On Balance Weighted- The Restaurant

"Please excuse the mess, I was not expecting company today."

"No worries, we're not staying here long."

I grab a couple/few items, filling my pockets, and prepare to set off. He holds his hand out toward me at the door and I stop. With the same hand he then points at the flowers on my TV stand. "You'll be wanting to take those." I feel a nearly overwhelming sense of the tangibility of this moment, as if the emotion of eep established all over again, rushing in the form of blood to my cheek. I grab the flowers, still in their simple brown paper wrapping and tied with a string. "Shall we?" "One more thing," he replies "How about kicking off our trip with a few lines?" I smile, not one to deny such a request from one such as he, and gather my thoughts for a moment.

"These tides raging on

Felt from foreign seas solely

Do not reach our hull

For shaping of seas

Strand us on ocean of love

But set straight our course."

He pats his pockets and I do the same. He grabs a penny and shows me one face of it and then another "In or out" I nod with a smirk, always up for some nonsense, and he flips it as we cross the threshold. I shut the door behind us and turn the lock as he snatches the penny from the air and presses it to the back of his hand.

"After you." We head down the stairs, and I breathe deeply, as if for the first time; something about this day feels magical, albeit the shift is not readily apparent by any traditional sense. I continue my poem.

"No objections heard

Agreement waiting on word

Brothers on signal."

I look up as we descend, remembering the paper lanterns and Hope, willing to go out on a limb to say hello, volunteering despite the static of these times. We get to the landing, he reveals the penny, and we nod, both knowing precisely where we are headed. "Shotgun!" I declare. He squints at me suspiciously "You're the only one here." I shrug like a sassafras and we laugh as we reach the ground and make our way to his car.

"Path traveled before

Tattooed for the world to see

Scars earned, lessons learned

Do not change a thing

Except the distance between

My soulmate and I

Like a compass forged

A way through the storm revealed

Soul shining like gold."

As we walk the grass I think of The Phoenix, fox feet carrying me forth, even when "forth" was not clear. Shouting above the noise, or singing softly in the darkness, she did not leave regardless of how many chips were down, or were left. We step onto the path and I flashback to when my brother and I walked Sin City, each in our own way, and left with a story to tell that we would never forget.

"Don't envy our path

Except to help pave your own

By the ink revealed

Penny in the air

What is a penny between

A pair of jokers?"

"Quite the question. I have some thoughts on that actually." We pile into his car. "I would expect nothing less, though this won't be too long of a drive."

I act as the navigator, as we wind our way through the city, swapping stories of how unlikely pairings can result in incredible things, and how careful planning and clever shaping with the right heart can astound an audience you might have never known you had, had they not shown up at your door. While the precise words escape me now, I offer this, as sonnet shaped synopsis.

"Love, actually real and paid for in full

As fractal as the day they were conceived

In one sense a battle from first thread pull

In other surrender once first perceived

If you will not invite, we'll not enter

Do you think brothers cannot make a house?

Pennies dropped or tossed land in the center 

Till well overflowed these flames could not douse

Falsehoods all folly a foot past the gate

Hearts known within from very beginning

Brother's bat shouldered is one move checkmate

(In truth king tipped before the last inning)

So game is called, curtain drawn, rules doctored

Test concludes, two witnesses have proctored."

We pull up to the In-N-Out and he stops the car. It feels as though everything stops in that moment, coming completely to a halt. Time itself seems to slow to a crawl, though the kids all still ride their skateboards and scooters around outside. Silence falls. "I don't know how to end it."

My brother turns, looks me straight in the eye and says "Do not worry, you don't have to." Our eyes remain locked for a second that feels like a lifetime, when a beautiful woman in a purple dress passes by the car, carrying a leather purse. My eyes follow her as she walks into the In-N-Out ahead of us. He opens his door, I open mine, and we head inside.