Past

On one side of the city, a middle-aged woman was wildly shaking with a white sheet of paper in front of her eight-year-old son. The little boy was crying relentlessly. She screamed at him and slapped his face so hard that he fell to the ground. His father was no longer here to stop her, to help him. She was hurting her son every time he took his exam papers home.

"You are such a disgrace! Where is the point?! Why you don't have full marks?! Get out of my sight, you good-for-nothing!" She kicked the legs of the laying kid and walked away from his room. He slowly got up, laid down on his bed, burying his head into the pillow, and cried himself to sleep.

***

The opposite side of the city was sad too. Two boys were kneeling down in front of a casket, surrounded by white flowers and strange people. The smallest one was shaking, looking at the picture of his mother in the midst of it all. The older boy wasn't there with his mind, his face emotionless. He hugged his little brother.

"Don't worry. I'm here. I will always protect you. I will take care of you." The older one said and swept away the tears of his younger brother. Their father came back to them with visible sadness in his eyes. He scooped them up both into his strong arms and took them back home to their bed. They buried their heads in the pillows and fell asleep without shedding one more tear, hugging each other.