Daylight

            It started under the stars, “Do you think one day that I’ll see it?”

            He made eye contact with his brother “See what Marc?”

            “The sun Dante.”

            “I don’t know, I can tell you this though you’re not missing much, it’s not as beautiful as these stars.”

            Marc looked back up at the stars, “I would give anything to see daylight.”

            “I’m sure one day you will Marc, they’ll find a way, and you’re alive aren’t you?”

            Marc responded, “well yeah, but that’s only because of you.”

            “No Marc, that’s because of you…, and mom and dad. You’re the one who fought it, not me; you’re the one who was strong enough.”

Marc’s life was never easy, from the start he was fighting for it. He was born with a plethora of problems and illnesses, prominently his allergy to sunlight and his desperate need of a new kidney. Finding a donor small enough for something like that was rare, especially when compatibility of the organ was important. The young couple’s best chance to save their son was to have another child, Dante. When he was born it was his blood and his organ that was used for the surgery that saved Marc’s life. Marc grew up never seeing light. When he was twelve, and Dante eleven, their mother died of cancer, an inoperable tumor and a tragedy that left the family in shambles. Their father had no choice but to get a second job. From then on it was Dante who cared for his brother. Dante took care of him, nurtured him, administered his daily shots, fed him, played with him, and every night took him out to look at the stars before bed.

Dante attended school like a normal child, his father would get home everyday at about nine in the morning and help Marc before he went to sleep, since his other job started at three in the afternoon. So it was Dante who took care of Marc in the afternoon and at night. Marc was fragile; he never got much exercise and typically needed help if he wanted to leave his bed.

“You know I dream of mom sometimes Dante.” Marc said, still looking at the stars. “She’s always looking at me smiling, singing…..I can never hear her, but I know she is, she’s singing like she used to sing to us. Do you remember Dante?”

Dante looked at his brother, “Of course I remember, I know she’s up there, looking down at us, singing, making sure we’re safe, making sure that everything is ok, protecting you, me and dad. She wants us to be happy Marc, not sad because she’s gone….but happy, happy that we can be here, all the doctors said you wouldn’t live past two but look at you, seventeen years old now…you see there was always someone watching, before ma it was grandma. They’re always up there, trying to make sure things are fine down here….” There was a silence, “Well it’s time to get to sleep, let’s go.”

Dante helped his brother up and aided him in walking to his windowless bedroom. He tucked him in and turned out the lights for him like he did every night. “Goodnight big brother.” Dante said with a smile on his face.

“Goodnight Dante.”

Dante went to his room and spread his drapes to look up at the sky out the window that was behind his bed, “Mom if you’re out there, please help us. We all need your strength to get through the next day, and every day after that. I need your help mom, I’m sixteen, next year I graduate…I don’t know what I want to do with my life, how am I going to go to college, I could never leave Marc, but then… where can my life go? I’m just so scared mom, and there’s nobody to help me. Please give me guidance mom, give me a way…well, I should be asleep now, ma. Goodnight, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you.” Dante got to bed and slept, dreamlessly, like he did every night. He had wishes, but not dreams. He knew that when he was done with high school he’d still have to take care of his brother, and so he never dreamt, never aspired, but just slightly hoped, and that little bit of hope was only shared on nights like this one, where he’d talk to her, she was the only one he had to share that hope with, the hope that one day he’ll become something more than his father, a blue collar worker whose life was dedicated to two jobs just so him and his two sons could barely make it, he wanted to break free from those chains and become a success one day, but he knew that he wouldn’t and, other than at night every once in a while when he looked up at the stars and asked his mother for guidance, he accepted the fact that his life was following a road that was already paved and he had to follow it.

Dante woke up in the morning and checked on his brother, as he did every morning, Marc was asleep and everything was fine, he ate breakfast, took a shower, and was on his way to school. He walked to school, and as the sun rose he looked at the sky and the trees which were withering in a bright and beautiful red, leaves and flowers falling to the ground, the season was changing and autumn was passing so that winter could come, of course it did so beautifully in an array of orange, red and yellow descending to the ground so that a crisp sound could be heard with every step as a passerby laid his or her foot on a leaf. It was in this setting that Dante’s life would change, and this would be the fall that he would never forget.

At school he had a normal day, he and people at school got along, he liked people and they too liked him, but he never had a chance to be with any of them. His life was busy and he had responsibilities, his brother was the most important thing in his life and thus it took up most of his time. He had no time for the social affairs of a high school student so he did not partake in any of them. He did his school work well and consistently, despite the fact that he already assumed that his life would end up nowhere after he graduated. When school ended he walked straight home, Marc needed to have his shot by 3:15 or he’d go into an arrest and have to go to the hospital.

While Dante was at school Marc would live his life relatively the same way every day, his father would get home at 9 ‘o’ clock, make sure Marc was ok getting him his first shot of the day at 9:15, his father would make him breakfast and get to sleep. Marc spent the day in front of the television in his room from his bed. Learning about society and watching pictures of life in the daytime, it was the only time he could see a blue sky or a sunset. He would take it all in, and that became his dreams at night, he saw his mother and the blue sky, he saw it all, but then he’d wake up and realize that it was only a dream and that some things will never be. That was his life every day.

When Dante came home he gave Marc his shot as usual and went to make Marc a snack. Then he sat in the windowless room with Marc and did his homework while talking to Marc about his day and whatever he saw on TV. Later on, Dante would make dinner for both of them and help Marc with anything that he may need help with. Of course that night, as with every other, Dante helped Marc get outside to lie under the stars.

“Dante, I dreamt of her again, I could almost hear her words, she was talking this time but too quiet for me to hear her words. What do you think she’s saying?”

“Marc…. I don’t know…it could be anything. I’m sure one of these nights you’ll hear her, you’ve just got to listen better.” Dante, gazed deep into the stars. “I just know she’s up there, and she knows what’s best for all of us, when she wants you to hear what she’s saying you will, maybe you just aren’t ready to hear it yet.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Marc replied.

“Let’s get to bed big bro.”

Dante once again helped Marc to his room, he put him in his bed and said “Goodnight big brother” as he turned off the lights and closed the door. Marc dreamt that night again, as Dante did not.

In the middle of the night Marc woke up. Something that never happens, with all of his strength he wrote a note, folded it up, and put it in his brother’s jacket. He went back to his room, exhausted with all the moving around he had just done, he closed his eyes and rested to gain back his energy.

When morning came Dante followed his usual routine, he checked on Marc and got ready for school. He began his walk. Again, like each day he looked up at the sky and the trees as the sun rose. This morning the birds were flying south towards school, together, they flew in a perfect triangle formation. There was a bird though, that was different, that broke the flight pattern of the formation and flew through the rest, passing through them and breaking free out of the end of the formation. Dante turned around and watched the bird fly toward his home.. The chill in the air made him put his hands in his jacket pockets when he felt something. He pulled out the note that Marc placed in the jacket pocket and it read,

“Today Dante I will see the sun rise, today my dreams will come true.

I love you Dante, tell dad that I love him to.

-Marc”

Marc rose up from his bed and opened the door of his room, the daylight running through the house made him feel weaker, but the only thing stronger than an illness is determination. He carried himself to Dante’s room and opened the door, staring at the bed and the window right in front of him where the sun rises. The drapes were covering most of the light. He got up onto the bed and kneeled in front of the window and closed his eyes, the only thing keeping him from his dream was a set of drapes.

Dante ran as fast as he could back towards home, he ran like he never had before. “No, Marc no!” he said to himself as he ran. He came across a road with traffic that he tried to cross before the intersection was clear, he ran straight through; brakes were squealing and horns were honking as a man in the second lane slammed on his brakes as well, his car came skidding across the road and right into Dante.

 Marc reached out his arms and grasped the drapes. He held his arms out like that for a while, feeling weaker already by second, he knew time was running out and that if he wanted to see it he would have to see it now. He spread his arms apart, opening the drapes and letting the sunshine pour onto his face, he opened his eyes and saw it, the bright sun rising, daylight bouncing off the ground and the beautiful blue sky with a sole bird flying across it, he saw the beauty of autumn and felt real light on his skin for the first time in his life, it was greater than he had ever imagined, more magnificent than he had ever dreamed of. It was pure joy to Marc, but also his poison. Marc collapsed on the bed, air was becoming harder to breathe and his consciousness was fading.

Dante blacked-out for a split second before getting up, he was shaken and his head was aching of pain. The driver of the car asked Dante if he was okay, he didn’t answer, once he orientated himself with where he was, he sprinted towards his house, as he approached it he prayed that nothing was wrong, that Marc was asleep in his room. He barreled through the front door of the house and ran right to Marc’s room. He wasn’t there, “Marc!” He called he saw that the door to his room was opened. “Oh my god, no.” he said to himself before he called, “Marc!” once more. he ran into his room to find his brother lying on the bed, struggling to breathe. “Marc? Why Marc?”

Marc looked up at his brother and with what breath he had, he said, “I saw mom again last night Dante, I heard her voice. She said ‘Marc, listen to me, let me call you out of darkness.’ And she called me into the light Dante, the sun.”

“Marc, you’re…” the tears ran down his face.

“I know Dante… but don’t worry, I’m going to be with her again” he smiled with what energy he had left, “I saw it, and it was so beautiful. Just like she told me it would be. She said that she loves you, and she loves dad. She said that we are always going to watch over you two.”

“You’re my big brother Marc… you can’t go…no…..”

Marc replied quickly, “ Dante…. You were always my big brother, ever since you were born you took care of me, you’ve been my guardian angel all this time…but it’s my turn now, to watch over you.” Those were Marc’s last words as he could no longer inhale or exhale, Marc reached out toward the sunlight. Dante in tears locked his fingers with his brother’s and held tight as Marc’s grip became weaker and weaker.

“No Marc!” Dante cried.

 Marc lied in peace, next to his big brother, his dreams came true and everything he had ever wanted was now his.

A week later after Marc was laid into the Earth; Dante slept, and he dreamt for the first time. He saw into the future, he saw himself walk into a house, not far from his own. When he entered the house, which was beautiful, two children ran up to him and hugged him. A woman came out of the kitchen and gave Dante a hug and a kiss, then they all went to the family room and looked out a great bay window where the sun set, he saw two figures, watching, smiling and waving at the family as they walked into the sunset.

That same night Dante’s father walked into Marc’s empty room and stared at the vacant bed, trying to keep himself from crying he went to Dante’s room and looked at his son, who slept for the first time in days, he looked closely and saw that Dante slept in peace and that, for the first time he had seen in years, Dante had a small smile on his face.