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enough of David. Three days prior, David had found him way out in Union City and nagged Leon out of $100; now he was back for more.
    â€œMan, I told you the other day, I’m not giving you anymore money,” Leon yelled at his brother. “I have a family to support.”
    â€œY . . . You look like you’re doing all right to me,” David stuttered, looking around and scratching himself at the same time. “W . . . What about me? I . . . I ain’t family no mo’?”
    â€œBaby bro, I’m not hearing that today. Go somewhere else with that nonsense.”
    â€œLee-man, you know if you don’t give it to me, I’m gon’steal it from somebody.”
    Leon shook his head at his brother. He knew David was telling the truth, but he still didn’t give into his manipulation. “Bro, do what you have to do, because I’m not giving you a dime.”
    The two brothers stood there, arguing back and forth for several minutes, before Leon walked away. David wouldn’t give up; he tackled Leon from behind and tried to take his wallet. Leon reminded David that he was still his big brother by beating David until he begged him to stop. Then Leon did the brotherly thing and helped him to his feet, and told him to take his foolishness someplace else. This time David did what he was told and left.
    That was the last time Leon saw David alive. Three hours later, sitting at his kitchen table, he received a call from his mother informing him that David had been shot to death by the gas station attendant he had attempted to rob.
    From that moment on, Leon blamed himself for his brother’s death, for not giving David the money he’d begged him for. Everyone tried to convince him that David made the wrong choice to hold up a gas station and threaten to kill the attendant with a plastic gun. And that, long before that, David, a magna cum laude college graduate, had choosen to give his life away to heroin. Leon didn’t receive any of that. He couldn’t when he was constantly tormented with nightmares of David telling him it was his fault. Trying to escape the voices, Leon made the choice to drown his sorrows with alcohol.
    On the spiral journey downward, Leon had lost everything : his business, his house, and his family. The one silver lining behind the dark clouds that ruled his life for three years was that, in the end, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Today, Leon didn’t mind going to church so much. He even went to church at home by watching as many religious programs as possible.
    Today was a new day and a new genesis for him. After her visit three nights ago, Starla agreed to allow him an unsupervised afternoon with the boys. She still wasn’t ready to make any decisions about dissolving or restoring their marriage, but Starla consented to a date once in a while. Leon eagerly received every token Starla offered. The one thing he was certain of, aside from the love of God, was the love in Starla’s heart for him. If the love had dissipated, Starla would have divorced him when he left her and the boys, bottle in hand, causing her to lose their home and move in temporarily with her mother. But she didn’t; she cried and yelled, even hit him, but not once did Starla stop referring to him as her husband. She may have added the adjectives low-down, trifling, or stupid first, but always ended with the noun husband. Starla’s wounds ran deep, but so did her love.
    Leon opened the refrigerator. “Thanks, brat,” he whispered. Marlissa had packed a picnic basket for him and the boys to take to the zoo before she’d left for work. Leon grabbed the basket and headed out the door.

    â€œAre you sure that’s a good idea?”
    Starla switched the phone to her right ear and pondered Lewis’s question. Lewis Mason was a deacon at her church who’d befriended her and the boys.
    â€œLeon is doing better,” Starla answered.