In which Ezra is interviewed after his older brother Jasper mysteriously goes missing.
Ezra couldn't stand the idea of being a poster child. He disliked how the reporters fretted over him, how the mayor ruffled his hair, how his parents always had to look sympathetic for the pictures; he couldn't stand the gossip that scurried through the town, with his face on the front of it along with his brother's last photo.
He couldn't stand the idea that his brother was gone.
Jasper's disappearance gave the town something to chatter about. Ezra hated that. The fake sympathies he received from every neighbor on the block began to dig into his skin. People recognized him at the market, making gestures to him and whispering. Ezra hated that his brother's sudden vanishing meant nothing to them. The mayor leeched onto these stories whenever he could, beating every detail into the minds of citizens.
That's the problem Ezra held with the mayor: these stories were his life.
He was the one who had to eat breakfast at an empty table, staring at the empty chair while he waited for news of the beast and news of his brother's return. He was the one who had to put up the multitudes of exes that his brother had, all coming to him to mope. He just wanted to scream at everyone until his throat turned hoarse.
He couldn't do that. He had to keep it up for the interviews. Without Jasper and with his father unemployed, the Moores were barely holding on.
Instead, Ezra adjusted his bow tie and moped at the camera so that his parents and the mayor could make money off of his family's anguish. That picture would travel by train into the big city where his face would be plastered onto black and white newspapers for gossip in a place he didn't even know.
"I know you hear this a lot, Mr. Moore, but how is this impacting you?"
Ezra tugged at his collar, "He's gone."
The reporter gave him a dirty look -- the best thingabout a one-on-one interview and photoshoot -- "Yes, our readers know that, Mr. Moore. We want to know more about it. How did it start? Your town is abuzz with rumors but I want to know the truth."
Ezra kept himself from rolling his eyes -- he had told the truth hundreds of times. "Ms. Scott, my brother has been missing for twenty days. He went hiking in the forest, last I heard. The mayor's hunting dogs found his bandana ripped to shreds. He's an assistant Bear Scout leader, but there wasn't a hike scheduled. For all I know, he could be dead." Complete and total deadpan.
Ms. Scott crossed her ankles and straightened her plaid skirt, adjusting to look more like a business woman. The way her hair was pinned back made her look terribly proper. Because she was an annoyance, she continued with the questioning, "Yes, yes, we all know that. Do you know why he went hiking? Do you think it had anything to do with the beast?"
He started to dig his nails into the palms of his hands.
"No."
Ms. Scott clicked the button on her black recorder, her eyes glittering with contempt from behind her glasses. "Now Ezra," her voice was like poisoned honey, "I'm paying good money to be able to interview you and your family. This is a great scoop and the citizens of Swanford would love to hear all about it. Now spill everything." She pressed the button again and it turned back on.
"How did you feel when you heard your brother disappeared?"
Ezra could only see the faces of his parents and the look of devastation on his father's face, along with the complete and utter numbness from his mother; they hadn't talked to him directly until two days after the disappearance was official and even then their conversations were clipped. While Ezra was annoyed at these interviews and posters, he understood on some level why they were happening.
One: his parents needed the money to hire more crews to find his brother.
Two: the mayor kept on having private meetings with them, talking about the opportunities this opened in the face of tragedy.
"I was devasted, truly." The faces of his parents switched to the empty breakfast table, along with Jasper's blue bowl that he still pulled out of the cupboard due to habit. "He's really been the rock in my life. I don't know what I'm going to do without him.'
Ms. Scott leaned in, "So you think he's dead?"
Ezra composed himself once again, remembering that Jasper wouldn't want him to give them the answers that'd make their newspapers sell. That's all these interviews were. Not their solicitude, instead their attempt at making an extra coin or two. "What do you think?"
Ms. Scott paled, opening her mouth to speak, "I--" she closed her mouth and chewed on the question promptly. Ezra smiled, the corners of his lips rising as if fish hooks were rooted in his cheeks.
"At least we're not doing this in a group of people. Then you'd really be screwed."
"What?"
"Listen, lady, this isn't what Jasper would want. I don't know any more than you do, okay? Quit scrounging for answers that aren't there. Go interview someone working on the new railroad that's being implemented or some other shit. Ask them what it's like. I don't know what happened to him." Ezra excused himself from the table the two sat at, snagging her coffee. "It's the least you can do for a boy who lost his brother." He raised the cup to her and left the cafe.
Even if Ezra loved toying with the journalists that came to interview him, all this talk about his older brother got him down. Especially at the mention of death. Ezra didn't want to know the answer to that question. A small search team went out looking for him a couple of days ago, coming back with nothing.
That's why Ezra needed to do this himself. He finished off the cup of coffee Ms. Scott generously donated to him and threw it in the trash. Ezra's mother worked so often that she'd barely notice his absence. His father decided to take some time for himself, which meant that he loitered around the local bar.
When his father wasn't at the bar, Ezra found him asleep on the steps, too exhausted to make it up to the master bedroom on his own. After Jasper disappeared, he found himself helping his drunken father to bed commonplace. Their conversation usually went the same each time. "How'd you even get home?" Ezra asked. The question usually received an inaudiable grumble in response.
As he walked the house (it didn't feel like home with Jasper gone), Ezra looked through the window of the bar to see his father on a stool close to the bartender, shot glasses lined up beside his elbows, which rested on the marble counter. Ezra kept walking, slowly retracting his hand from the windowpane and clenching his longing into a balled-up fist.
He had half a mind to storm in there with fury and storm behind him, but he knew it wouldn't make any difference. There was the simple fact of life that Jasper was the favorite and his father couldn't cope with losing his favorite son. Ezra couldn't blame him, no matter how much he wanted to. It stung like hell, but the truth did that. "I'll find him," he whispered, "I'll find Jasper."
Author's Note: We're specifically looking for if there are any inconsistencies in tone or description, though any critique is much appreciated!
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