823 words, 4 minutes read time.
“Are they looking down on us right now?”
“I am not sure about that, bud. But do I hope so? Yes, absolutely.”
Bryan and Balumo were just 3 year old twins when 23 years ago while taking a vacation stroll down a narrow rocky shoreline near the ocean along with their parents. It was a warm evening and the family was enjoying themselves when a rising tide slammed into the family.
Their mother, Mrs. Slecher held Bryan strong enough to avoid falling off the shoreline and into the vastness of the ocean. In an unfortunate turns of events, while Mr. Slecher did get hold of Balumo in his right hand while hanging on to the cliff with his injured left one, the next wave came in quick and fast. They both went down and hit the rocks below and subsequent waves took them down into the ocean.
“They spent 20 years looking for you. In the beginning I held on to the false hopes from our mother that you would come back soon enough from the hospital just like our father did. But as days and months passed, I went numb. I had all for myself. The extra care I got while you were away did soak up a lot of my emotional toll.”
“I will have to go back soon enough. I need to attend to their care now and give back what they gave me all these years.”
Mr. Slecher was found on a beach 9 miles away the next morning by the coast guard officers but there was no trace of Balumo. Due to the incessant requests of Mrs. Slecher and the local community, the city mayor Mr. Roshan pressed the state’s Home Ministry to let the coast guard contiue their search, atleast for a week more.
“How are they doing? When I visited a month ago, they looked to be doing good.”
“You were a guest. They had to behave and contain themselves. I have saved enough to get my mother to have her kidneys fixed. My father wants all to be done for her first. He won’t listen to me. He needs to get his liver transplant as soon as possible.”
Balumo, miraculously survived the mightly waves and was found by a fishing couple the next morning, 21 miles away from where they stand today. Entangled in their fishing net, Mr. and Mrs. Flair had thought they had secured their cash. Instead, they found the child which the god had denied them till then.
While the city council and the mayor did whatever they could to find the little boy, one thing they didn’t was listen to bedridden Mr. Slecher to advertise the missing boy hunt on both the radio and the television. Slamen is a small coast city and they did not have enough funds back then for the initiative. The mayor had already used up all his might to get the Home Ministry to fund the coast guard overtime search.
“I know we had been separated for 23 years. We have both lived different lives. I even get to say that I am the luckiest man in the world, for I am the son with 2 mothers and 2 fathers. But I hope you will help me in this hour of need. I am sorry if I embarrass you but my parents need medical care and I don’t have enough for both.”
“Are you stupid, Balumo. You are my brother. You are my other half. You are my blood. Our parents spent 20 years of their lives finding you in vain. But they still left 50% of everything they ever made for you. We will take good care of our parents. Wait, can I say that?”
“Dumbo, yes, you can. They saved your twin brother. They cared for me, sent me to college, and gave me everything I asked. All while earning scraps. Isn’t that what our parents did for you too?”
Mr. and Mrs Slecher died in a car crash 3 years ago while returning from a nearby city where an old acquaintance had called them due to mistakenly identifying a man to be resembling Bryan.
“Let’s go save our parents. Let’s not lose what’s ours, ever again. Light will shine on our family, perhaps blessed by our parents who are in god’s lap now.”
“Thank you, Bryan. Someday in the peace and quiet of these waves, I will recite you my life. For now, we move.”
Mr. and Mrs. Flair had come across a local newspaper ad run by Mr. Slecher 6 months after the waves took Balumo. The ad had a picture of Bryan for people to identify Balumo. They both knew at once who their child was and where he came from.
They never contacted the Slecher family. For they thought, whatever god sends their way, shall be their way.
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