MICRO STORY CONTEST || The day something inside of me died

I'm not sure what had happened the night before. I know we had a guest that my ma didn't want me to meet, and that there was an argument when we were having dinner, but I'm not sure what caused me to wake up in a hospital at around 10:30am the next morning. Then suddenly I'm remembering everything i had blanked out of, about this winter. The doctor said it was retrograde amnesia. And he told my family not to stress me to remember anything, and that I'll recall everything in time, maybe slowly. My little sister is staring out the window of the hospital ward. "El?" I call out to her. "Joaquin, You're awake! I'll go get mum" she says to me, kisses my forehead and leaves the room. I try to sit up, but i feel a slight discomfort at my nape area when i do. So i stay still. Eleanor and i used to be closer when we were both younger, but then she was sent to a boarding house for the rest of her high school, and we started to drift a little.

The memories that came back... What my family was scared to tell me... And the reason they've been all too cautious of the words they spoke... It all makes sense now. My twin brother, Nick had died in the early winter. And it was because of me...

Our parents had gone for a conference, and took El to her piano practice that cold Friday morning. Abuela thought it was a good day for ice fishing, so she went about that. I remember convincing Nicolás in the noon, to go swimming with me, on the beach just a stone's throw from my Pa's shed, not far from the house. He only agreed after much persuasion on my part. The water felt icy as our feet touched the waves. We laughed and talked about El's newest crush, and about our experiences at our different summer camps, and about who made the sickest paintings between us. Then i had the craziest idea. To jump off a cliff, the one that looked like a barranca, (so it wasn't too high) and into the water. I used to be the more daring twin, now I'm just the more alive one... The thing about barrancas though, is that they're quite steep. A big part of it was covered by the water, but we didn't know this. Nicolás didn't like the thought of it. So i told him he could only watch me from there if he liked...

My ma enters the room with Eleanor. She asks if i feel any pain anywhere and says that my dad had something to take care of, but she'd told him that I'm awake, so he's on his way. "Mamá, Nick murió para salvarme". My ma gazes at El who shakes her head and glance at me. I start to weep. "You remember what happened hijo?" It's all my fault. I couldn't answer her. "... I want to go home" i say instead. My pa comes to the hospital about 30minutes later, and the doctor said it was okay for me to leave and said some other things, like prescriptions for lingering headaches or something; so we went home.

El said i was in the hospital because Pa's cousin, aunt Quince accidentally knocked me out with a vase last night. She was the guest ma didn't want me to meet, because ma was scared that she'd trigger my memories too soon. You see, because aunt Quince was there that early winter, when Nicolás jumped after me into the water.

"Nicolás" i said, certain i was going to die. My vision was hazy and i wasn't sure why there was suddenly blood in the water. I guessed it was mine, since no one else was in the water, and the back of my head throbbed. I must've crashed and hit my head on a rock at the base of the barranca. Damn. I wanted to look up, i don't think Nicolás could hear me. But i was loosing strength fast and felt my head going under the water as well. I think Nick called out to me many times before he jumped. I'm not sure, but i think the blood must've scared him. "Joaquin... Joaquin... hold on a little... Joaquin!" I felt myself being pulled to the side of the beach, but then something must've happened to Nicolás. Because he was now struggling to swim with my arm around his neck...

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blurtlatam
I put on a black hoodied jacket, and go out to sit amongst the rocks on the adjacent side of the barranca at the beach. It's evening now, and i can't stop thinking about the vast water body that lay open in front of me ~ whose waves i and Nick cherished the feel of on our face, about how it was also the one that swallowed him whole, and i was the one that gave him up...

Aunt Quince said she was coming to surprise my dad since she was away for so long, when she saw Nick trying to get me out of the water. Nick's leg was beginning to cramp up. She'd run over and helped pulled me out to put me in her van so we could go to the hospital. She thought Nick was following behind, but she didn't see him. She went back to the water and nothing. No sign of Nick. Aunt Quince was no swimmer.

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