Mudculber (bunker stories #1)

Meeting Bruce

Aiden's signature knock was heard on our steel door at the start of lunch. “AHHH!” my brother said, hearing the knocking. I giggled getting up to answer the door. “Hey Aiden!” I said letting him in. my brother said. “Hey Aiden! You knocking like that isn’t helping my hearing!” Aiden signed “sorry” knowing that my brother’s hearing was extremely bad at the age of 15. My father said, “Aiden, would you like to have Lunch with us?” Aiden said “No, my uncle made me eat before I came, but Thank you Mr. Similar.” my father said. “Oh, how is your family anyways?” My uncle is good, Scott is learning how to Crawl.`` My father was signing everything trying to keep my brother in the loop. “What about Cal?” my brother said happily. Calvin or Cal as he liked to go by, was Aiden’s older brother by three years, Cal and Brogan both played the same sports, soccer, Baseball and badminton. Aiden smiled. “Good, and she said yes.” Brogan jumped up “whoo!” Aiden looked at me and my father. “Cal asked out his crush and she said yes.” then Aiden’s i-pod went off. “Hey, Mr. Similar, could Karissa come with me to Jasper’s house? She wants us to go play with her.” Mr. Similar nodded. “Call me if you need someone to come get you, baby.” I nodded and followed Aiden out the door.

Aiden banged on the door. Jasper answered the door. She looked at us and then at Aiden. “Okay Aiden, OW! My eardrums are bleeding!” She then looked at me. “How’s Brogan?” I shook my head. “Hearing is still going away.” she then looked at Aiden. “And you wonder why I like Karissa’s knock better.”

Aiden said. “She doesn’t knock, she just walks in.”

Jasper said. “Exactly.” and she let us both in.

Jasper took out a map. “This is what the world looked like.” Aiden was fascinated by the world I was too but not as much as Jasper and Aiden were. Jasper pointed to a big part of land in the middle. “We’re here under the surface.” Aiden looked at Jasper. “Tell me again, what was the world like?” Jasper smiled. “It’s everything you’ll ever want, big trees that touch the starry night sky, the sun that shines down to make everything sprinkle after the rain has poured down to make everything green again.” I then heard a man’s voice. “Where did you put them?!” Another voice said. “I already told you! In your office!” The other voice that was deeper said. “Well, they're not there now.” Jasper groaned and yelled. “Dad!” The man who was arguing with Jasper’s mom looked at her. “You fell asleep, it’s only Monday they will be there by Thursday, calm down.” She said normally.

The man looked at his wife. “Sorry honey.” Jasper’s mom said. It’s all good Phil.” I then heard the door open. “Guess who’s back from camp?!” And black haired boy in a guard uniform walked in and dropped a duffel bag. Jasper got up and yelled. “Bruce!” and ran into his arms. The boy picked her up. And dropped his other bag to hug her. “Hey Jazzy!” After Jasper let go she said. “Oh Bruce, that’s Aiden and Karissa. Guys this is Bruce, he’s my twin brother.” I put out my hand. “Pleasure to meet you Bruce.” he shook my hand. Aiden threw a rubber ball up in the air a couple times. “Sup?” he said to Bruce. “Wait, you have Blonde hair with big curls and your name’s Aiden, are you Cal’s little brother?” Aiden nodded. And got up from where we were sitting. “How do you know Cal?” Bruce smiled. I needed community service hours to go to the camp I was at, so I volunteered to coach my school’s badminton team.” I looked at him and said. “Did you meet Brogan?”

Bruce said. “Sorta, I know of his hearing problem so it was a little difficult to get him to listen but I still got along with him. Cool guy.” Jasper said, punching Bruce in the arm. “Don’t be a dick, he can’t help his hearing! Besides that’s his sister you're talking to.” Bruce looked at me. “Sorry kid.” I nodded. Aiden said. “Say, what guard is training you?” Bruce smiled. “Captain Thomas Dickson of course! Best guard there is!” I was filled with rage.

“You must be out of your mind if you think Captain Dickson is the best guard there is!” Bruce looked at me confused. “Well, who do you think is the best guard?” I yelled “literally anybody but him!” Jasper looked sadly at Bruce. “She’s Hanna's daughter.” Bruce looked at me. “Oh! Um… sorry, I forgot what happened back then.” Jasper looked at him. “You can barely remember what you had for dinner last night. How are you going to remember something from four years ago?” Bruce shrugged and took off his army hard hat.

“I’m going to take a hot shower, three months without hot showers, it’s not good but it’s worth it for a good paying job.” he said and picked up his bags walking away. Jasper looked at me and said. “He knows what happened but there’s nothing anyone can do or say to make his disrespect Captain Dickson, one of the good things my brother has is that he’s loyal and one of the bad things he has is he’s loyal.” I nodded still full of Rage.

Jasper went into the kitchen and came back with milk and cookies. “Cookies were your mom’s favourite snack.” I took a cookie and ate it.

Bruce came out in a grey waffle shirt and jeans with his hair normal, he had bangs pushed to left side of his face, the rest of his hair was pretty short expect for the top which had a little more hair.

He apologized to me again and then sat on the sofa and started to play on the Xbox. Aiden grabbed a controller. “can I join?” he asked. Bruce nodded. “Your brother would always destroy me and Brogan at this game!” After twenty minutes of the boys playing on the Xbox, as me and Jasper painting our nails, Bruce said. “How are you so good already? You’re like nine!”

Aiden laughed. “Cal would always bring me to Karissa’s house, if her piano was out of tune, I would play on the playstation with Cal and her brother until Karissa and her dad fixed it.” Bruce looked at me. “Your mom used to play the piano.” I swallowed my anger and said. “I know, dad has videos on USB drives, Aiden plays too, he’ll play and I’ll sing.”

Jasper said. “oh! I love P.B and S.G !” Bruce looked at Jasper. “I'm pretty sure it is P.B and J Jazzy.” Me, Aiden and Jasper burst out laughing. Bruce said. “What? It’s P.B and J!”

Jasper said in between giggles. “P.B and S.G isn’t a sandwich, P.B and S.G is Aiden and Karissa. P.B for Piano boy, S.G for Singing girl.” Bruce nodded, smiling. As Jasper and Aiden started to talk about the surface again I sat beside Bruce. He looked at me not minding that the car he was driving on the Xbox crashed into the side of the wall. I said. “I know you mean well, but when I’m around, please try and keep Captain Dickson out of the conversations. I know you respect him, Jasper told me but I feel like he deserves nothing but a slap on the wrist.”

Bruce said. “We are allowed to have our own opinions but I can keep him out of our friendship and the one you have with my sister.” I smiled and hugged him, he was surprised. Jasper said. “Bruce, this is when you hug her back.” he nodded. “It’s been a while since I hugged someone, boys don’t usually do it.”

Aiden said. “It’s getting late if we want to make it back to Medical station and Construction station.” I nodded and hugged Jasper good-bye.” I nodded and walked with Aiden to my dorm. After I was home I told Brogan I met Bruce, he looked at me angry and upset. “You stay away from him and that’s final!” I said. “Why?” Brogan looked at me. “You can’t be serious right now!?”

I said, crossing my arms. “I am!” Brogan yelled. “He serves the man who killed our mother!” I yelled. “For a good paying job!” Brogan growled at me. “There are thousands of jobs that pay well, Guard is one, I’m not going to deny that but there are others like Doctors, lawyers, engineers, medics and so much more! Why would he choose a guard?!”

I yelled at Brogan. “Everyone helps the world in different ways! You want to be a drill worker, great! I don’t want to be one, Aiden wants me to be a medic, Jasper wants to teach kids how to speak different languages, Cal wants to be an investigator, and Bruce wants to be a guard, I don’t see the problem!”

Brogan yelled. “Problem?! This whole friendship you are starting with him is the problem! He serves the man who murdered our mother!” I yelled back. “And how is that his fault! He didn’t leave our mother out there to die! Captain Dickson did!” Brogan screamed. ‘and that gives him the reason to say in front of me, in front of everyone I’ve known since I was little and my best friends, to my face, Captain Dickson was doing a good thing to leave your mother out there!?” I was taken aback. “Bruce thought our Mom, your mom! was supposed to die.”

I said. “Maybe he changed his mind.” Brogan grabbed me by the shoulders and yelled. “You don’t get it, do you!? Bruce is a bad guy, go over and play with him and Jasper but when you see him for who he really is you’ll understand I was only trying to protect you!” my father came down the stairs. “Stop, stop, stop shouting! Dear God! Brogan I know you're hearing is bad but there is no need to be that loud.” Brogan said. “Dad, Karissa is befriending Bruce, we have to stop her!” I stuck my tongue out at Brogan. My father said mad. “Karissa Megan Similar, put that thing back in your head!”

I put my tongue back in my mouth. He then said even angrier at my brother. “Brogan Marco Similar, I know your relationship with Bruce is like mine with Captain Dickson, but we have to learn to live with each other! So Karissa can be friends with whoever she wants!” Brogan yelled. “Am I the only one who loves mom and thinks she deserves at least some kind of Justice?! Those families should be washing our feet if not more for what they did to mom!” my father yelled. “That’s it! Brogan, go to your room now! And you're grounded for two months, no playstation 23 or phone.” he looked at me and said calmly “Get ready for bed, I'll kiss you goodnight in an hour.” and my father went to pour himself a glass of wine.

I don’t know how many glasses he had but he never came to kiss me goodnight and was asleep at our island in the morning with a wine glass in his right hand and the bottle of wine in his left tipped over with my brother cleaning up the red liquid all over the tiles and on the island. I knew I should have listened to my brother but I didn’t, I gave Bruce a chance and as Brogan said Bruce was a bad dude, he turned out to be a dick. Brogan would wrestle with him when I would play with Jasper and Aiden. I know he was just playing with him but I think part of it was letting out the anger he had for Bruce who respected Captain Dickson.