The hill was very high. Johnny pushed down on the pedals as hard as he could, striving to get to the top. The anniversary was today. He had made a promise, and he was here to keep it.
At last he reached the top. From here he could see the red dusty expanse of the Arizona desert, stretching out in all directions. He turned around. The top of the hill was a slight bowl, almost like a volcano. Here, there was green grass. It was a different scene than the rest of the land.
Johnny got off of his bike and walked to the middle of the bowl. There was a small white cross there, underneath a shade tree. He approached it reverently.
“Hi, Daniel,” he said as he came to a stop in front of the cross. “I’m here.”
There was no reply save the gentle breeze and the call of a nearby bird.
“I miss you,” Johnny said. It was true. Four years had passed since now and then, back when he was younger and Daniel had just arrived back from his tour of duty.
He had gone to Spain. Johnny could remember him talking about it late at night. Sometimes Dad was there. Sometimes it was just Daniel, with Johnny hiding in the other room. He talked about nothing most of the time, just the ordinary things like the people and the buildings in Madrid.
But one night Johnny had snuck down and found his brother in tears. His head was in his hands. For a while, he couldn’t understand a word that came out of Daniel’s mouth. But, slowly, things began to make sense.
“It was too much that day, too much. Too much to drink, too much time, too much power.”
Johnny sat enraptured by this.
“Merino kept saying it was all right. He was so sure we weren’t going to get caught. He was right, we didn’t. But it still stank. It all stank. She didn’t deserve it. No, she didn’t.”
Johnny wanted to leave. He wanted to run back to his room and hide from this spectacle. But curiosity ruled his brain and he was rooted to the spot.
“We just picked her up off of the street. She might have been a rich girl, might have just gotten some money and treated herself. I don’t know. All I know is that we stopped, grabbed her, and left so fast.”
“Merinomerinomerino, why didn’t we just find a stinking whore? You don’t realize man, you don’t know what you’ve left me with.”
Johnny wondered who Merino was, and who this girl was.
“I can still hear her screams before you gagged her. Then all I heard was your grunting. I was speeding along through the streets. All I could think about was finding a place to stop. Then it would be my turn. We kidnapped her and I couldn’t think of anything else but that.”
Daniel broke down again. Johnny had suddenly worried that his brother would see him. He had turned and went back to his room. He had crawled back into bed and stared at the ceiling for the longest time, trying to go back to sleep.
Johnny’s thoughts drifted back to the present. Now he had some understanding of what his brother had been talking about, how far his brother had fallen. Had that played a part in what had happened up here four years ago? Had his brother really been drunk with alcohol, or with remorse?
“Whatever happened man, I forgive you,” Johnny said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I still forgive you.”
There was no reply. Doubt hung heavy in this place. He should not have come. It was too hard.
Johnny turned back to the road that led down the hill to the desert. It was lonely. No one drove upon it. He pedaled swiftly down and left the place.
This is an entry for Cal's Chorus Contest. The song is Johnny America by Five for Fighting. The word is tragedy.
