Up on this hill you can see the vastest horizon in all of Tazmily village. And when the sun is setting, and the pinks and blues and oranges and purples are bursting and swirling above the crashing waves of the ocean, the beauty is almost painful. At least, I've always thought so.
I slid my hand gently over the cool granite of my mother's grave. How many times have I visited this place since her death? How many times have I come here, in utter despair, in confusion, even in times of joy? I still want to think that she can listen to my problems, my triumphs, anything that I want to tell her, even if she cannot answer. Even if she is eight feet underground. I trace her name, Hinawa, with my fingers, as I have so many times.
I know she's gone. I can't feel her anymore, like I could. I knew the instant she died, because her energy left the Earth.
Even still this plot is surrounded by the beauty she admired in life: the patch of sunflowers lifting their glad faces towards the fiery, departing sun, and the churning ocean past the cliffs. Who would admire it, now, but her visitors? But me?
Edging around the monument to my dear, poor mother, I sat behind it and looked out at the sky.
Hesitantly, I lifted my hand into the air, trying to feel for something… an energy, an emotion perhaps, maybe even a ghost.
Claus.
Where have you gone?
I never thought (and now, I guess, it's a silly thought) that I would ever be alone.
My twin brother was always there, no matter if I wanted him there or not. We had our differences, for sure, but we were like two pieces of a puzzle. Who is Lucas without Claus? We even got mistaken for each other at times by people in town.
My other half was ripped from me the same night my mother passed away.
Why, Claus? Why did you leave me behind?
I feel alone without you. Sure, I can go on… I do go on. But what is Lucas without Claus? What is life without love? Didn't Mom and Dad always teach us that there's nothing more important?
You've always been so stubborn. Are you trying to avenge Mom? You shouldn't have gone alone.
I close my hand and let out a breath. I can still feel your energy, pulsing. How long will it last, though? You feel strange to me, Claus. You feel alien.
Claus.
I don't know what to do, about anything. Everything is changing so fast—everyone is changing so fast. Dad goes every day to try and find you. The doorknob is lost. The town is being taken over by these strange people with even stranger technology.
People's houses are burning down. Our house almost got burned down already. Actually, the barn is charred. The poor goats are pitch black and covered in soot.
I want to find you. I want to talk to you, Claus, and know that even in times of chaos I still have my brother. I need to talk to you, if only for a moment.
Claus.
I want to reach you.
My hand dropped to my side, my muscles slightly burning from having held my arm out so long. Night was settling over Tazmily, and I figured Dad would probably be worrying about me about then. After successfully forcing myself up, I dusted myself off and headed back to my town.
To a town I no longer know.
To my house.
Our house. Our home.
Our door with no doorknob; broken, with something misplaced, just like me.