Another Epilogue
Brad
The morning is barely peeking through the large window in our bedroom, but it doesn’t bother me since I’m already awake. I am always awake before the sun comes up because my infant son doesn’t understand that people need sleep in order to do things. Nope, he’s crying like crazy in his bedroom and my alarm isn’t set to go off for another hour.
My morning routine consists of taking a piss, brushing my teeth, and then tending to my family. I wouldn’t change a thing about how my life has drastically changed over the last five years. Sure, I did time in jail for a huge mistake I made that almost made me lose everyone I cared about in life. But that time, those obstacles, those lessons, made me the man I am today. I didn’t lose my family permanently; in fact, I want to think that we’re just as close as we were before I royally fucked up. Or it could be that we’re in our mid-thirties and life is short. Not only did I reconcile with my brothers, but I also gained a wife and children, not to mention my brother-in-law and parents-in-law.
Mika agreed to marry me when I proposed to her on her birthday a few months before Isaacc was born. Now, almost four months later, we’re finally getting a little more sleep than before and we’re finally making plans.
Her side of the bed is cold, which isn’t unexpected. The moment she hears any noise coming from Isaac’s room, she darts in there like the Flash. It’s quite impressive. I drag my ass out of bed and down the hall to stand outside the nursery door like I do every morning. I observe her humming in the rocking chair trying to calm Isaac down with a smile on her face. Her free hand is rubbing Isaac’s feet and soon he soothes himself enough.
“Hey, mama.” I smile as I walk all the way into the room, then lean against the crib to watch her.
“Hey, you. He wake you?”
“Nah, I was already halfway awake. Breakfast?”
“Sure. Can you check on Jare? I think he’s still having problems figuring out how the showers here work. I mean, it’s almost like a launch pad.” She laughs quietly to not disturb the baby.
Right after I proposed to Mika, she and Jared moved into my house. It has so much more space that it made sense to move into my place before Isaac was born. Reed has remodeled their parents’ house and made it into one big house again, and got roommates to fill the two extra bedrooms.
Every morning for weeks, I showed Jared how to use the shower. The control panel for the shower is more like a video game, so by the time I would get to the bathroom, he would have all the sprayers on. This morning, I rap my knuckles on the door and let myself in.
“You good, buddy?” I ask, poking my head in and then entering the room. He’s standing there, glaring at the shower controls.
“I think we need to change things in here. I like those knob things. I don’t know how to work this thing and I know that you and Mommy are real busy with Isaac.”
“Neither of us are ever too busy for you. But you know what I did, that will make all this easier every day?” I sit down on the closed toilet and lean toward him.
“What?” he asks excitedly.
“I made you your own program. All you need to do is press two buttons and it will turn on your sprayer to the perfect temperature.” I smile.
“No way! You can do that?”
“Already did. Come on, I’ll show you. So now, all you need to do is press the number one and then the star.” We stand by the control panel just outside the shower door and I crouch down to be at his level.
“That’s so cool! It’s because I’m the big brother, huh?” He puffs out his chest and does his superhero poses.
“Nah, man. It’s because you’re my number one star.” I ruffle his hair and stand.
I’ve got it made. I have a great job, a warm home, and a family that I didn’t know I wanted or needed. Sure, I fucked up in the past, but I’ve worked on making my amends and now feel that my entire family is stronger because of it. My brothers treat me like a real brother. My relationship with Jacob feels stronger than it did years ago, sans the womanizing and constant drinking. We have the comradery again, and I can’t believe I was able to get it back. We’ve hit a few bumps, but we made a pact to focus on the future and not dwell on the past. They’ve seen that I’ve changed and I think that has helped.
Now, there are no more bars holding me back from my potential. I was freezing in every way you could imagine before I met Mika and now I’m permanently thawed.
My life and my heart.
It may have taken a lot of shit to get to where I am today, a lot of stupid and bad choices to get to the positive, but I did it.
I got a second chance, at business, life, love and, most of all, family.
I wouldn’t change my story if my life depended on it.
THE END
Readers,