I promised to meet with Zach later that week, which was disappointing because I was already fired up and ready to do my best to help this country, but it was also a good thing, since I couldn’t keep lying to Alex about where I was. After I’d left Zach’s depressing home, I’d went straight to Lorenzo, who had a longer gig for me this time. Which meant it took me way longer than normal to come back home, and Alex had already gotten worried about me.

I hated lying to him… So, maybe it was for the best that I stayed with him for a few days, then went to see Lorenzo like I was supposed to.

At least Alex was feeling physically so much better now that he, too, wanted to stretch his legs. For the past three weeks, ever since I started helping Lorenzo, his skin and especially his feet had healed slowly, but steadily, mostly because he’d only left our abandoned grocery store once a week to go take a shower. Now, he wanted to actually do something, since his feet were finally allowing him to move.

“I want to meet Lorenzo,” he chirped after I’d asked what he wanted to do.

“It’s quite a long walk to his place,” I noted.

“I’m getting claustrophobic. Besides! Look! My feet are fine!” he exclaimed, almost shoving his toes into my nose.

I laughed and grabbed him by his ankle. “Let’s see then…”

I mean… his skin wasn’t fine, not at all, but still way better than what it was during the storms. The deepest cracks in his heels just wouldn’t close, no matter how often we’d soaked them with the salve and tried to rub the dead skin off… At least they were better now, but… I was worried they’d just crack wide open if he walked all the way to Lorenzo’s and back…

“They’re good now, right?” Alex asked, and I let go of his foot, smiling at him.

“So much better now,” I said reassuringly. “But if you want to walk to Lorenzo’s, we need to bandage your feet extra good.”

He huffed, but nodded. “Fine…”

I knew the bandages made him uncomfortable…

“That’s a good boy,” I said. 

I didn’t like this idea, but I didn’t have the heart to force him to stay in his bed yet another day. I’d just carry him back home if I had to.

I checked the rest of his wounds as well while I was at it. His skin around his fingers and joints was still raw and cracked, but better. His scalp was still looking bad, though… He couldn’t stop scratching it, especially in his sleep… I carefully pulled out the biggest flakes I could find between his blond strands, but as always, it was a losing battle. He had lost so much hair, too… He used to have gorgeous thick hair, long and shiny, but now it was all ruined… And I knew how much he’d loved his wild mane…

Whenever I had to face his ruined hair, I felt like I’d failed as a brother…

I did everything I could to protect his healing feet. I used a good layer of cotton around his heels before I wrapped his feet into a thick layer of clean bandages. He squirmed a little every now and then, but let me finish the job. I then helped him to put his socks on, then his worn-down sneakers that would definitely ruin some of the progress he’d made, but… It wasn’t like we had extra shoes to choose from…

And that made me feel bad for not helping Lorenzo like I said I would… I could’ve bought him new shoes with the money I’d missed out on… I promised myself not to skip any days running for him from now on. I had to come up with other… excuses… when I’d meet up with Zach next time. 

We left our hut a moment later, and I kept a very close eye on my little brother, but he was walking really well now. I breathed out in relief and smiled at his excitement to get out of the dusty grocery store. He was all smiles and kept talking my ears off while jumping from topic to topic so fast I completely lost the plot halfway through. It didn’t really matter, because I was just happy to see him happy.

And as I watched his sparkling eyes and wide smile, I knew I had to help save this world… He deserved to be happy and carefree… He deserved a life without this stupid war that could’ve already ended so long ago…

We made it to Lorenzo’s without any incidents, and Alex swore his feet were just fine. He got a little shy and timid when we stopped in front of the pizzeria. He was always nervous about meeting new people, even though he loved meeting new people.

Especially those who gave him breadsticks.

“It’ll be all right. Lorenzo is a good guy,” I told him reassuringly, then pulled the door open for him. “Come.”

He nodded shortly, then straightened his posture, trying to be brave. I patted his shoulder when he stepped past me, then followed him in.

Half of the tables were taken, but the atmosphere was peaceful. Alex glanced around in curiosity, then spotted a couple of framed art posters on the wall and immediately beelined to the closest one. I smiled at him when I followed. I wished I could take him to a real art gallery… But even now, I could feel people’s eyes on us…

On Alex…

Alex was wearing a thick set of clothes and a beanie to hide his scarred head, but his neck and jawline were red and flaky, as were his fingers. People always stared at him, and not all of them had the decency to hide their disgust… We were never welcome anywhere, especially in our dirty, ripped old clothes, so we’d only end up getting thrown out of galleries and other fancy places like that. I always wanted to start yelling at them, because my brother couldn’t help the way he looked, but that would only make Alex scared… of me.

And that was the worst feeling I knew.

“Josh, my boy!”

I turned around to see Lorenzo waddling to us with a smile on his face.

“Hey!” I greeted him.

“I wasn’t expecting you today. I don’t think I have a job for you this time,” he said apologetically.

“It’s all right. My brother and I are actually just hanging around and stretching legs,” I explained, gesturing to Alex, who was still staring at the small picture on the wall.

“I see, I see,” Lorenzo said, eyeing my brother’s neck, but he didn’t wrinkle his nose in disgust. He didn’t even drop his smile. I’d told him about my brother’s condition, though, so he knew what to expect. “Well, since you guys are now here, how about a bite to eat, hmm?” he turned to ask me.

“Sure! I think I have a few coins somewh–”

“Absolutely not,” he said kindly, then gestured at an empty table closest to the registers.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling, then turned to grab my brother by his arm. “Hey? This is Lorenzo.”

My brother got a little startled and sprung around. He froze for a bit, but I guess Lorenzo’s friendly smile calmed him, so he smiled timidly as well.

“Hi…” he mumbled. “I’m Alex…”

“Nice to meet you, young one,” my boss said. “I heard you love breadsticks?”

“Yes!” Alex chirped.

“All right. One breadstick basket coming up. You like coke?”

“Uh-huh,” Alex said with a nod.

“And cokes that is,” Lorenzo said, then told us to go sit down.

When he left, Alex grabbed my arm with both hands, smiling widely.

“He seems nice,” he said quietly.

“He’s a really cool guy,” I agreed and led him to the table.

There was another framed poster on the wall right above our table, and it immediately caught my brother’s eye. I chuckled a little and tried to tell him to take his jacket off, but if he saw art, it was hard to get his attention. I shook my head in amusement, then took a quick glance at the other people in the pizzeria. Most had already ignored us, but there were few who didn’t look happy at all that we were friends with the owner… I felt a little smug about that.

“I wish I could earn money, too,” Alex said quietly as he studied the art. “I saw this huge set of colored pencils, but it was so expensive… It had like a hundred different colors…”

Again, I felt like I’d failed him… I wanted to buy him all the pens and pencils in the world…

“One day, I’ll buy it for you,” I told him. “I promise.”

He turned to me and smiled excitedly again. “You don’t have to, but when I’m older, I can get a job – a real job – and then I’ll buy it.”

I chuckled. “Yeah? What kind of job are you getting?”

He shrugged. “A cashier? They’re not required to have an education, right? I mean… If they hire people with my condition…”

And the light in his eyes vanished just like that…

“So you’re an artist, huh?” Lorenzo asked as he returned to us and put the basket and our drinks on the table.

“I’m not any good…” Alex mumbled.

“Are you kidding me?” I said and turned to my boss. “He’s great. He’s got that natural talent going on. You should see his drawings.”

Alex was smiling again when we turned to him.

“Yeah?” Lorenzo asked and leaned closer to my brother. “I tell you what. Draw me something I can put on my walls, and I’ll give you a lifetime supply of breadsticks. Deal?”

Alex perked up in both shock and excitement, then turned a little timid almost right away.

“But you haven’t even seen any of my work…” he whispered.

“If your brother says you’re good, then I trust your work is good,” he said. “So. Do we have a deal?”

Alex turned to stare at me with wide eyes. I nodded at him with a smile, and he turned back to Lorenzo.

“Deal,” he said.

“Great! I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with,” Lorenzo said, smiling at my brother. “Now, eat up. I’ve got some work to do.”

“Yes, sir! And thank you,” Alex said, but Lorenzo just waved his hand as he made his way back behind the counter.

Then, my brother turned to me. “Did you hear that?!”

“Yes, I did,” I said with a chuckle and grabbed a warm breadstick from the basket. “You’re going to be a famous artist soon!”

He blushed hard at my words, but he had a tiny, happy smile on his lips when he grabbed a breadstick for himself.

“It’s still warm!” he chirped.

“Yup. Better start eating before they get cold,” I told him and turned to see where my boss was.

He was going through some papers at the back… I was so grateful for his kindness toward Alex… It was clear he really made my brother’s day. Heck, he probably made his entire month! People would finally see just how amazing and talented Alex was… My brother deserved it.

“I don’t know what to draw,” Alex whispered to me.

“Maybe something like these posters?” I asked. “They’re all portraying landscapes and buildings.”

“Maybe…” he muttered, turning to stare at the poster above us.

He was already planning this new drawing. I could see it in the way his eyes glazed over, and he paused with the breadstick halfway in his mouth. It was his happy little world, and I was so grateful to Lorenzo for making my brother happy. And he’d get all the breadsticks he could eat for it!

We spent a few hours at the pizzeria, just talking and enjoying the warmth and free bathroom. Lorenzo ended up giving Alex a few sheets of paper and a pen to pass the time and even filled up our basket and glasses once we’d emptied them. He was honestly impressed with Alex’s drawing skills – obviously, because my brother was super talented – and again told him he couldn’t wait to see the drawing he could put up on his wall.

When we finally left, we had our pockets full of breadsticks, and we had two large bottles of water with us. Alex showed me details of his new drawings of knights with breadsticks as swords, talking my ears off. He even jumped a little every now and then in excitement.

I didn’t have the heart, but I really should’ve stopped him from doing that…

“Ah…!”

My heart froze a little at his pained little yelp. He immediately stopped moving and held his left heel off the ground.

“What happened?” I asked.

He breathed out, still holding his foot up, his expression dropping. “I think something cracked…”

I took a long, silent breath. Of course… But I’d expected this…

“Can you still walk?” I asked.

“Yeah…” he muttered and took a couple of steps on his toes. “This is okay…”

“It’s not a long way back home,” I said reassuringly, and smiled to show him everything was all right.

In reality, I wanted to tell him that he should’ve been more careful, but that would’ve only made him feel worse. It wasn’t a big deal, anyway. Sure, I hated to see him in pain, but this really was nothing new. At least we had everything we needed to treat this new wound.

“I’m sorry…” he muttered as he limped next to me. “I didn’t mean to get hurt again…”

“Hey…” I breathed out as gently as I could. “It’s all right. I’m just sad you’re in pain again, but I’m sure it’ll heal fast.”

“Yeah…”

He gave me a timid smile, so I put my arm around his shoulders and held him close to me as we kept walking.

“Now you have your new project for Lorenzo to keep you busy while we wait for it to heal.”

“Right,” he said, cheering up again.