Wednesday

I call my brother every Wednesday around 5 o'clock. It's a long standing tradition we've had for about four weeks. My brother lives in another state, and 3 or 4 times a year, my mom and I pack up our car and spend hundreds of dollars to go visit my siblings for a few days. My brother has no cell phone, and no internet access, so I can't just text him, or IM him when he's on. For years I have had little to no communication with him between visits.

One day, my brother called to tell us that he had applied to a school about 200 miles away from his house and if he got in, he would be leaving for two years. When my mother told me that, I called him back to congratulate him. I was sick, but I felt like I should say something. We ended up talking for hours. This was the first Wednesday.

Before we hung up, I told him that we didn't talk enough and I needed to call him more. He said "How about next Wednesday?" I agreed and got off the phone thinking 'Now how on earth am I going to remember to call him?' The week continues: The Vampire Diaries is on the next night, I go to the movie theater Friday, the weekend, Gossip Girl on Monday, and then, on Tuesday night just as Glee was ending, I get a text from my sister that says "Matt will be with me tomorrow." I realized he must be off school for Thanksgiving on Thursday and was staying the night at our sisters. I was a little confused about why she felt the need to tell me this, so I texted back asking. She replied simply: You call him every Wednesday.

And it became true, The next night I called my sisters house and talked to him there, the next week I called his house again. All our calls end up being almost two hours, until he finally says he has to go. Today, as I got out my brand new cell phone and dialed my brothers house number it occurred to me, we could have been doing this all along. My brother has been gone for years. We had been so blinded by technology all these years. It had never crossed my mind to call the old kitchen phone that doesn't even have caller ID. Matt and I missed years of conversations because we just never thought of it.

I learned on my call with him today that he got in to the school. On January 25th he leaves, no more Wednesday calls, no more stays at his house on vacation. I do get to spend the last few weeks before he goes to school with him though, staying at his house for Christmas and then he'll stay at mine until it's time to leave. The school will be good for him though, and he'll get his cell phone, so I'll be able to text him. And life will go on, I'll see him on holidays. He'll become like my cousin who went to college and now can never make the birthday parties or the late holiday parties. But it will all be for the best. And then in a couple years, he can move closer to me, and I can see him and talk to him more again. Everything will work out, and we'll be back to together in no time.