"Come on man!" Tommy shouted to his brother.
Joel huffed as he climbed the stairs quickly. "What the hell's this all about Tommy? I have to be on watch soon." He exclaimed sharply as he reached the top.
"You'll see, just come on!" Tommy yelled back as he carried on down the corridor to a door on the right hand side at the end and pulled out a massive set of keys and filed through them.
As Joel caught up with his brother, a long forgotten but familiar smell permeated the air.
Tommy fumbled with the keys trying to find the right one for the ageing door.
"Well that's not the one." he mumbled with rising frustration.
Joel rested against the wall next to the door with folded arms. "Why are we here Tommy? seriously, we're in a part of the plant that hardly anyone comes too."
As he finished speaking the grating squeal of the door downstairs pierced the air, followed by a slam and the sounds of heavy footsteps echoing up the stairwell.
"Tommy?" a familiar voice called out.
Tommy smirked at Joel and answered. "Up here Earl!"
The heavy footsteps ceased as Earl reached the top of the steps and loomed into the corridor.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." Earl smiled at the two brothers as he rubbed his hands together.
Joel locked his eyes on Tommy with a quizzical look.
"Boom!" Tommy snapped as the key successfully turned in the lock with a click. "You can't tell anyone about this Joel." he stated sternly.
"Mm-hmm" Joel hummed as he looked at his boots.
Tommy sighed. "Seriously, No-one!" he said.
As he pushed the door open, strips of what seemed to be sticky tape creating a makeshift airtight seal ripped itself from the door frame and hung loosely, as this happened a bright light suddenly illuminated the dark corridor as Tommy entered the room and with it came the overpowering smell of Marijuana.
As Joel followed his brother into the room, he smiled to himself as he was greeted by four rows of mature cannabis plants, the room they were in was a bomb site, botched cables were sticking out of one of the overloaded outlets. THC packed buds were hanging on strings that lined one wall of the room as well as the window frame which was plastered in a thick black plastic to ensure that no light could escape.
"Oh shit, hell yeah!" Joel finally exclaimed with a clap.
Tommy stood proudly amongst the rows of plants with arms outstretched and beamed a smile back at Joel.
"This is the second harvest!" He grinned at his brother. "I searched a head shop in the town and found some seeds, Maria figured we could use it for medicine as well as some smoke," he said with a smirk. "Just myself, Maria and Earl know about it so keep it on the down low." he remarked as the smile snapped from his face.
Joel stood with his mouth open in complete surprise. "W-we must be the only people in the country with this stuff!" he finally stammered.
"Which is why you have to keep it under your hat man!" Tommy exclaimed as his face suddenly drafted to a serious gaze.
Tommy brought one of the buds on one of the huge plants up to his nose and inhaled deeply. "We're not sure what the strain is, but Earl calls it Clicker."
Earl chuckled behind Joel "Yeah, only because it makes me click!" he said with a grin as he leaned against the door frame.
"Here," Tommy said as he walked to the row of dried buds upon the wall and pulled a large bud from the line he looked down into the drawer and pulled a crumpled piece of tin foil, he carefully wrapped the drug inside the foil and handed it to Joel. "Take this and have a test smoke, it will probably help you sleep better man.
Joel quickly took the wrap from his brother and planted it in his pocket without hesitation.
"Thanks little brother, I am thinking more about getting Ellie to sleep better if I am honest." Joel smiled.
"No problem, if she wants to try it, make sure it's small joints at first," Tommy nodded. "Looks like you will have to get your rusty ass rolling skills honed!" He stated as he fumbled in his pockets.
Joel stepped back and raised an eyebrow. "I used to kick ass at rolling!" He exclaimed.
"Course you did." Tommy beamed back with a sarcastic smile.
Joel chuckled and cast his mind back to his lecherous youth. "Remember that time when you smoked two blunts one after the other?" he laughed.
"I was a fucked up son of a bitch back then!" Tommy giggled. "Then Sarah came along..." he added with a chuckle.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly went cold as Tommy cast his eyes up to the seriousness that had crossed Joel's face. Earl cringed in the doorway as the silence became deafening. The only sound that pierced the air was the quiet spinning of the fans over the plants.
"We best be gettin' back Tommy, Maria will have my ass if I am late again." Earl said with a strained voice.
"Sure thing." Tommy replied as he rubbed his arm uncomfortably.
All three of the men filed out of the room, Tommy closed the door behind him and tried more of the keys to lock the door, once he did this he looked up to Joel.
"Sorry Jo-." He blurted apologetically as he expected his brother to be leaning on the door frame waiting for him, he then realised his brother was already halfway down the stairs without so much as a word.
A feeling of deep sorrow washed over him as fading memories of his niece flashed through his mind as he replaced the fraying sticky tape around the door.
He walked down the corridor to the stairs and looked down over the bannister at his brother.
"Sorry man." he muttered to himself.