Larry's Brother

The Sobbing Homeless Man came and went before I felt confident enough to place aluminum cans in the recycle container in the alley. Just then, Larry's Brother came along. He rifled through my recycle container, then brazenly entered the neighbor's yard to rifle through their cans, before asking me if I had some work for him. I put him to work doing a bit of sweeping outside the yard, in the alley, under the hedge, and also in the DMV parking lot, where debris from my tree ends up and where waste bird seed gathers.

I paid Larry's Brother more than he expected, to help gain his confidence. I caught his curiosity by mentioning the Sobbing Homeless Man. Larry's Brother brightened up. "I saw that guy," he said, shaking his head. "He was crying! I saw it! Strange! You don't know about people like that. They can go one way, or the other." I asked how Larry was doing, and Larry's Brother was evasive: "Oh, he's been busy."

Then I asked whether Larry was in prison. I explained that I had been receiving mysterious phone calls from the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center (calls that continued despite turning off my phone service, until I physically detached the phones from their phone lines), but as far as I knew, no one I knew was in prison.

"Oh, Larry's not in prison," Larry's Brother replied. "In fact, we bicycled past about 7:30 a.m. this morning, but it was a bit early to ask for work." I explained that I never get up earlier than noon. Larry's Brother laughed, and shook his head, before departing down the alley.