Brothers
You watch her walk out of the building numbly and then return to the relative comfort of your apartment. Certainly you deserved that slap and much more.
You sit on the couch for a long while thinking about things. You wish you would have worked up the courage to apologize to her. It's the least you could have done in the situation.
Running away and leaving her to whatever evils those men has in store for her was a terrible decision to make, one that you are certain will haunt you for the rest of your life.
But it's not as though you've made a ton of great decisions anyway, and this one will certainly have company.
You still have your doubts about Gwen and the decision to abort. As you think back on that choice, you wonder if the thought had even crossed Gwen's mind before you suggested it. You wonder how things would have been different between you if you had welcomed your off-spring to the world rather than denying him the opportunity to experience existence. At the very least you never would have met or endangered Vicky.
You wonder if your mother would still be alive if you hadn't moved out on your own, if you had stayed at home. You were always the strong one in the family, and you realize now how much everyone depended on you.
Maybe you should have moved back home after your mom died, but at least you are in contact with your family again. It's a shame that it took death to reunite you.
Your father drinks less now. He's still a drinker, but not to the point of unconsciousness anymore.
Kenny talks a little now and then. The poor kid will never have a normal life. You know that what happened to Kenny wasn't your fault, but that doesn't make you stop wishing you could've somehow prevented it from happening.
A few years later Mikey overdoses on cocaine at a party. His funeral was a heartbreaker. It hit you harder than when your mother died. Mikey was alive and trying to cope with what happened rather than hiding from it. Eventually, he lost the battle and gave up. Now he is gone forever, just another soul that will never be given a chance to truly live.
To the end, Mikey blamed himself for what happened to Kenny. You have no doubts that your parents threw a little blame his way as well, he was the only other person in the family there when it happened, after all. As they lower his casket into the ground you wish you had been a bit closer to him and could have somehow prevented this from happening.
After Mikey's funeral, you talk to your dad about some things; telling him that he has to be more responsible and attentive to Kenny. You tell him that he needs to seriously sober up so that you don't lose Kenny too.
Your father tries, but ultimately fails to stay sober. He dies a few months after in a car accident, he was drunk at the time and shouldn't have been driving in the first place. One of the two passengers in the other vehicle died in the accident as well. As fate would have it, Gwen was the woman who your father killed.
Realizing that Kenny cannot fend for himself, you take him in. As the weeks pass he opens up to you more and more until he is regularly conversing with you. It feels good to have him back and alive in the world around him.
You continue working at the phone center, but you never make any progress beyond your current position. A few years later, when the call center closes in order to outsource work, you find yourself without a job and fending for two.
You break the news to Kenny and he seems to take it pretty well, but you can never really be sure with him, his emotions are so distant. You find work at another phone center that hires you because of your prior experience and tenure of employment with the previous company. You are paid much less than the last place, though.
One night you come home from work to a dark apartment. Kenny must have gone to bed already, you figure as you make your way to the bathroom. Usually he waits for you to come home before retiring for the night, but sometimes he is already asleep when you return from work.
You open the bathroom door to see your brothers' lifeless form sitting in a tub of cloudy red water. His head is resting on the side of the tub and you get close enough to see that the blood came from two vertical slits on each wrist.
You call 911 and then return to the bathroom where you hold your brother one last time. His skin is so coldÂ…
Later that night you sit on your couch and think about everything. You wish you could have helped Kenny get better, but it's probably best that he's gone. No more suffering for the poor kid. He's had a tough life, full of tragedy. No one deserves the hand that was dealt to him.
It dawns on you that you are the only member of your family still alive, and you aren't quite thirty years old yet.
Days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. By the time you are fifty you find yourself still living in poverty and an emotional wreck. You haven't been able to feel anything for anyone. There have been women who were interested in you, but each time you looked at them you saw visions of Vicky being raped or the hurt in Gwen's eyes when you recommended aborting the baby.
One night you suffer a heart attack. Your life flashes before your eyes in a wave of tormnet and heart break. You die frightened and alone, much as you lived most of your life.
You sit on the couch for a long while thinking about things. You wish you would have worked up the courage to apologize to her. It's the least you could have done in the situation.
Running away and leaving her to whatever evils those men has in store for her was a terrible decision to make, one that you are certain will haunt you for the rest of your life.
But it's not as though you've made a ton of great decisions anyway, and this one will certainly have company.
You still have your doubts about Gwen and the decision to abort. As you think back on that choice, you wonder if the thought had even crossed Gwen's mind before you suggested it. You wonder how things would have been different between you if you had welcomed your off-spring to the world rather than denying him the opportunity to experience existence. At the very least you never would have met or endangered Vicky.
You wonder if your mother would still be alive if you hadn't moved out on your own, if you had stayed at home. You were always the strong one in the family, and you realize now how much everyone depended on you.
Maybe you should have moved back home after your mom died, but at least you are in contact with your family again. It's a shame that it took death to reunite you.
Your father drinks less now. He's still a drinker, but not to the point of unconsciousness anymore.
Kenny talks a little now and then. The poor kid will never have a normal life. You know that what happened to Kenny wasn't your fault, but that doesn't make you stop wishing you could've somehow prevented it from happening.
A few years later Mikey overdoses on cocaine at a party. His funeral was a heartbreaker. It hit you harder than when your mother died. Mikey was alive and trying to cope with what happened rather than hiding from it. Eventually, he lost the battle and gave up. Now he is gone forever, just another soul that will never be given a chance to truly live.
To the end, Mikey blamed himself for what happened to Kenny. You have no doubts that your parents threw a little blame his way as well, he was the only other person in the family there when it happened, after all. As they lower his casket into the ground you wish you had been a bit closer to him and could have somehow prevented this from happening.
After Mikey's funeral, you talk to your dad about some things; telling him that he has to be more responsible and attentive to Kenny. You tell him that he needs to seriously sober up so that you don't lose Kenny too.
Your father tries, but ultimately fails to stay sober. He dies a few months after in a car accident, he was drunk at the time and shouldn't have been driving in the first place. One of the two passengers in the other vehicle died in the accident as well. As fate would have it, Gwen was the woman who your father killed.
Realizing that Kenny cannot fend for himself, you take him in. As the weeks pass he opens up to you more and more until he is regularly conversing with you. It feels good to have him back and alive in the world around him.
You continue working at the phone center, but you never make any progress beyond your current position. A few years later, when the call center closes in order to outsource work, you find yourself without a job and fending for two.
You break the news to Kenny and he seems to take it pretty well, but you can never really be sure with him, his emotions are so distant. You find work at another phone center that hires you because of your prior experience and tenure of employment with the previous company. You are paid much less than the last place, though.
One night you come home from work to a dark apartment. Kenny must have gone to bed already, you figure as you make your way to the bathroom. Usually he waits for you to come home before retiring for the night, but sometimes he is already asleep when you return from work.
You open the bathroom door to see your brothers' lifeless form sitting in a tub of cloudy red water. His head is resting on the side of the tub and you get close enough to see that the blood came from two vertical slits on each wrist.
You call 911 and then return to the bathroom where you hold your brother one last time. His skin is so coldÂ…
Later that night you sit on your couch and think about everything. You wish you could have helped Kenny get better, but it's probably best that he's gone. No more suffering for the poor kid. He's had a tough life, full of tragedy. No one deserves the hand that was dealt to him.
It dawns on you that you are the only member of your family still alive, and you aren't quite thirty years old yet.
Days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. By the time you are fifty you find yourself still living in poverty and an emotional wreck. You haven't been able to feel anything for anyone. There have been women who were interested in you, but each time you looked at them you saw visions of Vicky being raped or the hurt in Gwen's eyes when you recommended aborting the baby.
One night you suffer a heart attack. Your life flashes before your eyes in a wave of tormnet and heart break. You die frightened and alone, much as you lived most of your life.
