I miss you.
I’m grieving.
I know, I know, technically speaking you’re not dead.
You just spent five weeks visiting us, so obviously you’re very much alive.
But I miss the you that was my brother before my brother turned into the kind of person you see walking down the street and say:
“Oh that poor soul.”
You are that poor soul.
The one who thinks his apartment is bugged.
The one who talks to himself all day and all night.
Some of what you say scares me a bit, so when you visit I close my bedroom door tightly and turn on the white noise machine to block you out.
And then I think of my other brother, who when he last visited bought us very sharp kitchen knives because our dull ones drove him nuts.
Should I hide those knives?
But how can I be scared of you?
You and I used to be so tight.
Remember when we went out on that fishing boat in Florida? And the water was so choppy that I started throwing up and the vomit just flew past my head and you were laughing and I was laughing and there was that weird couple who chainsmoked the entire trip?
That time in childhood when we were getting up to mischief and we accidentally locked ourselves in my bedroom closet? Yelling for our mom to rescue us, but also giggling.
For a short while you were the lead singer of a metal cover band and I went to see you perform at Barrymores in Ottawa. You had the most beautiful long golden ringlets and you banged your head up and down like the guy from Metallica and I was so proud of you.
But now, apparently there are multiple fatwas against you.
I had to google fatwa:
“A ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority.”
You also said that you are an Angel.
If you are an angel, shouldn’t you be able to wave your magic angel wand and get rid of the fatwas?
Those are my actual thoughts, though of course I don’t share them with you.
We both still love junk food, so when you visit I buy cheezies and kit kat bars, leaving them on the kitchen counter for you ~ little offerings for the dead.
I love you so deeply, but Dear God you are exhausting to be with.
Like an experienced vampire you suck the life out of me and when you leave I crumple to the floor, exhausted.
I have enough tears to water a whole forest, but I have difficulty crying. The tears don’t spill out of my eyes, instead they fill up my lungs until I can’t breathe.
No sobbing.
Just choking on sadness.