– “Where are you going,” my brother yelled, ignoring the surprised people around him, “or should I go look at your house? “You must have dragged a lot of stuff from your home during this time.” When the cook showed him what kind of dough was suitable for pies, he just waved it off, “Oh, never mind, I’ve collected something else over the years.” People looked at each other in surprise. Alex had been working abroad for more than fifteen years. He had only come back twice: to do some paperwork and now, on the ninth day after his and Louise’s father passed away. From the very morning, everyone who came to help prepare the memorial dinner felt how much his brother held a grudge against his sister.
– “What’s gotten into him?” the cook whispers in amazement, “he runs around like a rooster in his own house. He was abroad, earning money for his children’s cars and apartments, and he didn’t show his nose, neither when Louise took care of her mother, nor when she followed her father for seven years like a baby, because he forgot everything at once. And now, here’s the master!” she glanced at Alex, who was again looking for something in his parents’ house. Louise stood there and did not understand. Her brother had arrived last night unannounced. Not to see her father off into eternity, but nine days later. Even though he had his own two-story house in the village, he stayed here. The naive woman thought that her brother wanted to be with her at such a difficult time for both of them.
But no! He had been looking for something since the morning, opening all the sheds and barns and looking for something. “Where are the tarpaulins,” people heard again, “my father bought them for a lot of money once. What did you sell that wasn’t yours?” he said, and flew into the house without hesitation. He wanted to add something else, but Louise was already standing on the doorstep with a bag of things, crying. “I’m sorry, brother,” she said, barely audible, “I seem to be bothering you today.” Other people began to follow her. Alex blinked his eyes for a minute, and when the house was empty, he finally grabbed some papers and ran after his sister.
– “Everything is mine!” he pointed at the forms, “the house and movable and immovable property. My father and mother signed over all their property to me twenty years ago. Louise said nothing. She walked slowly to her former home, where her daughter was running the place. He made her look guilty, saying that it was she who wanted to take over his house, and when he wouldn’t let her, she organized a concert. People didn’t listen to him; they told him directly that his behavior and actions would not bring him to good. Alex stayed at home for another week, changed all the locks in his parents’ house. He put bars on all the windows and doors, even the interior ones, and then went to live with his wife.
The news came from a neighbor with whom Alex sometimes talked. Somewhere in a foreign land, his brother became ill. He turned to specialists and was dumbfounded – it was hopeless. They promised him two more years of more or less normal life, and then, like his father, he would gradually forget everything until he was completely ill. Upon learning this news about her husband, his wife immediately told him to go back to Ukraine, because here he would be a burden to her.
His two daughters, for whose sake he had spent all those years abroad, found absolute excuses and explanations that although their father was dear to them, he was not worth spending his life on. Louise told her daughter everything and said that no matter what, Alex was her brother and she would take care of him. And the daughter gave her an ultimatum: either her mother spends her life and health on an ungrateful brother who will not say thank you, but without her daughter, or she spends these years with her and her grandchildren, who love and appreciate their grandmother very much.Louise cries and does not know what to do. She feels sorry for her foolish brother and her daughter is right.
