Fanon:The Good Ones-Chapter 38

The Fire of Life
I stopped, suddenly. Not because I was tired… no, I had all the energy in the world. Not because I just wanted to stand there, as if time had no meaning… no, I had a mission to complete. But because I smelled something. Something dangerous, something uncertain… something familiar.

“You’re right, Pierce,” a voice whispered in my ear. “You’re doing exactly what everyone told you NOT TO DO, just because you want to play the hero.”

I spun around on my heels. I turned to face my half-brother, Dunstan.

“Look Pierce, everyone appreciates your good heart. It’s really touching that you want to be the one guy to save the world, but we all know that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

“Yeah,” I retorted. “As if you would know.”

“Pierce, I know better than anyone,” he replied. “I’m probably the biggest juvenile delinquent on the planet. Deliquent, womanizer, rebel… call me what you will. But you want to know something Pierce? I know my limits. I can tell the difference between what’s right and wrong… and from what’s happening in your mind I think you know it as well.”

“But…” I said, trying to think of the right words to say.

“Then don’t say anything,” he told me comfortingly. “Just listen. I won’t stand in your way. If you want to go risk your life out there, where it’s unlikely that anyone will find your body if you die, feel free. Or you can stay here. You can listen to your family, to your doctors… heck, to your entire town! You won’t put your health at risk, and you can be happy. Right here, with… most of us.”

I was confused. “Most of us? Wait, don’t tell me… You’re not staying in Bridgeport, are you, Dunstan?”

Dunstan shook his head.

This was it… this was my breaking point. “Okay. That’s real smart of you, ‘’bro’’. First, you decide it’ll be a good idea to lecture me on my decisions and then you go make one of your own. What’s happening now? Gonna chase some girl out of the country? Explore the world? Go “make a difference”?

I stopped abruptly when I realized Dunstan was on the brink of tears. I’d never seen him cry before.

“Pierce,” said Dunstan, his voice strained. “I’m going to Twinbrook. I took a job in the military, I want to make a change… prove that I’m not a bad person anymore. I don’t want to hurt people anymore, I want to help. Do you get it?”

I sighed, and just looking into his eyes was enough to give him my answer.

He smiled, a tear fell down his cheek. And before I knew it, his arms were around me. “I have to… catch my flight. And I think you need to… catch yours.”

And he took off into the darkness. And I understood him… because passion was the fire fueling both of us… the fire of life.