Chapter 19: Felix (1)

Money can't buy happiness.

Felix didn't buy this line of thinking. It was bullshit. It only applied to people who didn't know how to spend it. If he had all the money in the world, his problems would be solved.

The reality was that there is a limit to how much happiness could buy. It could buy the opportunity for happiness to rear its fickle head. It could be the lubricant for problems to grind themselves through. It could be the solution to other problems—easily solved when money sparks attention.

What if your life experiences taught you that the power of money was pivotal?

***

The view of the ocean was simply breathtaking. Solid but fluid, cohesive but uninterrupted… the waves broke onto shore predictably yet in a temperamental fashion. Two young boys, dressed in tattered clothes, were seated on top of a hill. From the edge of the cliff, they were forlorn and small—but full of ambition of hope. The ocean called out to them, egging them to explore beyond the shore.

"We're going to do it." Carl said finally, looking at the light reflecting off the ocean. "We're going to make it, no matter what."

Carl was unusually determined for a fourteen year-old. His pompadour was always perfectly slicked back. As the elder brother, Carl was the person that Felix looked up to. And Carl held the controls—literally—to the makeshift hang glider that they had painstakingly built.

"Are you crazy?" Felix was fully offended by Carl's uninhibited thinking. Felix, with a bowl haircut and chubby cheeks, was four years younger than Carl. He looked up to Carl in every way imaginable. That didn't mean that he agreed—just that he was in awe of his brother's audacity. "You're an idiot," he mumbled as he picked up a pebble from the ground and tossed it into the distance. It flew from Felix's hand in a perfect arc across the bay and into the blue of the ocean.

The makeshift hang glider had been the brothers' pride and joy for the summer. Together, they had sewn together recycled patches of a sail wing, strapped onto a wooden frame. Between Carl's visionary genius and Felix's uncanny engineering prowess, they had stitched together what resembled a rudimentary hang glider for two. It looked sturdy, but Felix was still unconvinced. His brother was promising to take him along on a life journey that would involve risk and reward far beyond anything they could imagine.

"Don't you trust me?" Carl prodded Felix. "Hold on tight! I'm telling you, it's worth it!"

Felix shut his eyes, pressing them tightly together. Fear crept up at the back of his throat.

But his brother had not been wrong so far. Without Carl, Felix would barely have survived his early years.

'How wrong could Carl be!' All that entailed was a long, steep drop down from the edge of the cliff onto some the jagged edge of an open-faced escarpment. A fall from this height would be brutal, and most likely, deadly. But this hang glider was their only hope. They had made it with their bare hands. Could their handiwork be trusted? And most of all, the two brothers were in it together.

"Are you ready?" Carl asked, almost hypothetically. "Let's dooooo it!" Without waiting for an answer, he took off sprinting, almost knocking Felix's legs off-balance with unbeatable momentum. The path would lead them to the edge of the cliff. Below them was a steep escarpment down to the beach.

Felix's heart pumped furiously as he tried to keep up. Adrenaline coursed through his veins. 'They had to make it. Or they'd die trying.'

The cool sea breeze was strong enough to lift the hang glider. Its sturdy wingspan was bigger than both of the boys' heights combined. Hanging from the airframe with a rope harness, the dynamic duo took off from the edge of the cliff. In mid-air, they took flight.

"Whoa…." Carl marvelled at the scenery. Their legs dangled from the hang-glider. They were flying!

After a good minute of cruising in mid-air, the hang glider began to tilt dangerously to one side. Carl was much heavier than Felix, and the glider began to list to one side. They didn't know how to steer to make up for the weight imbalance.

"Ahhhhhh! We're going to crash!" Felix shrieked, his voice high-pitched with fear. The whole time, they had been in a rapid descent into the ocean. The coastline was coming up at them super fast.

They were going to end up crashing in the waves!

***

"That was awesome!" Carl yelled as he dragged his brother to the shore by the collar of his shirt. The two stumbled onto the shore, completely drenched in seawater.

Felix sputtered and choked as he gasped for air.

"We almost died! Why would you do this?" Felix weeped. His eyes stung with both his tears and the salty seawater.

Carl gave Felix a playful look, laughing. "You were so scared! We landed just fine on the beach — look, no sharks here!" he teased.

"This isn't funny. You don't take things seriously," Felix hiccuped in between tears. "I'm soaked!"

Carl howled in laughter even more at his baby brother's complaints. He splashed some more water onto Felix as he struggled to get up to his feet. Felix's wet hair was plastered on his face, making his bowl cut look even more comical. For some reason, Carl's gelled pompadour retained its shape despite having gone for a dip in the ocean.

Felix grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at Carl's face in retaliation. Except, the sand was wet. It landed with a plop back onto the beach, instead of spraying into Carl's face. Without a moment's hesitation, both brothers burst out laughing hysterically. It was too comical a moment to consider the ramifications of what could have happened from their daredevil stunt.

The moment of tension was broken and the boys played in the water to their hearts' content like the children they were. It was a carefree moment, as if they had always intended to come to the beach. Behind them, the waves were carrying parts of their broken hang glider further out to sea —the results of a month of hard work now tattered.

"Look! Do you see that?" Carl pointed into the distance. Across the horizon, the sun shone brightly down at the glimmering ocean.

"It's just the ocean, so what?"

"No, beyond that! Can't you see?"

"Nope, there's nothing but water," Felix squinted.

"That's the island of Celtia. It's another country many many kilometres away from here. If you believe it, you'll see it too," Carl said seriously.

Felix couldn't see this Celtia island.

Carl whipped his arm around and pointed south. "And if you go further south, you'll reach Al Tehar!"

"What's your point?" Felix asked.

"Someday, we'll go and leave this hell hole behind. We're going to travel and see the world as adventurers! We'll explore new places! Eat new food! Meet new people! Everything good the world has to offer. We'll have it all. But we have to do so much," Carl said, absentmindedly making shapes in the sand with a stick. "People can't travel to another country unless they're a big deal."

"So I have to eat a lot?" Felix questioned innocently.

Carl chuckled heartily as he drew the outline of an hourglass in the sand. "That too. What I mean is that we first need to work very hard, make lots of money, get power and respect that we deserve from the other Vinlanders. And you know what the bonus is? We'll meet all the beautiful ladies!"

Felix was disgusted. "Ewww! I don't like girls."

Carl grabbed his brother's chubby cheeks with both hands and steadied them. "You do, but you just don't know it yet. We're going to achieve everything this world has to offer. We're going to work our butts off, get out of the slums, and live like the rich do."

"How?" Felix was flabbergasted by his brother's ambition. His cheeks were getting smushed together and he could barely move his lips.

"I have a plan. I'm going to quit my job!" Carl announced proudly. "And you're going to help me."

"But first, you need to do something." He let go of Felix's face and ruffled his bowl cut hair. "You're going to change… your hair!"

Felix adjusted his mussed up wet hairdo, annoyed. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"Everything." Carl looked dead serious. "A man should always have good hair."