Broken Memories

June, 25 Spain, Madrid
“Eddie”

The day was perfect. I was resting my eyes while I sat in a bank. The park in which I was had banks everywhere, but in this one I could feel the rays of the sun warming up my skin…

“Eddie”

I opened my eyes slowly and met two green eyes looking directly at me.

“What’s the matter Johnny?” I said.

“I was talking to you about these vacations when you fell asleep,” said my little brother, Johnny, with a concerned look in his face. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. Everything is alright” I yawned. Just a little bit tired about the flight, that’s all.”

“Well, I understand, you haven’t slept in a week! You've been working a lot,” he said.

“We've all worked a lot, and we deserve these vacations,” I replied. “You've gotten great grades!”

“Yeah…” he responded with a sad look on his face.

“Is something wrong?” I asked concerned.

“I miss her Eddie.”

I looked at him for a few seconds and then sighed. It had been two years since Jennifer had passed out and Johnny was still silent and distant since the tragic event. Jennifer was our sister, but to him, she was like a mother. When I was twenty and my sister was twenty-four, our mother was having a difficult pregnancy. During the ninth month of pregnancy our father died in a car accident, and she got depressed. She died only a few moments after Johnny was born. Jennifer and I were the only family that Johnny had left, so we were the ones who raised him. He changed my life. I was going through a difficult moment in my life, and he filled my life and my sister’s with joy, he was a wonderful child. I was still studying law and criminology, and my sister was a musician. Then, when Johnny reached the age of ten, and I got my degree in criminology, we found out that she had a strange illness. It started when I got at home on Johnny's birthday. She didn't recognize him. Then it got worse. She started to forget everything she loved in her life. It wasn't Alzheimer's disease; she was too young for that. The doctors said that we would probably never know what killed her. She died a month later, in the hospital. At that point, she had forgotten about me too. If it hadn't been for Johnny and my best friend, Mike, I would have broken. But I stayed strong. I had to. For my brother.

“Johnny… I miss her too. But we have to move on. We have to be strong for her. She would have wanted for us to be happy. We can’t keep lamenting over the past,” I said.

Johnny stared at the sky, distant, like he had been for over almost two years. “I know… but…” -he looked at me-“what if…something happens to you?”

“Johnny… I promise that nothing will happen to me. I will not abandon you .I’ll always be there. I promise.”

“Y-you promise?”

“I do.” I said. Then I searched in my pockets and I took out a silver colored locket. “Here. I want you to keep it.”

I gave him the locket and he eyed it with curiosity.

“Open it.”

He opened it and his eyes widened. In the locket there was a photograph of a blond five year old child, he was short for his age, he had green eyes and fair white skin. Standing beside him a blond woman, Jennifer was smiling at the camera. At her right there was a twenty-five year old man, me, looking at the camera while smiling. And at my right there was a man that had about the same age as me, ‘Uncle Mike’, who was holding a 4 year old girl. Hugging him was his wife, Jane, a beautiful woman with dark hair.

“If you keep it with you, you’ll always have us in your memory. But even if we’re not there, we will always be with you.”

“Even Jennifer?” he asked.

“Johnny, Jennifer will always be with us. In our hearts. In our memories.”

He smiled and then he hugged me. “Thank you so much Eddie.”

I smiled too and returned his hug.

After a while, we stopped and we noticed two people entering the almost empty park. One was an eleven year old girl, who was walking with her father, a tall man with brown hair, and glasses covering his brown eyes.

I stood up and greeted them. “Hey Mike. Hi Rose.”

“Uncle Eddie!” Rose ran at my direction and gave me a strong hug, while Johnny did the same with Mike.

“Hey there little boy!” said Mike while hugging him. “Wow! You've grown up a lot! You’ll be able to top your brother in no time, trust me,” said Mike.

“Thanks,” he said while blushing.

“Well I and your brother need to talk about something. Why don’t you go play together and catch up?

They nodded and then they started walking to the center of the park.

We watched them walking away and then we looked at each other.

“So… how’s life been treating you?”

“Fine... how about you?”

“Hmm… fine…”

I knew that he wasn't fine. He had joined the army at the age of twenty-five. His wife sent him a letter to tell him that things weren't working. When he returned they signed the papers of divorce, and she took charge of Rose, he could look after her on the weekend.

“So,” he said, “are you enjoying your vacations so far?”

“Yes… I've been working a lot lately… I needed a break… catching criminals is a tough work” I smiled.

“Really? And how have you been doing?”

“Not too good with the last one… he is a serial killer, he is intelligent and has already taken a lot of effort out of me. He’s a smart guy. “I’m nowhere near to catch him than when I started … at the office we call him ‘the painter’. Here is his file, take a look,” I said, handing him the file.

“Huh… gruesome… anyway… I have a proposal to make you.”

“Yeah? And what’s that?”

“A job. Before you refuse, listen to me. It is simple, we only need to investigate in a building, and it is well paid.”

I sighed. I was short of money so I asked him: “How much?”

He whispered a number to my ear and I sighed again. “I’m in.”