Me and Max

How I lost my brother...

My name is Malcom. I come from Nottingham, I am 28 years old. I grew up as an only child, it wasn’t always like though- I had a twin brother. Max was his name, but now he’s long gone. I have fond memories- doing and sharing everything together. Sometimes we would fight over petty things, just as other siblings do. But you could tell that we were close. He’s been missing for 15 years now. I’ve never known what happened that fateful afternoon. How much I wish I could have changed it…

It all started at the end of our school week, we were in that long history class to finish off our day. Fridays gestured us an end to our miserable week and opened us to a long-awaited weekend. Sometimes I wondered whether it was the History or the timing that made my day miserable. Me and Max furtively send little messages to each-other. It was more interesting than listening to the teacher going on and on about something barely cared about. Of course, it was risky getting caught, as we would get a detention as if our Friday wasn’t bad enough. We didn’t have many friends, but we had each other.

“As we can see, business in the 18^th century…” Interrupted the teacher with a high-pitched voice- staring sharply at me and Max as if the other students were innocent.

My eyes shifting between the teacher and the clock- all set ready to take off any minute. Before I knew it, I heard the most precious words of the day finally come out of my teachers’ mouth.

“Okay the class is over now, have a good weekend, and don’t-” Said the teacher. But by this point I was already outside of the class.

The weather was dull and grey. Max had just finished getting his belongings from his locker and we were ready to go home. I had a load of homework to do, I missed quite a bit too.

“Which way should we go today?” Max asked me. I was quiet for a moment confused- then he suggested. “I really want to try and go through the back way this time”

“Ha-ha, you try and go by yourself- can you do it?” I asked him scornfully with a smirk

There were two ways to go home- either the front way, which was on the side of a busy road- or the blocked back way- which was through the woods. It had this eerie and creepy feeling to it. You would hardly ever see someone go through that path…

 Max teased me “Let’s have a race, I will give you a five-minute head start! And I bet I will still win!”

 “I don’t want to go through that way.” I said- keeping a fake smile on my face “I will go through the front way, you go through the back- we’ll see who gets home first!”

Max mocked me, as if I was younger than him- and accepted my challenge (which I didn’t expect) without a second thought.

“Okay if I win- you do all my homework for me!” He laughed out right before he started to dash rapidly through the woods

He had no warning or countdown before he started to run.

“MAX! WHY DID YOU RUN SO FAST?? WAIT YOU NEED TO COME BACK AND START PROPERLY!!!” I screamed at him.

I waited for a few minutes. Waiting for him to come back, he didn’t come- he just carried on running farther and farther. After 6 minutes I ran around to the school to the front gate. I ran as fast as my legs could possibly take me. Carelessly crossing the roads and bumping into people. The sky had become even duller. Tar-black clouds encroached over my head.

In all the desperation to get home, I tripped over my own shoes- almost smashing my bottom jaw into the rough prickly concrete. I could see rain drops slowly starting to appear as I got up. Quickly becoming a huge thunderstorm roaring, drenching my clothes as well as my mountain worth of priceless books.

I couldn’t care less about having to do Max’s homework, I only wanted to know if he was okay. I ran through all the rain and thunderstorm until I reached home.

“WHERE IS MAX??” I screeched hysterically.

Mother was in the kitchen making lunch while she said “How do I know? You’re supposed to be with him…”

Max was not there…

Author's Note

;v;