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But wait, we will double up the offer! That’s right, if you call right now, we will double the offer! Get FOUR Slap Mops instead of two for such a good price, but only if you call right now to the number on the screen!
Julia’s eyes burned.
The streetlights were awfully bright against the dark buildings and night sky. But she feared that if she blinked one time too many, her brother would blend into the shadows once again. So she gazed upon him, and then reached out to zip up his jacket. She tucked his scarf inside it too, just like in the old days.
“You will get a hideous cold, running around with no shirt like this.”
Isaac laughed, and she remembered the time when he would be the one zipping up her jacket and lecturing her about illness instead.
He would always, without failure, walk straight to her sofa and curl himself there, face away from where she could see. There was always a blanket there for him; that she inevitably washed every day to remove blood. Isaac would refuse anything given to him and wouldn’t move from the spot either. And so Julia would pretend to go on with her night as if nothing was wrong.
Every morning she would wake up to a grimy handful of money and a cold mug of coffee on her kitchen. To show that he still cared, probably. She knew he did.
Isaac still cared about her deeply, even when he seemed far too gone into his own thoughts to think of anything around him. Every once in a while he would accept holding onto her hand and grasp it for a few minutes before standing up from the ground, and she thought of when he would grasp her hand and run as far as they could, or hold her close to keep her away from danger.
I will stay awake all night, Julia, so that the monsters won’t come for you. Just hold my hand and you will be okay, I promise.
One night she sat on the free corner of the sofa with him, and turned on the television. Nothing was on that caught her interest, and so she let it play as it wished. Anything so that she wouldn’t be in deep silence with her thoughts while her brother slept.
All the other lights were off and the colours were far too bright. Julia’s eyes burned. He had warned her to avoid watching cartoons in the dark. Her eyesight would worsen quickly. But then you would have to read more books for me, Isaac, and I would love that.
Julia closed her eyes and sighed. She stayed still that way for a while trying to discern his breathing from the relatively low noise. When she looked to her side, he was looking at her too. If he didn’t already look ill, she would say the light reflected on his face made him seem sick.
I’m big and strong, Julia, I’ll catch every monster for you.
Something stirred inside her; more memories replayed themselves.
“Do…”
She doubted for an instant.
“… Do you remember that story you used to tell me? The one about Robin Hood, except they were all little animals and nobody died.”
“It surprises me how it took you until you were an adult to realize that I was just stealing it from a movie.”
“Oh, but you told it your own way. All you did was take the concept… And then tell me whatever you wanted, changed it every time.”
Isaac was smiling calmly for the first time in years.
“… And then I actually saw the movie.”
“How was it?”
“It was… It was boring.”
The two of them laughed. It suddenly was as if they were children again, staying up because they had nothing to do the next day except lose time so he would tell her stories, from books or movies or of his own invention, and she would ask how things followed after each happy ending, so they would extend the heroes’ fates together.
I want to be a writer when I grow up, Isaac, and you will be thanked at the beginning of each book.
“Will you tell me that story again?”
Julia placed a hand on his shoulder, hoped her tears weren’t noticeable. A few moments passed where he looked back at the sofa and reached out to hold her hand. He kept quiet for another minute where she suddenly began to imagine when the spell would be broken and it would be back to worrying day and night, to try and fail to talk him out of the very hazardous job he was doing and to watch him scream at a man that wasn’t there.
To know that when the time finally came she would bury her alone, for she would never ask Hector to make her company after everything that happened, and nobody she could ask to come if they had loved her brother, because she knew she was the only person who did.
“Let’s see… A long, long time ago, in the little animals’ realm…”