They say the forests adopt the children of fathers who have disappeared, and mothers who have succumbed to melancholy. To me and my brothers, this was true. We had been placed and replaced like furniture with blemishes - discarded because of our tiny imperfections. And in every car ride, from limbo to limbo, I would see the trees waving to me - the willows always looked like they were dancing - and I would wave back.

My brothers, though, they couldn’t see them, I don’t think, they would just stare at the same hand-me-down shoes they had for the past year and half. Michael would bite the gold necklace he had, nursing on the virgin emblem. And Samuel would spin the ivory bracelet that was beginning to strangle his wrist.

“Robert, will we ever see mom or dad again?” Samuel looked at me with the same look my mother had the last I saw her.

Michael spoke before I could even breathe in, “Of course they won’t, they tore everything apart. They knew what they did was going to lead to this, and they had enough of an emptiness for us to abandon us. That’s why we’re bastards now, that’s why we’re orphans - and fucking undesirable!”

I couldn’t deny that fact myself, so I kept quiet. I know that only disappointed Samuel more, maybe he was the most fallen of the three of us - he had a hope, and it was shattered. I knew though that I had to save my brothers from this constant life of being tossed away - we were like rags. Maybe the willows would save us.

So, in the evening of one moving day, I stuck a towel into the gas tank, and lit it. I grabbed my brothers and held them close. I didn’t anticipate, though, the pressure of that explosion. We were all immediately launched backward, the blast hitting the clients and social workers too, my chest felt like a car tire hit it, and my ears rang and felt like a thick bubble had burst inside. Samuel lay face first clutching his stomach, and Michael had his head laying on a step. I grabbed them both in a rush, pulled them up, and had them run toward the trees.

“Run! Run! Run to the forest! We’ll hide in there!” I had them sprint in front of me so I can guard them from anyone trying to catch us. “Don’t stop running! Don’t look back for anything!” I could hear angry screams coming from behind, and dogs.

I turned to see two Rottweilers coming up behind me - my breath felt like acid. I pulled a Chinese firecracker from my pocket and lit it immediately. I turned and threw it toward the first dog, I saw it land on its nose, and ~crackle, pop, pop, pop~ it whined and rolled on the grass, scratching at its eyes. We kept sprinting, I felt like the winds stop, as if it was only us and the dog, stuck still in a limbo.

We finally reached the trees, “Hide right now! And grab whatever you can to use as a weapon!” I myself grabbed the first stick I could find and readied myself for the second dog. As soon as it reached me, it charged with its mouth open, and I swung at it, but it caught my stick - so, immediately, I slipped a paint can from my trousers and sprayed its eyes into a black blot, it whined and shook its head vigorously.

“Kill it!” My brothers rushed out from behind the trees, and we began beating it. It cried and it yelped with every one of our strikes, until it stopped in a silence, but we kept beating it even after for a few more minutes - I felt so alive. Afterward, we lost ourselves, finally, into the trees.

We sat underneath a willow.

“I feel tired Robert, can we sleep for a bit...” Michael said with a drop in his voice.

“I want piojitos from mom...” Samuel laid his head on my lap, and I pulled Michael’s on the other. I combed their hairs, and scratched their heads, like Samuel wanted.

I wonder if I could still find their tiny lumps at that foot of the willow.