My hands were shaking when I unzipped his backpack. What I thought would be a cute surprise turned into a moment of raw, icy panic. Tucked inside, wrapped like contraband, were dozens of strange white ovals covered in gray veins. They looked unnatural. Wrong. My parents were just as confused. Nobody knew what they real… Continues…

For a few terrifying minutes, it felt like our entire view of my little brother had cracked. We stood around the kitchen table, the three of us, staring at those cold white shapes like they were evidence of something dark we’d missed. A secret life. A hidden problem. A danger we hadn’t seen coming. The silence between us was heavier than the objects themselves.

But the internet, for once, was kind. Howlite. Just polished stones people use to calm anxiety, to ground themselves when the world feels too loud. In that instant, the fear shifted into something else: guilt, tenderness, a quiet ache. My “silly” little brother, quietly carrying his own way of coping, never saying a word. I put one stone back into his backpack, gently, almost like an apology—and kept another on my desk, to remind me how much our loved ones hide behind a simple zip.