One night, I was sitting in my kitchen half listening as my 15-year-old brother Tommy fought with my 12-year-old brother Kevin. I didn't pay attention when Kevin rushed up the stairs with the hurt on his face.
About 20minutes later, as I was walking upstairs I heard Kevin crying inside the 1. I knocked on the door and asked, “Hey Kev, do you want to talk?” No answer. I tried again, “Hey, why don't you come out of there?” Again, no answer. So I took a stack of（一堆） cards and a pencil and wrote, “If you don't want to 2, we can write notes to each other.”
An hour later I was 3 sitting on the floor outside the bathroom with two stacks of cards in front of me. One was blank(空白的) and the other was cards4Kevin on which he had translated all his unpleasant feelings into words for me.5 I read one of Kevin's notes, tears came to my eyes. It said, “6in this family cares about me, I’m not clever. Tommy thinks I’m a fool and Dad wishes he had the other Kevin as a kid because he’s better at basketball. And you’re never around to even 7me.”
Tears came to my eyes as I wrote back to him. It was8what he had said about me. I wrote back, “You know Kev, I really do love you and I'm sorry I don't always show it to you. I am here for you and you are9 in this family.”
There was no answer for a while, but then I heard a tearing sound coming from inside the bathroom. Kevin, who had 10 cards wrote on a torn-up(撕毁的) paper cup, “Thanks.”
I wrote back “For what?” It returned to me with “loving me” written on it. Since then, I try my best to 11half notice my family members any more. Kevin and I have a closer 12 now, and sometimes when one of us notices that the other is upset we'll smile and say “Write it on a paper cup.”
