seeing double. (jerry baynard)

|4|

Gabriela

     "What is wrong with you?" Anne's high pitched voice rang in my ears.

She was a nice girl, really, but she sure did have a knack for getting herself into trouble.

Weaving my way through some obstacles, and people preparing the house, one of which was Gil, I begin to make my way over to the angry redhead, and a tearful Ruby.

Gilbert had a habit of urging me to go everywhere with him. Not that I could blame him, I often did the same.

Before leaving to help in the task of rebuilding Ruby's home, Gil practically begged me to tag along, help out where I could, where they would let me.

I would've gone, but something about sitting at the sidelines and watching the 'men' work, seemed quite boring to me.

So, I stayed home with my father, attempting to cook us dinner while anticipating Gilbert return. Only, I had finished much earlier then I thought, my father had fallen asleep early as well, and the house felt quite lonesome.

Lonesomeness. That was a feeling I was becoming a bit too accustomed to.

Shortly after Gilbert and I had been born, our mother passed away. Neither of us knew her, or really had anything to remember her by. But we had two brothers, Edward and Dave, they remembered her well. They raised us along side our father, and told us many stores about our mother, telling us what an amazing woman she was. And then, they passed, just like her.

Leaving us alone.

Without them, the house seemed a lot quieter. Emptier. Even with Gilbert and I's constant bickering. My father, through his sadness, tried do the best he could for Gil and I. And slowly but surely, some liveliness found its way back into our home.

And then he got sick.

Deathly ill.

We all knew it, but no one talked about it.

And just like that. Everything felt empty again.

We no longer jested like we use to, father slept more then normal, trying to rest while fighting off an illness that was nearly impossible to beat. Gil and I tried to stay optimistic, but it was hard.

We both became tense, and worried. But then, our father decided to take us on a trip to Alberta. And somehow, our livelihoods came back to us once again.

It was more or less because we wanted father to spend his last days surrounded by happiness. And we knew those days were coming soon.

Sitting alone in the kitchen, surrounded by silence, and the sadness that accompanied, it quickly became too much for me. So I left, checked my father was doing alright, put the food away, and left.

I decided that paying my dear brother a visit would be appropriate. Maybe he'd be missing me as much as I missed him.

But it seemed like I hadn't been the only one with the idea of visiting Gil. Anne and Ruby had beat me to it. Unfortunately, it looked like their visit wasn't going as quite to plan as they hoped.

With Anne yelling, and Ruby sitting in the mud crying, it was a sight to see.

"Go home, and bake cookies!"

"Headline, they already did,"

"Why don't you shove off, and leave the men to their work?"