When I walked in the house after work, I was surprised to see all the clothes that I had bought Eric folded neatly on the dining room table. Some of them were still in plastic, many of them still had tags, and the shoes were placed neatly back in their boxes.
“Eric,” I called, setting down my briefcase.
He answered me from the top of the stairs. “Yeah.”
“Can you come down for a moment, please?”
When Eric walked over to me, he was wearing the old jeans and T-shirt he had on when I picked him up from prison.
“Uh . . .” I said with a smile, trying to make light of what I knew had to be a potentially bad situation. “What’s going on? Need a smaller size?”
“You should take those back, Cobi. Sorry about the ones I wore already. If they don’t give you your money back, I can find a way to pay you for them.”
“Stop it. What’s this all about?”
“I’m sorry about stealing your car the first night I was here.”
“I know. We went over that, and I already accepted your—”
“And you told me you wouldn’t deal with me doing it again, and I promised you I wouldn’t.”
“That’s right,” I said, not following Eric’s line of thinking.
“So why would you think I’m trying to take you for your money?”
“What do you mean? I don’t think that.”
“You think I’m gonna go to some newspaper or somethin’ and tell them what I saw last night to try to make—”
“I don’t think that. What would have you thinking”—and then it came to me. I was just surprised it took so long. “Hold it. Was my sister here today?”
“Yeah.”
“Did she say something to you?”
“Yeah, she did.”
I shook my head, feeling sorry for my brother. I could only imagine the disrespectful things Sissy probably said to him and how he must’ve felt to ask me to return all his clothes.
“I need for you to understand I don’t think that’s what you’re going to do. I trust you when you say that you wouldn’t tell anyone, and my sister’s thoughts are hers, not mine. You understand?”
“So you ain’t never say any of that to her?”
“Eric,” I said, walking over, taking him by the shoulders. “If I truly felt that way, how big of a fool would I be allowing you to stay here in my home?”
“A pretty big fool, I guess. And what about the job you told me she gave me. She said she ain’t giving me no job.”
“I’m sorry about that, Eric. That happened last night, and I didn’t have a chance to tell you. But you will be getting a job, and it will be there.”
“What do you mean?” Eric asked. “How?”
“I may not work there, but my name is on that company just like Sissy’s. We’re going to get you a position there, even if we have to do it without her knowing,” I said, walking over to the table and grabbing an armload of the clothes. “You’re going to need these for when you start.”
“Are you sure?” Eric said, not looking very confident.
“I’m Cobi Aiden Winslow,” I said, playfully. “I’d like to think that still means something. Now come on, grab the rest. We’ll put these back in your room, then how about I take you and your friend out to dinner to make up for my sister?”
“I don’t wanna mess up anything between you two. I’m just—”
“My brother,” I said, answering for Eric. “Now come on.”