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I looked at my phone for what had to be the hundredth time before I jogged up the steps to Ma’s.
It was my day off. She’d mentioned in passing the back door lock was sticking, so I’d come to fix it, even though she hadn’t asked.
She’d feed me in the process.
Thank God, after what that room set me back last night. Looked like Ma would be seeing a bit more of me in the near-distant future.
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Was she finally calling me back?
Aaron.
I deflated as I answered the phone. “What’s up?”
“You got a second?”
“I’m headed into Ma’s.” I hesitated with my hand on the doorknob.
“I need five hundred.”
I leaned against the wall.Not again.“Roy told me Quinn came by the bar. I thought after the last five you were done.”
“It was a sure-fire bet, man. I just—”
“Lost. Again.” Irritation coursed through me. My brother had developed a gambling problem, and I was enabling it by continually bailing him out.
But I'd done it all our lives. He'd never been good with money and I wasn't going to let him suffer.
“Yeah.” He sounded dejected.
“Come by Ma’s. I’ll spot you, but this has got to stop. You hear me?”
“Thanks, Cal. You’re the best.” He’d gone from down to exuberant in seconds. “And I hear you.”
He hung up. I stood there for a second, knowing this wouldn't be the last time. How the hell was I going to help him? And I needed to put in for some overtime.
I had a thousand dollars stashed in my old room upstairs. It was my savings account that continually was depleted. But if it helped my family, that was all that mattered. What else did I have to work for anyway?
I pushed off the wall and rang the bell to let her know I was there, but let myself in. “Ma.”
“In the kitchen, Cal.”
The furniture in the living room was the same as it had been since Pop had surprised her with a new set when I was in high school. It was worn but still in good shape for its age. She never said anything about wanting something new, and I wasn’t sure she did.
Ma held on to every piece of my father she could get her hands on.
We all did.
She stood at the stove, stirring something in a pan. Did she sleep there?
I hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek. “Smells good. Always does.”
“Did they find out what happened to Joe’s house?”
I dropped my arms and stumbled back. “What are you talking about?”
She turned, still stirring without looking. “His house burned down this morning.”
