Marco and Alfie were confident their mother would do something to stop the train trip before it could happen. But to their surprise, she nodded with a smile and told their father, Maxwell, “I think this is a very good idea. To spend a bit of time on your own with the boys.” It wasn’t for no reason that the boys didn’t spend time with their father. He wasn’t a nice person to spend time with. He was the best person to know unless you were an adult who enjoyed being drunk and loud. When he was sober on weekdays, he was like that song “Bohemian Rhapsody” – a mix of unpredictable emotions and voice tones. One moment, he would almost whisper as he spoke. The next moment, he would yell at one of the kids with a voice that boomed like a megaphone. He was a rising wave, and the boys held their breath as it came crashing down on them, seemingly in slow motion. The moment their father turned his back, the boys grilled their mother like a witness in court. With more rapid questions than one person could answer at once.

Alfie, the eldest, was, as always, the angriest and the most determined not to do what he didn’t want to do. But their mother wasn’t much one for answers. Alfie was strong-willed, determined by a storm wind, but his mother was a rock. Marco mainly was determined not to do things his older brother didn’t want to do. Because as much as he was afraid of his father, he would make the long train trip without problems, so long as it was him and Alfie. The announcement of the train trip was in August, and in between, they forgot and remembered again the journey in November. In the meantime, Marco had turned twelve years old, still always four years behind Alfie, always three steps behind him.

Everyone was awake by four o’clock on the morning of the first day of the three-day trip. Their father had woken them up himself. Waiting in the kitchen was a man-sized fruit bowl of mealie meal. Their father stood by the saloon door of the kitchen and drank his java with his blunt.

“Come, come, get ready,” is all said. There was no need for much more than that. Because everything that came from their father sounded like a threat to the two brothers. The walk to the station was a lonely trip for all three of them because their father walked too fast for Alfie to keep up, and in Alfie’s stubborn determination to keep up with his father, he left Marco in the distance. Their father looked back once to see if they were still there and said under his breath, “Come, why are you walking so slowly.”

Eventually, Alfie stopped and waited for Marco, who had started to run to keep up. Alfie, who could never hide it when he lost his temper, angrily asked Marco, “Why are you walking so slowly?”. Marco tried to explain, out of breath, “I’m walking as fast as I can.”. Alfie would lose his temper over something as simple as someone not walking fast enough, but he would only walk ahead with Marco. What no one said but what was obvious to Marco and Alfie, too, was that his younger brother was his responsibility. That’s how it had always been. If they depended on their father, Alfie and his father would end up on the train without Marco. Eventually, the walk stopped when they reached Mitchell’s Plain’s train station. From there, they would take the train to Cape Town, where their trip would really begin.

Tell us: What were the two brothers’ names, and what was their age difference?