A TEENAGER'S DENIAL OF MORTALITY

By Sarah My little brother wants to die in a burst of fireworks, scarring retinas as he explodes across the sky- except he didn't say it quite that poetically. I try to be amused when he says, "I want to die with a bang," because its such a cliche for a ten-year-old boy and because I can tell that he's lying, even if he doesn't know it yet. Bue as we sit there in a basement illuminated by fake Hollywood explosions and shirtless movie stars beating the shit out of each other, fear stirs from where it sleeps coiled in my stomach, raising its head ad blinking. My brother is energetic, whiny; wants to marry his classmate Rhiannon when he grows up, and play professional baseball. The air around him crackles with dreams, with life. My brother is so alive that when he dies, I want to believe that the world will die with him. I decided today that my little brother is immortal. Don't try to tell me otherwise.