Pls believe me when I say..

My mother smelled something horrible in the storeroom. To her horror, she found that there was a dead rat hidden behind one of the many boxes.

As she continued to blame everything living around the neighborhood (yes, humans not spared) I was surprised to see many of my brother’s books in one of the boxes.

My brother has moved out many years ago and I truly wonder why he didn’t take the books with him. Many accounting, business, computer related books. There were even some company financial analyses/ reports. I could only identify a handful of words out of a sentence. I can’t help but marvel at my brother’s interest and his thirst for knowledge.

As I continued to dig deeper, I found some books that I could read.
They were motivational books and ‘How to’ books. Those books were yellowish but were far from tattered. Although I was amazed at the titles of his choice, the condition of the books were unsurprising because I know my brother keeps his books and stationeries with great care. Utmost care. Unbelievably utmost care.

Looking at the design and the yellowish-ness of the pages, I know that he must have purchased them back when he was in his teens.

As I plainly flipped the pages, I saw an old receipt that was used as a bookmark.
Anthonian bookstore! Dated 1989!
I bet nobody remembers this bookstore anymore. I wouldn’t either, hadn’t I have a brother who used to frequent there.

The book was something about studying smart and improving memory.
*counting with fingers* my brother was only 15 years old when he purchased this rm14.90 book!

Woah!... That’s a hefty sum!

Among the siblings, my brother is the most serious academician.
Back when we were still living in the same house, I could count on him to update me with general knowledge everything under the sun.
Like the rest of us, he was Malay-educated but he taught himself Mandarin and I could ask him to read some simple Chinese characters and translate some Taiwan jokes that I don’t understand from the tv.

Therefore I never hesitate to shower him with my genuine admiration for him during times when he’s down.
Sadly, he never took me seriously.

I also experience the similar feedback with my sister.
She was feeling a bit blue lately and I tried to perk up her self confidence by reminding her of her exceptional skills. Skills that friends and relatives repeatedly remind me I don’t posses.

“Aww, you really think so? It’s nice to know somebody feels so,” answered sis.

I really do wish my korkor jiejie (older bro sis) take me seriously.