When a few days ago had gotten worse, today had gotten stranger.

It had been only a few days after my brother's death. That morning when I woke up to see the flat line on the monitor making a deafening long beep, I immediately pressed the button and the doctor came along with a few nurses. My father pulled me away from the chair and held me in his arms as we watched the people surrounding my brother make futile attempts to bring him back to life. After a few good minutes, the doctor slowly turned to us with sad and knowing eyes before turning to the nurses to ask what the time is. As he said the words a doctor would usually say when a patient died, my knees grew weak and I fell down on them, staring blankly at the floor. My vision started to blur and I cried silently. My father kneeled down next to me and embraced me, sobbing quietly too.

The day after my brother's death, my father and I started to prepare for the funeral. My father first paid the hospital bill that nearly cost him everything and to add to that, he had to make arrangements for the funeral budget afterwards. We decided to cremate my brother like my mother when she died and we would spread the ashes in the beach where we spread my mother's ashes. 

I had a few extra cash that I saved up from my allowance to buy a funeral dress. After finishing all of my lectures for the day, I went to the store a few miles away from school and picked out my dress. It was a simple black dress that fell until just a bit below my knees. The neckline was conservative and its sleeves had gone up to my elbows. The saleslady looked at me funnily. She probably noticed how sluggish and tired I looked. Even the way I moved almost resembled my brother's.

"Excuse me, miss. Is this perhaps... a funeral dress?" she asked. I only nodded and she immediately felt bad, giving me an apologetic look.

"No, no. It's okay," I said with a wave of my hand.

She looked at my with a pitying look and gave me my dress that was placed in a bag. I left the store, wanting nothing more than to go home and rest from all of it. The passenger light turned green and I trudged across the street. All I heard next were screeching tires and I looked to my side to see a car swifting towards me, completely out of control.

And then I saw black.

But then I woke up abruptly.

I wasn't in the street anymore but I was at home in bed. My room was almost the same. Almost. Something felt so strange about it. I got up slowly and got off my bed. My laptop was there and my books, notebooks, and other stationery. Bed, the same frame and the same sheets. Bedside table, still the same white color. My diary was still there on my desk with a pen on top of it. Everything was there but what was it? What made me feel so uneasy about it?

Then, the door opened to reveal my brother.

My brother who died a few days ago.

"Hey, it's time for dinner," he said.

I looked at him surprised. He looked at me weirdly in return. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I said nothing and immediately hugged him. He was taken aback but he returned it anyway awkwardly. He gave me a few pats on my back before pulling away from me.

"What's with the hug?" he asked.

I was still too shocked to say anything. My brother was there in front of me, alive. Not only alive, but healthy. His skin was glowing and he had a natural blush on his cheeks. His lips were pink compared to the usual slightly blue ones he had because of his sickness. He used to be skinny but now he seemed to have more meat on his bones.

"You're being weird," he commented at my shocked expression and then said, "Mom made dinner and she told me to wake you up."

Mom? I thought. While my thoughts were clouding my head, my brother pulled my hand and led me to the dinner table. My father was there who was almost done setting up the table. My brother took his seat and then a shockingly familiar figure placed the food in the middle of the table. The figure took off her kitchen mittens and approached me.

It was my supposedly dead mother.

She looked the same as I remembered but slightly older. She looked at me with a smile and she had the same crinkles around her eyes. She held my face lovingly in her hands.

"Had a nice nap, Maya?" she asked sweetly.

I nodded and with no more words, she led me to my seat, which was right next to my brother's. The dinner was both nice and strange. The whole family was complete. My mother survived complications in childbirth and my brother was born healthy. My father was being the typical person he is and he looked like he had no worries.

While I enjoyed my dinner, not even the food could calm me like it would anyone at the moment.

With all my heart,

Maya