8:48p.m.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Bill could see the dust swirling in the small chink of yellow light streaming in between the hastily closed curtains. Yellow light? That meant the sun. Bill loved the sun. He very rarely got to see it these days. It wasn’t very sunny in his part of Germany and he never really got to spend a lot of time outside during the day. He spent his days, when he wasn’t at Georg’s or someone else’s house, sleeping and cleaning and caring for Tom. His nights were spent crawling the back streets, looking for work or else hiding from Bushido.

Tom shifted beside him. It was almost time to wake up. Bill looked over at him. For the first time in 3 days he looked peaceful. Maybe not happy, but he hadn’t woken up in the night screaming for him. Tom had his arm flung over Bill and the other folded awkwardly under his head, his legs tucked under himself. Bill bit back a laugh; sometimes his brother would sleep in the oddest positions ever. Smiling, he gently removed Tom’s arm from his waist and sat up. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and sweeping back his jet black hair. It was starting to get longer and spiking it up wasn’t so easy anymore. He looked down at his hands. Clearly he hadn’t showered before going to bed the night before, or bothered to take his make up off either. He sighed quietly to himself. Standing up, Bill crossed to the window and threw open the curtains. The sunlight blinded him as it poured through the window. The boy yawned and sat back down on the bed to wake his twin up.

“Tomi?” he whispered gently against his ear. This was the easiest way to wake him up as it didn’t scare him so much. Tom stirred a little, mumbled something incomprehensible and turned over. Bill blew a thin stream of warm air into his eyes and shook his elbow. “Wake up Tomi” he giggled. He mumbled again and opened his eyes. He blearily looked up at his brother and blinked a few times.

“B-Billa?” he yawned.

“Wake up Tomi! Look, look out the window! It’s sunny Tomi!”

“S-Sunny?” he croaked. He sat up properly and turned his head to the window, squinting his eyes from the bright light. A small smile spreads upon his lips. He too liked the sun. 

“Shall we go to the park later? We can see if Maria wants to come?” he suggested.  Tom nodded fervently. He could play on the swings in the park. Bill laughed quietly to himself as Tom scrambled off the bed in excitement and went to give himself a wash. He made up the bed sheets like he always did while he was waiting for Tom to exit the bathroom. He sighed and sat down on the bed, staring out the window. Sparing the clock a short glance and noted the time.

By the time Bill was washed and dressed once more Tom was sat on the stairs bouncing slightly in impatience.

“Tomi! Come on lets go!”

“Park?”

“Yeah! Come on we’ll go and find Maria.”

“Billa?” Tom started

“What’s wrong Tomi?”

“N-nothing lets go...” His wide smile faltered for just a second, but it was quickly hitched back into place.

“Sure?” Bill asked, Tom nodded, His false smile melting into a genuine expression.

“Let’s go then Tomi.” Bill zipped his brother into his extra large hoody and locked the little door to their little flat. Bill led him down the stairwell to Maria’s floor. It was here Tom often got lost looking for her. His memory for directions wasn’t as good as it could be and Maria on several occasions found him wandering the corridor in tears looking for either herself of Billa. So Bill took his hand and gently guided him to the right door. He let Tomi knock first and after a few seconds of silence, the door opened. A tired looking Maria appeared, with her long brown hair tied in a rough ponytail atop her head and a pair of scruffy jeans and a baggy shirt, her makeup halfway down her face. This was Maria in a morning. Bill’s features broke out into a smile

“Morning!” Bill laughed at her appearance.

“Hey, s’up?” she slurred.

“Maria! Come with to park!” Tomi grinned broadly and then pouted as he realised the sentence was not quite right.

“Come with us to the park?” Bill asked Maria and at the same time making sure Tom understood what words were missing.

“Sure thing guys just give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be there,”

“Meet you at the park?” Bill asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah okay.” She smiled and shut the door once more.

Bill still had a firm hold on his brother’s hand as the pair of them walked into the park. This was the nice park, the one that had all the swings still attached to the frame and no graffiti. One place where it was almost a certainty that Bill wouldn’t be recognised by anyone there.

“Look Tomi!” Bill pointed over at the swing set. “There’s one free, go and get it.” Tomi ran over to the swings just like a small toddler would do in a park. Bill followed his brother at his own pace smiling to himself. He was glad he’d made Tom wear his hoody, for despite the warm sunshine, there was a cold wintry breeze. Bill had only his thin jumper on over a t shirt. He was warm enough for now, by the time he’s finished chasing around with Tomi, he would be more than warm enough.

Bill finally reached the railings that divided the soft tarmac under the swings from the gravel of the rest of the playground. He looked on at his brother playing happily on a swing, a huge grin spread across his face. There was a scraping of rubber on tarmac and Tomi came bounding up to him.

“Bill! Billa...slide!” he said breathlessly. Tom grabbed Bill by the hand and dragged him to the slide built into an artificial hill. The identical twins both laughed as they ran up the steps to the top.

“Hey up there!” Maria laughed not unkindly at the pair of them from down below. The young woman shaded her eyes from the sun with one hand and waved at them with the other. Considering they’d only been apart for 15 minutes, Maria looked like normal now. Tom motioned for her to come and join them as he sat down at the top of the slide and pushed off. She willingly obliged and began to climb up to them. Bill stayed stood at the top, his eyes roaming over the other people who were out at this time in a morning. True there weren’t many people out this time in a morning, but they were all very small children. Bill suddenly became uncomfortably aware of how out of place they looked. The smile faltered. He shook his head like a dog trying to get rid of water. He wasn’t going to let thoughts like that ruin this day. He just wanted to have a normal day for once. He sighed and smiled once more before taking his turn on the metal chute.