2: 2
2
The storage room was airless, hot and stuffy as a steamer.
The smell of dust and damp hung in the air. I lay on a thin yoga mat and turned over all night.
It was almost dawn before I finally fell asleep.
Half-asleep, I thought I heard someone push the door open and say something.
I didn't catch it, so I rolled over and kept sleeping.
Then a basin of cold water splashed over me.
Mom stood in the doorway, a plastic basin in her hand.
"Sleep, sleep, sleep, all you know how to do is sleep. Your brother's about to land, and you're still lying there like a dead pig."
Dad leaned in for a look, his face dark.
"Are you doing this on purpose? Trying to make it clear your brother isn't welcome home?"
"Ungrateful little wretch. Selfish since you were small, only ever thinking of yourself. You can't even stand your own brother!"
I was wide awake now. I muttered under my breath.
"None of you told me he was coming back this morning."
To them, I was invisible.
Anything important, no one ever bothered to tell me.
But when they needed the whole family assembled for a nice show of togetherness, they expected me to show up on time, no question.
Soaked and miserable, I dragged myself up off the yoga mat.
"Hurry up, don't hold us back from picking up your brother."
By the time I got myself together and ran downstairs, I saw the rain outside coming down in sheets.
Cheryl was already waiting in the car below.
Dad and Mom sat in the back, the front passenger seat empty.
I reached for the front door out of habit, but Cheryl tossed her bag onto the seat.
"That seat's saved for Jon."
"The lumbar support's brand new, and he's a clean freak. If you sit there, he probably won't want to."
Rain dripped down onto my head, my neck.
I lowered my eyes to hide the sting in them.
I opened the back door. Mom sat right by it, not moving.
"Could you slide over a little?"
"That middle seat's for Toffee."
Rain slid down off my hair.
"He's not here right now, so I'll just sit there for—"
Mom's face went cold at once.
"Do you have any sense at all? Don't you know Toffee's a clean freak just like Jon?"
Dad's brows drew together.
"A grown man like you, no self-awareness at all. What's wrong with taking the bus?"
I did have self-awareness.
My place was always behind Jonathan Sullivan, and now it was behind his dog too.
"Can I just not go?"
Mom shot me a look and said coldly,
"Jon's finally back in the country, and you, his own brother, won't come? How's he supposed to feel?"
"Did all that schooling go straight to the dogs? What a waste, raising you this big!"
Cheryl said nothing, head down, refreshing the flight status over and over.
She fastened her seatbelt without so much as a glance at me.
"That's enough, we'll be late if we don't leave now."
"Jon's been on a flight over ten hours, he must be worn out. We can't make him wait on us."
"There's no room in the car. Go take the bus."
Mom slammed the door shut. The car pulled away and was gone.
Water splashed all over me.
In the driving wind and rain, my umbrella bent out of shape, and I was already soaked through.
Twenty minutes on foot, then squeezing onto a packed bus.
The whole ride jolted along, my head spinning.
When I finally reached the airport, wet to the bone, the cold blast of the air conditioning left me shivering.
I sent a message to the group chat. "Where are you? Can you share your location with me?"
I waited a long time. No one answered.
I called Mom. She didn't pick up.
I called Dad. Same, no answer.
Finally I called Cheryl, and she picked up.
"We're already on our way back, and I need my phone for navigation. Hanging up now."
Watching the crowds moving through the airport, I suddenly laughed, and as I laughed the tears rolled down.
I didn't understand. We were both their sons, so why were they this heartless, this cold to me.
My thoughtfulness, my good sense, was worth nothing in their eyes.
Worth less, even, than a dog my brother had picked up on a whim.
"My birthday's the day after tomorrow. Don't anyone forget, get ready in advance."
Dad's reply popped up right away: "Won't forget, got it ready long ago."
Cheryl added one too: "I've prepared a surprise as well."
Something stirred in my chest.
The day after tomorrow was my birthday.
