Where Hope Lies

I saw them both fall to their knees. Twins in nearly every aspect of the word, minus the age. Pale skin. Dark hair. Pure, childlike faces scarred by despondent eyes.

Silent. Lost.

Gone.

Gerard stood first, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder, murmuring something I couldn’t hear but understood perfectly.

“Per sempre, il mio ragazzi belli.”

Forever, my beautiful boys.

The only words left. The ones her chiming voice had sung so many times over the years, whether whispering to children or ringing with a soft lullaby. The last that had left her lips.

He turned. Shocking, forlorn features met my own. Black hair framed his face as usual, setting off eyes brimming with dull despair, one corner of his pale mouth wilting toward the ground like a dead flower.

I saw fierce hope within those eyes, so powerful it stung. The glittering tears I expected, the choking, stabbing sobs that had rained down upon him just minutes earlier…all of it was absent. He was quiet, subdued. There was no pain, no death in those eyes.

Only hope.

“I’ll do something, Frank,” he whispered, bell-like voice biting and determined. “Something…to remember her…”

He managed a smile. And I knew everything would be okay.

Forever.