So, I took each of their hands in mine and held them until their attention turned to me.
“You guys hungry?” I asked.
They slowly nodded as I smiled.
“You guys want a shower and some clean clothes?”
That question earned me a vigorous nod from all of them.
“Well, there’s a place across the street that has all of those things. Clean clothes, toys to play with, and other kids to meet. Food as often as you want and juices for you to drink. Would you like to go see? Daniel’s going to come and get you when he finishes work.”
The smiles that crossed their faces warmed my heart.
By the time I got across the street, the kids practically took off running. A woman was at the gate to greet us and wrapped her arms around all the kids. I waved to her, silently thanking her for her donation to the project as she smiled back, and by the time I got back to the site, Daniel was already picking up stray materials on the ground that needed to be moved.
“You know, Bryan, the last guy you brought to one of these sites stole some very expensive supplies,” Duke said quietly.
“I know.”
“Just took off with ‘em. Left us high and dry.”
“I hear you, Duke.”
“You think this is still a smart thing to do?” he asked.
“In all the years I’ve been doing this with the company, how many have turned out like him?” I asked.
“Two,” he said, sighing.
“I can’t let two people who took advantage of our kindness ruin something we’ve been doing for years.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” he said, grinning.
“I pay the bills around here, and the good we do completely outweighs the couple of bad things that had gone wrong on sites. The company has always had the funds to foot the losses. I manipulated our financials so we would. Nothing’s changing.”
“You know this kind of shit would give you some wonderful PR. The owner of one of the fastest-growing construction companies hiring a homeless person to work on each project? The public would eat that shit up, Bryan.”
“This is about helping people, Duke. Not about PR. These guys, they just need help. They need someone to throw them something. They need someone to understand their scenario and give them ways to help themselves. That’s all,” I said.
“I gotta ask,” Duke said as he straightened his hard hat. “This was something you did from the very beginning. Even when you didn’t have the funds to suction up the losses. Why?”
My heart stopped beating for just a split second. I closed my eyes and allowed the ocean breeze to whisk me away to a different time. A time when John and I ran around in the front yard and batted each other with foam swords. A time when frolicking in the ocean meant family vacations and fish fries. A time when grilling out was a family affair and thunderstorms scared the shit out of my brother and punishments were taken in stride in order to make memories that still kept me afloat.
Still kept me breathing despite everything that had been ripped from me.
“You still here, Bryan?” he asked.
“I have a better question,” I said as I watched Daniel work. “How do you think he’s gonna feel?”
“Who?” Duke asked.
“Daniel. How do you think he’s gonna feel?” I asked.
“About workin’?”
“Nope.”
“About providin’ for those four kids of his?”