Dear Brother...

It had been continuous seven days now that Auro had this headache. He was on the roof, secretly applying ointment to his forehead. He looked up at the stars, his stars and sighed. He would keep it to himself, he decided. He did not want to bother his mummy and uncle D. And definitely not Vicky.

It was one year now that he had moved into Uncle D’s house after mummy got married to him.  Moving in with Uncle D was extra special for Auro as he believed his mummy had a friend now.

Even at eleven years, Auro was away more sensitive for his age. He could always feel that his mummy was lonely, although she had never said so. She had brought him up single-handedly from a very young age. So, when he heard that he and mummy would be living with Uncle D from then on, he was very happy for three specific reasons – his mummy would have a friend, he would have an uncle who loved to pamper him, and above all, he would have a big brother.

Vicky was Uncle D’s son, about two years older than Auro. Auro had everything planned out about how he was going to share his video games and play station with him, his gaming cards, and the keyboard with him. But Vicky turned out to be cold, rather disdainful towards him, and he did not even hide that he wanted Auro out of his house. Auro had got scared at Vicky’s outburst on that very first day. He had looked at Vicky’s angry face from behind his mummy.

“Mumma, am I so bad? Why Da does not like me?” Auro had asked at night.

“Don’t worry baby... he will love you. Who doesn’t love my dear boy? Hm? It’s just that he is finding everything new. He was alone all these years, right?”

“I will not take his toys, Mumma. I will give him mine too..”

“Sure, that’s my good boy. Now go off to sleep. New school from tomorrow!” mummy had said.

Auro went off to sleep, planning everything he thought would help him to win over his new brother Vicky.

But months had passed, Vicky did not mellow down. In school, he ignored Auro. At home, he shut Auro out.

To get things to normal, Uncle D had arranged for a common home tutor for them. Auro was a bright boy. He always noticed what Vicky was doing. He even got the general idea of standard eight’s math and science in addition to his.

Vicky never put heed to all these. He was a driven boy. He had his academics to excel in and football championships to win. He was everybody’s apple of the eye in school and neighborhood. And all these made Auro see him as his idol.

Vicky had this upcoming mathematics championship in the next three months, and so he demanded the house to be dead silent. And it was all the more reason why Auro kept his headache to himself and did not bother anybody. So, whenever he got a headache, he would go up to the terrace and secretly apply the headache balm he found from their housekeeper. The darkness around soothed him, and he also got to talk to the stars he considered his confidante.

*

Their home tutor was putting in extra efforts on Vicky these days, so he was giving less attention to Auro. Auro was getting easier and easier math problems to solve. At least Auro thought so. He justified that if he could solve his problems, the tutor would be able to utilize the time on Vicky more. Auro was only happy with the arrangement. He just wanted his big brother to win the championship.

Seeing Vicky restless, Auro would say, “Don’t worry, you will be the champion, I know.”

“Keep it to yourself!” Vicky would snap.

“No, trust me! You are the best. I….” Auro would say.

“Yes, keep on disturbing, I will rank first.. from the other end!! Leave me alone!!” Vicky would shout. Auro would run feeling a bit hurt. But he then would console himself, “He is too worried about the championship!”

*

One day Auro had a bad bout of headache and vomiting and had to skip school. He did not tell anybody about his trouble, though. The housekeeper saw him vomiting nonetheless and let him skip school. Mummy was busy at the office, and she could only advise some medicines over the phone. The vomiting did stop after a while, and Auro got a chance to explore Vicky’s room. It was a wonderland for him. He went through Vicky’s books and guitar and drawings. While flipping through Vicky’s mathematics books, Auro found that he could solve most of the problems quickly. He was a bit surprised himself. Then he went on solving a few more to be sure. Then a thought came to his mind, “Is Vicky practicing right? If I can solve them, how can this be championship level problems!”

From that day onwards, he started keeping track of Vicky’s mathematics practice. The books were actually of high standards. Auro noticed that their tutor had to explain the steps to Vicky meticulously each day. So definitely, they were challenging.

Auro realized that he could solve the problems rather effortlessly. It was his newfound capability, not that the mathematics problems were at any fault. This realization exhilarated him. A wild idea came to his mind – what if he could attend the championship as Vicky’s team-mate?

But when he told Vicky about his idea, Vicky went berserk! He threw a tantrum, breaking his guitar and toys. Auro started shivering in fear.

He developed a fever and a severe headache that day. In his illness, he went on saying, “I can do the math. I can help him win!” “Mumma, please ask Da to take me in his team.” But Mummy and Uncle D thought Auro was only delirious.

Two days later, Auro went to school with a pair of specs. His ophthalmologist said that he was indeed having some deficient visual acuity and that it could cause a headache if he did not wear specs.

*

About a month before the championship, their school held a selection test for selecting the teams. Auro dared not to tell Vicky, but he went to Uncle D for permission to participate. Uncle D adored this bright little boy and agreed.

Vicky got furious, of course, when he saw Auro in the Auditorium.

“Please, Da, please don’t throw me out.” Auro pleaded.

“Just don’t embarrass me. I will throw you out of the house if you do.” Vicky said before walking away.

During this time, Auro had noticed that he was able to solve the problems mentally. But he held himself back while writing the test. He did not want to score higher than his brother. But it was not possible to cut it just right, and he came third. To his utter disappointment, Vicky was teamed up with Roy, the boy who came second. Auro himself got selected in the second team and was paired with Binny, a boy three years older to him.

Uncle D and Mummy were over the moon. They bought Auro and Vicky a Surface tab each for practicing. They started preparing for the championship together. But Auro was not happy. His whole idea of attending the Selections was to be in Vicky’s team. The tournament was meaningless to him otherwise.

*

Two weeks before the championship, two things happened. One, to Auro’s utter joy, Vicky’s team-mate broke his leg while skateboarding, which made Auro Vicky’s partner. And second, on the day it was announced that they were in the same team, Auro fainted in the playground during recess while playing with his friends. When Vicky saw him fall, he ran to pick Auro up. After getting some water sprinkled on his face, Auro woke up and found himself on Vicky’s lap. He was in seventh heaven. He felt he should faint more often to get loved by Vicky.

Seeing Auro open his eyes, Vicky instantly got up, pushing him away. He walked away, saying, “Get strong! Fainting in the Sun.. disgusting!”

Auro found it hard to stop smiling. He was getting somewhere now. All these months, even though Vicky behaved coldly, he had always kept an eye on Auro, checking if he got on the bus behind him, if he was following him behind, but never showed any brotherly love, until this day.

Seeing Auro’s goofy face, even mummy asked, “Anything happened in school? My baby seems very happy today!”

Auro was about to blurt out everything, but then decided against it, what if hearing about the fainting attack mummy got tensed and kept him from joining the championship!

He just said, “Nothing!”

*

The last week before the championship was quite hard for Auro. All the practice and late nights got him more headaches every day. He was a little boy of twelve, and Vicky was fourteen. Vicky often sent him off to his room, but he insisted on staying up with him.

“We should practice together. We should have good coordination!” Auro said.

“We have enough!” Vicky snapped. “Go to bed! Don’t bother me. If you faint tomorrow at school, I will not come to pick you up!”

Despite all the threats, Auro stayed up. Vicky ignored him. Auro did not need any further practice, anyways. He could solve any problem now, just by looking at it. He kept browsing through various practice tests in his surface tab until he fell asleep. And when he did, Vicky would pick him up and lay him in his room. This routine went on for one week. These were Auro’s happiest days.

*

On the day of Championship, Vicky and Auro swept through the rounds like butter. They topped every round. It was a national level championship. Brilliant students from all over the country had participated. But everybody was in awe of this youngest participant. Today, Auro did not hold himself back. He had to win this championship for his brother. Vicky was almost shocked. Even though he knew his brother was exceptional, he had never seen Auro in his full form. Understanding that Auro had always hidden his talent, he felt hurt inside.

In no time they won the championship with a considerable margin. Walking up the stage and accepting the trophy with Vicky made Auro the happiest boy on earth. Everybody was cheering. Auro saw his mummy and Uncle beaming from the audience. He waved at them, smiling brightly, and at that very instant, everything turned black for him. He fell with a massive convulsion.

*

Auro was rushed to the hospital. He was unconscious the whole time. After multiple tests and scans, he was found to have a brain tumor. His fainting, his eye problem all was explained. Only nobody knew about his headaches yet. The doctor even told that very, very rarely such special abilities might develop in some people, though not many precedences were there.

Nobody told Auro anything. But he understood something was very wrong with him from their expressions. Even though mummy tried to maintain a happy face and behaved as if all was well, Auro was a sensitive boy, and he felt something was amiss.

Auro was back from the hospital and was on the terrace, his favorite place to be himself.

Vicky walked up from behind and hugged him.

“I am sorry… I am so, so sorry for everything. Why didn’t you tell me all these?” Vicky asked.

“You would have got angry!” Auro said.

“Stupid boy. I just could not tell anybody… before you came, I had told dad that I would not allow anyone in the house… I just could not let anybody know that I was happy to get you... I was… I was so happy… but what if they said ‘I told you so’? I hate anyone telling me that… So sorry… I just… I just…” Vicky hugged him tight and started sobbing.

“I love you, Da.” Auro started sobbing too.

“Love you too. I will be with you, come whatever may. Don’t be frightened of the tests, okay?” Vicky told in between his sobs.

It did not matter anymore to Auro if he was sick. His brother was with him, and Vicky even confessed that he was happy to have him. Nothing else mattered. With bleary eyes, he looked up at his favorite stars once again. From now on, he had one more friend, his brother, apart from his friends in the sky.