As I sit on the couch of a tiny apartment at Kings Circle, gawking at Dr. Sebastian’s feet which are covered by the polka-dot socks, he puts on the face of someone who is going to be on the air any moment now. The cold weather has taken a toll on both of us.

“He’s in prison, now, “he says after a pause and probably a tinge of embarrassment.

He continues

“He was always the troubled kind. Mom said that he was bipolar, almost uncontrollably during his teenage years “.

“How did he end up like that?” I ask

“He was good you know. At first, he would get good grades, he was athletic. But…” he said

“Was it drugs.... alcohol…. wrong company? I ask after sipping a cup of coffee.

“Bad company,” he said “His friend’s habits were a bad influence on him, he started drinking probably when he was around 13. We suspected he was into drugs around the same time. He once hit mom when he was drunk.”  a tear dropped down his cheek.

I hand him a glass of water.

“Do you want to talk about something else?” I ask

“No, this thing might just save me $150 and a trip to my therapist, “he said

I burst into laughter even though I experienced an emotional moment just seconds ago.

A moment later, we come back from it.

He went on” he somehow scraped his way through high school managed to get into college, where he met a couple of frat boys. And, after that, I heard more about parties than I did about assignments from him. He would always talk about getting high when we met. I noticed sometimes that he skipped classes to go out with his friends and come back late at night usually drunk. And when we asked him about his grades he would change the subject indefinitely.”

“And after a couple of months,” he continued

“we get a call from the police that he has been arrested for burglary “

“What did your father do when he got the news?” I said.

“He got the news in the middle of the night,” he says

“I could hear him having a fight with mom about the arrest through the ceiling floor. Mom was terrified and wanted my brother out by dawn, but dad wanted to teach him a lesson by keeping him in jail for a few days . so that he could get some sense. But finally, my dad got him out the same evening”

“How was his reaction we he got out of jail? “I ask

“He pretended not to care about the efforts that dad took to get him out.”

He continues.

“Later, we got a lawyer for him to fight the case, but he was found guilty, and was placed under house arrest for 6 months. After, that he made the stupidest mistake.”

“He ran away to Jersey where apparently he got a job and was dating some girl for a year until the police caught him,” he says.

I look up to him in awe, of what happened.