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Seven-year-old Olga runs into the living room, cradling her faded beige teddy bear. Her dad Bob is in the kitchen, making pastrami. Her mom Miriam, though, is in the living room playing the piano. She’s in high spirits, singing along to the chorus of ‘Winter Wonderland’ when her daughter runs to her. She scoops up her daughter and sits her on her lap. “Hi there, Olga. What’s wrong, sweetheart?” “Leif pushed my teddy in the mud!” A second later, a three-year-old boy with long brown hair runs into the room. He is tracking mud in his hair and shoes. “Mama! Ogie hit me!” “Olga?” Miriam raises an eyebrow. “Leif, did you push Olga’s teddy bear in the mud?” He frowns. “Ogie jumped off the swing an’ she hit me an’ I dropped her bea’ in the mud.” “Why were you holding Olga’s bear?” Bob demands, walking into the room and wiping his hands off with a cloth towel. Leif frowns more, tears welling up. “I was jus’ playin’!” “Leif, go to the bathroom upstairs. Olga, honey, go play quietly in your room. Your mother and I need to talk.” “Okay, Daddy.” Olga wiggles out of her mother’s arms and sends a nasty scowl to her brother. She passes him haughtily and heads up the stairs. Leif looks away but follows his sister up the stairs. When two different doors close upstairs, Bob leads Miriam to the couch. “We’re going to need to do something about that boy.” “I know, Bob.” She agrees. “He’s always making messes for you to clean up, and Olga keeps running to me and crying.” He shakes his head. “He better grow out of this phase.” Four years later, Olga is an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. She’s in the living room, practicing lullabies. Miriam sneaks a little Blue Malibu into her blue raspberry smoothie while in the kitchen. Bob carries his crying newborn daughter around the house, with his seven-year-old son playing with a spaceship alongside. He’s making noises with his tongue protruding. “Leif, stop making those noises. Helga needs to sleep.” “Nooo!” He complains. “She needs to wake up, so she can play with me!” Helga screams louder, and Bob groans. He snatches away the spaceship and places it on a high shelf beside Olga’s spelling bee trophy from last year. Leif begins to cry, mixing together with Helga. Bob massages his temples. “Leif, go read a book in the living room.” He crosses his arms and huffs. “I can’t read! Don’t you know nothing!?” Two years later, Olga is thirteen. She’s making straight As and does whatever her parents say. She has won a collective nineteen trophies in spelling, maths, gymnastics and piano recitals. Leif is nine and hasn’t gotten much better. He acts out as a way to get attention from the family who ignores him. He constantly has detention and pulls pranks with a group of people who won’t call him his friend. Helga is two now. She likes to run around after Leif, though she’s too young to do much of anything he likes. Leif is teaching Helga how to play catch since she can’t properly wield a baseball bat. They play in the backyard while Olga plays the Carmen Overture inside. The younger kids can hear the music through the slightly open window. The boy shakes his head and tosses the ball to his little sister. It bounces off the bill of her ball cap and she falls to the ground. “Olga thinks she’s so perfect.” Leif growls out as he helps Helga to her feet. “Why Oggie play?” “She thinks it’s good music.” Helga sticks out her tongue in response. She grabs the baseball and launches it into the air, unaware of her hands flinging backward. The ball sails far behind either of them, breaking the window and screeching down the piano keys. Olga shrieks, and Leif takes off for the garage. Helga runs behind him, though not as fast, due to her shorter legs. He instantly grabs his bike and pushes off as Bob’s yell rings out. Helga tries to copy him by edging away on her Big Wheel. They only reach the sidewalk in the front of the house when Bob storms down the stoop and wrenches his son off his bike. Helga gasps in alarm as Bob publicly spanks Leif and drags him to the stoop. “You are going to sit right here until I say otherwise. Do you understand me!?” Leif’s lip wobbles, trying not to cry. He barely meets his dad’s gaze. “Yes, Sir.” Hours later, it’s past dark. Bob, Miriam and Olga are packing up the car. They leave behind the piano, photo albums, appliances, and a lot of Helga’s toys – anything deemed unnecessary. The Pataki family – minus Leif – move out of their house and into a new one across the city. The next day, Helga questions her parents on the whereabouts of her brother. “You need to stop this.” “Top?” “Leif doesn’t exist. You don’t need an imaginary brother when you have a real sister right here.” Helga blinks in confusion. “No Leif?” Bob shakes his head, nudging his wife to follow his lead. Miriam exchanges glances with Olga, and the older daughter nods obediently. Miriam closes her eyes to collect herself and then faces her youngest. “No Leif.”