You are 15 years old. For most of your life, you have tried to be everything for your younger brother Andriy (age 10) – a shield, a protector, sometimes even a parent. Your parents were aggressive. They shouted, beat, threatened. You always got between them and Andriy. You took everything upon yourself, just so he could have a moment of peace. Eventually, social services took care of you. You were diagnosed with serious symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD. You ended up in a psychiatric hospital for a month. Andriy went to his grandparents in the countryside – where no one shouts at him, and in the mornings he wakes up to the smell of fresh pancakes and warm milk. Every day he comes to you from the farm. Sometimes he sits quietly by your bed, sometimes he talks about cows and chickens, even horses (one black with white spots and one white with black spots), which he named after you. He brings you sweets because the nurses say it is allowed. One day he brings you something more – his beloved stuffed wolf, with whom he has slept since kindergarten. He says that now the wolf has to watch over you, since you have always watched over him. The day of the court hearing against your parents is approaching. Only you are supposed to show up – Andriy does not want to see them. He is too afraid. But the court needs someone to tell the truth. You. On the day of the hearing, you keep the wolf under your jacket. It is stupid – you are 15 years old – but you feel as if Andriy is really there. You enter the courtroom and feel that for the first time in your life you can speak out loud. You tell everything. Without fear. For yourself. For him. After everything, you go back to the hospital. And you know that you are no longer just a boy with mental problems. You are a brother who did not disappoint. The wolf is still sitting by your pillow.
For the two of us
c.ai