Atonement for Animosity

The Sun loomed above as it reached its midafternoon location. Its light cascaded through cumulous clouds and around hillsides covered in lush oak trees. The only break in the oak trees was a single trail. The trail itself was made up of dark brown stones and dirt, while the surrounding dirt within the forest was an almost apricot orange.  

Along this trail walked a lone man, he seemed to be 26, stood at 5’7”, had a medium build, had a green t-shirt from the band “Years of Solitude”, an old brown knapsack which held a bed roll on its outward face, grey cargo pants and hiking boots. The man had a brown skin tone, short brown hair with streaks of grey on the sides, hazel eyes, the stubble of five days growing on his chin and face, and a scar which layed over the right side of his upper and lower lip.  

The man continued down this trail 

 With each step he took, the murmur of nature and her companions answered. Rodents running in and out of bushes, birds leaving their nesting's to hunt or scavenge, and of course the chirps of those creatures. Eventually, after two or so hours the man came across a small clearing on the side of the trail. This clearing had shade over a wooden picnic table, a small outdoor bathroom which had easily seen better days, and a payphone. The man sat down at the table, reached into his knapsack, pulled out and unfolded a map. The map had markings all over it. Black ink darted the paper ranging from circles, triangles, and phrases such as “Here?”. As he analyzed the map another person came marching down the trail. He was around equal height with our fellow at the table, closer to 50 years of age, had white skin (which harbored the beginning signs of sunburn), cargo shorts, hiking boots, greying black hair, a fisherman’s hat, and the smell of bug spray following him. As he sat down at the table the fellow with the knapsack began to put his map away. After securing it, he looked up at the man in glasses and said 

“Hiyah” 

The man in the fisherman’s hat replied with a smile and reached out for a handshake 

“Howdy, I’m Martin.” 

“Uh, Victor” 

After they shook Martin seemed to relax more comfortably into his seat 

“So, Victor what brings you up to Cambio Mountain?” 

“Family, my brother is just a bit further up the path.” 

“Your family come up here a lot?” 

“We use to, we kinda stopped when we got older. But when we were young we were up here all the time. Do you come up here a lot sir?” 

“Oh no, my kids told me about this place. We used to hike a lot too.” 

After a slight pause Martin continued 

“So, what’s your brother doing up here for?” 

“Oh, he has a little place here, and I’m finally taking the time to visit him.” 

“Really? I didn’t know there was private property up here.” 

“Yeah, our family’s owned a little “good for nothing” plot of land up here forever. There’s a gate coming up, that thing blocks it off from the main path.”  

“Oh, ok, I think I saw it on my way down. What’s your brother’s name?” 

“Ha-rum” 

“What’s that mean?” 

“Nothing, my dad just thought it sounded cool.” 

“Ha”  

After another pause Martin furthered his knowledge of Victor 

“So, are the two of ya close?” 

“Eh, we, kinda sorta drifted apart over some time. So, I’m trying to fix that.” 

“Well, I wish ya luck son.” Martin said as he got himself up  

Victor a little surprised let the man continue  

“Family ain’t easy, and fixing its even harder. It was nice talking to you Victor. Oh, and be safe when you get back to town.” 

Martin leaned in as if trying not to be heard 

“It’s those damn gangs again, ruining everywhere they go.” 

They shook hands  

“Thanks, you be safe too Martin, good talking to you.”  

Martin began marching down the path that Victor had come from, not looking back. Victor took a minute or two to think about him and Martin’s conversation, picked up his knapsack, and continued up through the trail. Another hour passed when Victor finally came up to the fabled gate that he had mentioned to Martin previously. When he got within kicking distance he looked around, up and down the trail, ensuring no one was coming or going. Victor ducked underneath the gate, looked one last time at the trail behind him and at the one in front of him, and continued upward. As victor walked the new trail it began to incline, becoming steeper and steeper. Nature itself didn’t seem to differ in the slightest, still breathing with life and noise.  

Eventually, Victor came to a clearing, the summit. The summit itself could see as far as the eye could. Showing miles of green oak trees and the thin trail that Victor had come from. Surrounding the summit was mostly thick bushes that reached up to Victor’s lower abdomen. With a single large oak on one end of the clearing. In the center of the apricot orange summit lay a large, grey, and dead tree stump. Tall enough to be used as a table if one decided to sit on the ground next to it. And protruding from the center of the stump was a large stone, large enough to be a headstone. The stone had etchings and shabby markings on one of its faces. Many of the markings were incomprehensible, whether it be from time, weather, or a mixture of both.  

At this point it was only an hour and a half away from sunset, so victor got to work. Reaching onto his knapsack, Victor pulled off his bed roll and layed it on the ground. After that Victor reached into his knapsack pulling out a picture frame, a glass bottle filled with a sloshing liquid, two drinking glasses, five candle holders, five candles, matches, a necklace, and a branch of lavender. Victor placed the picture frame next to the stone on the stump, placed the candles and candle holders around the picture and stone, put the necklace around the stone, the lavender branch next to it too, two drinking glasses in front of the picture, poured them their fill, and waited. As time passed nature’s hum continued onward, changing from bird’s chirps to those of crickets.  

It was only a few minutes until sunset was over 

Victor finally pulled out his matches and lit each of the candles. The light revealed a man in the picture frame. He had similar features as Victor, brown skin, brown hair, and a medium build. The only difference being the fact that he looked younger than Victor, hair that reached his shoulders, amber eyes, and a scar on his left cheek. Victor then sat down in front of the stump facing the stone, picture, and the large oak tree on the other side of the summit.  

The sun had finally fully gone down 

“Hey, Ha-rum. I know we haven’t seen each other in a while, but I wanted to talk to you.” 

Nature answered Victor’s request with more murmurs and chirps of its companions. 

“I wanted to tell you.”  

Victor paused, thought about what he was going to say. Then

continued 

“That I hated you, that I absolutely despised you. Everything you ever did was perfect, everyone you ever met thought you were perfect. You were able to succeed and excel in anything, be it school, sports, games, anything. If I ran three miles, you’d run nine, If I got straight A’s, you’d take more classes than me. You were mom’s little Adonis; hell, dad would call you “Hero Ha-rum.” After so many years I got so tired of your success and my mediocrity that I started to hate you. Everyone I knew wanted to be your friend or lover; I became the gateway to your life. I felt like nothing.  

Because even though you followed me around all the time and acted as my little shadow, I never even came close to being in yours. It was always miles ahead of me.”  

Victor drank from the cup closest to him and continued  

“So, when you and Paul became friends, I figured you’d be fine. You were smart, you wouldn’t get mixed up in any stupid junk, or so I thought. If I knew then what I know now, then I would’ve grabbed you by the collar and dragged you away from all of this. But a part of me wanted to see you slip and fall. Then we got into that fight, and you gave me this.” Victor motioned to his scarred lip “and I gave you that.” motioning to Ha-rum's scarred cheek 

“After another month you came crawling to me, begging for help. Saying you needed someone to help you, to save you from yourself. I saw my opportunity and told you to “Leave.” I blocked you on everything, I shut you from my life. But I realized something. 

I actually did love you. 

I began to hate myself; I began working on something to help you, but it was already too late.  

So, I’m, I-” 

Victor paused again 

“I’m sorry, you deserved better. I was so insecure about everything I did because I compared it to you. Even though you were leagues ahead of me I didn’t have to focus on you, I should’ve focused on me. You were always there for me, if I needed anything, you were there. Help on math homework? you were there. a workout buddy? you were there. and I took it for granted. Even when someone wouldn’t show up to work, you would cover them. You would even clock me in, so I’d still get paid. You were. Are. The best little brother anyone could’ve asked for. And I wish I could’ve told you this before everything happened.” 

The night was silent  

“So, I’m gonna make this right, no matter the cost.” 

At this moment Victor stood up, grabbed the bottle on the stump, took a syringe from his pocket, which was filled with glowing purple liquid, took a long drink from the bottle and threw it on the ground and said  

“So, what do you say Ha-rum?” 

Across from Victor in a bush next to the large oak tree on the other end of the summit was a glow of orange. Two large, glowing eyes illuminated from the bush. After a few seconds a large body walked out from the bush and came into the light.  

The whites of his eyes glowed orange while his pupils and irises were black, he was easily eight feet tall, his skin was grey, thick, and chalky like a rhino’s, his brown hair reached his shoulders, he was easily stronger than anything that Victor had even remotely come close to, he was wearing ripped clothing that didn’t fit him anymore, and he had a scar on his left cheek. The being growled out a booming 

“L E A V E” 

Victor with an un-paralleled motivation looked at him and said 

“Not till I make this right.” 

The next morning  

Martin was walking up the trail, came up to the clearing and sat down. As he sat, he drank some of the water from his bottle and looked around.  

“Nature and her companions in full swing.” He said in a reminiscent tone.  

 As Martin looked, his attention was pulled to further up the trail. He noticed two men slowly walking side by side, both had tattered clothes, similar builds, and hair. It looked like they were laughing about something. 

Martin smiled.