If we were doing sixty the train was probably doing fifty-five. The highway was parallel to the tracks but we were gaining speed because we needed to cross to the other side before the long train arrived at the railroad crossing. It seemed like we were going to beat it. We were getting closer. At that point, we had a better chance if I accelerated than if I’d try to use the brakes or chicken out.
My brother Ralph was always daring me to do stuff like that
and I was stupid enough to listen to him. On the other hand, Anthony was
always eager for a chance to reach another adrenaline high. He kept cheering.
Ralph was twenty-two years old. Anthony was seventeen, and I was nineteen.
***
I
was sleeping on the couch when I heard someone knocking at
the door. I didn’t want to get up, but whoever was at the door had been very persistent.
When I opened the door nobody was there. I was pissed but happy at the
same
time because I could go back to sleep. The moment I sat down, they
knocked
again, this time I hurried to the door but again, nobody was there.
Then, I stood alert and ready to jump and catch the funny guy
who interrupted my dreams. Even if it were one of my brothers, I would
kick his ass.
That's when I noticed they were knocking on another door, the closet door in front of the
couch across the room. What the hell?
I wasn’t mad anymore; that was a cool joke after all. I bet
it was my younger brother Anthony. Ralph wasn’t so inventive as to pull such a
smart prank. But I still wanted to kick somebody’s ass.
I
was smiling when I opened the closet door, but nobody
was there either. What the hell? I clearly heard someone knocking from
the
inside. How could they do that? Then I noticed a note taped to the shelf. It said, “You need to go to the cemetery. We’ll meet you
there.” it was signed by Ralph and Anthony.
They both knew how much I loved cemeteries. When we were kids,
I begged them to join me to the cemetery every year on the Day of the Dead even
though we didn’t have anyone to visit. The first time we smoked grass, we were
there. I remember it was a foggy night and just before midnight Ralph said,
“Shh, did you guys hear that?” We turned around and a second later we fled
like mad ghosts, laughing hysterically.
It
was almost dark when I arrived at the cemetery. We always
liked a mausoleum with a black marble surface, it had four thick Roman
columns and a
statue of a child angel. I went straight to that tomb, but they weren’t
there. I
kept looking for them until I found two mounds of fresh dirt, obviously
belonging to two recent arrivals. My brothers were there, but they looked transparent and foggy. That's when I remembered what had happened.
We didn’t make it to the other side of the railroad crossing.
The shock and pain had been so great, it had blocked my memory and reality of the accident.
The shock and pain had been so great, it had blocked my memory and reality of the accident.
“I miss you brother,” Anthony said to me right away. “We were
supposed to be together all our lives. We can’t be apart, remember? We can't be
with you anymore, but you can come with us. You have to brother, we need you."
Ralph
was weeping sadly. “We didn’t make it bro. Well, you
did, but not us. We don’t know what’s going on, but I think we'll soon have to leave this place because nobody else is here. But we don’t want
to leave
without you.”
“What’s the solution, how can I join you, do I have to commit . . . ?” I replied, but I had to stop before I
pronounced that ominous word.
“I
think the best thing we can do is to dig another hole next to our
graves, then you can lie down at the bottom while we fill it back.” said
Anthony.
As we began to dig, Ralph started to tell a story. He told us about the time he lost his virginity and about the silly situation he created when he dropped the condom in the dark and kept looking for it under the bed until he noticed he had it on one of his fingers. We laughed until we had tears in our eyes, even though we had heard that story many times before.
As we began to dig, Ralph started to tell a story. He told us about the time he lost his virginity and about the silly situation he created when he dropped the condom in the dark and kept looking for it under the bed until he noticed he had it on one of his fingers. We laughed until we had tears in our eyes, even though we had heard that story many times before.
Anthony told the story when he stole our dad’s
wristwatch to buy a heart pendant for mom on mother’s day. He was
only thirteen.
When it was my turn to tell my story, the silhouette of a man
appeared. He had a flashlight on one hand and a shovel on the other. He said, “What the hell are you doing? You grave robbers, sons of bitches!”
Not even a
second passed when I felt the shovel hitting the side of my head. I fell
on
my back semiconscious, but I still could see the gravedigger trying to
hit my
brothers too. Swinging the shovel left and right in vain and saying,
“What the
hell?” Until he realized that my brothers were the spirits of the two
young men he had recently buried. And he ran away faster than the train that
killed my brothers.
The following day there were three mounds of fresh dirt next
to each other.
But we weren’t there anymore.
Edmundo Barraza
Visalia, CA. Nov-14-2012
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