Chapter Two:
Brandon's POV
I drummed my feet on the hospital room floor, tapping along to the corny song playing through the speakers. The door to the room in front of me, 3A, opened, and my aunt Marie was just staring at me. I looked up at her, and I knew something was wrong. Very wrong.
"C'mon, dear, he's waiting," she said, taking my hand and leading me into the room. Dad is in his bed, just like he has been the last three visits. But he is hooked up to about ten machines. His eyes are closed, he doesn't look like he's waiting for anyone. Especially not me. I turn to my aunt.
"Is he dead?" I ask, and she looks appalled.
"No, of course not, why would you ask that?" she says. But there are tears on her face, and I take that to mean to that he's dead.
"The machines are keeping him alive, Brandon," she says. "But we have to turn them off. We don't have any money to keep them on."
I dig into my pocket and pull out a quarter. "Here, will this help?" I ask, feeling like I already know the answer. She shakes her head.
"No, we're here to say goodbye," she says. I let go of her hand and walk up to dad.
"Daddy," I whisper. "It's me, Brandon. Can you hear me?" I get no response. My aunt clears her throat. I turn and there is a doctor lady standing in the doorway. I take one last look at my dad. "Bye, Daddy," I say. On the way home, aunt Marie buys me ice cream and lets me eat the whole thing, and then lets me pick out any movie I want when we get back to her apartment. About halfway through Finding Nemo, she drops a note in my lap.
"Your dad says that this is for you. I wasn't supposed to open it." I pick up the folded note and open it. It reads:
Dear Brandon,
If you're reading this, it means I'm gone. Don't worry, I'm in a better place now. There is something I want you to do. Make your aunt allow you to go to live with your mom in Washington. I can't really tell you why, but she is important, and you have to go back to her. I'm sorry I had to go like this, bud. Please, get back to your mother. She is important.
Love, Dad
I blink and look over at my aunt, who is making dinner in the kitchen. I hadn't really thought about what would happen after dad died. I guessed I would just live with aunt Marie. I had thought it was cool, because Spiderman lives with his aunt and his parents are gone, too, and he gets superpowers, so I was hoping in the back of my mind I could be like him, but that was stupid. I should go live with my mom. "Aunt Marie?" I call out to her.
"Brandon?"
"Can I go live with mommy?" I hear whatever she is doing that is making noise stop.
"Why on earth would you want to go live with a deadbeat like that?" she asked.
"Daddy's note says so," I said.
"He must have been going crazy, you're staying here," she says.
"But the note says she's important, can I go, please, aunt Marie, just for a couple months? I-I'm emotionally damaged, aunt Marie," I said. I had heard one of the doctors recommending I get out of town for a bit so I wouldn't be 'emotionally damaged' whatever that meant.
I hear aunt Marie sigh, which means she's thinking about something. "I guess...after the funeral, of course, you could spend a few months with your mom," she said.
"Thank you, aunt Marie!" I shout, knowing I had manipulated her, which was nearly impossible to do with my aunt.
The funeral is held three weeks after dad dies. I learn from the guy that speaks at the funeral that he died of lung cancer, which I knew was bad and that everybody seemed to die from that or just plain being old. Everybody keeps hugging me and saying that they were so sorry I have no parents now, but I try to tell them my mom isn't dead. I let them hug me and give me sad cards anyways. Aunt Marie and I are the last to leave, because we were the people that everyone had to feel sorry for. It seemed like maybe the funeral was more to be sorry for us than to remember dad. I get in, and aunt Marie slowly inches out of the graveyard with all of the other cars. "Aunt Marie, what was your favorite thing about Daddy?" I asked. She shrugged.
"I guess...when we were little, we used to have snowball fights," she said. "That was fun, we'd always come in cold and wet, and our mother, who you've never met, she died before you were born, she would make us hot chocolate and put huge marshmallows in it. What about you, Brandon?" she asked.
"When I was four, he told me scary stories about vampires and said that mommy was a vampire and that was why they got divorced. I guess he was just mad at her or something, but I always had fun being pretend scared." She was silent for a moment.
"I'm sure your mother is a lovely lady," she said, but I could tell she said it through gritted teeth. I had to wait a week to go to Mom's house. Aunt Marie had to arrange a bunch of stuff first. I realized in all of her arranging she never thought to call my mother. It was just going to be a surprise, I supposed. I got on a plane that left from New York. Aunt Marie went as far as she could with me without a boarding pass. She knelt down in front of me.
"Look, Brandon, I've known you since you were three years old. I know how stubborn you are. So don't be surprised when this woman doesn't meet your expectations." She kissed my forehead then, something she had never done before. "Be careful, and take care of yourself," she said. "Bye."
I stood there for a moment, confused, then waved to her. "Bye, aunt Marie, see you in a month," I said, and went to board the plane. After a good day of traveling, I arrived in a tiny airport in Port Angeles, where Aunt Marie had a social worker waiting for me. He didn't say much as we drove through the rain to a house that was three stories tall and had a huge glass wall. I got out, and the guy drove away. I guess he was busy or something. I drug my suitcase up to the front door and knocked. The lady that opened it had brown hair, gold eyes, and an extremely surprised look. My mother.