Hello and welcome back to my blog! :)
You’ve probably read the title already and know that I’ve written a short story. I was in an English class over the summer and one of our assignments was to write a short story.
Anyways, I quite enjoyed the process and I thought that I would share the story here with you guys. Because it’s long for a short story (in my opinion), I’ll split it up in 2 parts—one for this post and the other for the next post. So, if you’re not subscribed, now’s the time to do it so you can be notified immediately when the rest of the story comes out.
Let me know if you enjoy this type of post because I was thinking about potentially working on more stories (short or otherwise) to “publish” here. :)
Without further ado, here it is:
Trust Triumphs
It had been three years, seven months, eight days, and sixteen hours since I last saw my older brother. Not that I had been counting. I hadn’t heard from him once in that time and neither had my mom and dad. I didn’t blame him, though, for not sticking around the home with his kid brother and parents who had meant the world to him.
“Maverick!” Mom called up the stairs. “Dad and I are leaving for the train station now. This is your last opportunity to come with us.”
“It’s okay Mom, I’ll just see Derick when you bring him back. There’s no reason to see him at the train station when he doesn’t even bother writing home once in a while.”
I knew that Mom could see beneath my angry façade because moms always knew that sort of stuff. I was angry at Derick for dumping me for the military and not ever talking to me after he left. However, I also missed him more than I cared to admit. He had been my hero before he left.
Mom consented and reminded me to finish cleaning out the garage and to eat a nutritious lunch instead of the Pop-Tart I had eaten the last time they had left me alone. I felt a tinge of doubt over my decision and momentarily considered running out to join Mom and Dad in the car. I heard the garage door open and shut and felt better about staying home.
I scampered out of my room and began rummaging through the pantry, trying to find something to eat. Just to ease Mom’s mind, I took three baby carrots out of the fridge, doused them in ranch, and ate them. Then, I pulled out the two Pop-Tarts from the pantry and warmed them up in the toaster before sitting down on the sofa and eating them in front of the television.
I was flipping through the channels on our new television, trying to find something good to watch. Reporters and a train station and fire flashed across the screen but were quickly replaced by SpongeBob cartoons.
That train station looked oddly familiar, I thought as I flipped back to the previous channel.
My gaze was met with the largest flames and billowing clouds of black smoke I had ever seen. Realization of the location hit me and an I started to hear a low thud in my chest.
That’s the train station where Mom and Dad were picking up Derick, flashed across my mind.
Derick, the brother who had been gone so long and hadn’t thought to write to us the whole time he’d been gone. My loser older brother who used to be my best friend. But, also the same brother who had been my biggest supporter when I was diagnosed with leukemia. The same brother who had donated blood to keep me alive during my chemotherapy treatments.
Tears threatened to spill out of my eyes, but I blinked them back, trying to think rationally about the sight I had just witnessed.
I reached for my phone and speed dialed Dad’s number. It seemed like an eternity had passed before I heard his voicemail. Frantically, I left him a message, “Dad, it’s Maverick. I just saw on TV the flames and the smoke. Please call me. Are you alright? Is Derick all right? Please,” I took a breath and slowly let it out, “just call me.”
Then I called Mom and reached her voicemail as well and left her a similar message.
With no word from Mom or Dad and the worry that was plaguing my thoughts, I jumped to a Plan B which was, naturally, attempting to ride my bike to the train station. It wasn’t far and I had been working out this summer so the ride wouldn’t be too strenuous.
In the garage, I searched out my bike and found it in a back corner, underneath bins of Christmas decorations and wreaths and loads of photo albums that I was supposed to be organizing. I tossed it all to the ground and wheeled the bike to the front yard, jumping on it and beginning to pedal. I didn’t get very far before the bike teetered and toppled to the ground, bringing me with it.
I had forgotten about the flat tire on my bike—another thing that I was supposed to work on today. I tried to look for the tire pump in the garage, but it was such a mess that I didn’t see it anywhere. I decided that Dad must have placed it somewhere in his room and I made my way upstairs to check. As it turned out, it was nowhere to be found upstairs either.
I slumped onto the floor with my head between my knees. Despair ran through my every thought. Derick could be dead, Mom and Dad still haven’t called me back, there was no car that I could drive, and my bike was flat. I fought back the lump that was welling up in my throat and the panic that had begun to make itself at home in my body.
“Maverick!”
“Derick? Wha… What are you… What are you doing here?”
I quickly stood up and faced my brother who had somehow managed to make his way into my parent’s room—either through the door or by some other means. I was embarrassed that he had found me freaking out like this and I quickly wiped away any tears that may have fallen from my eyes.
Once my eyes were free from tears, I could see how different Derick looked from the last time I had seen him. It had been three years since we had seen each other, but those three years had done him well. With his close-cropped hair, his muscular build was even more noticeable. Derick had never been scrawny like I had been; he always seemed to be able to put on muscle easily, so I shouldn’t have been shocked that he looked like Captain America after his super-soldier transformation.
“It’s a long story that I don’t have any time to explain to you right now. Stop talking. I need you to take me to dad’s office.”
“But,” I stammered again, struggling to communicate the thoughts racing through my mind at the sudden appearance of my older brother. “You were supposed to be on that train! Getting picked up by Mom and Dad. How… How are you here?” To say that I was utterly flabbergasted would have been an understatement.
“I’ll explain in a minute but you need to take me to Dad’s office right now.”
Derick’s matter-of-fact tone threw me off a bit. After all this time, I would have thought that he’d be happy to see me. I stuttered, “umm, okay. It’s this way, but just wanna let you know that…”
Derick was in my room before I could explain to him that we switched my room to dad’s old office last summer. Dad had said something about needing more space and light in his office so we swapped rooms.
“Why is all your stuff in Dad’s office?”
“I tried to tell you but you weren’t listening to me because you don’t care what I have to say! No, before you go on, just listen to me.”
“I’m sorry Mav, I really would like to hear you pour your heart and soul out to me right now, but we have no time. You need to take me to dad’s office immediately. There is something in there that I need to find now and Mom and Dad’s fate is reliant on it. Please, Mav, just take me to Dad’s office.”
“What is going on with Mom and Dad? Derick, you’ve got to tell me. What the heck is going on right now?”
“Look, we’re wasting time right now. I’ll explain everything after you take me to Dad’s office. Now, Maverick.”
“Fine. But we better have a good long talk about whatever it is that you’re not telling me as well as your avoidance of me and Mom and Dad. What was that about?!”
“Let’s talk while we walk. I can’t tell you much but what I can tell you is that I was involved in some, shall we say, clandestine activities that revolved around other clandestine activities that Mom and Dad may or may not have been a part of. Activities that could very well put all of us in danger or in huge trouble with the federal government. I need to look through Dad’s office to make sure they are not being wrongly accused.”
“I’m sorry, what?! Our parents? In danger? In trouble with the government? That can’t be possible, Derick.”
“That’s what I aim to find out and you could help me by not mentioning our conversation to anyone, Mav. No living and breathing person. Even if they aren’t living. Don’t say anything. Got it?” Derick gave me a knowing look.
“Okay, fine!” I threw my hands up in exasperation. I was happy that Derick trusted me with at least some information; even if it wasn’t everything. I took Derick to Dad’s office and he poked around a little, apparently not finding anything interesting.
Derick and I waited around, constantly refreshing the web pages, searching for information on the train explosion or news from Mom and Dad. Derick was still avoiding my questions and I could tell that he was in no mood for my pestering that night. It was quite obvious by his muscular build that he no doubt acquired from the military that he could easily dominate me if he really wanted to—or if I got annoying enough. So, I kept quiet.
With still no word from Mom or Dad that evening, Derick set up camp in his old room, somehow finding a pair of pajamas that were a little small—unless they had always been that tight on his biceps and short around his ankles. He attempted to convince me that Mom and Dad were probably fine and that we’d for sure hear from them by morning, but I could hear the doubt in his voice.
Anxiety kept me from sleeping that night. I tossed and turned and any sleep that I had was plagued with nightmares of Derick being blown up in a train and Mom and Dad donning orange jumpsuits and being sentenced to life in concrete bunkers.
I gave up on catching any sleep after I woke up for the twelfth time. I untangled myself from my sheets and tiptoed into Derick’s bedroom only to find it empty. Panic seized my heart yet again and I frantically ran from room to room, searching for my brother only to find him in Dad’s dimly lit office.
I padded silently into the office, observing Derick’s rushed motions.
“So, whatcha doing?” I said innocently.
“Ahh! What the heck Maverick! I’m not doing anything,” he responded. He tried to conceal whatever files he’d been searching through and slipped something into his back pocket. He must not have been taught how to hide things very well in military school because it was pretty obvious to me what he’d been looking through.
“Then why are you looking through Dad’s filing cabinet? And I happened to notice that it’s the same one that he’s told us not to touch for years. And kept locked for years. How did you get into that cabinet anyways?
“It’s none of your business. Just go back to bed, Mav.”
Throwing a tantrum just wasn’t socially acceptable once one turned a certain age but I felt like throwing a tantrum, so instead, I very loudly expressed my opinion to Derick. “I’m seventeen years old for crying out loud! Can you just tell me exactly what is going on? You’ve pulled me in this deep; these are my parents we’re talking about. If anything, I deserve to know what the heck is going on right now.
“You’re gone for over three years and then you just show up out of nowhere and claim that Mom and Dad are doing weird secret things that the government doesn’t want them to and that there is something in Dad’s office that determines their fate. Whatever that means. Don’t you understand that I want to know what’s going on? Don’t you understand that I care about Mom and Dad as well? Don’t you understand that whatever normality in my life has now been completely overturned? Don’t you understand that I’ve missed y-”
I clapped my hands over my mouth. I realized that I’d just admitted to Derick that I had missed him and I didn’t mean to admit that to him any time soon. I ran out of the office and collided with a black bulletproof vest which happened to be occupied by a muscular man who also happened to be holding a gun in his hand.
I lurched backward and stood next to Derick who has assumed a stiff position. More men in bulletproof vests emerged from the shadows. I knew Derick was strong from his time in the military academy, but the number of men who showed up seemed overkill considering that there were only two of us and six of them.
The seeming leader stepped forward and said, “I hate to break up such an emotionally charged moment, but you boys are going to have to come with us and we can do it the hard way or the easy way. Your choice.”
Seeing as the easy way would involve less risk for us, that’s what we decided and blindfolds were slipped over our heads as well as some thick ropes that were securely tied to our wrists.
What do you think about Derick and Maverick’s relationship—the past hurt, the present tension, and what could happen in the future? What do you think will happen in the next part of the story?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this story and if you’d like to see more like this in the future. :)
Thanks for reading;
Sincerely, Lilly
Ooh I'm loving it so far! Can't wait to read the end 😃!
Exciting well written story. I will let Ally read it and see what her guess is for the ending ( I don’t want to influence her on this)