A Brother for Christmas

Buzzzz buzzzzz

It's just a text message, she thought to herself, I'll look at it later.

buzzzz buzzzzz buzzzzzz

She sighed. And groaned a little before rolling over. It wasn't a text message, it was the alarm. Time for work.

"Hey, you up?" came from the other side of her bedroom door. It was her mother.

She sat up, rubbed her eyes to get everything in focus and stretched her arms high above her head. "Yeah, I'm up."

"A'ight. Get ready for work."

Work. Work? Work! It sounded so weird. She thought about what it would be like to step through those big glass doors again. Only this time, she wouldn't be visiting or even taking in a movie. Tonight, she'd be actually useful for a change. Tonight, she'd be working.

She looked at the phone. Two missed calls. One from her cousin. One from her sister. She checked the times. Her cousin called most recently so she would be the first to be called back. Nothing personal, it's just how her phone listed the calls.

Riiiing riiiing

"Hey, you talk to your sister yet?"

Well, hello to you, too... "Uh, no. I saw she called but I--,"

"Yeah, well, you need to call her. It's important."

"Oh.. uhm.. okay... Thanks. Bye." Click.

She looked at the clock. Less than an hour to be get to work. She debated over calling her sister. Well, if it was important...

"Hey, Lexi said I should call you..?"

"Are you sitting down?"

Awkward. "Uh... yeah, I'm sitting on my bed. What's up?"

"So..uhm... You know how we always wondered what it be like to have a brother?"

She blinked a few times, rising from bed and pacing her room a little. Surely, her sister's boyfriend hadn't proposed... Not with no family around. No, no, no. Something's not right... "Yeah, I mean.. I guess... What does--"

"Yeah, so.. how's about a brother for Christmas?"

"Wait... what? I don't underst--,"

Then her sister let everything spill. She told her how some guy somehow used AT&T to get their phone numbers and had been contacting their cousin by mistake, thinking it was her because they're all on the same bill, talking about how important it was to speak with her. How this guy was 29 and met their father at a local bar he's known to frequent. How their father was this man's father too. And how their father had been paying child support all 18 years of this guy's life, but had never seen him or been there for him at all. How this guy knew of their existence but they had no idea of his--ever. How he was married with kids and wanted to know his family better. How he always knew they were in Lake Charles and wanted to meet for lunch one day to "talk about all this."

"So, yeah, what do you think? Like, what's going through your mind right now?"

She was speechless. "I... I think I need to get ready for work. I'll call you when I get off. Bye." Click.

She sighed, looked at the phone then the clock. Could this be really happening? Oh brother....