Stepping memories away

The room went dark again as I stepped into my mothers memories. Millions of little flowers sprout up. I choose carefully. Many red, the color of hard times or upsetting memories. A few, but not many yellow, the color of happiness. I walk up slowly to a red one. One touch of my finger tip and the flower petals rip off and float around me. I swipe one of the petals , making my eyes go blank. And I'm transported to a scene of my mother and father fighting again. My eyes go back to normal as the scene fades away slowly. Then when the petals finally fall to the ground I look up to see her again. The memory keeper. Whenever I walk into someone else's memory she makes me choose between one memory and the other. Whichever one I pick , she makes that memory go away forever and I forget about it completely. And it's just gone after that never again to be remembered. I remember the first time she appeared. It was when I was only five years old. My mother and father had been fighting again. But it was bad and I had first found out my ability because I had touched the forehead of my cat Tobias. A very cranky cat by the way. I was transported here and I touched one of the flowers out of curiosity. It showed Tobias as a little baby. But then there she was the memory keeper she had looked at me with interest. And I chose to forget about the first fight my mother and father had. I can't remember it anymore because she had taken away the memory. The only way I know that there was a first fight was because of my mother. She had talked about it so much before she got sick. Now she only lays in her bed all day leaving me alone to care for my younger sister Aster, which means star in ancient greek. Nowadays I'm used to the memory keeper. She had taken lots of my memories of my parents fighting. “So which memory will it be this time? Your younger brother's death or another one of your parents fighting?” she asked, stepping towards me. I stop for a minute at the mention of my little brother. He had only been seven when someone had set off a fire at his elementary school and two others had been too slow. They had died that day. But that was ten years ago and I can't let that weigh me down. “My little brother's death.” I say finally after a minute of thinking. She nods and then reaches to my forehead. Then the memory is gone. I blink again and there I am next to my mothers bed. “Son are you *cough* ok?” she asked me. “I'm a fine mother , just rest please.” I tell her , leaving the room. I walk out of the room. Aster is still at school until 3:00 pm. So that means I have some time to myself. I go to the kitchen and grab the macaroni and cheese from the counter. I pour some water into a pot and pour in the mac and cheese after the water boils. Now that I'm seventeen years old I have to take care of all the meals, bills, and school payments so that Aster can still go to school. By the time I finish making the mac and cheese I have 20 minutes before Aster is done with school. I put the mac and cheese in the oven so it stays warm. I ran to the car, grabbing my keys and getting inside. I started to drive to Aster’s school. I grab onto the steering wheel and drive.. As I enter the drive way. I see Aster walk towards the car. She was happy she looked a lot like me. Ashy blonde hair that curls and pale skin. Best of all her green eyes she had been born with green eyes the color of a four leaved clover. She has always been the happiness of my life. And if anyone ever hurt her I would hunt them down. “Hi Asher.” Aster said happily sitting down in the back seat of the car. “Hi Aster. How was your day?” I asked her. “It was alright I guess.” she said, sighing. “I made mac and cheese.” I say trying to get her to smile. “Yay!” Aster's mood quickly changes as she hears the words of her favorite food. “How's mom?” She asks. “ She is getting worse.” I say frowning. "Will mama die?” she asks. “No, I'm sure she won't.” I say reassuringly. Aster smiles. As we arrive back home I park the car and help Aster with her homework while we eat mac and cheese. “So if 6+198=204 then that means that the answer is right.” Aster exclaimed happily. “Yep. now only one more problem." I say, relieved. “Ok so 9 * 74,392=66,952.8.” she says. I don't know why but the number 66952.8 hits me like an arrow. 669528 was the name number I was given by the memory keeper. I shake my head. It was probably just a coincidence. But how could it be a coincidence it was theexact same number. I shake my head again. “Asher are you ok big brother?” Aster asks, she had packed her stuff away already. I just nod and then head to the bathroom to get ready to sleep. I brush my teeth and put on an oversized jersey that my father gave me before leaving. It was the one he always wore when we went fishing. It still has the signature of my fathers old work friends on the back. It was stained with the murky water of the lake. Its white color now darkened to a gray. Then I put on some short pants. They were pants from the economy store. He can remember when mom had actually taken them to the mall to go shopping for clothes she used to care about. Now all she did was lay in that bed and never move from that stupid bed. Except if she needs the bathroom which is almost never because she doesn't eat a lot. I've tried feeding her something once it stayed in her room for weeks. I haven't bothered to feed her since then. But she does eat very small portions of food. Now she just looks so frail, as if her soul was being sucked away. I grab the hair brush and brush through my wavy hair . My bangs rested above my eyebrows as I brush through my ashy blonde hair. I never really liked my hair, it was too fluffy. And it always made girls whisper about my hair. I had school tomorrow and it was going to be the first day of school since I used to go to a private school. But now I can only afford public school. So I had to be ready for it. I put the brush back in the cupboard and left the bathroom. I headed towards my room. It was usually messy but tomorrow the community home people are going to inspect the house to see if it is a good place for Aster to live. Technically I would apply as a minor since I am 17. But they know that I am able to take care of myself. And I need to make the house look presentable. I'm just praying that they don’t come while I'm at high school. “Mom, make sure to call me if the community home people come before I get back.” I spoke harshly. She just made a small nod if you blinked you would have missed it. I walked to my room. I took one step into my room and realized something was off. Then I remembered what was off. All of the photos were gone. The photos of my scrap book were all gone. I touched the cover of the ripped scrapbook as I looked through the ripped pages. I found one photo that had survived. It was an elementary fire. As I looked closer at it I saw there was a weird man far in the background. The man was holding my little brother and swapped my little brother with a kid whose face was burnt off. Then I looked at the back of the photo it had a huge rip through it. "Brother.."