Hoko

The night sky stretched far beyond his reach. To make sense of it all, he seemed far away and yet still within the universe at the same time. The stars reflected through out his eyes like a kaleidoscope burning through his sockets. Almost as if it were a gas lamp that has been left on for too long.

I long to hold him again. I yearn to talk to him. But some things are impossible to ask for. Sometimes it’s too late to turn back.

Every night I’m able to cross over into the world of the living just for a little while. Enough to see my twin brother, Hoko. I sit next to him and we talk about how our day went. Honestly it’s more like I talk and he just listens. Hoko is always looking at the sky silently. Then I wonder what the world is like to him now. Is it black? Can he still see things in his mind through memories?

In mid spring my brother Hoko lost his eyesight.

When we were kids we were in a really bad accident. We often played by this old factory that sat in the far back of our town. Our town sat right in-between two major cities. We get a lot of strange people passing through here all the time. They come and go and no one ever stays here. It’s a pretty lonely place if you looked at it from an outsider’s perspective. But Hoko and I never minded it much, we liked our home.

After we finished with school we would walk together to our usual spot. Though on one particular Thursday, Hoko was running late because of soccer practice. So I went off by myself and waited there. I sat in the red dirt against the beige tin walls of the factory. Rolling a smooth round pebble between my hands. The factory was quite old and the town didn’t use it as often anymore. It was more of a storage unit than anything.

As I waited the sky lulled into cool pinkish-orange hues. The birds hushed themselves and the only sound that proudly took the outdoor stage were the cicadas in the nearby trees. Despite being a ways from the sea I could still smell the salt that was dragged along with the breeze.

After half and hour Hoko finally arrived and we played our usual game of soccer. We would kick off our shoes and use those as markers for the goal. By the time we finished a game we were always covered in red dirt. We wore bandaids like clothes that’s the kind of kids we were. Our mom would be pissed at us once we made it home. She’d march us straight to the bath before anything else. That’s what our daily routine was like…

most days.

Hoko always carried around a small black book in his bag. It was a gift from me last year for his birthday. He would draw all the time and he was amazing at it. He had this one drawing of a butterfly with the galaxy as it’s wings. That was my favorite piece of his, it was so cool. Though as talented as he was Hoko never seemed to care much for compliments.

My brother is really a nonchalant kind of person especially when it came to his things. He’d always throw his bag on the ground and his school supplies would fly out. There would be pencils and pens all over the place and even his homework would get dirty. Let’s just say he wasn’t popular with our english teacher.

That evening we played until just before the sun went down. Hoko and I went to grab our things that sat up against the factory wall. Then suddenly we heard a clinging sound from inside. We wanted to check out what is was so we peeked around the corner into a slit between a pair of factory doors. It was pretty dark in there by that time. Only a few rays of sunlight lit the enormous room. To be fair we never cared to look inside the factory before. We always thought it would be a bunch of boxes or something.

We were right.

There were just boxes and crates in there. The only thing that was a little different was that there were three big tanks filled with some kind of liquid that sat in the center. We strained our eyes trying to see clearly. Then we saw two big guys dressed up in suits walk in.

The two guys didn’t look like ordinary business men. They were a bit more flashy and they had tattoos that wrapped around their fists and necks. They looked like gangsters like the kind you see in movies. All the way down to the rough beards and slicked back hair. It seemed like they were arguing about something. They started shoving one another back and fourth until suddenly a loud bang echoed through the factory.

The men jumped and quickly ran off to a car in the front. Hoko and I looked at each other with bewilderment that quickly changed into curiosity. We both gave each other the signal to squeeze our way through the doors. The doors pinched our small waists as we peeled our way out of it. When we got inside we found a briefcase next to one of the giant tanks. We walked over to the case investigating and poking at it with a stick.

Hoko looked at me and said “maybe it’s a bomb”.

In which I replied “you better hope it’s not”.

We hesitated to open the briefcase, we knew it wasn’t a good idea in the first place to snoop around. But there we were, snooping around. We’re typically good kids but some times curiosity does get the best of us.

I flipped up the latches making a clicking sound. Then slid my hands to both sides of the case. I looked at Hoko and we both counted to three.

“1, 2…3!” we shouted.

I flung it open so fast the case toppled over. Since we didn’t blow up we both let out a sigh of relief. Hoko picked up the case from the floor and turned it over again. Out came tons of cash, just dancing it’s way down to the floor.

Hoko shouted out “Oh my gosh! Do you know how much ice-cream I can buy with this!”

But something didn’t seem right. Why would those sketchy guys leave a bunch of cash here? It wasn’t just pocket money either. I mean it was $20,000 of cash!

I looked at Hoko as he went picking up the fly aways. Then in a split second I saw a hundred dollar bill with a red string tied to it. Immediately my stomach turned inside out and my face felt like all the blood was instantly drained from it. I just knew in my gut that it was something really bad. Before I could stop Hoko from pulling that string. A clicking sound went off and a massive ball of flames swallowed us up whole.

Hoko’s terrified face was the last thing I saw before I died.

It’s been 2 years since then. Hoko and I are identical twins. Sometimes we would stand in front of each other and people would freak out because it'd look like a mirror suddenly appeared out of no where. Even mom would mix us up at times. The only difference between Hoko and I was that he was an amazing artist. He’s always had the talent for catching details. I even got him that fancy little black book so he’d keep drawing. I never told him enough about how I loved his drawings.

I wish I did.

When I visit Hoko in the night and watch him stare at the stars. He always has that little black book next to him. He can’t hear me when I speak to him and he can’t see me since he is blind now. On top of all that, now that I’m a ghost it’s not like I can touch him either.

But I can touch objects. I guess as a ghost we can touch things from the living realm momentarily.

He doesn’t draw anymore, because he can’t. So I draw for Hoko, even though he will never see it. I still draw in his little black book every night…

Our mom called Hoko back into the house.

“Mom I miss Ken” says Hoko

“I miss him too” says Mom

Mom grabs the little black book on the dining table and flips through it. Running her skinny fingers along the side of the pages. She smiles, “I didn’t know you still draw in this old thing”.

Hoko replies “Mom what do you mean, I haven’t drawn in that since Ken passed away”.

“Well the pages are filled with drawings here” says Mom

“What drawings? Drawings of what?” asks Hoko

“Butterflies sweetie, how could you forget you’re the one who drew them” she said playfully.

Hoko’s eyes welled up with tears and a smile grew on across his face.