*******
Adam remembered that day as clear as crystal,
Damien had called home to tell them about the job he had just gotten. After he graduated as best of his class he had gone for Horsemanship for a year, done with that he had gone on to be an intern for the same hospital. Knowing his internship was coming to an end he had complained to Adam about being sad that he may leave there soon. But he liked the place and not even his father’s wealth could get him a spot, it was based on good merit, skills and practical accession. They were the best and they took human lives seriously so they wouldn’t want a doctor who didn’t know jack about telling a stomach ache from a person suffering from appendix or worse case scenario a swelling tumor and etcetera.
They were about 100 of them fighting for a 20 person’s spot and he didn’t know if he would pass the exam and practicals, he felt other interns there were better than him, he felt he couldn’t make it.
“Hey D, you do know that you are the smartest kid I know ” Adam told him over the phone
“ Yeah, you are just saying that to make me feel better” His voice was sad despite that he tried to laugh
“No son for real. You are. I mean besides that old bat of your father, you are the smartest. “
Damien chuckles “You do know he is like your father too right?”
Adam scoffs “Nah, But what I am trying to say is this..you can do anything you put your mind to. I mean did you see your S.A.Ts before you left high school, and they literally gave you an award for the best graduating student in Med school. And you did pretty cool at the houseman-ship and that’s what got you an internship into this great Hospital. So why do you doubt yourself bro?”
“ I don’t its just that…’’ he sighs “ its just that..I mean have you seen the interns here? They are like the fxxking geniuses of the entire planet bro. I mean even the girls here are so smart and so hot at the same time I feel I would literally burn if I touch’em. Adam, its messed up. I am going to flunk and get sent home, and worse I come back and settle as a local doctor in one small town. This place..this is like heaven mehn, the doctors are like gods here. This is where I gat to be and if I a’int here I am a failure’’
“No you are not. Well at least if you don’t make it we both can sit around here all day, read my stories to mum and gossip about that old bat and have a few dreams and fart in a box and give Mr Peppe down the street to sniff since he likes sniffing shits and dogs ass” Adam is smiling as Damien roars in laughter
“oh dear lord he still does that?’’
Adam could imagine Damien running a hand through his hair and pinching his nose, smiling from ear to ear.
“Hmmmhum!! He still does”
“That would be fun, and then maybe we can go on vacations and have lots of girls on a boat cruise and go to the ends of the worlds right?”
“ Exactly!!!’’ Adams replies, then he added “but we both know you are going to be a resident doctor in that hospital. You are going to fxxking soar, they would even beg you to sign that job on, I mean you are going to be amazingly great, trust me baby bro, don’t doubt you. I am waiting for that call that is going to blow my mind and make me feel like a proud father to a kid who was a rascal and followed me around like my shadow and loved me too much for his own good” Adam smiles
Adams thought back to how little Damien used to be and how he never wanted to go anywhere without him, even when their father..erm..Gerald took him out, if Adam wasn’t with him he would ball his lungs out and bellow loudly. Sometimes the look on Gerald’s face gave Adam the laughs, he was helpless, Gerald was, he did everything Damien wanted.
If he got something for Damien he had to get something for Adam, it might be of lesser quality or even very little but he had to do it anyways. Sometimes Adam wonders if Damien’s tantrums was on purpose to make sure Adam was at least part of his life and Gerald’s, but he was still a child then, of course he wouldn’t have thought of things like that. But as he grew up..his tactics didn’t change but intensified. He wasn’t going to go to school unless Adam was sent to school, he wouldn’t own a car unless Adam was at least given something to drive, he would take the pent house unless Adam agreed to come back home when he decided he had had enough of his father’s hatred for him and wanted to leave, and he threatened to run away unless Adam forgives his father for punching him in the face and had him arrested for coming back home late one day and with a girl.
Adams smiles shaking his head, there was so many reasons why he loved his brother, but one of them was the selfless love he had for others, placing them above himself.
“ Adams..hello, err bucket-head. Are you there? Wait don’t tell me are you with a girl, is she naked.. are you talking to me while a girl is waiting for you to kiss her legs and make her sing 7 different languages huh?’’
Adam laughs shaking his head , leave it to Damien to be..well.. Damien, “ I was just thinking about how leach -y you were as a boy”
“I was, you seemed a better buddy than dad. I mean, I couldn’t very well tell him about the first time I had s3x you know, or about pissing on myself the very first day I got knocked out from that coke I sniffed and dancing naked on a lawn and had those old cougers having a swell time, he would have killed me, being just 15 at the time, good thing I had you to cover for me and take care of me, even taking the blame”
“That’s what brothers do” Adam touches his jaw
“ I know. I love you man , you know that right ?’’ he could tell Damien was smiling as he told him
“ I love you too son, no homo. I mean I love girls too” Adam replies
‘’ Dick!!’’ Damien chuckles through the phone
“Prick!!’
“ hey, I am expecting that great news soon Damien , you know that right?”
“ yes father, “
Adam laughs. It was a good laugh.
For most of the day he avoided his father. Going into his mother’s room he had spent the day with her, she was barely able to move around on her own, he helped her around the house, did what she asked and needed.
Since he had refused to practice law he spent his days in his study writing, just writing. Writing gave him peace, it was an escape from the sadness he felt whenever he looked at his father, it enabled him dream of what is and what could be. In his little world of magic where his words weave up all that he never had, conjuring a loving father in his mind and making him love him, a healthy mother who never grows sick or stays in her room all day with a constant sadness and tiredness around her eyes when she sees her husband and first son always fighting and a brother..Damien, just the way he is, for there is nothing he would change about him.
Just like every other day, he had avoided Gerald and spent time with his mother, talking to her about Damien and how proud she would be of him when he gets his job.
