The next morning, Mattie sleeps late again. He wakes up around an hour after I do. He slowly comes over to the sofa and sits down.
"Hey Mattie." I say with my smile. He just gloomily looks over at me, then forward again.
"Hey, I rented a rink for the day." No reaction. "And I brought some hockey sticks, skates, and a puck." Still no reaction. "We're going in a half hour. Get ready."
A half hour later we got into my truck, Mattie being half forced, and I drove to the small rink. It only takes a few minutes of agonizing silence to get there.
I drag Mattie into the place and hand him his skates. I go back to get the rest of the stuff. As I walk back inside, I see what a stupid idea that had been. I sighed, seeing his inner forearm bleeding and the blade of his skate bloody. I drop the stuff and take the skate from him. I go get some stuff to clean his wound and some bandages. I clean his cut and bandage it.
"Mattie, I thought I told you not to cut yourself."
"Why'd you bring me here?" he mutters.
"You like hockey. It's your game. And we're in your home." I smile at him. "So cheer up."
He just mumbles something. I give him a hug.
"Please Mattie. Be better."
He shakes his head, and mutters "It's too late."
"No! Don't say that. It's not too late Mattie. It's not. You're gonna be Ok. You are. Just don't give up. Please, don't."
We're both crying. I try to stay strong and not, but I'm just so worried for him. He needs to be better, he needs to believe he'll be better.
After a few minutes, I pull back from the hug.
"You're gonna be Ok. Don't you think otherwise."
He slowly nods. "You're going to help me?" he quietly asks, looking up at me.
I gently smile. "Yeah, I'm gonna help you. It's my number one priority. And being the hero, I'm gonna make sure everything's OK and that you're happy."
"Th-thank you."
"You're welcome."
He wipes some tears from his eyes and looks around a bit. "Why do you care all of a sudden?"
"Hm? 'Cuz your my brother. I don't want anything to happen to you. I realized I've failed, but now I need to make it up to you. Make everything up."
"I'm glad you're trying."
"So I didn't rent this place out for nothin'. Come on." I take my shoes off and replace them with skates. He does the same and we get on the ice and I grab the hockey sticks. I give him his.
We play for a while and I end up winning. It's surprising because I wasn't trying at all. It was usually a really close match when I had occasionally played before.
We're sitting back where we were. I had my shoes back on. Mattie was taking longer to put his back on.
I take out my phone again.
Me: hey what does mattie like? what movies?
A minute later, I get a reply.
Papa: Where did u take Mathieu?
Me: canada
Papa: Ok. Nature documentary? Comedy? I'm not quite sure.
Me: thnx
I put my phone back in my pocket. Mattie has his shoes back on. I stand and pull him up. I get him and everything else in my truck and drive to a restaurant we went to when we were here last came here. Mattie's the one who pointed it out to us last time. It was a few years ago, so I hope he still likes it.
We get there, have dinner with little talk, I rent a movie, and we go back to the cabin.
I make some popcorn and get the movie in. I turn the movie on and it really just serves as noise. Mattie is looking at the TV, but I can tell he's not watching it. And I'm too worried about Mattie to really watch it.
About halfway through it, Mattie falls asleep. I notice after a few minutes. I lay him down on the couch and put a blanket over him. I turn the movie off and sit in a chair. I start to fall asleep and I notice something moving in the room. I see it's only Kumajirou, so I relax. He lays down and puts his head on Mattie's arm. He winces, but otherwise doesn't do anything. I fall asleep a few minutes later.