✔Back to You

6

When Sibtis Jamhornum walked out in the front lawn of his house, he stopped for a moment in surprise.

"Hey..." Was all the guest said. Sibtis stood quiet for a long time, staring at the tall and muscled, fidgety figure of his younger brother who stood there, looking anywhere but at him. Just like he used to in teenage, whenever he caused trouble. Which by the way was all the damn time.

Sibtis sighed and walked out to sit. "To say this is a surprise would be a huge understatement. When you made sure to avoid me at the wedding, I didn't think you'd walk right into my house like this" he gave Forth an intense look. "Now don't just stand there! Sit!"

And just like that, Forth sat down, still not looking at his big brother while Sibtit's stared bored holes in his skull. They sat in total silence.

"So" in the end, Sibtis was the one to break the ice. "How are you?"

"I'm... great" Forth answered. "I do my own travel show..."

"I know. I saw"

Forth was a bit taken by that. He cleared his throat. "I also work with travel groups and archeology teams"

"So... you must be happy..." Sibtis said and offered his brother a rare smile. "That's good"

Forth looked up at him for the very first time.

Sibtis sighed. "Mom always missed you. Especially in her last days. But she was satisfied by the fact that you were happy. She said you had it in you to stand up and follow whatever your heart wanted. Just like dad..."

Forth didn't say anything.

"But... she tend to forget sometimes that... our gutsy father left his two sons to go follow his dreams" Sibtis went on and Forth bowed his head even more, ashamed.

Sibtis stared at his face with a gloomy look. "Would you like to... see her?"

Forth looked up at him with teary eyes and he stood up to get his phone.

"I'll call my office to inform them I'm not coming in. Then we can go"

They were both quiet to the way to the cemetery. Once there, they both put flowers at her grave and sat there. Both lost in thought.

"Your..." Forth said and his brother turned to him. Forth smiled. "Your father left. Mine was... always there. Always holding my hand... teaching me to walk... watching me sleep so that monsters under the bed won't hurt me... I was just too damn busy being me to see that..."

Sibtis teared up and looked away.

"I'm sorry..."

"Stop making that face" Sibtis scolded him. "You always make that face when you did something wrong"

"I know..."

Sibtis looked up at him. "Four years you bastard. You could've been dead for all I know" he smacked his head. "Why didn't you come home once? Why didn't you call once? She waited for you till the last breath!"

"I... I didn't know..." Forth sobbed. "I was in mountains... I was stuck there and... when I got back it was too late"

"Why didn't you come back then?"__Sibtis

"You said you hated me!"__Forth

"Yeah, well I hated you since you broke my game for the first time! What difference did that make?" Sibtis snapped. "You never had a problem sneaking in my room at nights with fat tears because you didn't want to sleep alone!"

Forth looked down. Still crying non stop. "I don't know... along the lines... that boy just... left... now it's me who... who has every dream he ever had... yet I have nothing left. I thought... feelings and emotions and relations were like those golden chains that keep you stuck... they get pushy and needy and... But now that I don't have most of them... I don't know... I just... I couldn't just bother... and now it's so damn suffocating..."