As days bleed into one another, matters only worsen between the brothers. Ryan keeps complaining about Dylan’s behavior. He accuses him for not being happy to see his only brother. Once, it also slips his tongue that Dylan was not being thankful to him. On the inside, Dylan always knew that he was indebted to his brother for all his sacrifices that ensured that he studied.
Occasionally, he also appreciated his brother. But now he couldn’t just understand how to express things because the fact was that he couldn’t feel a thing. Since his tale of trades was a secret, Dylan could not clear his stance. This escalated matters, as both of them, were not ready to back down from their position.
Dylan tried hard to express his feelings, he even tried to recall the feeling called happiness. But to no avail. Nothing came. Not today, neither yesterday. The trade was sealed and so was Dylan’s fate. And he didn’t even have the guts to tell the truth to his brother because he was sure that Ryan would scold him for the nonsense exchange that he had agreed too.
Only Dylan knew how important it was though. He couldn’t just tell his mother that the money she needed for her failing kidney’s operation was not from the government. And he couldn’t have, at any cost, asked his brother for more money. Ryan was already going through hell for their small family’s survival. How could Dylan ever ask for more money from him.
Everything made sense to Dylan. But nothing made sense to Ryan. His vocation was coming to a close now but matters remained unresolved between the brothers. Dylan always had been the talkative one, the expressive one of the two twins. Now, Ryan worried that maybe his brother had distanced from him or in the process of fulfilling his mother’s dreams, he had lost his brother. He had also only recently heard of mental health issues. And he was getting worried that his brother had caught jim-jams.
On the morning of his departure, Ryan tried to talk again to Dylan who kept shaking his head, not agreeing to anything. There was a prominent change in Dylan’s demeanor, something that his brother couldn’t miss. Since Dylan wouldn’t agree to him, Ryan started to fret over his brother’s health. He quizzed over Dylan’s health and started suspecting him for taking drugs.
But by now, the water had leveled over the bridge. Dylan suddenly flared with fury. Not angry in the real sense of the word, he still felt nothing but his brain worked enough to understand that the allegations were too many. At this point, Dylan lost it and rebelled loudly over the accusations. Both the brothers parted ways on a bitter note.
Just as Ryan’s bus took off, Dylan’s head pounded him with questions that sounded like guilt if it could be translated into a feeling. Dylan wished he hadn’t traded his feelings in exchange for money for his mother’s health. The old man by the giant oak tree had advised him otherwise. But the young lad needed the money so he traded his feelings for a lifetime. It was only now that he understood the magnitude of the deal. Somewhere inside, however, Dylan, knew that if he could ever feel again, it wouldn’t be guilt. After all, he could see his mother smile every day.
