New Kid on the Ship

Leon left the observation deck a little confused, but mostly overjoyed that his phone finally reappeared! Angelo probably took it really hard having been the one to lose it. That might’ve been why he forgot to tell him about their grandfather. Crying about him though? At least he didn’t celebrate, even if he had more than a few reasons to.

Phone aside, it made him happy to have Angelo around again. College kept most of his high school friends busy, and while he loved the ones he’d made on the Celestion-5, he missed seeing familiar faces. It’s kind of funny. In many ways, Angelo hadn’t changed much at all. He still looked up to Leon just as much as before he left, still clung to him, and still got nervous around new people.

 But he’d also changed so much. Leon worried he’d break Angelo’s heart by leaving for space. Apparently, he took it well! Angelo asked to spend a week at their grandfather’s house, which scared Leon once he heard about it, but this would make twice that he went there alone and came out fine. After that, he took a bus to the spaceport all by himself.

According to their mother, Angelo also made friends! Both were dying to know more about them. Angelo hadn’t told her much, but he hung out with them almost every day. Leon kept forgetting to ask. He should do that once he got his phone back. Either way, his brother had bad luck in life up until now, and just as Leon hoped, things finally started working out for him.

Angelo managed to surprise Leon even more on the ship, being a fantastic observation panelist and learning how to work the furnace by himself. Having that much responsibility would’ve terrified the Angelo he knew. Sometimes Leon wondered if his brother was better off not having him hovering over him. It made him so proud to see how capable Angelo could be.

Beneath that pride lurked the tiniest hint of jealousy. Angelo was having the coolest summer vacation known to man. Going to space, being an honorary star ranger, possibly going to the Moon? Any of those things would make him the talk of their school!

Leon never had adventures like that when he was 15.

Finally, he entered the hatch leading into the loading deck, stepping down until he faced the burner room.

Heat blasted his face when he opened its door. He considered coming back later until he noticed Angelo standing inside without a helmet on.

“Hey Ángie! It’s a good thing I caught you in time. We’re not supposed to use the furnace without our helmets on, remember?” He walked up behind his brother. “Or were you just using it to warm up?” 

Angelo slowly turned to face Leon, staring as if he’d seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong?”

His mouth quivered and his eyes glistened.

“Did you burn yourself?”

He shook his head.

“Ah, good.” Leon noticed the phone in his hand and reached out to grab it. “You can hand me that.” He had to tug a little to get the phone out of Angelo’s hands, but he did so. “Are you still upset about what happened to Gramps?”

Angelo’s eyes widened.

“Emil said he hoped he was doing well, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Did Mamá text you about it?” Leon turned on his phone. “I figure I could find out what happened while you recover.”

His brother nodded slightly. Whatever happened must’ve really shaken him up. Didn’t Emil say that their grandfather recovered? He scrolled through his phone for answers until he made it back up to August 10th, the day Angelo left the infirmary.

‘Léonardo,” she always called him by his full name, ‘what I’m about to tell you will be very difficult to hear, but you should know.’

Leon prepared himself for anything.

‘Your brother is missing.’

He didn’t prepare for that. The words he read didn’t change, not even after going over them a few times. 

“Weird. Mamá says you’re missing? But you’re right here.” Leon looked back up at his brother who was for sure standing right in front of him.

Angelo started to cry.

“What’s going on?” Leon read further to see if she just made a typo, but he only found more confusion.

‘When I called his phone, he wouldn’t answer.’ Their mother continued. ‘That’s why I kept asking if you talked to him.’ 

She did? Leon didn’t remember that. He scrolled back up until he found her asking on the 6th, the day Angelo showed up. 

‘Has Ángelito texted you lately?’ 

‘No, I haven’t heard from him.’ answered… Leon? He didn’t remember texting this at all. He didn’t remember sending the next messages to her either. This continued on for days, and all the while, his pretender never brought up the fact that Angelo was on the ship with him. Who was using his phone?

Just as he asked himself that question, he found his eyes wandering up to his crying brother in front of him. 

“Ángie, you had my phone, didn’t you?” Leon looked between the screen and Angelo. “Why didn’t you tell her you were here? And who’s pretending to be me?” There could only be one answer, but it didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense right now. “Who’s lying to our mom??”

Angelo continued crying, in no position to answer even if he wanted to. Leon scrolled back to his mother’s messages on the 10th.

‘When I called your grandfather to ask about him, he told me everything was fine, but wouldn’t let us speak together. It gave me a bad feeling. We left our vacation early to check on them. Yesterday, we arrived at his house and found that he had been trying to look for Ángelo on his own. Ángelo went missing 6 days ago.’

But he wasn’t missing, he was right there!

‘The same morning he went missing, your grandfather spent a few hours in the hospital. He’s in good health now, but he claimed to the police that your brother attacked him.’

Attack? The Angelo he knew couldn’t hurt a fly, could he? He did have his reasons, though…

‘I know this is confusing and that you’re probably wondering how this could happen if Ángelo had been doing so well. The truth is, there are some things we haven’t been telling you. The day you left, he became devastated. He cried for hours. We expected that much and decided not to tell you so you wouldn’t worry. A small lie.’ 

Leon felt a little bad, but that much made sense. Unfortunately, there were more texts.

‘But then it grew bigger. He stayed in your room for days, barely moving or responding. He wouldn’t eat. I’m not sure if he slept. He just sat by the wall and stared into space. We tried everything we could think of to cheer him up, but nothing worked. None of us wanted you to worry. We’re sorry.’

In the span of a paragraph, everything Leon’s idea of his family’s life without him unraveled. “Sorry? What does she mean, ‘sorry?’ I remember talking to you a couple days after I made it to space. We texted each other! You said you were doing fine, and now I’m hearing that you… that you were…” The words sunk in. “You all lied to me?”

With the slightest nod, Angelo shattered his feelings.

“But… Why? I know you guys didn’t want me to worry, but I could’ve—I should’ve done something! And I can’t do anything if you don’t tell me what’s going on with you.”

Angelo shook his head furiously.

“No? Ángie. Please. You know you can tell me anything, right? You’ve always told me everything.”

He shook his head again, crying even harder.

“You haven’t? But if you haven’t then…” This confused Leon even more, for reasons he couldn’t quite string together. Instead of trying, he returned to reading the texts. 

‘We were about to seek outside help when he suddenly recovered. He looked even happier than before you left. This was around the time he started bringing up his friends. I was so happy to see him doing well, I missed so many signs. I missed so many things in his life. The police ask me where he could be, and I have no answers for them.’

“There’s police??” Nothing ever happened to their family that would require the cops to show up. His mind struggled to picture it. Little of what his mother said felt real. He half-expected to wake up in his bed, blinking away this nightmare. He really wanted to.

 ‘It made me realize how much I rely on you to know what’s going on with him. I’m truly sorry for that. He’s your younger brother, but before that, he’s my son. I should have taken more responsibility in understanding what he was going through.’

What was she apologizing for? She knew him and Angelo like the back of her hand. Sure, Leon may’ve known Angelo’s deep, dark secrets. He may have been the only person he could tell his full feelings to because of said secrets. Their mother also might’ve mentioned once that Angelo had been a little distant from her lately and that she needed Leon’s help to understand what was happening in his life. Come to think of it, his brother hadn’t talked much to their dad, either.

Leon was the only person Angelo talked to. He knew him best. Though part of him understood this for years, having it told to him by their own mother made it disturbingly clear. But she’s still a great mom. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know everything they were keeping from her.

‘This is the only thing Angelo left behind for us. The police are still looking for more. Since he left so long before a report was made, it’s complicating the search. We’re trying to have hope. If you remember something or just want to talk, I’m here. Your father is here. We love you. We’re so sorry we have to tell you this. ’

The next text included a picture of a letter.

‘Hello Mama, Dad, (and Big Brother if you show him),

If you’re reading this, I’m probably gone. I know that it’s hard to take care of me with how needy I am (sorry for that.) That’s why I’m going away for a while. I should be able to come back in a year or two. Please don’t worry! You can use the extra money and free time to spend on yourselves. You’ve been too nice to me, so I want to be the better, stronger son you deserve, like Big Brother. That way, you won’t have to pretend to like me anymore. Enjoy your vacation!

–Angelo’

Underneath was a reply from Leon’s fake. ‘He’s gome?? I’m sorry I don’t know whatt o say…’’

Leon’s eyes lifted up from the phone and toward his brother. He’d calmed Angelo down from stress typing too many times not to recognize this amount of typos. Without a doubt, he found his impersonator.

Something else caught his attention. If Angelo left without their parents knowing, they couldn’t have sent him as a care package. He came here on his own, which only meant one thing. Some way, somehow, Angelo was the eighth member of the Celestion-5.

A floodgate of new realizations opened up. It suddenly made sense why Emil thought he was joking whenever he asked when Angelo would go home, and why Angelo was allowed to do things like jet training and furnace duty. He understood now why Angelo didn’t let go of his phone so easily. 

But did it explain why his phone went missing? Why it took so long to find? Why he saw a light coming from Angelo’s bed this morning? And maybe why… It may’ve explained why instead of giving the phone back to Leon, he came here instead. To the furnace.

“Angelo. What have you done?” Finally, the words came out. “You lied to me. You lied to everyone. And how long were you planning on keeping this up? Were you about to throw my phone in the fire?” 

Angelo cowered, holding his arms.

“Yes or no. You can answer this one.” Leon ran his hand through his hair. He hated the heat in this room almost as much as he hated this situation. Almost as much as he hated to hate.

His brother turned away.

“Yes? Or no?”

Ever so slightly, Angelo nodded his head.

The older Summers sighed. “What the heck possessed you to do this?” He nearly broke his 8-year-long no cursing streak. “You’re 15 years old, you should be getting ready for school. How did you get into the IF? You’re too young to be here.”

Angelo began to frantically point up at the ceiling, cupping one of his ears.

“Hm? You’re afraid someone will hear?” Leon hadn’t raised his voice at all. In fact, he tended to get much quieter when angry. Still, Roxie and Jun were in the gym the last time he walked by. “You’re afraid someone will hear.”

His brother nodded once more.

“Fine. Hablemos.” Leon switched over to Spanish. “I don’t even know where to begin. I’d ask you to tell me over the phone, but I’m afraid you’ll try to burn it. Where did you get these ideas? This isn’t the Ángie I know.” Hurt started to show in Leon’s voice. Despite everything pointing to Angelo, he had no idea what would lead him to do any of this. “Did your friends tell you to do this?”

Angelo hesitantly shook his head.

“Do they know where you are?”

He paused for a moment, then crossed his arms to make an X sign.

“Is that a no, or…?” Leon’s eyes widened. “Do they not exist?”

His brother confirmed that.

“What? Angelo… Why?” 

Never did he remember feeling this gutted. He should’ve been the one crying, not Angelo. In fact, he felt like he might join him. The letter came back to mind. 

“Is this your idea of becoming a better son? Lying to our parents, running away, pretending to be me on the phone? They’re worried sick about you.” Scrolling though the rest of his phone messages, he came across a few that made him wince. “And because you lost my phone, they’re worried sick about me, too! How could you?” He felt himself choking up. “How could you?”

Looking at his shivering, sobbing brother, Leon couldn’t tell for sure if he felt shame for his actions or if he was just sorry he got caught. Despite everything, he wanted to believe in the first.

He looked at the screenshot of the letter again. “You think they’re only pretending to like you?”

Slowly, Angelo nodded. 

Leon didn’t understand at all. “But you saw the texts, right? You know what’s going on at home. There’s police looking for you and everything. They love you, Ángie. They’re scared that something bad happened to you. That they’ll never see you again. Don’t you want to see them?”

Angelo’s face contorted into pure misery. He nodded again. 

A tear rolled down Leon’s cheek, but he felt relieved to see him answer that way. Part of him wanted to reach out and comfort his brother. Otherwise, he could barely stand to look at him. Getting angry, especially at Angelo, always made him feel terrible, but how else should he feel?  

Leon remembered something he hadn’t brought up yet.

“And what… happened to Gramps? Please tell me you didn’t send him to the hospital on purpose.” 

Angelo vigorously shook his head. In a normal situation, he would believe his brother over his grandfather in a heartbeat. The problem was that he couldn’t tell if the boy who stood in front of him was the brother he knew. But he couldn’t not believe him. That would break what little fragments of his heart stayed intact.

Still, Angelo had his reasons.

“I know he treats you bad, but you were supposed to let Mamá and Dad handle it. Why didn’t you tell them? You were supposed to tell them. Or at least let me do it. That way you won’t have to deal with him calling you a leech or a needy, terrible… son…” Looking back at his phone, the letter stared back up at Leon. Suddenly it made a lot more sense.

Of course it came back to this, the secret plaguing both of them for years. Angelo dealt with bullies here and there at school, but none were as vicious as his own grandfather.

Leon’s feelings turned into a stew with too many ingredients. A sickening slurry of sadness, anger, regret, and emotions they probably didn’t even have names for yet. Also like a stew, the heat from the furnace started to cook him. He needed to get away.

Phone in hand, Leon turned his back on Angelo. “I’m gonna figure out what to do about this. Just… try not to get into any more trouble, okay?”

He left the scorching room behind to get some fresh air. Maybe if he took a nap, he’d wake up from this nightmare.

“Hey, what’s up?” Jun asked as he passed them, Aiden, and Roxie in the kitchen.

“I found my phone.” With that, Leon kept walking, retreating to his room.