Red Cape

He thought he was going to die.

"Brass? Brass? Please!" He heard a feeble desperate call coming from his right, drowning in the loud ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes, slowly, and in a sudden pain surged all over his body. He tasted a scent of blood in his mouth. Red dripped from his aching nose. He turned towards the owner of the voice.

"Mum?" He said weakly. The woman's eyes were red in tears. Her face was stained with blood and peppered with fresh wounds. "Thank god." She let out a sigh of relief when she heard his voice and started to sob. Two deflated balloons hung from the dashboard of the ruined vehicle. The shattered glass from the broken windshield twinkled like stars. The head of the car was disformed.

He wanted to look back to check on his brother, but his mother stopped him. Putting her hand on his cheek, she repeated as though chanting a mysterious scripture, "Don't look back, honey. Don't look back." He realized something. Tears welled up his eyes. Lights flashed from outside the car.

"Did you find the Krypton star?" Brian asked. Moonlight poured over the two brothers. The fireflies on the meadow danced between each tip of blades. Brass carefully turned the focus knob of the telescope as he peeked through the eyepiece. He maneuvered the mount, thousands of stars flew by the lens as he moved left and right. He didn't know how to use a telescope, but he managed to figure a little out by himself. The telescope belonged to an old geezer, Mister Light Bulb, (they call him due to his incredible baldness) living next door that likes to stargaze every night, and he always forgets to bring it in after he is done.

"No." Brass answered. His back was getting sore for sitting on the stool too long. 

"Let me try it." Brian begged. Sounds of waves echoed from under the cliff. His red blanket tied to his shoulder fluttered in the breeze.

"No." 

"Please."

"You don't know how to use it."

"You don't either."

"Of course I do! See?" He demonstrated it to his brother. Brian frowned. 

When Brass looked back to the eyepiece, all he saw was red.

"Brian! get your blanket off the telescope!"

"It's not a blanket, it's a cape!"

"Ughh, why are you taking it everywhere?"

"My turn for the telescope." Brian said, giving Brass a serious look.

"Fine!" Brass moved over in exasperation. Brian took the stool and looked into the eyepiece excitedly. Brass sat on the grass, watching a firefly perched on his finger as he waited for his turn again to use the telescope. His brother had been a comic geek and recently wanted to drag Brass into the eddy with him too. Brian looks scrawny, has a round face and straight hair, and Brass in turn, looks bulky, has a freckled square face and black spiky hair. 

"I thought the Krypton star exploded?" Brass said.

"What if it didn't?" Brian looked at him, beaming, eyes wide with wonders.

"Yeah, what if it didn't?" A creaky old sound questioned from behind him. They turned. It was Mister Light Bulb.

"Mister Light Bulb!" They screamed in unison. Brian fell down from the stool on to the grass. Brass tugged his red blanket to pull him up quickly so they could run back home before the old geezer could get his hands on them. The telescope fell during the fuss.

The two brothers ran downhill, screaming loudly.

"Don't come back again, you trouble makers!" Mister Light Bulb flung his hand angrily.

One of his teeth was being knocked out during the crash. The doctor told him not to worry about that, because his canine teeth are going to replace the vacant space sooner and later. There was a deep scar on the bridge of his nose, cut by the glass piece flying everywhere in the car when the truck hit them, and a plaster was put over it.

"Where's Brian?" He asked. The patient room was cold. He could hear the whistles coming out from his mouth when he talks.

The doctor didn't reply. She bit her bottom lip and looked at his father sitting beside him, whose hair was messy and unkempt. His dad didn't say anything either, only blinking tiredly at the corner of the room with his eyes that seem like a void. The silence was suffocating.

"Titan is back from the vet, she'll be fine." His dad gave him a worn-out smile, steering away the topic of the conversation.

He felt empty. 

The sea breeze twirled around them as they were dangling their legs on the wooden pier not far from their house one Sunday afternoon. The ocean pulled and pushed under them, rumbling and gurgling as though it was hungry for the ice-creams in their hands. The seagulls cackled as they soared in the pale turquoise sky. Brian's cape slithered in the wind like a fiery snake.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" The question slipped out Brass's mouth.

"I don't know. Maybe...like...a comic artist?" Brian licked the vanilla cream on the cone while turning it around 360 degrees to keep the melted cream at bay. "Or maybe a firefighter, if a comic artist doesn't work."

"Why the firefighter?"

"So I can save people, like superman. "

"Superman superman superman. Why do you like superman so much?"

A loud bark exploded from behind. They flinched and nodded towards the sound. It was a dog, short pointy-eared, muscular built and had a wrinkled face that looked much older than Mister Light Bulb's. Its black, scaly nose was pointing towards them and it was standing in a threatening stance. They instantly recognized the breed of the dog, it was a pitbull, but its fur was smeared with mud and dirt.

They didn't dare to move as they knew pitbulls were dangerous (their father told them) and they had heard of people getting torn apart by these kinds of dogs. 

They stood up, cautiously, and raised up their hands to make themselves look bigger. Their hearts were pounding, and they locked eyes with the beast. At the end of the pier, there was nowhere to run except for diving into the sea.

"I count to three, and we jump into the sea, okay?" Brass said.

"But, I don't know how to swim!" Brian whispered loudly. The dog stood still like a statue, its eyes jerking from Brian to Brass.

"Do you want to get drowned or bitten to death?" Brass inhaled.

"Well I don't want to die!"

"One…" Brass started his countdown, moving a step back to the edge, giving no chance for Brian to hesitate.

"Brass!" Brian pleaded, sweat poured over his head. His hands and feet turned cold.

"Two…" Brass took another step back. The pitbull growled and bared his teeth.

"Wait, I have an idea-"

"THREE!" Brass pinched his nose dived into the ocean. The whole world quieted down around him as the water filled up his ear.

He moved his limbs. His head poked through the currents of the wave, gasping for air. He turned around, he couldn't see Brian anywhere. He didn't jump.

"Brian?" He looked up. The dock was far away from him. The current was strong. He realized he was being pulled away by the ocean. He hugged on the wooden leg of the dock. He thought of jumping off the pier to escape, but he didn't think of how to get up.

He wasn't sure if Brian was alive up there, but he didn't hear anything from under, which made him very worried. 

He tried to climb up, but the pillars were too slippery.

"Brian!" He called out again. 

"Brass?"

"You're alive!"

"Of course I am! Where are you?!" 

"I think I'm stuck!"

A red blanket was lowered from the side of the pier. "Grab it!"

"Are you sure you can lift me up?"

"Don't worry! I'm not alone!" 

Brass gripped on the blanket. He felt a tug and he was dragged on to the planks in a split second. Puddles formed around him, and he was shivering in his soaked clothes. He could hear Brian laughing at him. 

"Good boy! I'm going to call you Titan!" Brian patted the pitbull's head lovingly. The dog licked his hand in response, its tail wagging left and right like an exuberant metronome. The rolled up cape lied on its paws silently.

"What? How?" Brass exclaimed.

"It only stood there, it doesn't mean it was going to hurt us," Brian said, tying the fabric over his shoulder. "Things aren't so terrifying anymore after you get to know it better."

The breeze lifted up his cape to the air.

Brass stared at the comic books in the box. Brian's room was almost empty. After the funeral, they cleaned everything out. 

It's hard to believe that someone could disappear from your life so quickly...and so suddenly, he wasn't even prepared, and it felt like Brian was still here, somewhere in the living room, scribbling his new comic book on the glass table with his colour pencils scattered all over the floors. And Titan will come, then they would have to wrestle with the dog to keep it from gobbling down the pencils.

He heard knockings on the door. It was mum. After the accident, her legs were paralysed and she had to walk around in crutches and sit in a wheelchair to get to places. 

"Are you alright?" Mum questioned. To be honest, Brass thought he should be the one asking the question. After Brian left he could hear cries coming from his parents room, almost every night, when he was awakened by the same dream of the crash that seemed to be stuck in his head.

"I'm fine."

"You can put the box down at the stairs when you're ready." She whispered softly and hobbled off.

"What are you doing?" Brass squatted down beside Brian.

"I'm making my first comic book." Brian answered, switching the colours of markers in his hands without lifting his head.

Brass stared at the figures on the paper. There were five of them, all of them were wearing different coloured suits with the same symbol of a japanese character, "巨". Brass knew what it means, it means 'Giant'. He knew because their mother told them they have Japanese ancestry and they started learning the language right after.

"What is that?"

"The Titan squad, I haven't named their members yet. Got any ideas?"

Brass contemplated at the one with a green suit. Without a second he thought, he said while laughing, "Captain Twinkle Butt."

"Brass, serious." Brian said and pouted his lips.

"Okay, okay. Uhh…Captain...uhh...Metal Fist? " 

Brian bit on the cap of the marker. After a while he nodded, "That's a good name." Then, he started to write the name below the green-suited figure. "Maybe we could be partners. I draw, you think about cool stuff, and we could have a comic company, Fischer brothers and co."

"Sounds great!" Brass smiled, albeit he knew the idea was impossible. Brass and Brian were only nine and seven, a nine and seven years old couldn't run a company. 

Yet it wouldn't hurt to at least have a little hope.

His gaze stopped on the red cape Brian always wore wherever he went.

"I'm still wondering, why do you keep wearing your blanket everywhere?"

"It's not a blanket, it's a cape!" That familiar words again.

"Yeah, why? You want to be superman?"

"Not really, I just need it to remind me of hope."

"Hope?"

"Brass," Brian put down his markers and started his speech dramatically, standing up. "From all the comics I have learned, is that superman is always there, guiding the people through the perils of the world. Do you know what that means?"

"No." Brass shook his head. Brian had wild imaginations, and he saw things from perspectives Brass had never thought of.

"Superman is hope, Brass. He watches over the citizens of Metropolis, lingering in the corners of the city. When he was out of his disguise, you wouldn't even know he was there. But guess what, he is, just like hope. We can't see it, but it never leaves, forever ready to guide us through the darkest days."

"So you want to be a hero?"

"Pfft, everyone can be a hero. But I would like to be hope, you can't see me, but I'll always be there by your side." Brian sat down and continued to scribble his comic.

Titan put her head on the side of his bed and whimpered. She sensed that someone was gone, and the sadness in the house had been growing.

The dim night light glowed from the foot of the bed. It was twelve midnight, but Brass couldn't sleep. 

He looked at Titan, and put his hand on her head. He told her, "It's gonna be okay."

Titan blinked. Hot boiling tears welled up Brass's eyes. He wiped them off, but they kept on coming, soon he couldn't stop them anymore, so he let them flow. 

He swallowed, everything was bitter.

His relatives had been visiting them for three days now, giving words of consolation, but it only reminded him that he lost someone.

He wished that this was just a dream. One day, he'll open his eyes and wake up, then Brian will be there, wearing his cape.

He sobbed loudly, it was difficult to breathe.

"Where's dad?" Brian asked. 

"Dad took Titan to the vet. She was puking a lot in the morning," The keys clinged between Mum's hand as she was pulling the socks up her legs. "Come on, wear your shoes, the store will be too crowded if we get there too late."

"Okay." Brian said, less energetic than he usually was. Brass, as his closest and only brother, noticed that too.

"Is something wrong?" Brass asked worriedly, slipping his feet into his sandals.

"I don't feel right today." 

"Do you?" Mum crouched and put her hand on Brian's forehead, testing his temperature. "You're fine."

They got in the car. The sun was bright, and the sky was cloudless. They bought some groceries, and mum pulled over at Grandma Lily's to get the cookies she baked for them, the brothers waited in the car.

The air conditioner was running. Brass saw Brian fidgeting in the back seat through the back mirror, he had been a bit too quiet.

Brass looked back and questioned, "Brian, you're scaring me. What's wrong?"

"Have you ever heard of people having a feeling that they were going to die and they did?" Brian's face was pale. 

"You're joking, right?" Brass leaned against the back seat on his front so it was easier to talk.

"I hope," Brian said, "Brass, if I died, I want to give my cape to you. Don't be too sad okay?" 

Smile faded from Brass's face, Brian looked serious.

The door was being pulled open, mum crawled in the car, pearls of sweat hung from her head. "Damn hot out there." She sighed.

10 minutes later, a truck and their car met. 

2 second later, a metal piece broke through the windownshield.

1 second later, it slashed through Brian's head like a blade.

The cape flowed behind his back.

The hill was steep. The leaves in the tree rustled. The grass crackled under his feet. Brass held the bouquet of lilies tightly in his hands. The wind fondled his hair gently.

He stopped in front of a tomb. On it, it reads:

Brian Fischer

2000-2007

Rest in Peace

He placed the lilies in front of the tombstone and gazed at the picture of the round-faced child beaming in the daylight. After a moment of hesitation, he sat down. He decided to stay here for a little while.

He touched the red cape on his shoulder.  

Things come and go. Losing looks terrifying at first, but people move on. 

Maybe Brian was here, lingering, like hope. He left but never leaves, forever here, ready to guide.