“Vse dlya sem’i.” I intone for her benefit. Her eyes fall immediately to the dog tag I’m wearing. “‘Everything for the family.’”
She blinks in surprise as she processes. “That’s what it means?” I nod and she smiles softly. “That’s very… sentimental.”
“It belonged to my brother.” I’m not sure why I give her that piece of information. She doesn’t know enough to ask, and I could have easily gotten away with guarding that secret.
But part of me suddenly doesn’t want to keep things tucked away in the cobwebby darkness beneath my brother’s grave. For the first time in years, part of me wants to speak his name. Share his story. Show the world what he taught me and what he meant.
She touches her own pendant. “This is from my best friend. Clara. She’s gone, too.”
There’s a story there that I h
