From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

Author:Jesse Thistle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

FAMILY WEDDING

“KEEP SIX,” I WHISPERED TO my little brother, Daniel, who stood near the mirror in the Value Village Clothing store in Vancouver. I ducked down and pivoted, blocking the line of sight to the cashier. I grabbed a sports blazer, a pair of black slacks, a white button-up shirt, a belt, a pair of dress shoes, and a skinny black tie and stuffed them in my plastic grocery bag.

“She’s coming, she’s coming,” Daniel said, a note of panic in his voice. I glanced in the mirror and saw a lady in a red employee’s smock. She’d been pricing men’s shoes two aisles over. I threw the bag under the rack and stood up to greet her. She yanked the bag out, opened it, and threatened to call the police. Daniel and I backpedalled, and then ran out the front door and down the street.

She’d fallen for the ruse. I’d gone in behind Daniel and changed into a suit, tie, and shoes before anyone noticed, then told Daniel to keep an eye out. He had amateur written all over his face. He gawked around like he was doing something wrong, pacing back and forth, while I stuffed the decoy bag full of things—which caught the attention of the store employee who focused on the bag instead of the suit I was wearing. It was an old trick I’d learned.

“How’d you learn to steal like that?” Daniel asked.

“That was nothing.” To me, it was just another day at the office. I picked a butt off the ground and lit it. The truth was I didn’t know, it just came naturally, kind of like breathing.

It was the first time I’d seen my little brother since he and Mom had disappeared with George years before. When Josh phoned Jerry and invited me to his September wedding, he said we’d put aside our differences and be cordial on his big day, and that he’d pay for my flight out west if I could just get it together long enough to look human. He said it’d be the first time all us brothers would be together again—that it was important I be there.

I jumped at the chance to see my baby brother, and to witness Josh and his fiancée, Margaret, get married. I was lucky to have caught the call—I circled back to Jerry’s just to check in or crash periodically—but I was glad I did. I wouldn’t have missed the wedding for the world. The suit I’d just nicked was too tight. I bent over and polished my shoes with some spit. They, too, weren’t my size. But it would all have to do.

Daniel picked a ball of lint off my blazer and brushed my shoulder. He had features so much like mine, but he was better and healthier looking.

We’d met up earlier that day at the church and got along right away. Mom was there, too, and we’d kissed and all that good stuff, like reunited long-lost mother and son, which is what we were, then I’d pulled Daniel aside.

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