The Mave Movie

Act 6: An Unexpected Surprise

I'm reading my lines on the top of the stairs when Mom comes home. I hear the garage door go and then back down again. I check the clock on the wall. 11:47 PM. I had stayed up later than I had intended. I closed the play booklet and began to stand up--- then I heard crying.

Mom entered the room with her cell phone pressed against her ear. She had a handful of tissues she repeated patted to ear face. I heard her address the speaker on the other phone as "Chase". I sat back down.

"Are you coming back? I miss you. I won't get mad." Mom said while holding back a new stream of tears. "Please come back."

My brother Chase is eight years older than me. So, he'd be about 23 right now. I hadn't seen or spoken with him since I was ten. I remember him before, though. Before he ran off with some old lady who wore pounds of makeup and wore skin-tight clothes who didn't fit her. I really didn't like her, and really didn't think my brother would date her for long. But dad died and he turned to her for comfort. Not me. Not Mom. Her. And she stole him from us. Said that he should move away with her. A new place, a new beginning. But he didn't need a new beginning. He needed to heal his present. But he chose her and left. She screwed us all up in the end.

I love my brother. He was the guy who could do anything. Fix a car, play sports, get straight A's, and treated everyone with kindness. He cheered me on from the stands during my softball games and taught me how to do my multiplication tables. He would fix my radio when it would break or teach me how to repair my bike on my own. I watched as everyone's face would brighten when they'd see him. He seemed to have hundreds of friends and he remembered each and every one of them. He was the best brother one could have.

"How's Tish?" I hear my mother ask. The name of the old hag that took my brother from me. The loud, obnoxious, drunk who thought she knew all the answers. "Is that so. Where are you then?"

I begin peeling the wallpaper. It had already begun the peel in multiple places, but no one had time to fix the walls. The painted walls were revealed from underneath. It was a nasty shade of blue. I remember when I was eight or nine, Dad finally decided to change the color of the wall. My big happy family went to Home Depot and looked at paint colors. Chase and I would grab samples of all the different shades and stuff our pockets full. We imagined what the walls would look like with each shade while Mom would yell at us to put them back and Dad would chuckle while talking to a worker. Eventually they decided on a simple wallpaper with a strip of black and white roses. It was a very pretty wallpaper. Now it's yellowish and peeling back. The nasty blue color slowly being revived to its former dominance.

"Well you are welcome to come back."

I shook the memories out of my head and focused back on the conversation. Chase was coming home? I peered through the wooden railing to get a glimpse of my mother's face. She was crying, but a smile bloomed on her face. That could only mean a good answer.

"I love you Chase," my mother said before ending the call.

I hurried up the stairs to my bedroom to get some sleep, although I wasn't sure if that were possible. Chase was coming back! I would see my brother again! And soon!