Daniel gets to the radio station a few minutes late. He rubs his eyes, while running through a couple of excuses in his mind, knowing none of them would work.
Daniel walks up to the recording booth, the glowing red “LIVE” sign catching his attention. He looks through the glass door, seeing the boss, his uncle Mark, talking into the microphone with his signature charismatic smile.
Daniel hopes that he wasn’t caught being late, but Mark locks eyes with him, like he was reading Daniel’s mind. Mark finishes what he was saying, drops his smile, and steps out in front of Daniel, without breaking his line of sight.
He finally lets out a sigh, and a disappointed nod.
“Why were you late this time?” asks Mark.
“I spilled some spaghetti on my tie, and I… needed to get it out before I got here.” responds Daniel.
Mark sighs. “Do you know why I gave you this job?”
Daniel slumps his shoulders, knowing that he’s going to hear that speech again.
“Alright, if you’re not going to listen, I’m not going to give you too much shit,” Mark sighs, “but you still need to learn why I gave you this job.” He pauses, giving Daniel a worried look.
“When your father died-”
Daniel turns away, but is held back by Mark.
“Again, when your father died, it was hard for the entire family. It hit hard for me, it definitely hit hard on you and your brother, but it hit your mother the hardest out of everyone.”
Daniels turns towards Mark, looking back at him with teary eyes.
“You know that your mother always had an issue getting sick all the time, to the point that it was already hard for her to live on her own. Your dad’s passing made it so much harder on her, not to mention she figured out that one of her sons was… troubling, to say the least.”
Daniel lowers his head, thinking about his brother.
“I didn’t give this job just for you, Daniel. It’s for my little sister. So don’t ever disrespect this chance I’m giving you.” Mark pats Daniel on the back, and leaves. Daniel takes a moment, then goes into the booth, to start his shift.
The night shift was pretty easy, but repetitive, all he had to do was to make sure the songs were in order, and to make a generic announcement every hour. The people who listen to the late night radio aren’t doing anything productive anyways, at least that’s what Mark says.
Daniel queues up a rock song, and smiles. He thinks about how much he missed playing the guitar. Before he took his uncle’s job, he used to write songs with his brother, and a couple of other guys from his street. They would jam from noon to dusk, recording every session they had, burning them into cassettes if they thought it was good enough. But now, Daniel has to work, and his brother comes and goes as he pleases, just like he never cares at all.
The night grew older, and Daniel neared the end of his shift. He was tired, just like always. Before he left, he set up a multitude of songs, which would last throughout the night, into the morning.
Daniel walks out the radio station, and starts locking the doors. Daniel starts heading towards the parking lot, but then hears whispers and footsteps around the corner. Despite knowing that he should mind his own business, especially in the city, he walks on over to investigate. He peers over the corner, seeing two hooded people spray painting on the wall. Daniel prepares himself to do something stupid, and yells out to try to scare them off. One of them flees, while the other one stops and stares at Daniel.
“Daniel?” The painter says, with a familiar voice.
Daniel tenses up. The hooded painter takes off his hood, revealing that he’s Derek, Daniel’s younger brother.
Both of them stand in silence, Daniel shifting his gaze towards the wall. The graffiti is of their old band logo, consisting of a fish in a bucket, named “Fish Funeral”. Daniel smiles, and looks at the spray can in Derek’s hand.
“You know, we’re all worried for you.” Daniel breaks the silence.
“Yea? I was worried that you’d forgotten.” Derek chuckles.
“About?”
Derek looks at the band logo, then looks back at Daniel.
“I wish I could but…” Daniel looks at the wall, “…I have to… we have to look after mom.”
“And give ourselves up in the process?”
Daniel doesn’t respond.
“Anytime I see you at the house, you’re as miserable as our uncle. You’re out here, doing this shitty ass job, just so you can make mom happy?” Derek breathes. “Listen. I love you man, but we can’t just pretend we’re happy, while we let our time slip by. Don’t you see how you sleep throughout the entire day? Don’t you see how you don’t go out or do anything with the rest of the band anymore? Are you willing to not be happy for the rest of your life?” Derek pants, letting out all that stored emotion into that speech.
“You’re not wrong,” Daniel responds, “but we can’t just ignore what we have to do. Trust me, I want to jam, kick shit, and do all that dumb shit too, but I can’t just leave our mom to fend for herself. I get pissed off when I see you walk in and out the house, not helping with rent or whatever, and sometimes I think it’s my fault. My fault is that I didn’t make sure you were ok, that I let the band go, that I wasn’t a good older brother.” Daniel sighs. “I’m still pissed at you, but I’m also sorry.”
Derek stares back blankly, dropping the spray can.
“I’m tired as shit. You wanna go back home now?” Daniel asks.
“Yea,” Derek said with tears, “let’s go.”
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