Chapter 3My Replacement Brother

I was discharged on a gray, overcast day.

It was the same day Leo was officially diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. The doctors said there was still a chance he could wake up.

For the first two weeks, Mom and Dad were diligent. They brought his favorite strawberry shortcake to the hospital every day and took turns reading stories by his bedside.

By the third week, the atmosphere began to shift. The puffiness around my mother’s eyes faded, replaced by a deep, weary exhaustion and a silent, creeping despair. My father, using his busy schedule at the company as an excuse, didn’t set foot in the hospital for a solid month.

One evening at dinner, my mother finally broke her silence. “He wet the bed again today,” she said in a low, muffled voice. “I was lucky to be there to clean it up.” She sighed. “I’ve had to cancel so many lunches with my friends, running back and forth to that hospital.”

My father’s chopsticks paused mid-air. He was quiet for a long moment.

“Let’s hire a 24-hour nurse,” he said finally. “You can’t keep this up, you’ll wear yourself out.”

I kept my head down, gnawing on a pork rib, saying nothing.

Another two weeks passed. Leo’s name was rarely mentioned in the house anymore. The nurse would call once a week with a robotic update, always the same: “No change.” They would just nod numbly, not even bothering to sigh. My father even took down the only award certificate Leo had ever won and stuffed it in a storage closet.

Naturally, this behavior infuriated the commenters.

[WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PARENTS? LEO IS THEIR SON! HE HAS PLOT ARMOR, HE'S GOING TO WAKE UP!]

[THIS IS ALL FAYE'S FAULT! IF IT WASN'T FOR HER, HE WOULDN'T BE LYING IN THAT BED, HELPLESS! AT THIS RATE, WHEN WILL OUR HEROINE EVER GET ADOPTED?!]

They had a point.

Leo couldn't do anything lying in that bed.

But I could.

A few days ago, to protect their own reputation and avoid a flood of pitying inquiries from their social circle, my parents had transferred me to a public elementary school.

Now, it was time for the next step.

I took the long way home from school, first tossing my backpack into a bush to cover it with dirt and leaves. Then, I found a rough patch of concrete and took a deliberate dive, scraping my knee just enough to draw a few beads of blood. I quickly smeared the blood across my cheek.

Once my masterpiece was complete, I ran the rest of the way home.

I burst through the door with a wail and threw myself into my mother’s arms.

“Mommy! They were picking on me!”

She gasped, her hands fluttering nervously as she tried to wipe the "blood" from my face. “What is it, Faye? Who hurt you?”

“The boys at school!” I sobbed, my words coming out in hiccupping gasps. “They… they said Leo’s a vegetable… and that I’m just a burden nobody wants… They threw… threw all my books in the mud…”

My father, seeing my disheveled state, turned livid. “Which class? What are their names? I’m going to the school tomorrow and talking to your principal! This is outrageous!”

I grabbed onto his pant leg, my wails growing louder. “But… but it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Daddy, I’m so scared. Why… why can’t my brother be like Amelia’s brother from the other class? He protects her… he chases away all the mean kids…”

My mother’s eyes instantly reddened again. She hugged me tight, her voice full of pain. “Oh, Faye, I’m so sorry. We’ve been so focused on… we’ve neglected you. You must have been terrified.”

“Mom, Dad, can you… can you adopt a brother for me? One who can protect me?”