My brother and I are very different.
We might have the same eyes and the same hands and the same parents. But he is confident, smart and talented. And I am not.
This is even more apparent to me as we walk through the restaurant, with myself following his lead as we bob and weave through groups of people into the outdoor patio.
Unlike me, Aaron is tall and stands a head over most of the people in the restaurant. I am three years younger than him and still growing, but that doesn't mean I can't be jealous. And that doesn't mean I can see where I'm going, blocked by all these people.
So when we reach the open patio, where people begin to thin out as we distance from the bar, I'm relieved to not have gotten lost.
I watch as my brother walks past the young and cute waitress who'd been noticeably bummed out when the older waitress stole our table from her stewardship, who also less than gracefully wink at my brother over the course of our meal. She looks up at him as she walks by and they hold eye contact. He flashes a confident smile, refusing to break eye contact, and turns around to talk to her. She does the same.
This is not unusual activity. Girls line up to fall over my brother. Even before he graduated, girls three years younger than him, girls in MY grade, would gossip about their crushes on him. And he loves the attention. Especially when they're pretty.
"Do I know you?" He asks, forgetting about me entirely. I could get kidnapped by a gang and turn into a crime boss before he realizes I was gone.
Her eyebrows knit together and she meets his sly smile with one of her own. She has blue eyes and really blonde hair. So blonde that it looks too blonde to be natural.
I kind of zone out as they flirt for a minute. I've got math homework due tomorrow but I really don't want to do it. Might just have to get it done in class before Ms. Lisa collects it. The Logan classic; wait til the last minute and put in minimal effort but get an A anyways. School is a joke.
Before I know it Aaron is on the move again and I fall in tow, not realizing where the pretty waitress went. We loop around the patio back into the fray and clamor of the bar area, and I realize he originally led me that way to talk to the waitress.
We walk along the wall, passing great ocular windows which look as if they were meant for stained glass but the builders wanted a more modern, clear window. I watch as a brown suburban almost rear ends some teenager in a beater. Almost his lucky day.
"Logan," my brother says, bringing me back to earth. "Let's go." I didn't even realize how far back I strayed. We pass more windows, the fervor of the restaurant fading into background noise. And as we step out of the wide double door entrance to the restaurant, I see something from out of a nightmare.
A monstrous floating creature rests above the brown suburban, its size taking up most of the immediately visible street. It's covered in brown fur, and quite literally floats in the air like a balloon. It's ears are almost catlike, and a grimace of jagged white teeth glimpse out through the brown.
Its great white eye is staring right at me. I stop and stand still as a mouse caught in the gaze of a cat.
I expect Aaron to shout, people to scream and panic and run away from this aberration. But nobody moves. Nothing changes. Aaron, already walking down the street toward his parked car again calls for me. Not hearing a response, me being preoccupied with this alien figure, he turns around.
I'm afraid to tear my eyes away from it, feeling as though as soon as I look away it might decide I look tasty enough to eat. What other purpose might this creature have with those teeth but a predatorial one?
But when I do look away, and at Aaron, his look is puzzling.
"Can you see that?" He asks, nodding to the giant brown creature.
"Obviously!" My voice is a stressed shout. "Am I dreaming? What is that thing?".
His expression darkens. "You shouldn't be able to see it."
"Aaron I'm freaking out! What is it? Why are you so calm?".
"Don't worry about it. It won't hurt you. It doesn't care about you at all, actually."
"It's looking right at me!" I tell him. This has to be a dream.
"I'm telling you, you're fine. Calm down." He gestures with his hands.
The waitress walks out of the restaurant with a slip of paper in her hand, but her eyes widen as she too notices the demon. "Woah!" She says.
I watch as Aaron's expression goes from sour to surprise.
"You have the sight?" He asks.
"Why is that surprising?" I yell aggravated, still under a panic and confused as to why I shouldn't be able to see whatever this thing is. I'm not sure if I should run or punch him. What did he mean by 'sight'?
The waitress also looks surprised. "You can see it too?"
"What is it?" I ask, tensed up and ready to run back inside if the creature made any fast movements.
"Don't worry, they never do anything. They just kind of sit there and watch you," the waitress tells me. "They just do their own thing most of the time. I can't believe you guys can see them too." She's bewildered.
My heart starts to calm as the creature remains passive.
Aaron speaks up, "Let's go somewhere less public and I'll explain it to you guys."
I sprint down the street as unlocks his gray 2017 WRX STI. I shoot for the front but he locks the car again and makes me sit in the back, giving the waitress the front seat. He starts up the car and rolls up the windows. And queues up a song for good measure.
Don Tolliver. Too Many Nights.
"Alright. Logan, do you remember how dad would leave for months at a time, and it would be random? Like, he'd get a call and just vanish for forever, and we thought it was the ships?"
I nod. My father was a shiphand. On call 24-7. No vacations.
"That's a lie. I'm not sure he ever touched a ship." He was older when our father died. He knew him better, and so had more to lose at his passing. "He would be able to see this creature, if he were here right now."
I listen without saying anything while he continues.
"Like myself, and like both of you apparently, he had what we call the sight. Which is the ability to see these creatures, which are called Agannah. Some are born with it, some aren't. And only one child from his or her father can have the sight. All other siblings are born unable to see the creature you saw."
"What are they?" The waitress, Kate, asks. "I thought I was crazy for years. They diagnosed me with schizophrenia!"
"I guess like ghosts. Or spirits. Some are good, some are bad. They live in a separate dimension layered on top of ours. And only we privileged few can see them."
I have so many questions, but something about what he said regarding the single inheritor of the sight confused me. "You said only one child from-"
"Kate I don't mean to keep you from your work. Are you on the clock right now?" He interrupts.
"Yeah but this is way more important. I thought I was psychotic until fifteen minutes ago. You don't get how vindicated I feel right now." Her pretty face takes on a rosy tinge. "Also, I came out to give you this." She hands him a slip of paper. Her number.
His confident smile returns. "I'll call you later and explain more about it, but you should get back to work before you get fired." He jerks his head in my direction. "I've also gotta take him back home for curfew."
She says her goodbye and I jump around to the front seat. My brother drives home quickly. Much faster than normal. I remain silent most of the way.
"What you said about there only being one son who can inherit the sight. Why can I see?" I ask.
His hands grip the wheel tightly, and I can see the veins bulge. His jaw clenches.
"Don't you get it?" He asks. "Mom betrayed us. She cheated. One of us isn't Dad's son."