AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Everything okay?” It’s my first question whenever he calls. He’s usually in trouble. I don’t see cop car lights or a police station in the background though, so maybe we’re okay.
“Thirty days today,” he tells me with a grin.
“Really?” He means thirty days sober. Hope blooms to life in my chest. And here I believed that hope had died with Mom.
“Yeah.” He lifts a cigarette to his mouth, then holds the butt up to the screen. “My last vice. How’s Dad?”
“Trapped in an urn.” I take a perfunctory look around even though no one could possibly know Walt and I are talking about the one and only Walter Steele.
“Serves him right.” My brother takes another drag. “I’m in the area.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Pretty close, actually.” His voice takes on a tinny, echo-y quality a moment before I notice a man on the crosswalk who looks a lot like my brother. Identical, in fact.
He stomps out his cigarette underfoot and I bounce over to him, heedless of who’s watching. He catches me in a bony hug and I hold on to him for a long, long while.
“You ass!” I let go and swat him in the arm. He laughs, and the sound is heavenly. I missed him like crazy. Since he’s rarely sober and himself, I’ve missed him for a long time. I hold on to moments like this one with both hands. “You look well.”
He releases me and reaches into his pocket, dropping a bronze coin into my hand a moment later. I turn the coin over, running my thumb over the words “To Thine Own Self Be True.”
“Whoa. Heavy.”
“In every sense of the word,” he assures me. “Are you doing anything right now? I thought we’d grab lunch. Or late breakfast. Or coffee. I’m not picky.”
“Well…” His eyes go over my head to my place of employment. The Clear Ridge Bureau of Inspection. “I have a lunch break but otherwise I’m chained to my desk.”
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen.” He tucks my hair behind my ear and gives me a sad smile. I’m not sure if he’s talking about him or me.
“Wait, shoot.” I just remembered I have lunch with Nate today.
“What is it?”
“You know what? Nothing. It’s nothing. How about there?” I point at the pizza place. “They have amazing calzones.”
“That works. What time are you free?”
“Noon.” I mentally make a note to call Nate and break our date.
After all, a thirty-day-sober Walt is a rare artifact.
