Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Matthew had just finished loading up the truck for the second time this month. A month ago, he moved down to middle of nowhere Florida to take care of his ailing younger brother, Art. He was worried that he’d be required to go to a nursing home if no one could care for him in-house, and when he first arrived that seemed like the inevitable case. His brother looked like a ghost; white as a sheet, and clearly not eating properly. Matthew was worried he had one foot in the grave already.

Thankfully, it seems like he just didn’t have anyone left to talk to in town, and he sort of shutdown. Turns out that despite his brother's youngish age of sixty-five, he had already outlived all his closest friends. After a month of care and catching up, his brother looked like an entirely different person. He got back to a healthy weight and was even able to move back to using a cane to walk with instead of relying completely on his wheelchair. Matthew guessed his brother just sort of gave up with no-one around to interact with, and that made him all the more grateful to his past self for deciding to retire to care for his brother. Sure, they had drifted apart in their adult years, but they kept in touch at least once a month. Matthew figured they talked together more in this past month than they had in five years, and a pang of guilt swept over him.

Which made it even harder to finish loading up his aging truck with the last of his things. Most of his stuff was left to storage back where he used to live, and he figured he’d just give the key to someone and tell them to sell it or keep it, and Matthew realized he would have to unload everything back into the house. He’d also have to call the realtor he’d been working with to let her know that he wasn’t going to be able to sell anymore. He hated going back on a big thing like this when other parties had already gotten involved, but thankfully they were only in the beginning stages of talks, and nothing had been signed yet. Matthew figured he’d apologize with a good wine or something.

Matthew closed the gate of his dull red pickup and fit the slab of wood he’d been using as a ramp against the tailgate to add a little more height to the tailgate in case anything came loose. He didn’t feel like going back into the house just yet, so he stood there looking at all his stuff and sighed again. He was thinking about the issue at the school. Matthew was so worried about his brother he didn’t have time to work out what to do about that trophy case and figured that since nothing happened in his entire tenure at the school that things would stay fine for forever, but he was clearly wrong. He debated calling Cathy again and asking if anything strange had happened at school yet, when a duffle bag flew past his right ear and clipped his shoulder. The bag tumbled over the back of the pickup truck and landed awkwardly into place.

“What the hell?” he half exclaimed and held his shoulder.

“Figured you could use some company on the road.” His brother said, as he turned around back to his house and limped back inside, apparently having left his cane inside. Matthew was about to protest, but when his little brother decided something, he wasn’t going to be told no. He used to be able to talk him out of stuff, but old age turned his brother's will into iron. He watched Art go back in the house until the screen door closed behind him and a small smile found its way onto his face.

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