There were three missed calls from Tabitha, his sister. Daniel was ageing now. He’d probably forgotten where he’d placed the often, again, or he’d forgotten to put back a ringer on after having it silent in church the previous day. The reason didn’t matter; three missed calls from Tabitha were alarming.
“Hey Daniel, did I call you too early? How are you?” Tabitha asked when she picked up the call.
“No, no. You know how old age is. Is everything okay?” Daniel asked her.
“Uuhm, William is home. I was hoping you could come,” Tabitha told him.
“He is finally back from the U.S.? What is he doing here?” Daniel asked.
“He has come home,” Tabitha replied.
“My house is still where he left it, he can come here if he needs to see me,” Daniel said calmly yet firmly.
“I was worried that that would still be your position on the matter,” Tabitha said.
There was something about Tabitha’s tone that worried Daniel. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. So he called to ask Tabitha whether she meant he was at Tabitha’s or at their ancestral land. Two days later, he went there.
Going to their ancestral land felt like travelling back in time. The village never quite changed, save for better roads. Their childhood home was almost as it was. Its architecture told a tale set decades ago, but you could tell it was still cared for.
Daniel and his siblings had hired someone to look after it, and they went there once in a while. Daniel hadn’t been there in years, but he always sent his contribution to its upkeep. They had been five siblings: two sons and three daughters. One of them had died a decade earlier. Their parents had passed away when the firstborn was barely 24. They’d grown even closer after that loss, but Daniel and William would later change that.
The living room door was open when Daniel got there. The living room had a familiar faces and he could hear Tabitha speaking to someone in the kitchen. His attention was immediately turned to a face at the corner of the room, next to the window. He looked just like he remembered him, except his face was thinner and bony. His large frame had shrunk, and the clothes he wore looked a size too big.
Daniel headed straight to him, overcome with emotion, and he reached out to embrace him. William stood up with a bit of a struggle. They broke down in tears and hugged for a while. Daniel sat down, unable to say anything for a while. Tabitha brought William some soup and a glass of water to take some pills.
She knew the look on Daniel’s face because that was the look she’d had when she picked William up from the airport. Only, Tabitha had maintained a relationship with William over the years. Even so, she’d always known William carried sadness in his heart due to the fallout with Daniel.
Despite William’s success abroad, where he got a PhD in engineering, got married, and had kids, he and his wife later parted ways. William also set up a foundation for gifted kids from humble backgrounds, just as he had told Daniel he would, because he knew how charity had played a role in his success after their parents’ deaths.
It saddened William that he couldn’t even share his fortune with Daniel. He couldn’t even be as present an uncle as he had been to Daniel’s kids because he didn’t want to worsen the situation. But in that moment, as they sat in that living room, the reason for their fallout seemed so insignificant.
“It is great to see you again, brother,” said William.
Daniel tried to speak, but tears were welling up.
“I was afraid I would die without seeing or talking to you again. Thank you for coming,” William told him.
After the raw grief began to lift, Daniel asked William what was ailing him. William explained that he’d had cancer 15 years before, and he’d been in remission, but it was back and terminal.
Daniel was overcome by emotion again, thinking of his brother battling cancer in a foreign land without any of his siblings knowing. He wanted to reprimand him for that, but he had no leg to stand on.
“I know you want to be angry. The rest already gave me an earful about it. I can’t even use C card to get out of trouble,” he joked.
Daniel smiled. He remembered William’s humour.
“Is there really nothing else that can be done?” Daniel asked, looking defeated.
“Keeping me comfortable is the phrase they are using. They almost didn’t let me fly back home but I told them I didn’t want to come here in a coffin. I wanted to be with you once again,” William told him.
They spent the rest of the day catching up and showing each other pictures of their families. When William felt a bit stronger, they took a walk around the home, remembering the moments they shared there. They even went to their parents’ graves and stood there in silence for a moment.
“I didn’t mean you any harm. The broker swindled me and then I got the scholarship and had to leave before I could repay you,” William told Daniel.
“I think deep down I knew you wouldn’t do that on purpose but we were in a tight position back then and that deal was supposed to be our lifeline. My wife almost left me. I saw your attempts to reconcile but by the time I was no longer angry, so much time had passed by and I was angry that you didn’t even come back to visit us,” Daniel told him.
They headed back to the house as the evening chill set in. More family members got to see him, including Daniel’s children, and they spent the time he had left making a few last-minute memories. Even William’s children got there on time for him to introduce them to everyone. He died a week later.
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