Would you share it?

He should be sleeping like a baby but Leo woke up in the middle of the night: someone was screaming. It was not a dream, nor one of those nightmares he had had in the past days- since his mother had left the house without any explanation. Mum was back, and everything was as normal as ever. There was no reason to be sad or afraid; still, he was. The boy tried to get the light switch, but the little white box slipped out of his reach, so he walked in the dark towards the corridor. Silence. There were no noises downstairs, and the dogs seemed to be sleeping. There was no movement in his siblings' room either. It seemed nothing had happened, but it had. He knew it. Then he heard some sobbing and whispering in his parents' room. He moved slowly in that direction when he heard Dad saying:

"It's OK now, you are here."

The boy walked next to the room and looked through the door. He saw Dad hugging Mum, as their mother hugged them, the kids, whenever they had a nightmare and could not sleep. She was crying. 

"I'm sorry," said the woman. I didn't know what to do," she continued.

Dad held her tighter, and Leo almost felt it in his bones. 

"So selfish, so mean... they are monsters," whispered his mother.

It was difficult to hear what she was saying, and when he got closer and closer to the door, he touched it, and the hinges made a little noise.

"Who's there?" said Dad.

Leo thought about running to his bed but kept silent, frozen, looking at his parents instead.

"Leo," is it you?" said the man.

"Yes," replied the boy. "I heard something. Is everything OK?" 

"It will be OK, don't worry." replied his father

"Was it a nightmare?"

"Yes, go to sleep, it's OK now." 

"Is Mum OK?"

"Everything is good, Leo; please go to your bed."

"OK," said the boy, tracing his steps back to his room. 

In the past ten days, his father had barely spoken to the children, and now that their mother was back home, it seemed that his worlds were carefully measured. Dad had not told them where she was, but Leo knew the woman was safe and sound when he received a present in the shape of a file with his mother's story- when the document appeared on his computer. While she was out of their daily routines, Leo had read every word of that file, looking for an explanation for what was happening at their home. But he had not found a key for all that mystery around his mother. He had only realized there were more questions to ask.

When Leo was about to cross the door, he saw his sister next to it.

Queen put her finger on her lips:

"Shhh… was that Mum?"

"Yes," he whispered, "Go to sleep."

"I can't," she replied.

"Come inside," he told her, closing the door behind them as soon as they entered Leo's room.

Queen sat on the desk chair and started to swivel, and Leo picked the old stuffed donkey from one of the shelves, his buddy since he was a baby, and sat on his bed. 

"Why can't you sleep? Asked Leo.

The girl stopped the chair, looked at him, and replied:

"Because I am angry."

"Did anything happen at school?"

"Nope."

"What did Sun?"

"Nothing. Sun did nothing. Our brother is not the only annoying thing in this universe."

"Anything hurts?"

Queen's eyes seemed injected with blood, which used to happen when she was about to burst into tears.

"It's you, Leo. I'm angry at you!"

He did not expect that. He did not talk much with his sister, so when he said something to annoy her, the effect was usually immediate and not announced later.

"What have I done?"

"You don't know? It's not what you have done… It's what you haven't!"

"You're going to wake up Mum and Dad."

"You were supposed to tell me."

"What are you speaking about?"

"You knew about Mum; she wrote to you, and you did not tell me!"

"Mum did not write to me. What are you speaking about?"

"I heard you both speaking when she arrived home. You told her you had read it…"

"Queen, it was not a letter. There is no letter."

"You are lying!"

"I'm not. It's… "Leo did not know what to call it: a book? His sister was clearly upset, and he was not sure that any explanation from his side could make things better. 

"What is it then?"

Leo did not want to tell, but he knew there was no other option. His little sister was stubborn. She would not stop asking.

"It's… her story," he said.

Queen looked at her brother, confused. She did not understand what she heard. It made no sense.

"What story?" she asked

"Hers. Mum wrote … a book."

"A book?"

"A book about her life."

"No way," she replied, touching the keyboard immediately. The screen lit up, and the file appeared before her. She started to read, but her brother rushed to pull the plug on the computer, and everything disappeared.

"What are you doing? It's not for you," whispered Leo in an angry tone. There he was, defending his mother's words, stopping his sister from knowing things she was not supposed to know. She was too little...

"What do you mean? Why not? She's my mother as well," replied the girl, slapping his brother's arm away and clicking on the file again.

"I know, but…" Leo thought he might have said the same if he had been in her shoes. But he wasn't. He was the older child; he was able to understand things she didn't.

"But what?" asked Queen, grabbing the computer mouse and taking it away from Leo's reach.

"She did not send it to you," he replied.

"We'll see about that," she said. She was annoyed, angry. Her cheeks were flushed, and she had that kind of look Mum had sometimes when she had a fight with Dad. That was not good. Before Leo could say anything else, the girl threw the mouse away, walked to the door, and left the room, leaving the boy behind her confused. Was he supposed to go after his sister? But what if their parents realized they were still awake? Leo did not want to hurt his sister and had no idea what to do. Mum had made the file available to him. She had never sent him a message saying he could read or not, and she had never told him he could share or speak with others about it. He did not know what he was supposed to do, and still, he felt he was doing things wrong. 

Queen returned to her room, picked up one of her stuffed animals, went to bed, and covered herself entirely with the duvet. She hugged that pink cat Mum had once given her as if it was the dearest thing in her life, and a few minutes later, she fell asleep.