Five Sentence Fiction – Clutch

Five Sentence Fiction – Clutch

  First Encounter

My six-year-old brother clutched my hand tightly and pleaded, ‘ Please stay at home with me, princess.” He was fourteen years younger than me, was born with Down’s syndrome, has the wisdom of a three-year-old child, and always wanted me to stay at home.

He was quite affectionate, loving, and caring. I always agreed to stay in spite of my boss getting angry with me; often, he even taunted me to leave the job and stay at home. I knew he was right, but I had no heart to say no to my brother.

I agreed, spent the day with him, took him for a walk in the evening, then told him a story at bedtime, and he slept.

After a few days, he met with an accident, and though it was just a mild push by his elder brother’s bicycle, he became restless. We rushed him to the hospital, where doctors said it was a brain hemorrhage, and he could not survive and had only 48 hours to live.

Sitting by his bedside, I watched him slowly succumb to his injury, second by second lights going out of his eyes, skin becoming dull every minute. The next day he was gone, without giving us time to do something for him. This was my first encounter with death, which is embedded in my mind till now.