2: 2
The amusement park entrance.
I trailed behind them, through the turnstiles, through the crowd.
No one bumped into me.
The wind passed through my body too, without so much as lifting a hem of cloth.
"Mom! Look! The roller coaster!"
Egbert pointed at the cars flipping along the steel rails in the distance, his eyes bright.
Mom frowned right away.
"But your heart..."
"It's fine, it's fine. Odie turned over a whole week to me last time, remember? I feel great."
Egbert patted his chest.
"Not the least bit tight."
Dad laughed and cut in.
"Go on, go on. We don't get out much. Your sister gave you her years so you could enjoy yourself."
Dad said it so easily, like he was stating a plain and obvious fact.
My life, it seemed, had been born just so he could enjoy it.
Mom sat down on the bench in the waiting area and pulled out her phone to text me.
【Saved you a slice of cake. Eat it if you get hungry.】
"That girl."
She curled her lip at Dad.
"Ask her to turn over a little of her years and she sulks about it, spoils the mood for the whole family. Is one care task really that hard to do?"
Dad sat down beside her and took the bottle of water she handed him.
"She's just being dramatic. It's something she can earn straight back by finishing a task, and she insists on dragging it out."
"If you ask me, she doesn't want to save her brother at all."
"How could that be? Bertie is her own brother, after all."
Mom locked her phone screen.
"She just throws out a few harsh words so we'll pay her a little more attention."
Yes. All I really wanted was for you to look at me a little more.
The recovery task the system gave me was only one, and in ten years it had never changed.
【Task: Receive one act of genuine care from a closest family member.】
That winter, I burned up to a hundred and two, shaking all over.
For once, Mom brought in a bowl of hot porridge and sat on the edge of the bed, coaxing me.
"Be good, Odie. Eat a little something. Mom's right here with you."
I nodded, happy, watching the task progress, and still a small hope stirred in me.
Then she walked out of the room, and I heard Dad ask in a low voice outside the door.
"Will it recover? Bertie ran a couple extra laps in gym class today..."
Mom sighed.
"Let her eat her fill first, so she doesn't get upset."
The scream of the roller coaster overhead tore across the sky and pulled me back.
A little while later Egbert came running out of the exit, his face flushed red.
"That was amazing! Mom, I want to ride it again!"
"Sure. Ride it as many times as you want."
Mom stood up smiling and reached over to smooth the hair the wind had tousled.
Her fingers ran through the loose strands at Egbert's forehead.
Her palm rested against his forehead for half a second.
That gesture, I had waited ten years for.
"Dad, look, there's a drop tower over there too!"
"Let's go. We'll ride everything today!"
The three of them walked ahead laughing, shoulder to shoulder.
A complete family of three.
I stood where I was and watched their backs move farther and farther away, blurring into the crowd.
It had never been a family of four.
I had gotten the system, but lost my family.
At six in the evening the neon lights came on, and the whole park was washed in colored light.
The three of them sat at a snack stand, Egbert with a hot dog stuffed in his mouth, Mom wiping the sauce from the corner of his lips.
Dad suddenly remembered something and glanced at his phone.
"When we get back I'm going to have words with her. A whole day and not one message home. What kind of attitude is that?"
Mom picked it up.
"When we're home, make her turn over enough for the week. She came up a day short last time."
Egbert chewed the hot dog, his words muffled.
"It's not like she loses anything anyway. She does a task and gets it right back."
"Bertie, you can't talk about your sister that way."
Mom put away the napkins and, out of habit, wrapped up a hot dog that had gone cold.
"Come on. Your sister should be home waiting."
But they didn't know. What waited for them back home was no longer someone they could still put in her place.
Egbert stopped short and dropped to the ground.
He pressed a hand to his chest, the color draining from his face to a gray-white in an instant.
"Mom... my heart. It hurts so much."
