Whispers of the Innocent

14

The focal point of our story shifts to my brother, born five years before me in 1975, making our family originally a unit of four. My aversion to sheep's eyes, with their eerie horizontal pupils devoid of discernible emotion, mirrors a deeper fear rooted in my childhood, not of sheep, but of my brother.

His congenital iris coloboma rendered his pupils elongated horizontally, reminiscent of a sheep's, instilling in me an intense fear. While I was blessed with health, intelligence, and affection from our parents, my brother, with his unsettling appearance and reserved nature, gradually became an object of fear, even to our mother.

His silent stares were unnerving, met with silence when questioned, making him an outcast not only within our family but throughout our village. Local beliefs, influenced by a Christian elder, likened the goat to a harbinger of misfortune and a demonic entity, further alienating my brother.

As the village shunned him, my parents, influenced by superstition and perhaps seeking a scapegoat for their own misfortunes, including my father's violent past, turned cold towards him. My brother, recognizing his pariah status, left home early to seek work elsewhere, disappearing from our lives and the collective memory of the village, as if erasing an unpleasant memory.

It wasn't until after our mother's passing in 2001 that he briefly returned, an event unnoticed by the authorities and unspoken within our family, as if his existence was a chapter we all wished to close permanently.