"Welcome to my room! Make yourselves comfortable."
Sliding the key into the lock to my room, I turned the handle and swung it wide open to show my humble room to the two curious pairs of eyes behind me.
Frank had come over before so he didn't count.
Right in front of the door, the moment you entered the room, was a large bookshelf that my father had built for me out of wood we had chopped from the nearby forest. It was rough and not very even, but it was one of my favorite furniture piece here.
In front of that big bookshelf was my single person bed. And some distance away from the bed was my study table and chair. But the most eye-catching thing in this small room was not the old mattress, nor was it the simple handmade table or the uneven bookshelf that doubled as a closet. No, it was the wall between the bed and the table, large enough to stretch both arms and not touch anything. And on that wall was a piece of board with various newspaper clippings tacked on with random sharp objects.
"I see there are more clippings."
Making a beeline to the wall, Frank briefly read the clips while Linel and Ralph looked around.
I walked to the bookshelf and took out the piece of paper that Camellia gave me this morning. Taking out a file, I filed it inside and turned around to see everyone crowding around the wall.
"This is the news from last month."
Pointing at one of the clippings, Linel slid his finger down to the next one.
"And this is the follow up from that incident."
The first article was a similar article about Alex's passing. However, I had removed this one instead of the other's due to it specifically mentioning the politicians and common people going against the MDVA protection act. It also held a list of names of those arrested for 'rioting'.
The second article, the follow up, was the court trial for said people. They were all judged guilty and had to pay fines and spend a long time in prison.
Linel shook his head as he read the article.
Moving our attention away from that article, Frank tapped his hands on another clipping.
"I wonder what is going to happen to Oliver."
Looking at the article that Frank was muttering about, I frowned as another picture of Oliver entered my vision.
"It says that Oliver was picked up by the president of a government research institute. They're probably going to try to sway Oliver over to their side, since he is a once in a lifetime genius. We can only hope that he doesn't listen to their poisonous words."
Shifting left, the four of us reviewed my pinned clippings for the past 2 years.
"This one was from when Alex had just passed away. The outrage was the largest I had ever seen."
We moved up to the one before that.
"And then this is when the news picked up that Andrew adopted Alex and Oliver. I remember it was such a controversial topic back then. Everyone was afraid that she would end up self destructing and dragging several people along with her. If only we knew this would happen instead."
This article was around 2 years old, and was one of the first articles I got from Camillia. At that time, I was still ignorant about MDVA. Leo had just been diagnosed around that time after all.
Looking at the picture of Alex at that time, she was incredibly thin, pale and had dark circles around her eyes. If we compared it to the pictures of her 2 years later, she was like a whole different person.
"This incident was the beginning of everything."
Mumbling to himself, Linel looked at the article with hard eyes.
"You're right. This incident started everything."
Frank sighed at his words and glanced at the article with complicated emotions in his eyes.
After Alex was adopted, the public opinion of MDVA victims grew more positive as long as she lived. It only took a small dip when Oliver got into an accident in front of their house at High street. But when the bus doors opened, and not a single soul was injured aside from Alex, everything blew up in front of the pro-MDVA prevention act faction's face. Especially when one of their leader's sons was on that bus.
And from that point onward, the anti-MDVA prevention act faction only grew stronger, more dissatisfied, and louder.
"It's kind of sad that it had to come to this point."
The four of us descended into a heavy silence.
"Moving on!"
Forcefully dragging us away from that article, Linel pointed to a more positive and heart-lifting article.
'MDVA prevention act paused amid massive outrage after Alex's incident!'
This article was from a couple weeks ago, a few months after Alex's death and a couple days after Oliver was reported to have woken up from his 4 month coma.
"Boys! Do you want some drinks and snacks!"
Drawing our attention away from the board, I walked over to the bedroom and unlocked the door to receive the plate of drinks and snacks from my mother.
"If you four ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Also, come out later, I'll cook dinner for you!"
Smiling and waving at the other three, my mother then closed the door and locked it with her key.
"Your mother is really nice!"
Coming forward with a grin, Linel took the drinks from the plate and passed them around.
Placing the tray with only snacks left on the table, I saw Ralph and Linel split up to explore my room. They both headed to my bookshelf and picked out separate books from it.
Taking one bowl of snacks, Frank munched on it as he sneaked a peek on what Linel was reading.
"Oh, that's the newsbook for last month. Although there wasn't too much news, the big ones were really big."
Flipping to a page with one hand, Frank then lowered his voice and discussed several of the articles with Linel.
Walking up next to Ralph, I looked over his shoulder to see which book he had picked. Surprisingly, it was my childhood photo album.
"Your brother?"
Ralph pointed at the picture of Leo wearing his hand-me-down clothes, smiling brightly as he made his own set of chalk and chalkboard. He was so bright back then, even as he refused to leave my sight. It was almost unbelievable that he had MDVA.
"His name is Leo. At the time of this photo, he was 4. It was taken around 3 years ago, and almost 1 year before he was diagnosed with MDVA."
Staring deeply into those flat eyes on the picture, I could almost remember that memory like it was yesterday.
"Where's Leo?"
I had returned home that day to a dark and depressed house. It was just after a long day of school, so I trudged my feet back home slower than usual. At that time, my mother had her head in her hands, eyes pressed to her palms, as she cried in the kitchen all alone.
Seeing that scene, I felt as if someone had doused a bucket of cold water on me, and I had abandoned my bag to run to her.
Wrapping my arms around her, I could feel her cold shoulders tremble as she pulled herself out from her arms.
"Leo is!...Leo is!"
In between tears, she had described how a normal doctor's visit had turned into a life-ending decision.
That day, Leo had a slight fever so she had brought him to the doctor's. But what was awaiting them was not a medicine prescription, but a diagnosis for MDVA. And in too short of a time, Leo had moved from the clinic to the euthanasia center, and then to the burial grounds.
That day was one that I would never forget even in my dreams.
Hearing the words MDVA, I saw Ralph look more closely at Leo, as if burning the picture of a child taken from this world too early.
Then in silence, he closed the album and put it back.
"Sorry."
"It's alright."
Uncomfortable in digging through more of my past, Ralph turned away from the bookshelf and sat quietly on the chair.
Turning my head, Linel and I met eyes for a second before he avoided my gaze. He must have heard what I said about my brother to Ralph as well.
Closing the newsbook, the three of us joined Ralph near the table to eat the snacks.
"Do you have any games?"
After letting the cold atmosphere warm up a little, Linel asked as he finished up his snack.
"Games? I don't think I had any. Whenever I was bored, I would just go down to find Dara. But I do have several things to do."
Putting down my empty bowl, I headed over to the bookshelf and pulled out a small box. Opening that box, I showed the three of them the sand and singular stick that was inside.
"Back when Leo was still alive, we would draw in these boxes to kill time. Especially when Dara didn't need help."
Placing that one box on the table, I reached deeper into the bookshelf to bring out several similar boxes.
"We also made some spare just in case, so there's enough for all of us to have one."
Handing out the boxes, we sat down on the floor like children and took the sticks out from the box.
"So, what did you two do with these boxes?"
Having three pairs of eyes looking at me, I tilted my box towards them and drew on the sand a set of strokes.
"We made up a lot of games. I guess the easiest one to introduce would be 'Guess the word'. First, we all would agree to a theme and one person would choose a word from that theme. Then, the others guess that word, with every wrong letter adding one stroke to a 5 petaled flower. Then once the whole flower is drawn, the circle and the stem which makes it 7 strokes in total, the game ends and the person who made the word wins. If anyone guesses the word before then, the answering team wins."
Explaining the rules to them, the three of us played a simple game of rock paper scissors to decide who would go first.
Playing the game, it didn't take long for everyone to put aside the previous awkwardness and earnestly start playing. And after a couple rounds, I introduced another game my brother and I had played, and the four of us had a blast until a knock came from the door.
"Dinner time!"
Stacking our boxes in a corner, the four of us filed out of my room and we were met with several bowls of steaming hot soup.
"Come boys! Sit down and eat!"
Walking out of the kitchen, my mother placed several cups on the table before she retreated back into the kitchen.
"Thank you Mom!"
I shouted back to her as the four of us sat down and ate.