Power Rangers: Ottoman Force (Book Two)

17: A New Life

Adrian

    Opening my eyes, I felt different, rejuvenated. I decided to go look for Ali Mateo so I could take him to Ernie's for some froyo. I headed downstairs, hearing my mom and dad talking, along with a couple other voices.

    Entering the living room, my parents were almost stunned at looking at me. "Mom, dad" I smiled, feeling pretty gitty. "What's going on? Why the grim faces?"

    "Um..." my dad frowned, as did my mom, both looking pretty confused. "Are you feeling ok son?"

    "Yeah dad" I chuckled. "I'm feeling great."

    "You are?" my mom looked at me, beyond surprised.

    "Yeah, why are you both looking at me so weird?" I questioned. I then turned and looked at Evren, who was sitting next to some blue eyed guy I'd never seen before. Though he did look kind of familiar, yet I had no memory of ever having seen him.

    "I guess because you're a little too happy" said Evren. "It's like you're someone new all of a sudden."

    "Hey listen dude..." I sighed. "I know I've been a total jerk to you, being that you were evil and all, but I've let go of all that distrust I've felt for you. In reality, you were under the influence of evil and you're back to being the real you, the good you. So I forgive you for trying to vaporize me."

    Like my parents, he too looked super surprised. On his part though, I could understand since I had severe distrust for him. Still, it felt like I was the last one to know something, but whatever it was, I decided I did not want to worry about it. I had more important things to worry about now, like being a big brother, and being a ranger. I had to admit that I didn't really like the idea of being a ranger at first, but now it seemed to have grown on me. I was going to embrace my identity as the Green Saif Ranger.

    "You don't recognize me at all?" the blue eyed guy asked, also looking seriously surprised.

    "No, should I?" I asked, my question clearly leaving him baffled. I decided not to elaborate on the fact that he did kind of looked familiar, and yet could not actually place him. Maybe he simply had one of those faces.

    "Um..." he frowned, looking scared.

    "Dude, are you ok?" I giggled.

    "Yeah" he smiled, clearly trying to hide whatever worry he felt. "I guess I thought that you would remember me."

    I almost wanted to laugh, because despite the fact that he did kind of look familiar, I unfortunately could not remember him at all. "Did we maybe meet when we were kids? At school maybe?"

    "Um, yeah, we did. I...I am your...your cousin. We have not seen each other in a long time though, since I was maybe five" he said, but almost like he was trying to remember some kind of script that he was clearly forgetting. "I'm Troy, Troy Burrows."

    "Well cousin, it's nice to meet you" I gave him a firm handshake, his bright blue eyes getting wider in surprise. "And drop the surprise act. With me, you really don't have to pretend."

    "Well, it's really nice to meet you" Troy now looked almost sad.

    "It's nice to meet you too. Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to take my baby bro to go get some froyo at Ernie's. Is that ok?" I asked my parents.

    "Yes, it's ok. Just don't take too long" my mom sighed. "But maybe you should let Troy go with you."

    "Sure, I guess it's ok. I'd like to get to know my cousin a little more, after all, we are family" I smiled.

    "Yes, we are" Troy smiled, weakly.

    I went to get my baby brother, and strapped in on the baby carrier, which again he loved. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him, and being that I was no longer an only child, I really wanted to embrace having a little brother.

    Arriving at Ernie's, I noticed Ernie was not around. Another guy came over to help us instead. Troy ordered his froyo, and I ordered mine.

    He kept looking at me intently, almost like he was searching for something in me. I wanted to ask him why he was looking at me that way, because it felt odd that he was looking at me in a way where it was almost like he was expecting something from me that I could not give him.

    "So I can see you love being a big brother."

    "I sure do. In fact, I'm glad I'm no longer an only child. It can get pretty boring."

    "Yeah, I can imagine" he took in a spoonful of froyo, looking perturbed. "Are you ok? You look a bit worried."

    "I'm ok" he tried masking it all with a smile. "I guess being that we don't know each other, I really don't know what to say."

    "Well, we can get to know each other. You got any brothers or sisters?"

    "I have a younger brother."'

    "Oh nice, you two close?"

    "Um, yeah, I guess you can say we are."

    "Well that's good. He's lucky to have you cause I wish I had an older brother I could look up to."

    "Yeah, it's nice to be looked up to" he took another spoonful of froyo. "Is your hand ok?"

    "Yeah, silly me" I laughed, looking at my injured hand. "That'll teach me to not run with a glass cup. I can be kind of a klutz sometimes."

    "Really?" he chuckled. "Me too."

    "Yeah?" I smiled. "It's something I've tried to change, but it's not the easiest thing to do."

    "Listen, are you sure you don't remember me?" he questioned all over again.

    "You seem familiar" I admitted. "But I don't remember having ever seen you. Then again, you were five when you saw me. If you think about it, it has been a long time."

    "Yeah, but I thought you would remember me...that I am your big br...your cousin" he now looked even more nervous than he was earlier.

    For a nanosecond, it seemed like he was going to say that he was my big brother, but never finished saying it all the way through. Even if he did say that we were brothers, I would highly doubt it as my skin was lightly tanned, with green eyes and dark hair. Troy on the other hand had fair skin with dark hair and blue eyes that completely contrasted his features. In fact, he could totally pass for one of those super good looking models from a fashion catalog.

Even if we were brothers, people probably would never believe it, because we looked very different from one another. Reality check, I wasn't even sure why I was even considering this, because if I did have an older brother somewhere, I was pretty sure my mom and dad would have revealed it to me a long time ago.