[ WP ] Two brothers who have n't seen the other in years meet at a hospital .

My son was three when I last saw Tom. He was always smart, just a little lacking on the common sense side, and maybe a touch of Bacchus in him. Why, the first day I moved to the university he studied at, he drunk dialed me from the bottom of a handle of rum. One of us got some sleep that night, it sure as hell was n't me. Then there was the time he fed a Jolly Rancher to my eight month old. Still, a bloody genius with a keyboard. Wrote a whole operating system, client and server code, in one night. Damn thing worked too. 
 
 But the alcohol and, I assumed, drugs always got the better of him. He dropped out when I was a sophomore, worked at a local fast food joint and bounced checks for groceries. I tried to help, but a college student with kids is n't in a position to do much of anything. Suppose I'd done more than just keep tabs on him before he dropped off the grid We might have met again before now. 
 
 Took years after school to get a job with my criminology degree. Something about bad eggs in the family gets federal agencies skittish. But when even they could n't find him, they decided it was n't worth barring me from applying. 
 
 Seven years an investigator, and we finally met again. Here, of all places! I fully expected to see him in cuffs at some point, but I'd always imagined chasing him down myself. 
 
 `` Yeah, doc. That's the one I'm looking for. You'll hold him here for us til we get the paperwork sorted?'' 
 
 The doctor says something about hospital policy, but as I look through the examination room window I'm not really paying attention. I pull the little photograph from my wallet and step inside. 
 
 `` I promised I'd get that picture of Mom back to you, but you did n't make it easy, you son of a bitch.'' I avoid eye contact as I cross the room to him. `` A whole decade of searching, but damn if I do n't keep my promises.'' 
 
 I lay the photograph on his chest, his eyes and mine on either side of our mother's staring up from the cold celluloid. I zip up the body bag and turn to leave. 
 
 `` Your nephew says hi. At least someone will remember only the good in you.'' 
 
 And after turning out the light, I shut the door on that too long chapter of my life.
