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We tried to change his mind in the beginning, showing up for visitation every week anyway, but he never met with us. After a while, Ma started getting upset and more than a little heartbroken. I was afraid of what that might do to her health, so we eventually stopped coming at all.
It hurt me not to see my brother. I’m sure it hurt Ma worse, not seeing her son. But what choice did we have? He wouldn’t cooperate and the gas it took to get there and back was starting to cost me.
However, Bodhi was determined to meet him. When I asked why it was so important that it happen now, he said he had a plan.
“Do you trust me?” He’d asked last night while he held me, curled around me while I laid in bed.
I was surprised to find out how easily the answer came to me. I did trust him. I wasn’t sure when exactly it happened, but it did.
He filled me in on the conversation he and Sander had, and how he wanted to get Mateo to admit to falsely accusing my brother.
“I want to get him out of there. Get him back home to you and your mom,” he’d said.
“Really?”
The idea of Eli back home excited me beyond belief. I’ve missed having him around. The annoying way he always teased me or joked around. Little things that I took for granted.
“I always wondered if things would go back to normal when he got out, or if he’d change so much that things would never be the same again,” I admitted in the quiet of the room.
Bodhi wouldn’t stay the night, wanting to respect my mom, but he did lay with me for a while before going home for the night.
“I’m sure he’ll change a little, but he’ll still be your brother. I mean, you’ve probably changed, too.”
He had a point. I had changed. I think we both had to in order to survive, and I couldn’t hold that against him.
“I always worried about how difficult it would be for him, coming home after being in jail for so long. Whether acclimating back to a normal life would be too hard for him.”
I’d always heard stories about how hard it was for people. I didn’t want that for my brother.
“Well, we can try our best to make sure the transition is easy for him,” Bodhi said. My heart swelled with love for him in that moment. How he didn’t see this as something Ma and I would have to shoulder alone.
“I wonder what kind of job he’ll be able to get,” I’d said aimlessly, mostly just thinking out loud.
“From what I hear, he’s one hell of a driver.”
Is. Not was.
“Yeah, but now he doesn’t have a car to come home to,” I sighed.
“I may have a solution to that,” Bodhi had chuckled.
I’d turned over to face him. “You are not about to start loaning out more of your cars, I hope. Even if you did, I couldn’t imagine Eli accepting the offer.”
No, I foresee my brother being extremely cautious in the future.
“Calm yourself, woman,” Bodhi said, jokingly. Though that didn’t stop me from pinning him with a look that dared him to try that again.
“Actually, I haven’t had a chance to mention this just yet. Nothing was set in stone until this morning,” he’d said.
“What?”
“I quit racing Kane’s,” he’d said, and my eyes nearly bugged out.
“You what?” I whisper-shouted, not wanting to startle my mom.
“I’m not happy anymore. I haven’t been for a long time, so I quit. Rob helped me with all the legal stuff, but there was just no way I could drive for… Thompson anymore.”
He went on to explain how the interaction had gone down and what he and Rob were planning on doing.
