"No, you have to promise."
"I promise mom, I promise."
Don sat next to his mother as she closed her eyes for, what everyone knew, would be her last time. His father placed his hand on Don's shoulder and watched as his wife went on to more. She had always said to stay happy even when she was gone. When Don finally stood up Alan pulled him into a tight hug and both men finally let their tears flow.
"Dad?"
A few minutes later their eyes were starting to dry off and Don rubbed his eyes than pushed away from this father's eyes. He stuck his hands in his pockets unsure of what do to do with them.
"What is it Donny?"
Don looked up at Alan again and looked into his father's eyes to see the man's reaction to his next question.
"Are you up for calling... or should I..."
"I'll call. You have a promise to keep."
His father cut off Don and he nodded in understanding. He looks back at his mother on the bed before walking out the door and to the garage.
Don knocks on the door, it's different now, he feels he should knock even though every time before he didn't. Don moves the hand from the door and goes to turn the knob, not expecting his brother to answer when the knob turns and the door cracks open a little. Through the crack Charlie's eyes are seen, he looks like he's looked for more than a week now, tired and drained though he can't get to sleep.
"Let me in Charlie, I have to talk to you."
When Charlie opened the door Don stepped inside and watched his brother as he closed the door behind him. Charlie looked worse than he had yesterday, the bags under his eyes were more evident and the lines on his forehead had too. Charlie walked past Don to stand in the middle of his circle of chalkboards and faced Don. He rolled a piece of chalk in the palm of his hand and watched it carefully.
"Donny... what's the matter?"
His voice was cracking, as if he hadn't used it in a while, which was probably very, very true. It was just above a whisper and Don had to take a step closer to hear what he was saying, something he was grateful for later.
"It's mom, Charlie, she's gone."
Charlie's hand stopped rolling the chalk around and looked up into his brother's eyes. He seemed to be trying to put the information into something he could understand. Trying to translate it into something that he could make more sense of. A second later his mouth feel open, his eyes widened and the chalk fell out of his hand. Don walked to him as Charlie's knees gave out under him.
"No, no... not yet... no, no, no Donny... not yet."
Charlie silently called over and over again; his brother's name sounding more pleading than the rest. His mouth was barely moving as he spoke. Tears ran down Charlie's face and onto Don's shirt. Don's hand rubbed Charlie's back as he continued to say mumbled apologies into the air, apologies that Don couldn't understand.
"I'm sorry... I should have listened..."
"Promise me you'll take care of Charlie. Promise to remember he's as much as a son to me as you are. Promise me you won't be angry at him, Donny. Be the brother he's going to need. Promise."
Don didn't understand Charlie's pleading because his mother's desperate words continued to repeat themselves over and over again. He wanted to be mad at Charlie, knew he should be for all the times he could have been with her but was working on P vs. NP instead. He should be mad is what his head kept saying but his heart had let go of his anger the second he saw the pain in Charlie's eyes. Even without realizing it, mumbled words escaped his mouth and entered Charlie's ear...
"I love you buddy, love you buddy..."
The End