Sarah has been asking about Lewis’s family lately. She hasn’t pressed him too much, because she can see he doesn’t have much to say, but it worries her that he is so out of touch with them. It worries me, too.
Brid tells me that she looked into this when we were first assigned to Lewis—family, after all, is often the first group of people one falls back on for support in troubled times. But Lewis’s family was never very close-knit, and so after he moved out he has only been in touch a few times. That contact faded away to next to nothing when he returned from overseas. Brid tells me she decided to get back in touch with them would be more stress for him than it was worth.
Now, however, having come to know Sarah’s parents and seen how warm and loving they are as a unit, Lewis is open to trying again, and Brid feels that he’s strong enough to make the effort. So today he made a phone call, though it took him nearly half an hour to have the courage to push ‘send’.
After all that build-up, his sister answered on the second ring. “Lewis?” she said.
“Hey, Addy. How’s everything going?”
“Good, I guess,” she said, slightly bewildered. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, realizing with embarrassment that she thought he was calling with some emergency. “No, I’m fine, I just—I realized it’s been a long time since we talked, and I wanted to. But if you’re busy—”
“No, no! I’ve got some time. I mean—I have work in an hour, so I’m going to have to start getting ready soon, but—”
“I can call back—”
“Really, it’s fine. It’s good to hear your voice.”
She meant that, I could tell, and I made certain that Lewis knew it too. He smiled into the phone. “So how have you been? Still working at that breakfast place?”
“No, actually, I got a job at Sophia’s.”
“Whoa, that place is pretty fancy, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s nice. And the owner is nice, too—we get a free meal anytime we have a shift longer than five hours, and half off any other time. It’s just so much nicer than the café.”
“I’m glad you’re doing better. When do you start back at school?”
“End of August.”
“And you’ll be able to keep your job when you get started again?”
“Yeah, I’ve got my schedule set up so my evenings will be free, and the restaurant doesn’t even open until four.”
“That’s good.” He cleared his throat. “Still with Joey?”
“Joseph,” she corrected him, “and yes, I am. In fact—I’m engaged.”
“What?” Lewis exclaimed, almost jumping out of his chair. “When did this happen?”
She laughed. “Just last night, actually—I haven’t even told Dad yet. Oh, Lewis, it was so perfect—he took me out to the same restaurant where we had our first date, and he got me a milkshake for dessert, and the ring was on the straw, and he told me I’m the sweetest thing in his life and he wants to keep me forever.”
Lewis sighed and sat down again. “So I guess I’ll have to start pretending to like him.”
“Well, don’t go to too much trouble,” Addy replied, a little tartly.
“Nah, it’s okay. I guess he’s been taking pretty good care of you.” When I couldn’t, he thought but didn’t say. “And if you’re happy, then I’m happy.”
“I am happy,” Addy said, and it was very clear in her voice. But then she asked, “So what about you? What are you up to?” Are you really happy? she didn’t say, but it was clear enough that Lewis did hear it.
“I’m doing okay,” he said, surprised to realize that it was the truth. “Really. I’ve got a pay-the-bills job at a coffee-shop, and I’m unbelievably broke, but that’s not a huge deal. And I’m dating this girl Sarah who is…” Words failed him for a moment. “She’s amazing, Addy. I am so, so lucky that I met her.”
“I’m so glad! How did you meet her?”
So Lewis told her, and then he asked after their parents, and then they talked a little bit about the past, laughing over old jokes and remembering the people they’d grown up with. The time together was too short, and Addy said so as she got set to hang up.
“Well, I’ll just have to call you again sometime soon,” Lewis said.
“Do, please. I’m working most nights this week, but I think I’m off on Thursday.” She sighed, and in the sound I could hear wistfulness and love. “I’m so glad you called, Lew.”
“Me, too,” he said. It had been easier than he’d thought to fall back into the habit of being someone’s brother, someone’s son. “So I’ll plan on calling you on Thursday, and if that doesn’t work shoot me a text and we’ll set up something else.”
“Good. Talk to you soon.”
“Will do.” I prodded him with one wing, and he said, “I love you, twerp.”
The not-quite-affectionate nickname made the sudden declaration bearable for both of them, and she laughed. “I love you, too, jerk. Now get off my phone, I’m gonna be late.”
He hung up, chuckling softly, and rubbing his chest. Then he shook his head, setting the phone aside. It was very strange to him to think of his baby sister getting married.
“Tell you what,” he muttered, “Joey just better have grown up a lot since I last saw him, or we’re gonna have problems.”
I wasn’t worried about the brief visions of violence that went through Lewis’s head. He didn’t really mean it, and the protective feelings reassured me that he is ready to step back into the family again.
“People change, and it is good to see the change,” I said to him. “But there is something in her that will always belong to you, and there is something in you that will always belong to her. And that is family.”