My Brother’s Name Is Jessica by John Boyne

Author:John Boyne [Boyne, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-04-17T23:00:00+00:00

6

The Brewsters

Over the weeks that followed, my brother Jason stopped talking to either Mum or Dad and barely spoke to me. He ate all his meals in his bedroom with the door shut, and one afternoon, when I came home from school, I found him installing a bolt on his bedroom door.

‘No one’s getting in here without my say-so from now on,’ he said when he saw me standing at the top of the staircase, watching him. ‘Coming into my room like that when I was asleep was the most cowardly thing either of them could have done.’

‘But they both say they didn’t do it,’ I told him, for Mum and Dad had each insisted that they were innocent of cutting off his ponytail, although they both made it clear that they were glad it was finally gone. No one even thought to blame me.

‘Well, it didn’t just fall off of its own accord, did it?’ he asked. ‘There.’ He stood back and admired his handiwork, sliding the bolt back and forth a few times to make sure that it worked. ‘Anyway, the joke’s on them, because I’m just going to grow it back. My hair grows so quickly anyway. I’ll have it again by spring.’

The atmosphere in our house during those weeks was very strained, and it only grew worse when, two days before Christmas, my brother Jason came downstairs carrying a holdall and announced that he was going away for a week and wouldn’t be back until the new year.

‘What?’ asked Mum, looking up from her iPad. ‘What are you talking about? Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve!’

‘I don’t intend to stay here for Christmas,’ he said, looking her directly in the eye. ‘I can’t just sit around eating turkey and pretending that we’re a happy family when that just isn’t the case.’

‘I don’t see why not,’ said Dad. ‘That’s what everyone else does at Christmas.’

‘Well, I don’t like being a hypocrite, that’s all.’

‘Look,’ continued Dad, standing up and putting a hand on my brother Jason’s shoulder for a moment before taking it away again. ‘We don’t have to talk about your … situation, if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘That sounds really healthy,’ replied my brother Jason. ‘And it makes me feel really good about myself. Anything else you’d like to just brush under the carpet and ignore while we’re at it?’

‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said, considering it. ‘Deborah, have you got anything?’

‘Nothing springs to mind,’ said Mum.

‘Good. Because Christmas is a time for family,’ said Dad. ‘For people who love each other to be together.’

‘But you don’t love me,’ said my brother Jason, raising his voice now. ‘If you loved me, then you wouldn’t have crept into my room when I was asleep and cut my hair off!’

‘Oh, for the hundredth time,’ said Mum in an exasperated tone. ‘We didn’t –’

‘Do you want to know the truth, Jason?’ asked Dad.

‘If you’re willing to tell me it, yes.’

‘You might not like what you hear.’

‘Well, I didn’t much like being the victim of an unprovoked assault either, so go ahead.

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