesting.

I think as I scroll through her photos and the stories she uploaded. I stop as one story gets my attention.

It's a picture of a book and a drink, but what pokes at my curiosity is the thigh next to them.

It's a guy's thigh and I have a gut feeling it belongs to my long-lost brother.

I try to get any detail that'll tell me its him, but nothing. Just a muscular thigh, dammit Omer if this is you. Smash.

I find myself smiling and talking to him in my head again. I always do that, talk as if he's here and grew up with us. Like I have not just one brother, but two. Like I can come to him when I need advice.

I scroll to the next story, it's a video. I smile, she's gorgeous. She's smiling at the camera like a fucking lady as she laces her fingers through her hair. A hand comes into view, no an arm. I sit up replaying the video again as the arm wraps around her neck.

I replay the video several times when I feel a tear slide down my face.

The mole on the vein.

The small scar on the forearm.

The fingers that caressed my face and hair as I slept.

This is my brother.

This is motherfucking Omer.

I exit my room and head for the bathroom to wash my face when I finish, I hear my mom's soft voice, "Joe?"

My mind drifts off to what I just knew, but I can't tell her now. I can't give her false hope when all she does is hold onto the past.

I still am not hundred percent sure it's him. It can be anyone.

Anyone with my brother's details. I stroll outside to her side.

"Yes, love?" I sit next to her. She looks up at me, she always looks so young when she's with us. Everything turned the other way around, the mother switched places with the kids and since then, we're her parents.

We didn't have a mother; we had a baby. A kid we protected and fed and took care of.

"Can you tell your brother not to be late for dinner?" she asks softly.

I smooth back her blonde locks as I smile at her, "Leo's not coming for dinner, love. He'll be with Eli, but they'll get home after." I tell her and kiss her hair.

She shakes her head a bit, I frown "I know, Leo told me before he left. I was talking about Omer."

I still then recover with a nod, "I'll, love. You go rest." She smiles and kisses my cheek as she leaves for her room.

I gaze outside, a tear falling on my face. She always does that; never gets out of the past.

I don't know how to feel. I always don't, but as time passes it doesn't get better. Always confused. That's me.