THE PICTURE OF YOU -rafe cameron-

046; coffee with milk and two sugars

The small Maybank fishing shack out by the marsh was still and quiet as Myra got home, her old worn out sneakers dragging against the dusty dirt road. The cut was still the same as when she left only a day ago. She held her hands firmly on the straps of her backpack as she glanced around, seeing the sun illuminate their yard with its bright rays. The grass was dry but overgrown by now, needing to be mowed so desperately. JJ was usually the one to do it, but he hadn't been around much lately. She doubted that their dad would touch the lawnmower anytime soon, she wasn't even sure where he was.

Myra got inside only to realize that neither her dad or her brother was home, so she dropped her backpack in her room before she got changed into a bikini and headed down to the water. She laid on their wobbly old wharf, picking mindlessly at the chipped dry wood of it with her fingers as she stared up at the clear sky. Not a cloud in sight, it was such a lovely day even if it was slowly but surely coming to an end. She soaked in the sun, enjoying the way it felt upon her skin. The birdsong was louder than usual, chirping and chiming with cheerful melodies. The birds told a story of their own. Myra watched with full focus as they soared across the sky so freely, seemingly without a care in the world. Sometimes she wished that she could be a bird as well.

After a while Myra decided to jump into the water, it just looked so enticing that she couldn't resist it. She truly felt the most at home in the warm and glistening marsh. She swam back and forth, closing her eyes as she floated on her back. She got about twenty minutes of calmness before she was brought back to reality by a screechy sound further up on the road. She recognized that noise, she could honestly recognize it from a mile or two away, she didn't even have to open her eyes. The bad brakes on the Twinkie. The brakes that should've been replaced a year ago, but still mysteriously worked. When Myra finally opened her eyes it was to the sight of her two older brothers, one who was so by blood and one ubiologically chosen one, stomping towards her.

"Myra, there you are" JJ called out as he rushed towards her, stomping his heavy worn out boots out on the wharf.  "Here I am" Myra hummed as gently as ever before. She swam over towards her brother, laying her upper arms to rest on the warm wooden planks of the wharf. "Where the hell have you been stinky?" JJ urged as he stopped before her, leaning down. He had a serious expression upon his face and a worrying kind of frown. "For the last half hour... here" Myra shrugged, glancing around at the water that surrounded her. "I can see that, duh, I mean the last twenty four hours" JJ went on, sitting down on the wharf so he could get in the same eye level as her, "we've been looking all over the island for you"

JJ seemed stressed and like he was trying his best to hold back his inner anger and frustration. Myra could tell, but she tried her best to ignore it. She didn't want to stir up anything unnecessary. "I told you I was going swimming with a friend" Myra clarified, glancing in between JJ who was sat before her and John B who was standing behind him. "Oh yeah? So you swam all night huh?" JJ questioned, his eyebrows raised even further. "No" Myra muttered, jumping up to sit on the wharf, accidentally splashing a bit of water onto her older brother, "I spent the night there, her parents had a barbecue, it was nice". John B took a step forward, "that does sounds nice". JJ glanced up at his friend and then back at his younger sister, "you could've told me, I've been worried sick about you"

"How JJ? Was I supposed to call you on my phone that has no cell service? To your phone that funnily enough doesn't have any cell service either?" Myra questioned, dragging her hands through her wet hair, pushing it out of her face, "there was a hurricane and we live on the wrong side of the island, remember?"

"Yeah of course I remember stinky"

"Don't call me that" Myra muttered bitterly, which made both JJ and John B chuckle. "Yeah, whatever... sorry" JJ hummed, helping his sister up. "You know I would've called you if our phones worked" Myra assured her brother as they walked off the wharf, "you have nothing to worry about". JJ nodded his head, content with just seeing his sister alive and well, so he eased up a little. John B on the other hand glanced in between the two siblings, a different kind of glimmer in his brown eyes, a silent questioning one. He too didn't want to stir anything unnecessary up, but he had noticed things that had seemed to go over JJ's head. He told himself that it was nothing, but he couldn't be sure.