‘Dusty, It’s Brad. He wants to talk to you.’

Keith handed me the cordless phone, then hung around the kitchen, trying to eavesdrop, as I talked to my baby brother. Brad was almost twenty five years old, and I still thought of him as that.

‘Brad! How are you doing buddy?’ I asked while my hands were busy with the rolls, the phone trapped between my ear and shoulder. Brad and I kept in touch pretty routinely, calling one another at least once a month, so I thought nothing of the call.

‘Ok, I guess.’

My ears pricked up at his tone. ‘What’s wrong?’

Brad was six years younger than me, and he was only ten years old when our parents died. I had assumed responsibility for him and Shaun - the brother between us - and even though all three of us had moved in with an aunt, I had been their main source of strength and stability. That had never changed between Brad and me, though Shaun had grown apart from both of us over the years.

‘Nothing … well, life kinda sucks right now …’ his voice trailed off.

I caught Keith’s eye on me; he was looking anxious. I pointed to the living room, indicating clearly that I wanted to talk to Brad in private. He pouted and I smacked him smartly on the backside to move him along. ‘Go,’ I mouthed, and Keith reluctantly left me alone.

Turning my attention back to the phone, I asked gently, ‘Is everything ok at work?’

‘Well yeah, sort of. The usual. Hate Mondays. Love Fridays. I just do it!’

I sighed. ‘And Joshua?’

Joshua was his current boyfriend, as far as I could remember. I had seen Brad go through a long line of ‘special friends’ and I had difficulty keeping up with them, especially now that we were living so far from one another.

‘Um … dunno, we split up some time ago.’

‘Oh? You didn’t mention that before … '

‘Didn’t I?’ He was way too casual about stuff like that and it did not sit well with me. One day, he would get burnt. Still, I could not coddle him all his life.

I said, ‘no, you didn’t.’

‘Old news, Dusty. ’

‘So … is there someone else?’ I heard Brad sigh – a long suffering sound indicating that he was carrying the weight of the world single-handedly upon his shoulders.

‘I think I am going straight. It’s much simpler.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Aha … so who’s been doing what to you now?’

I could picture him, his eyes devoid of guile and the picture of false innocence on his face. That was Brad’s own special amour or indeed charm if you will. He could be self-righteous when it suited him, he usually got away with things he should have been held accountable for, and he always caught his man.

‘You don’t know the half of it, Dusty.’

I sat down, elbows on the kitchen table, and propped my head up with one hand. ‘You wanna talk about it?’

‘Dusty, can I come visit?’ Brad asked, and I caught the tremor in his voice.

* * *