“Once, when I was 27, my uncle asked me, ‘Are you a virgin?’ From that moment on, I started to be afraid of him. A few days later, when he took me to a hotel just outside the city, he leaned over to my ear by the pool and whispered, ‘After the pool, get in my room…’”

 

I sat on the edge of the bed and burst into tears.

 

“Why did you never tell me?”

 

Richard smiled with sadness.

 

“Because he wanted you to choose your own life. And if, at twenty-seven, you still wanted the same dream, then I should bring you here.”

 

Then he pointed

the last photograph that was hanging on the wall.

 

It was the last picture my father and I took together.

 

Below was a single written phrase of his handwriting.

 

“If I can’t be there when I finally start to pursue her dream, have my brother accompany her in my place.”

 

I looked at Richard.

 

Just a few hours before, almost
He had fled from him.

 

 

 

Now he was sitting in front of me, barely holding back his own tears.

 

“So that’s why you behaved so strangely?”