a brighter morning

“Morning, Tommy,” Wilbur says with a wave. Tommy, rather rudely, does not wave back. What he does is stare and make an incoherent sort of squawking noise, as though Wilbur is a stranger trespassing in their house and not literally his older brother (Wilbur even checks over his shoulder to make sure there’s nobody behind him, but no, it’s just him). Wilbur is halfway through asking, “Tommy, are you oka-“ when Tommy crashes into him in a hug that’s almost more of a tackle or maybe a body-slam, sending both of them crashing to the floor with enough force to drive the air right out of Wilbur’s lungs.