I slowly blink my eyes open and realize I’m staring up at a ceiling fan. Of all people, Bobby –Eddie’s nephew, is staring back at me. “Well what do you know,” Bobby says, grinning, “He’s not dead.” I’m at Bobby’s home –his mom, Kate’s home. Why am I here lying on her couch?

I see Tommy approaching me from the corner of my eye. “What’s up?” he says with this awkward grin.

“You dumbass,” I groan, “Why didn’t you take me to a fucking hospital?”

I’m shirtless, and I can see that I’m well wrapped up around my waist with bandages. “Don’t worry,” Tommy says reassuringly, “my wife patched you up.”

The fucking egg woman! The crazy woman who broke into my house with Tommy and made eggs in my kitchen? Is he insane? “What?” I snap –what did she do, slap a Band Aid on it? There was a fucking knife lodged in my side!

“Relax,” I hear the woman’s voice coming from the kitchen. I hold my head up and through the hall I can see a plethora of bloody paper towels piled up around the kitchen sink as she washes her hands.

“Relax?” I snap, starting to sit up, but this pain shoots through my side. “Ahk!”

Both Bobby and Tommy put their hands on my shoulders, demanding that I stay down and not move. “Easy, man,” Tommy says, “Becky is a nurse. She knows what she’s doing. It was faster to have you meet us here than to try to get to the hospital in all the traffic.”

Becky, crazy egg lady, enters into the den. She’s not wearing her motorcycle jacket, but she still looks like white trash in her white tank top, black bra showing through, and her biker bedazzled jeans and black boots. She’s wearing blue hospital gloves and has a syringe in her hand. I flinch as she comes near me. “You’re going to want this, trust me,” she says, not giving me any time to debate as she pulls my bandages back, revealing a clean stitching, and injects me. “Ooh, I probably should have asked if you’re allergic to anything,” she says.

“Yeah, probably!” I snap as she removes the old bandages and puts on clean ones.

“You’re going to be fine, and that medicine should kick in soon.” She smiles at me.

“You’re really a nurse?” I ask.

“I’m really a nurse,” she says. “Worked in Ricardo’s gang’s hangout bar to put myself through college. That’s how I met Tommy.”

“Well I’ll be damned,” I say. I definitely did not expect that.

The front door busts open suddenly, and Kate comes zooming into her own house. “What the hell? What the hell? There is blood all in my driveway! Tommy, what the hell?”

Tommy stands upright, “I’m sorry, Kate! Dad got Eddie in the side with a knife.”

Kate glances over at me and then back at her half-brother. She marches up to him and slaps him right across the face. “Next time you bring someone into my house who’s bleeding to death, give me a call, why don’t you? Fuck, Tommy! I thought one of my kids had gotten run over in the driveway or something!”

“Thanks for the concern there, Kate,” I say.

“Sorry to sound relieved, James,” she says, blushing. She looks at Bobby, “Where are your brothers and sisters?”

“I made them all go upstairs while Becky was stitching James up,” Bobby says, “I didn’t want them to get in the way.”

She nods approvingly at her son’s decision. “You know everyone is coming over in just a couple of hours, right?” she says to Bobby, “Go unload the car for me.” she looks at Tommy and just shoots him this death glare until he gets up and follows Bobby outside to help with bringing in groceries.

“You need help in the kitchen?” Becky asks.

“I would really appreciate it,” Kate says and then looks at me, “I might have some clothes for you upstairs. In my room there is a large Chester drawer –check the middle drawer, some of my late husband’s clothes should still be in there. “

“Thanks,” I say, rising slowly. “You guys have some guests coming over or something?”

“First Saturday ever month,” Kate says, “We all do a cookout.”

“We who?” I ask.

“We the bastard children of Ricardo Smith,” Tommy says as he enters the home with arms full of groceries. “Eddie used to come too. Call it a family reunion minus the dipshit dad who ties us all together.”

I have to admit I’m slightly enthused by this idea. “You’re welcome to stay,” Kate says, “A lot of them want to meet you, but they did not want to bother you too much at the funeral.”

“I’d love to,” I say and go upstairs to locate the clothes Kate had mentioned. As I am getting dressed, I note that my side is already feeling numb from the shot Becky gave me. Thank God. Well, I guess I can say I’ve got battle scars now. I finish getting dressed, donning a pair of blue jeans and a size-too-small gray t-shirt.

The house is already swarming with people as I make it downstairs. Max, Eddie’s vocally impaired half-brother, meets me at the bottom of the stairs and proceeds to introduce me to everyone as they arrive. Stacey and Sandra –identical twin sisters near Eddie’s age tell me all about Eddie helping Stacey to get clean, bringing the two women back together after years of drifting apart. Donnie, a local mechanic, tells me about Eddie buying his kids Christmas gifts so that there would be something under the tree that year. Troy is a single dad of three girls –Eddie had helped pay for his wife’s funeral after she had died from leukemia. Arthur is the oldest of the bunch, and Eddie helped him to start up his own barber shop, and he’s doing really well now. Jonathan is a flight attendant –a job that Eddie helped to set him up with. DJ is a cancer survivor, and Eddie had been helping him pay for his medical bills that had been piling up relentlessly; he and his wife are expecting their first baby in less than a month.

I do my best to remember names as I am introduced to each of Eddie’s siblings, their spouses, and their children. The house is soon swarming with people. The doorbell rings, and I am closest, so I answer it. I smile when I see Nick, Eddie’s youngest brother, and Donna –his case worker from child services standing in the doorway. Nick’s face lights up when he sees me. “James?” he questions, “What are you doing here?”

I decide not to tell the kid that his dad stabbed me in the gut. I smile and say, “I came to meet everyone. I didn’t expect to see you here, though.”

Donna answers for him, “Nick has been doing so well with his rehabilitation, and he has been wanting to attend his family’s monthly cookout, so we’re loosening the rope a little today.”

I smile. “That’s great!”

Nick lunges in and wraps his arms around me, and I’ll admit it makes me really uncomfortable, but I hug him back. Thankfully he’s tall enough to where he misses my stab wound. He pulls away and then looks very sad when he says, “I’m sorry I missed Eddie’s funeral. They didn’t tell me,” he glances back at Donna angrily when he says it.

“It’s okay,” I say reassuringly. “Eddie would have wanted you to stay at the clinic anyways. Why don’t you come in? I believe everyone is here now.”

Nick nods excitedly and hurries inside, eager to visit with his older siblings and his various nieces and nephews that are actually closer in age to him. Donna enters and we close the door, but the two of us stand by in the doorway. “He’s very excited,” Donna says, “He can’t wait to live with you. Are you nervous at all?”

“Honestly, yes,” I say.

“Good. I’d be worried if you weren’t,” she smiles, “I spoke with your lawyer. It sounds like the lawsuit is being dropped.”

“Looks that way,” I say.

“Good. It will make this process a lot easier. Hopefully after he leaves the program he will be able to just come home with you and not remain in foster care in limbo. We will see, though. Fingers crossed.” She enters into the home, smiling and chatting with the family.

It’s weird. I have this sense of belonging here. They’re not my family, but they might as well be. They were Eddie’s, so that’s good enough for me. I wind up staying for hours, doing my best to get to know every single one of them. It’s nice. I don’t feel alone anymore.