Jordan Wilson was asleep in his favourite chair. The charred remains of a letter sat in a fire, smouldering in a metal bin at his feet. As Jordan slept, the dying embers of the fire and his heart both evaporated towards the ceiling. A floorboard had been removed, and a tin box sat open at his feet.

Jordan had stumbled through life, failing at everything he had attempted until he was thirty-six years old when his elder brother Joshua was all of a sudden imprisoned for a crime Joshua claimed he didn’t commit. This meant Joshua disinherited the family fortune, and overnight, Jordan became a billionaire instead of having no future. The last time Jordan had spoken to his brother was forty years ago.

*
**

Forty years earlier,
Pandino High-Security Prison,
December 12th, 1947,

Jordan sat across from his brother, who was two years his senior. Both men had their whole lives ahead of them but were heading in different directions. Joshua was crying and scared as he had no idea why he was going to spend the rest of his life behind bars, but he was happy to see his brother and hoped he would help him appeal against his sentence.

“Jordie, thank you for coming to see me.” his brother said cheerfully.

“I don’t have long, Josh. I need to tell you something important.” Jordan spoke confidently. “I have received a letter that can clear your name; it is from a witness who was there that night and claims they know the real murderer,” Jordan said, slowly putting his hand on his brother’s.

“Can you find a better lawyer, give them the letter, and find the witness?” Joshua asked eagerly.

“Joshua, I will see what I can do, but finding the witness could be very hard.” Jordan attempted to reassure his brother.

“Do you need anything? I will return in a week and update you on my progress on finding the witness, corroborating her story, and finding a proper lawyer.” Jordan held his brother’s hand and looked into his eyes confidently

“No, just get me out of here, brother,” Joshua said as he sobbed.

Jordan hugged his brother and left the prison forever. He never thought of his brother again or looked for the witness. He placed the letter in a tin box with his brother’s possessions and burned it forty years later on the day his brother died.

THE END