Tale Through Time

I

He's been moving away his whole life, never once has he turned back. Maybe I was a fool to think he'd turn around for me. As a baby he would crawl away from home. He would crawl through doorways and on stairs, on the dirt and on the cement. He would stop once his mom picked him up and carried him back home. His gaze never once stopped looking forward. At ten, he jumped into the river that ran through town. I don't think he even knew where he was going. My oldest brother found him coming home from work up at the sugar mill -still swimming- miles away from the branch from which he had dived in. At twelve he took off running. His feet beat against the dirt, against the cement, and he ran from the outskirts of town into the mountains. It wasn't until my uncle went out in his pickup truck on the worn dirt road and picked him up between the mango and coffee groves that he returned. At sixteen he stole his dad's station wagon and looked past the mountain range and into the horizon, where the far away beaches kissed the sea. The dirt turned into cement as he reached the federal highway -this time a phone call brought him back back. His mom had been sick for a while, something about having eighth children wreaks havoc on a woman's body. I don't know what it was -maybe a heart attack, or a collapsed lung. I didn't think he'd come back, but something turned that car around. Maybe his father's threats, or his sister's pleas. He didn't make it back in time -cement can't turn into dirt fast enough. His mom held on as long as she could. It wasn't meant to be. He stopped moving for a while, but his eyes always looked forward. The black eyes seemed nearly empty -I guess he felt guilty. I should've known better. By eighteen he was gone. Took a bus as far as he could -left all his money behind. He must've gotten a job because the next thing I knew he had taken a plane out of Mexico City. I have no idea where he is. Sometimes, I look into the mountains and I can hear him, feel him, see him running away. One night I even had a crazy dream that he was trying to come back to me. I should've known better. What reason does he have to return? I'm just his baby sister.