Coming Apart - Randy Wong

“Here we are. Alone at last”

Max chuckled. “Yeah. Like we have a choice?”

Carl smiled and playfully slapped his brother on the forehead. He looked at his twin brother silently. The operation was scheduled for tomorrow morning. It was a very dangerous procedure, but the two understood the risks and decided that this surgery was quite necessary.

“Max?”

“Yeah?’

“Are you … scared?”

“You mean about tomorrow? Sure. Of course I am. Who wouldn’t be? You?”

“Sure.”

The twins were lying next to each other in the same hospital bed staring at the ceiling. This somehow felt familiar to Carl.

“Max, do you remember that old baseball diamond near our house? We use to play pickle and shag ground balls? I remember how we use to lay on the ground, looking for shapes in the clouds. This kinda feels like that.”

Carl raised his head slightly towards his brother. “Uh, yeah. Except we’re inside, and those are ceiling tiles.”

“So? There are a lot of black specs in the tiles. If you squint, I bet you could make something out.”

Carl suddenly gasped. “Wait! Look! I see the Virgin Mary! It’s a sign!”

Max tried to find what Carl was looking at. “Really? Where?”

“Nothing. I’m just kidding.”

“Jesus!” Max exclaimed.

Carl shrugged. “Nope. He’s not there, either.”

Max groaned. “Oh, very funny! Hey, I gotta take a leak. Help me up.”

“Okay.”

With a count of three, Max and Carl sat up from the hospital bed. Carl was on the side of the bed closest to the bathroom. Both brothers began shuffling towards Carl’s side of the bed with Max pushing off with his free arm and Carl using his free arm for stability. Once Carl cleared the bed, he was able to help his brother up. They walked together side by side to the bathroom. Carl shuffled his way in front of the toilet and stood there. Helping his brother walk those several feet had taken a lot of energy.

“What are you doing? I’m the one that needs to take a leak.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

Carl shuffled a couple of fee to his right which gave Max enough room to urinate. The room suddenly became deathly quiet that was interrupted by the sounds of water splashing. Carl leaned against Max to ensure his brother maintained his balance. When Max was done, they both shuffled back out into the room and sat on the bed. For a long moment, neither brother said a word.

Max finally broke the silence. “Carl.”

“Yeah?”

“Look. In case something happens tomorrow. I mean, if something should go wrong …”

“Shut up!” hissed Carl. “Everything will be fine. They do this sort of thing all the time. All the time! It’ll be fine!”

Max paused then nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. But, just in case …”

“Max, goddammit, I swear …!”

“Look, just let me say this, okay?”

“Fine.”

Max took a deep breath. “I just wanted to say, that in case something might go wrong, I wanted to tell you that it’s been friggin’ pleasure being your brother. I mean that. We’ve been thru a lot together, and if everything goes well tomorrow, then we can finally live our own separate lives.”

Carl shoulder bumped his brother. “Yeah, living separate lives would be a blast. If would take some adjustment, but I know if I need any help, my brother will always be at my side.”

Max flashed his wry smile. “You mean like how we are now?”

Carl just shook his head at his wiseass brother. “You’re a jackass! You’re lucky you’re not just my brother, but you’re also my best friend.”

“Aww, how sweet.”

“Shut up. Let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead.”

Max began his familiar crab crawl toward his side of the bed. As usual, Carl was right next to him.