I spoke for my brother when he was too afraid to answer — now, he speaks in melodies, and I have learned to listen

Jessie Cole is the author of four books, including the memoirs Staying and Desire .

As a small child, she felt her brother spoke without language as a child.

Unlike me, my brother doesn’t remember much of our childhood.

Trauma has erased it, the way it sometimes seems to.

In this, we are opposites. In books, I gave him my childhood, he gives me his.