Chapter 3 #2
Bode had a hand on Austin’s leg while the kid toyed around with a screwdriver that was lying on the cart beside him. He’s gonna be a great father to that boy, Elijah thought silently in admiration. He’s got a temper, but his heart is in the right place and always was…
Bode smirked and looked away, speaking quietly. “I bet you’ve gotta pay the nurses extra because he’s… ah, temperamental?”
“Yeah,” Elijah chuckled grimly at the truth spoken between them. His brother had no idea how bad things had been. “They’ve been kicked out of two nursing homes already.”
“Dang…”
“Yeah, not the nicest of people…”
“No kidding.”
“But we don’t have to be them,” Elijah said quietly. “I’d rather we talked and got to know each other eventually – over time. That’s why I’m here, to start a relationship with the only brother I have… and it’s long overdue. That’s why I asked for Ghazni.”
“You asked for that… place?” Bode worded his question carefully, glancing at the child as he obviously caught himself from saying something scathing – and understood.
Ghazni was indeed a ‘place’ – and that was putting it kindly. In fact, it gave him the creepy-crawlies just thinking about that place when people told him about the scorpions, snakes, fleas, and other inhabitants of the inhospitable place he was now stationed for the next two years.
“Yeah. It’s kind of a dumpster fire there – isn’t it?”
“You have no idea…”
“I’m finding out awfully quickly,” Elijah shot back, thinking about the last communication he’d read and immediately regretted. It had to be a joke, but then again, from what he’d seen – maybe the order request for baling wire and duct tape was real… and that wasn’t funny in the slightest.
“So you’re here now – and you want to talk.”
“Maybe we could talk over a slice of wedding cake?” Elijah offered, trying to silently remind his brother about the moment he’d just interrupted. He was here for his brother’s wedding and was hijacking the entire moment selfishly. This was supposed to be Bode and his bride’s moment.
They could just talk later… hopefully.
“It could happen.” Bode hesitated and then looked at the child. “Austin, meet your Uncle Eli…”
“Elijah,” he corrected immediately, wincing as Bode grinned wolfishly.
His father used to call him ‘Sly-Eli’ all the time, making him feel like he’d done something wrong…
but when you grew up like they did – yeah, you hid things from your parents.
‘Uncle Eli’ was certainly better than ‘Sly-Eli’ followed by a shove…
“Uncle Eli,” Austin said excitedly, holding up both arms expectantly. Bode lifted an eyebrow, grinning. He’d never done this before – and it showed. He picked up the kid awkwardly and was shocked when the little spider monkey immediately wrapped his arms and legs around him like a human vise.
“You know I hate ‘Eli’…”
“I figured you still did…” Bode chuckled.
“Yet you did that anyway, huh?”
“Wouldn’t be very ‘brotherly’ of me if we didn’t tease each other – eh?
And remember, you had me forcibly removed from the room after I said that I was perfectly fine in my seat.
Payback is a… well, is tough to handle,” censoring himself once more for Austin’s delicate ears – and Elijah’s.
He wasn’t a fan of foul language after having it screamed at him for years and years.
“You also asked me in front of everyone if I moaned when…” Elijah hesitated, remembering the child holding onto him. He glanced at Austin, then to Bode, before looking back at Austin and smiling nervously. “Your new stepdad thinks he’s funny sometimes.”
“I’m number one,” Bode grinned – giving Elijah the finger, but wiping it along his brow like he was scratching his forehead. Elijah just rolled his eyes, chuckling as he set Austin down. The trio began walking back toward the opening of the hangar, and Bode paused, looking at him.
“Nothing is ever forgotten or goes away like that,” Bode began, snapping his fingers. “But we could talk…”
“It’s a long flight back to Ghazni.”
“About fourteen hours.”
“Yup – and I fly out tomorrow at nine in the morning,” Elijah volunteered knowingly. Thumper had found out from Loki what flight number Bode was going to be on – and had scheduled Elijah’s return flight in the very next seat beside his brother.
Bode started, surprised. “Are you stalking me?”
“Are you stalking me?” Elijah shot back, smirking.
“My turn! My turn!” Austin crowed in delight, making the two brothers look at each other and chuckle awkwardly in a sort of makeshift truce. Elijah dove into the role of ‘uncle’ without hesitation, taking the child from Bode and smiling as he tickled the boy on the stomach.
“Go marry your girl,” Elijah began. “We’ll be waiting in the front row for you two. Today is your day, and tomorrow will be soon enough for us to hash through the past or what our futures look like… brother.”
They exchanged a look. Bode held out a hand to him, offering to shake his hand as if to seal this fragile bond they were building, but it felt wrong – like something buddies would do. We’re brothers, and it was time we started acting like it, he thought humbly.
Elijah looked at Bode’s hand, then met his eyes, and stepped forward for a long-overdue hug. He felt Bode stiffen and tense, knowing it was because for so many, many years that ‘touch’ equaled ‘pain’ – but this was almost a bittersweet sort of ache that felt so good, so right.
“You do not get to make me bawl like a woman on my wedding day,” Bode whispered in a hushed voice, making him chuckle knowingly. He was precariously close to tears himself.
“That’s my new sister-in-law’s job, right?”
“Heck yeah, it is,” Bode rasped emotionally, clearing his throat and stepping back.
Elijah felt a lump in his own throat, staring at his brother and recognizing how special this moment was between them.
He was so grateful that Reaper and Thumper had reached out to him – and would never regret taking his chance… only to hear Bode speak once again.
“Now, sit down and let me show you how this is done – because now that you’re here in Yonder, you’ve been exposed to whatever’s happening here, Eli. Your ‘clock’ is now ticking, so watch and learn, brother… watch and learn.”
What the…?
Elijah’s lips parted in shock. What did Bode mean? What ‘clock’? Watch and learn… how to get married?
As if his brother could read his mind, Bode turned back to him again and patted his cheek in almost a condescending manner as his soon-to-be wife watched in the distance, smiling. Bode moved to the woman’s side and looked back over his shoulder to Elijah once more.
“It’s not so bad if you give it a shot,” Bode taunted knowingly and then turned to smile at his bride. “Let’s do this, Chicken.”
Chicken?
Did his brother just call his bride a ‘chicken’?
Austin chose that moment to holler ‘Cock-A-Doodle-Doo’ for everyone’s enjoyment as Paradox proceeded to speak over the couple.
Elijah sat there, holding a two- or three-year-old squirming kid in his lap who kept making crowing sounds like it was nothing – and could feel everyone staring at him.
He was completely unsure how to behave at this moment, and focused on the nuptials before him…
basking in the fact that he was here at all.
He was getting to see any other emotion on his brother’s face but rage, bitterness, or hatred - and witnessing their moment.
If this were my last day on Earth, it would be a good one…
he thought, swallowing that lump in his throat once more as Bode promised to love, honor, and cherish Flora.
He could hear the commitment, the emotion in his brother’s voice – all for a woman whose whole expression shone like the sun as she basked openly in his brother’s obvious love for her.
That’s how a couple should be, Elijah thought painfully, sniffing back tears and struggling to keep his composure. Mom and Dad don’t know what they could have been a part of – and it’s a shame that they’ll never understand what a real family is supposed to be like.
A second thought struck Elijah in that moment – as painful and ragged as if someone had speared him straight through the heart. That’s a true miracle… and I’m never going to be that lucky.