My older brother missed my graduation.
No call. No message. Nothing.
Everyone kept asking, “Where is he?” and I just kept smiling, as if it didn’t matter, but it did.
That night, I muted his contact.
Three days later, there was a knock on our door.
He stood there tired, unshaven, holding a small wrapped box.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t leave the site. If I didn’t finish that job, they wouldn’t pay me and I needed the money for this.”
Inside the box was a simple wristwatch.
“I wanted you to have something that reminds you. Your time is just starting.”
I didn’t know whether to cry or feel guilty.
Sometimes, people don’t show up the way we expect them to.
But it doesn’t mean they didn’t care.