dude

The church sat on a small hill just beside the beach. Outside of the stain glass windows you got a perfect view of the waves crashing onto the glistening white sand. The waves washed away the footprints of two childhood friends who after many years ended up at the church to pay their respects to a dead friend who had kept them out of trouble many a time. The leaned on the window sill looking out at the beach while they talked about old times, old friends, and what the future will hold.

Mijo twitched and Tasi looked over. The funeral had been over for a while and they sat silently in the seats of the church to say prayers and wish the day would never end. The clouds were growing darker over the small town and lights were going off in the houses at a distance. People went to sleep early so they would wake up early to get work done. The town took care of itself and was almost isolated from the rest of the world. The houses were small and everyone knew everyone else. Mijo's mother moved there for that very reason. She always talked of the days when they lived in the big city and it fascinated mijo to hear about it because he was too young to remember when they did live there.

Tasi put her head back down and sighed. Tasi's parents had moved to the island to see the sights and decided to settle there. She had moved from Guam where she learned the language of Chamorro, which she speaks every now and again when she gets too upset.

As Tasi looked up Mijo started to speak and he stumbled on his own words.
"Well", he started to speak, "I was thinking that after this is all over I would leave"

She looked at him in confusion for a second and then started to speak herself.

"Like on a vacation? Where to?"

"No. Permanently, First I would like to go to somewhere big and make a living there working at a zoo. I would also like to take vacations to exotic places with nice people. Places like Switzerland and France and maybe Egypt and Guam. I would very much like to see your hometown."

"Oh, what about your younger brother Majo?"

"I was thinking maybe you could watch over him?"

Mijo's words sounded more like a question than a statement and he looked at her curiously. It started to rain out and they could hear the wind pick up outside the window and Mijo's brown eyes looked into Tasi's green eyes desperately and passionately questioning her every thought and movement.

"He'll miss you"
She tried to maintain her normal cool but she was breaking down and her expression was showing sorrow and remorse.

Mijo looked away at the beach and with the rain the sand looked more like mud and the normally beautiful trees were shaking in the wind as if they were waving to someone. Finally he spoke up and said, "I know but he'll be safe with you"

Tasi looked away as well and finally started to walk around to another bench. Mijo knew this as a sign because she always walked around when she wanted to emphasize a point.

"I know that for you it's going to be like losing another friend and that when Frank distanced himself from us I only stayed closer to watch over you. It's going to be hard for you isn't it"

Tasi stopped her long ranting session of things that could go wrong in the big city. She was in the middle of telling him he could lose all his money in one stroke and not be able to make it back to his home here and she looked at him when he interrupted by saying that. Her voice cracked and she had nothing more to say.

"Yes"

Shivers ran down Mijo's spine and he almost wished he hadn't said anything with the look on Tasi's face now. He got up and walked around the blue painted benches to where she stood and gave her a hug and she rested her head on his shoulder and silently sobbed. Mijo started to cry and got on his knees and prayed that everything would turn out for the best. Tasi got on her knees and took his hand and squeezed it and cried as well. That would be the last time they would share tears together and the last time they would look into each other's eyes.
The end of the day seemed to drag on. As they were leaving the church to the beach Mijo seen his little brother Majo walking down the street. Mijo was 18 years old but Majo was only 11 years old. Mijo ran over the little hill to catch up to his brother. Majo liked to hang a little ways away from the church on the hill on an empty ledge where you can just sit and look out to the water.

Tasi caught up to the two brothers who were now wrestling each other to the ground and laughing. Even with the smile on his face you could tell Mijo's mind was concentrated on something else. Majo was telling his brother of an enormous spider he found in the mailbox when he woke up and checked the mail. Mijo nodded but looked back at Tasi who gave a polite smile and held her hands together.

All three of them walked backed to Mijo's house, which was left to him by his mother when she died. Neither Mijo nor Majo had met their real father though their mother had a plethora of boyfriends. It seemed each boyfriend she had gotten seemed just slightly more out of it than the last. Both Mijo and Majo liked the last one though because he did things none of them thought of doing. He had taken Mijo skydiving once and Mijo had insisted that Tasi come too. Tasi said it was the worst experience of her life and she stayed inside for the next two weeks terrified that the ground might disappear and she'd have to go through it again. Majo had gone on roller coasters with the boyfriend all the time too. The only thing was they could never remember what the guy's name was because it was such an odd name.

They finally reached the house. It was a long walk because the house was all the way on the other side of the town and the streets seemed to stretch on forever and the rain was pouring on them the whole way there. Majo lended Tasi his hat though it didn't do much good but Mijo thought she looked pretty good in it.

When they got to the house Mijo's bright red 1984 Pontiac Firebird was sitting in the driveway. Mijo bought the car with the money he got from working at the yearly carnivals and his job as an assistant secretary at the eye doctors office. Mijo was going to leave the car to his younger brother but said that instead he could have the house mom left him if he leaves. Mijo told his younger brother to go inside because he had to talk to Tasi in private. This made his brother suspicious but he reluctantly obeyed. There was only one chair out on the front porch so he let Tasi sit down and he himself sat on the wood porch painted white. He noticed that the white was fading but he didn't want to repaint it. Mijo chipped away at the paint with his fingernails as he talked to Tasi.

"So I was thinking I'd give it another two months before I actually leave. I already have the house picked out. It's in Trenton New Jersey. I just wanted to give it some time so that Majo won't be as surprised when I actually do go ya know. Besides I can get a few more paychecks in by that time and save up a little more money just in case an emergency."

He could see that this topic was upsetting Tasi again so he decided to change the subject and with his mind working as fast and cunning as a fox at all times he thought up something brighter first.

"Slushies."
"What?"
"We should run down to the town to get slushies."
"Oh okay"
"Yo Majo get your booty down here man"

Footsteps came from down the stairs. Then there was a huge crash and the sound of glass breaking. Both Mijo and Tasi ran into the house as quick as possible to see Majo lying on his butt. They saw broken glass all over the floor and up the first two stairs. Then they looked down to see something even worse. There were shards of glass sticking out of Majo's left arm and blood was running all down his arm and a little out of his leg. A few shards had torn through his pants and they could see the red ooze flowing down his body to the floor. Majo didn't see it at first because he didn't feel it.

Majo had fallen down the entire staircase and crashed into the cabinet at the bottom, which he had attempted to grab on to. The cabinet was full of expensive blue glass cups and vases. Their mother had kept the sparkling blue glass in that cabinet and when she passed away neither Mijo nor Majo wanted to move it.

Mijo scooped up his little brother and ran to the bathroom as fast as he could. He grabbed the shards out of his brother's arm and that's when Majo felt the serious pain. He started screaming. He tried hard to retain the screams but he couldn't help it. Mijo pulled another huge shard out and this time Majo bit his lip hard to keep himself from screaming.
"It's ok bro if you need to scream. It will all be ok"

Tasi stood and watched and Mijo told her to go clean up all the blood on the floor in the front room next to the kitchen. Tasi obeyed and grabbed a rag and ran to the room with disinfectant and sprayed down the floor before washing it up. Mijo finished pulling shards out his brother's arm and leg and washed it down and bandaged his cuts to stop the blood flow.

Mijo carried his brother to his own room at the top of the stairs. Majo often slept in his big brothers room anyways because his bed was bigger and cozier. He layed him down in his own room. Mijo's room was his mother's old room because there were only two bedrooms in the house. Both bedrooms were upstairs and Mijo let his baby brother sleep in their bedroom and their mother slept in the other. Mijo had used to sleep down on the couch in the room Tasi was cleaning.

Mijo realized the house hadn't changed a bit since their mother passed away. Mijo was never home anyways when she was alive. He was always at Franks house because his house was really big and nice. Now that His mother had passed away only a short two years ago he regretted not staying home and helping her around the house and doing things with her.
Also now that frank is gone as well he regrets not hanging around him too much before he died. Frank had overdosed on pills and no one even knew he took pills. Mijo was one of the few people that knew he smoked too.

Majo rested in Mijo's bed and Tasi had finished cleaning the floor by the time Mijo walked down the stairs. They sat on the couch for a few seconds before Mijo got up and told Tasi he needs to change his clothes because he had blood all over his sleeve.

Mijo went up the stairs and straight in front of the staircase was the bathroom where he had just recently been to clean his brother from the blood. He walked to the right into his room and seen his brother laying on his bed fast asleep and he walked quietly to his dresser and opened up some drawers and grabbed a tie-dye shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. He pulled his favorite hat off of the doorknob where he always kept it. He closed the door and walked to the bathroom and seen that his hair was still wet from the rain. He decided that he would take a shower so he went down the steps and asked Tasi if she needed to use the bathroom. She declined and he handed her scrapbook tucked under the table nearby and said she could look at that while he took a quick shower.
Mijo walked up the darkly red-carpeted staircase back up to the bathroom. Opening the door he looked in the mirror to see the dark rings under his eyes. He sighed and stroked his hand through his still wet thin brown hair. He took off his bloody brown shirt revealing his thin body and undressed the rest of his clothes before turning the shower water on. He turned it to as cold as it would go. His body was burning and he couldn't think straight so he figured a cold shower would be the best thing to fix him up a bit.

He stepped in and his body froze immediately but he continued to wash up his body and shampoo his hair. It was his favorite shampoo. It made his hair smell like coconuts. He conditions his hair and scrubbed down his body. He was a little dirty from when he wrestled his younger brother to the ground earlier.

Downstairs on the couch Tasi looked through the scrapbook through old pictured of her and Frank and Mijo. She flipped through a couple of pictures of her giving Majo a piggyback ride. Also a couple of pictures of Mijo and Frank giving each other piggyback rides. Seeing these pictures made Tasi realize that she couldn't lose another friend.

Ten minutes later Tasi lay sitting on the couch at the bottom of the stairs and Mijo finished up his shower. He pulled back the shower curtain and dried his body off with his black towel with flame symbols on it. He looked once more at the dark rings under his eyes once again. They looked lighter this time and his eyes had shifted to a lighter shade as well. Steam had surrounded the whole bathroom. Mijo threw on his boxers and tie-dye shirt and slipped into his dark blue jeans. The jeans were a little baggy so he threw on his only belt and made his way down the stairs.

He hadn't bothered combing his hair so he just shook it off as he made his way down the stairs. He made sure to see if there was any glass left on the stairs. He had seen Tasi looking at him curiously as he made his way to the couch. The look slowed him down and made him wonder what was wrong.

"What happens if we tag along?"
"We?"
"Your brother, Elisa, and I."
"Elisa" he replied in shock and confusion.
"Well why not if your going and I'm going why not drag along the whole gang?"
He stopped for a second and let the words she said process in his head before he said anything. He knew somewhere in her words she had invited herself along and tried to say it slyly so he wouldn't notice.

"Ok who said that I was taking you?"
"Well aren't you?" she replied quickly with a solemn look on her face before he had the chance to argue.

"Ahh ok you win fine I'll take you along. Promise not to cause any trouble though. I'll keep an eye on Majo if you keep an eye on El'."

She took a moment to consider it but she knew she would already say yes to the conditions without a doubt. After all El did live with her in her own house. El' had come to the town with a group of tourist but when she seen how beautiful the town was she wanted to stay. When El' ran into Tasi they became friends right off the bat and Tasi said she could stay in her house if she promised to take care of groceries after the first two months in the house. Tasi got her a job down at the De Lans hospital she works at as an assistant nurse.

"One last problem" Mijo spoke up. "The houses? What about the houses?"

"Sell them it will get us the money we need to get started right? This place is a tourist attraction anyways we'll get some good deals."

"Ok but what about the house up there are we all supposed to stay there? I mean El, Majo, You and Me.?"

"True that. How big is the place? Big or small?"

"Well I was only planning to stay by myself, selfish as that is, but it's big enough to support us all. Two story about the size of this place, but with one more bedroom. So someone's got to' share a bedroom."

Tasi took it into consideration and before speaking ran quickly to the kitchen in the next room and poured them both soda.