Brothers

Vincent

The emergency unit was packed with people. An accident has just occurred involving the collision of two commercial buses. People with different degrees of injury were moved all around me. I was scared out of my wit.

I received a call informing me that my brother was involved in an accident and that I should come down to the emergency unit. Like I needed to be told that. I was left to imagine the state Andrew was in as I rushed down to the unit because the caller didn't specify.

I work as a surgical resident at the Federal Medical Center in my state Alba, which is close to the school Andrew attends and where he was currently admitted. Like our dad, I specified in surgery and I was almost rounding up my residency.

Drew, as I called him, had always hated medicine and opted for engineering because that was the substitute dad had chosen. Drew loathed the fact that he would be in the same line as Dad. That was why he chose the other option.

Dad had always wanted me to work with him at his self-owned hospital Sawyer memorial, but I refused. Not because he was going to treat me nicely, but the opposite. He would’ve been ready to make me suffer unnecessarily if I had worked alongside him. He would’ve called it prepping me for the big roles. I've learned a lot from him and I was still learning, but I wasn’t ready to go through undeserving stress just so I could impress him.

That wasn’t the only reason I didn’t work with him. Just like everyone who wants to build a name for themselves, I didn’t want to be seen under my father’s wings. I’m his son alright but I didn’t want my growth to be attributed to him. I didn’t want to be belittled and termed daddy’s boy. I wanted to dig my way without his help. Do you get the whole point?

I wasn't on call when I received the news, so it took me longer to get to my brother.

I hurried to the reception desk. The nurse behind the counter was typing swiftly on her computer, ignoring my obvious presence.

"Hi Sylvia," I said, looking at her name tag. She looked up and visibly inhaled, then gave me a flirty smile.

"Ah! Doctor Sawyer, how may I help you?!" she said, adjusting her hair and cloth. I was in no mood for that. I never had been anyway.

"My brother, Andrew Sawyer, was admitted here," I said, trying to sound calm, which was the reverse of what I was feeling.

“Oh! Okay,” she said, typing rapidly on her desktop. "Yes! He was brought in for a stab wound by a lady and two security men,” she said, looking up.

My heart sank. I stared at her like she suddenly grew a second head. The nurse must have sensed my fear, because she quickly added. "Don't worry doc, he's out of danger and responding well to treatment."

That did little to relieve me. I needed to see my brother.

* * *

I felt so much better after I saw Andrew. He was asleep and was doing fine, although I was told by the doctor in charge of his care that he wasn't out of the woods yet.

A pencil!

Really!

Someone stabbed my brother in the neck with a pencil.

What kind of scenario did that look like?

The pencil slightly punctured his artery, and he had a mild concussion from hitting his head on the floor when he fell.

Something wasn't adding up, though. The report made by the lady that brought my brother in was handed to me. In it, she said that she and Drew were attacked together on their way back from night class by a gang of thugs. While Drew was trying to fight them off, one of them took up the pencil and stabbed him in the neck.

For starters, the sobriety test they made on Drew showed he was drunk. There was no way he could have read in that state, even if his life depended on it.

Then there’s that fact that Drew wouldn't be caught dead reading. Night class! Bull! That didn't sound like my brother at all. That lady was hiding something. Her story didn't add up but as funny as it may seem, everyone bought it, even the so-called security men that came with her.

“My brother was intoxicated. How the hell would he be reading? Who even let that lady leave the hospital? She should have been detained!” I fumed.

I had asked the nurses about her and was told that she didn't leave any form of contact address or phone number. However, the nurse at the reception assured me that the lady would come around later in the day.

I was boiling inside me. She must have done this to my brother.

Most of the girls my brother spent time with were always after his money. I can’t count the times that I fought Drew over those girls he went around with. He stopped bringing them over when I threatened to throw him out if he did.

As much as my little brother rebelled against everything and everyone, he couldn’t stay away from me. Even after our silly fights, he would still come home.

He was the only one I had too. He didn’t know that because I acted all tough and strong around him. I wanted to be tough and strong for him.

Once he told me that among all the people in his life, I was the only one who he could trust with his life. I was the only one who had his back. But looking at him lying there on the bed, all I could think of was that he was wrong. I didn’t have his back when he needed me. Just the thought of that made my blood sizzle.

Of what distorted reason would this lady stab my brother? It pained me.

I could just imagine how my little brother would have been writhing in so much pain as that thing pierced his neck. How he must have cowered in fright trying to get away from that psychopath.

I angrily pounded my fist against the wall. This got me a lot of stares from passersby.

Once she showed her demented self, I was going to make her pay dearly.