GH I N O -- the prologue, title is a work in progress

Life was good.

Fabian, 16, had just gotten his license after his second attempt at the driving test. He could now DRIVE the car his parents had bought him for his 16th birthday.

The car wasn't much; it was a used, inexpensive little thing, but he had insurance and the thing ran. It also had great fuel efficiency, which was good for someone of his stature: too lazy to get a job.

Actually, Fabian worked at the Renaissance Festival when it was in town. Although, that gig didn't pay much. He only had a couple hundred dollars saved up, and he was saving it for something special.

He couldn't wait to get home and tell his eight-year-old brother, Ghino, he had gotten his license and now they could go to Diana's anytime they wanted. Diana'swas a small little arcade, but they had the best old Namco games that both Fabian and Ghino loved. It was actually called "Dexter in Auburn Games", which abbreviated to DIAG, which reminded Ghino of Aunt Diana's name for some reason.

"Ghino! Ghino, guess what!" Fabian yelled as he opened the front door. His little brother, bursting with energy, sprinted to the door and jumped up into Fabian's open arms.

"What, Fabe? What is it?" Ghino's face lit up when he saw Fabian's smile.

"I got my driver's license!" Fabian exclaimed. Ghino fell out of his arms and latched on to his older brother's legs, snuggling tightly. Fabian pat Ghino on the head affectionately and his mother appeared through the doorway and motioned for Fabe to go in the kitchen. Fabian escaped his brother's death grip and headed towards the kitchen.

Arriving, his mother had tears in her eyes and his father looked close to tears. "What's up?" he asked, concerned. His mother looked up at him and burst into tears. Fabian looked to his father for an answer, who just looked down and shook his head. Fabian sat down and thought about something bad he must've done.

"It's not you, Fabe," his mother finally spurted out. "It's... well... it's..." she started, but couldn't seem to find the words to finish.

"Your mother... she went to the doctor today and..." his father tried to finish.

"Patrick, I should be the one to tell him," his mother said to his father. Fabian was absolutely befuddled.

"What'd the doctor say, Mom?" he asked after about ten seconds of complete silence. Ghino was in the other room playing Halo 2 on the X-BOX 360. The sounds of guns could be heard and it made Fabian a bit uneasy.

"I... I have hypo-pharyngeal cancer," she finally spat out. Fabian had no idea what to do. Cancer.

"Is it... treatable?" Fabian asked. "Does Ghino know?"

"We don't know if it's treatable or not yet. I... I'm afraid to tell Ghino. I don't know if he'll understand, Fabe, I just... I don't want to explain to him that Mommy... might..." When his mother broke out in tears again, only to be comforted by his father who shooed Fabian out, Fabian left.

"Hi, Fabe!" Ghino said without looking up from his game. Fabian sat down in the chair next to his brother and watched as Ghino masterfully controlled his players and knocked all visible CPUs out of the game.

Maybe life wasn't so good after all.