1The small, thin boy whimpered as Rick, their foster father, shouted. Alex hugged her brother in an effort to reassure him. She knew Matthew didn't like it when Rick shouted. Not surprising, really - when Rick shouted it was usually at him.
There was a sudden crash of glass, causing both kids to jump, and Tina screamed. "Rick - Rick, *please,*" she sobbed. But Alex knew it was futile: all Tina's attempts to reason with her husband when he was like this usually ended in disaster.
Matthew had begun to cry. Alex held him even closer, and she noticed he was trembling. "Matt! Matt, quiet, matt, shh," she whispered. Matt, however, did not stop, as more of Rick's shouts and Tina's screams reached their ears.
Hoping neither parent would hear them, Alex helped her brother up the stairs and into bed.
* * *
Alex was used to having to be the only support for her brother. Although she was a mere nine, she often helped wash him, feed him, and put him to bed. Too often, she found herself doing those things alone.
Most boys of five can usually help themselves, with little adult assistance. But Matt appeared unable to. He would often just sit motionless, staring at nothing. He rarely spoke. It was unnatural.
Sometimes he would seem normal. There were days he would push Alex away if she tried to help him. "I can do it," he would say. He would, too.
But not always. Sometimes he would be completely detached and helpless.
Alex never knew when or why.
* * *
Alex awoke suddenly the next morning. She looked at the bed beside here and saw Matt was still asleep. Poor little kid - he had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Quietly, Alex crept out of bed and peered out into the hall. It was empty. The door creaked slightly as she opened it, trying not to disturb her brother. Tina's door, just down the hall, was open a crack, and Alex could see light coming out of the room.
Tina was sitting up in bed, reading a book. She looked battered: her normally sleek, dark hair was tangled, fresh bruises were forming on her cheek, and her left arm was swathed in bandages. She smiled weakly as Alex entered. "Rick's gone," she said. "He had to leave for work earlier this morning."
"Rick works too much," said Alex.
"His work is very important to him," Tina said softly.
"Why?"
"I can't tell you. It is important to him, and while I don't understand why, I respect it. I respect him."
"He doesn't respect *you,*" Alex said darkly.
Tina said, "What makes you say that?"
"He hurt you!" shouted Alex. "He yells at you and hits you! You're wearing bandages now!"
Her foster mother sighed. "Rick has a temper. Sometimes he can't control it, and I have to help him."
"HELP HIM!?" Alex couldn't believe what she was hearing. Tina seemed to be simply denying the fact that her husband was abusing her. Alex couldn't understand why. "I'm hungry. I'm gonna go eat," she said, colder than she meant to be, and hopped off the bed and out the door.
* * *
The first thing Alex noticed when she walked into the kitchen was that no one had been in to clean up. Half-eaten pizza littered the kitchen table, dirty cups stood nearly full, and there was a broken glass plate on the floor.
*So that's what the sound of breaking glass was, and why Tina's arm's all bloody,* thought Alex. Carefully avoiding the broken plate, she grabbed a box of dry Cheerios and ran out.
* * *
Matt was awake when Alex walked into their room. He was sitting on his bed, looking at a book, and sounding out the words to himself. Alex wasn't suprised; Matt had been trying to read ever since she showed him the sounds of the letters.
"Ve-lo-ki-rap-per," said Matt, not noticing his sister's arrival. She looked over his shoulder at the book he was reading - one about dinosaurs.
"Velociraptor," she said. "Not as big as Tyrannosaurus rex, but just as dangerous."
Matt jumped slightly, and then saw Alex. "Really? Wow."
Alex grinned. Ever since he could hold a book, Alex had been taking her little brother to the public library on afternoons when they were bored and their foster parents were busy. Alex almost always found books on flying or things that could fly - books about butterflies, birds, and bats, and novels like *Peter Pan,* her favourite - and Matt liked books about animals. He seemed to have a love for predators, too - his latest collection of books checked out from the library was either about wolves or carnivorous dinosaurs.
"They look cool," said Matt, looking at his dinosaur book again. "The velokirappers. They don't look like the other dinosaurs."
Alex had never really noticed that. "How so?"
"Well, T-rex and Allosaurus and all the other big meat-eaters are alone in the pictures. These velokirappers are in a group. Like wolves or something."
"They did hunt in packs," admitted Alex. She had learned about various dinosaurs in school.
"Yeah," continued Matt, "but only the plant-eaters traveled in groups a lot. These rappers are different from the other meat-eaters because they're in a pack."
Alex couldn't see where the conversation was going, but nodded all the same. "Uhh... Do you want some ceral?"
"Yeah!" said Matt, grabbing the box. "I'm gonna be a dinosaur attacking a bunch of ... um, stegosauruses! Yeah!"
And both siblings dug in.
As she munched on the dry Cheerios, Alex couldn't help thinking about Matt. He had been very silent the day before, but today he was talkative and, well, *normal.* She had kept wondering what had caused the sudden change.
Of course, she could come up with no answer, as usual. Matt was an enigma, that much could be said. But Alex thought that maybe Matt had a sort of pattern. When something bad was going to happen or was happening, Matt was usually quiet. When the ordeal was over, he was normal again. It was almost an ongoing pattern, and Alex had begun to see it.
But always he was hopeful and somewhat cheery; that much was clear. He had a look and feel of intelligence about him, and while the look sometimes vanished, the feel never did. No matter what was happening, or what the outcome seemed to be, he would look at Alex with trusting eyes, eyes that knew they would be okay.
Alex tried not to betay those eyes.
She didn't understand why, even when he was silent, Matt seemed to know that the bad things would pass, that everything would be all right again. She knew *she* never felt that way during bad times.
Then, suddenly, she realised what it was that he had and she didn't. What it was that gave her little brother the knowledge that things would be okay again.
He had hope.