Far from the quiet hospital and the dusty school, a different story was happening. It took place in a house that looked more like a palace, the biggest one in all of Kashmir. This was the home of the richest family the area had ever seen.
Here lived Rexel, a teenage boy who seemed to have everything. He was the only healthy child of two very rich parents. He also had a younger sister who was born with disabilities, so his parents didn't see her as "normal." Rexel loved his sister very much. His life with her, hidden away from the world, had shaped who he was. She was the reason he was so caring and the reason he had a playful sense of humor, which he used to make her smile. He was always the one to take care of her and be her friend. He was like her personal entertainer, always making silly faces and telling her quiet jokes to make her laugh.
This annoyed his parents. They wanted him to spend his time with them and be the perfect son to inherit their money. They were people who only cared about money and themselves, and Rexel was the only other person they valued. To them, their own daughter was just a burden because she was "weak."
Rexel, however, was sick of his parents showing him off like a prize. He was a teenager who wanted to be independent, not watched over like a little kid every minute of the day. His controlling parents never let him play with other children or even go outside the mansion grounds by himself. He didn't even go to school; a private teacher was paid to come to the house to teach him.
He felt like a bird in a golden cage. "At least a bird gets a better view," he would often joke to himself. It was a dark kind of humor that no one else heard. He had everything money could buy, but nothing that really mattered. From his perfect, neat backyard, he would lie on the grass and watch birds fly freely in the sky. He'd see the shapes of kids playing in the distant fields, laughing and having fun, and his heart would ache with sadness. He knew that life, no matter how comfortable, is nothing without freedom.
This time, he decided, would be different. He was done being taken care of by his parents and done with a life where he would just be given riches he hadn't earned. He was tired of feeling guilty watching the workers on his family's land, their faces showing hardships he had never known. Looking at his sister always made him thankful for his own health and strength, but it also filled him with a strong need to help others and understand their struggles. She taught him not just how to be kind, but also how freeing it felt to laugh. He couldn't truly live, or make others laugh, from inside his cage.
When his parents were out one afternoon, he made his decision. He packed one bag with only what he and his sister would need. She was his whole life; he couldn't imagine a world without her. "Time for the great escape, partner," he whispered to her with a grin, making a funny face that earned him a small, happy sound. He believed she was the one who taught him how to care and how to be human.
He left a note on the huge dining table.
Mom, Dad,
You gave me everything except the one thing I really need: the chance to be myself. I can't live a life that isn't mine to earn. I have to find my own way, with my own hard work. I am taking my sister with me. She deserves a life where she is loved for who she is. Don't look for us. I want to build my own world, with my own rules.
Rexel
Holding his sister securely, he slipped out of the massive gates. He was finally leaving his old life behind to start a new one. He wanted to eat food bought with money he earned himself, not from a fortune he didn't deserve.
As he stepped onto the road, a roar from above made him look up. A huge American jet flew across the sky at an incredible speed. A chill went down Rexel's spine. "Well, that's not something you see every day," he murmured. It was a dark, chilling joke he told himself to fight his sudden fear. What was an American military jet doing over Kashmir?
Suddenly, he felt a new, unexpected purpose. He looked in the direction the jet was going and started to follow it, taking his first steps into a free, and suddenly very mysterious, new life.