Aurora: the brothers jones
aurora: what you said as the night was ending.
These are a month late but better late than never. I got distracted by all the studying I had to do for finals. But now I have your five million Jones Brothers prompts and others I need to do. So, I’m gonna try to do as many as I can as fast as I can.
There’s a heavy feeling in Liam’s stomach the morning they discovers his father has abandoned them. It weighs like a stone, not a small one like that ones that used to outline their mother’s garden but a large one, thick and tall, like the one that was used to make the roads out of their village. It settles uncomfortably in his stomach.
It gets heavier when the captain informs them scornfully, as if it’s their fault that their father’s criminal and has left them behind with nothing.
They are on their own.
Killian cries, falling to his knees and banging his fists against the wood. He hasn’t thrown a tantrum like this since he was a toddler. The captain roughly picks him up by the scruff of his neck and hits him across the face, the heavy rings on his hand cutting his face. It only makes him cry louder.
Liam flinches, watching helplessly as his brother takes a beating. There’s nothing he can do, nothing he can say that change the horror of their situation. He’s nearly thirteen years old, not yet a man, but already he feels a shift inside of him.
They are on their own.
There’s no one who is going to take care of them now, certainly not this captain who holds no compassion, no ounce of sympathy in his heart; only disdain for the burden of two mouths he has to feed.
He doesn’t scream, not like Killian. There’s no fire or rage or anything. He just feels like his insides have been frozen. He feels cold, almost unfeeling. The only sign of his distress is the slight trembling in his fingers that doesn’t seem to want to go away, no matter how hard he tries. He feels broken.
They are on their own.
The sentence repeats in his head on and on, like the punishments from school back before his mother died and they actually went to school. Miss Lorna never liked when he asked questions. She used to write that on the chalkboard in front of the class over and over and over again…I must not ask questions…I must not ask questions…It’s the same number but now they’re different words.
They are on their own.
Liam says nothing for the rest of the day. He does the work he’s given, ignoring the jeers of the crew and the whimpering of his brother. He tries to lose himself in the mindlessness of his tasks, but the words keep repeating, angry and buzzing like a swarm of bees.
They get only a raw potato for dinner that night. Liam doesn’t eat. He doesn’t try to while Killian cradles it to his chest as he curls himself into a ball, trying to shield himself from the reality of their situation.
They are on their own.
“What are we going to do? Who is going to take care of us? They hate us. They’ll kill us in our sleep,” his brother cries.
The ice inside of Liam hardens, almost like stone that has been sitting in his stomach. He straightens his shoulders and pulls himself up to his full height. He’s not yet a man, but he’s going to have to be.
“No. They won’t. I’m going to take care of us.”
