He was on item 12 when his phone lit up. "Damon, 6:04 in the morning. You're up, Andre said when he answered. I'm always up, Damon said. Question is, why are you working?
Of course you are, Damon paused. The sound of his coffee maker in the background. The familiar noise of his brother's kitchen. How'd she take it? Maya, she already knew, Andre said.
Overheard you at the grocery store. Silence. Then I was quiet. You were talking to a stranger in the produce section. Damon.
She's not a stranger. She works there on Tuesdays and we talk about the Falcons. She's eight and she hears everything. She get upset. No, Andre said.
He looked at the folder. She told me her mother used to say, I was the kind of person who fixed things before they broke. The line went quiet in a different way. The specific quiet of two brothers who have been through something together that doesn't need narrating, Diane knew. Damon said finally.
Yeah, Andre said. She always knew. Yeah. Another pause. Then Damon said, "You're going to take the job.
It wasn't a question." Said the same way Evelyn had said, "You're staying." The people who knew Andre Williams knew the answer before he'd said it out loud. because the answer was visible in what he was doing at 6:00 in the morning the day after the worst day of his professional life, which was sitting at a kitchen table with a folder of 47 items and a cup of coffee already working. I'm going to take the job, Andre confirmed. Good, Damon said.
Because I already told Mama and she's been calling everyone she knows. Andre closed his eyes briefly. Damon, she's proud. Andre, let her be proud. out. He let it go.
He couldn't fight his mother's phone tree any more than he could fight gravity. How many people has she called at 6:00 in the morning? Probably 12. By noon, it'll be 40. Lord, she also said, and I'm quoting directly here, that she always knew that company didn't deserve you and that God doesn't let good men stay invisible forever.