“I will never leave you,” Lori’s brother, Eric, whispered as he wrapped her in a tight hug, “I promise.” At the time, Lori was still too young to know what it meant, so she just smiled at the camera as their mother recorded this precious brother-sister moment on her camera.

It was decades later when Lori finally learned the meaning of her brother’s words when he showed up at her door, begging to be taken in. He was just three years older than her but standing at the door was a man that looked much older. “What happened to you?!” Lori asked.

He looked disheveled with ripped jeans and shirt. His dirty blond hair looked as though it hadn’t been washed for days. The only thing he had with him was a duffel bag, which he tossed on the floor the moment he stepped into her home. “Remember what I said when we were kids?”

“You’ve said a lot of things when we were kids, you will need to be more specific.” Lori demanded.

“That I will never leave you, sis, and I am here to cash on that promise.”

“Excuse me?” Lori said. “You’ve been gone for years doing god knows what. No contact, no phone call, and you have the gall to show up here demanding shelter? I at least deserve an explanation.”

Eric sighed, “I’m sorry. I was in a bad place and had no way of contacting you or mom and dad but I’m here now and isn’t that all it matters?”

A bad place? Lori wondered and began to feel resigned. He is her brother after all. She sighed, “The bathroom’s down the hall. You better go freshen up before my husband comes home. He’s a clean freak and you smell you’ve been rolling around in a garbage dump.”

Whatdoyousee