Little Brother

(Part 1) Chapter 1

I stare intently at my brother, hoping that he would finally look at me. Instead, he stares into the distance, unaware of anything around him. His stare is blank and lifeless. My brother got in an accident while going to get groceries, which caused him to hit his head. He hit his head hard enough to put him in a vegetative state. A vegetative state is where he looks like he's awake and has basic body functions, but he isn't aware of anything around him. The accident happened because of a drunk idiot who didn't have the decency to call a cab.
     We live in a small town, so we don't have a world class hospital. The doctors did the best they could by stitching him up, but there's no way to wake him up. They couldn't do anything else for him, so we brought him back home. My dad is always working, so my mom quit her job at the local diner to take care of my brother. We have  both a colostomy bag and a catheter for when he uses the bathroom. I was surprised that we didn't have to an I.V. To feed him. The people at the hospital told me that if you stick a liquid-like food far enough down his throat, he will swallow it. We've just been feeding him baby food lately. I tried it out, just out of curiosity, and it doesn't taste very good. I guess the taste doesn't matter much, though, since he can't taste anything. I hate seeing him like this. He's such an amazing little brother. I miss going on adventures with him in the backyard. There's a forest that starts in our backyard. We were very lucky to grow up with such a beautiful backyard.
     It's finally time to get him and myself ready for bed. I feed him the rest of his food, then change his "bathroom bags," as my dad calls the catheter and colostomy bags. I brush his teeth then tuck him in. I turn off the lights as I proceed to walk out the door.
"Good night, Charlie," I say softly as I walk out.