karl amos | district six | fin [cbd2]

It’s just me and the dog, well my older brother too but he is not in the picture. Two opposites forced to fend for each other, the orphanage did us well until he turned nineteen. It gave them the opportunity to kick me out with him too. Something about being too rebellious.

Five years separate us, the nightmares of what brought us to be orphans are scarred into my brother’s brain, infancy being my saviour as not one memory resides just the trauma of witnessing my brother’s meltdowns. Now he is on the morphling, each day brings a new symptom, it won’t be long until a corpse comes through the door in the morning.

So, it is just me and the dog, well I have my books too. Knowledge is all I have left to carry now; the orphanage had its teachings and now I am carrying them through to adulthood. I guess my only line of life is in a laboratory in this District. There really is a lot to discover inside the human body.

The dog’s name is Loaf, kindly presented by my brother after he found him scavenging on a piece of mouldy bread in the streets. A gift when we first got kicked out from the orphanage, a stray like the pair of us. A trio of unwanted souls, we really no match up well.

It is just me. The dog as company and my mind left to wander. Each day I fear for the life of another, I have laid my path, but I watch as my brother wanders to a cliff edge. There isn’t nothing I can do. I am no saviour.