And when we went to the cinema and they were “accidentally” at the shopping centre? Four tickets to the show, then to the café, where Dimka ordered three desserts and Tetyana ordered a shrimp salad… Three thousand five hundred. Your three thousand five hundred, Andriy.”
“Olena, I can’t tell my brother that I don’t have money…”
“Why can’t you tell him?” I felt the familiar irritation that had been building for months, maybe years, growing inside me. “Why does he need you?”
“Because you earn more? Because you graduated from college and he left after two years? Because you didn’t quit three jobs in a row and go into debt?”
“He hasn’t had a drink in six months,” Andriy remarked quietly.
“That’s great. Really great. But why should we pay for his sanity?”
Andriy sat down on the couch and rubbed his face wearily. He looked older than thirty-eight now—the wrinkles around his eyes were deeper, the gray hairs at his temples were more visible.
“I don’t know how to say no,” he finally admitted. “Every time he calls, I remember what kind of children we were. How I promised my mother I would take care of her. Before she died, she said, ‘You’re the eldest, Andriyushka, you need…”
Here’s the eternal mantra for the oldest children in the family: “You need it.” “You’re the oldest.” As if a four-year age difference meant a lifelong obligation to support the younger one.
I sighed, sat down next to him, and held his hand.
“Listen. Your mother was a wonderful woman, may she rest in peace.” But she couldn’t have foreseen that Oleg, even at forty, would act like a teenager and blame others.
“Helping is one thing. But when it’s used as a free resource, it’s something else entirely.”
We planned to leave for the cottage early. I deliberately woke up at six in the morning to prepare everything before Masha woke up. While I was loading the lunch boxes into the car, I counted the portions accurately.
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