Jay had, indeed, been placed in the bakery by the temp agency that day and the bread that he brought home was nearly perfect. After their mother had trimmed off the few bits of mold and cut it into thin slices and smeared it with a thick layer of butter, it tasted like nothing but heaven to Jay. Half the loaf was left untouched on the counter and the brothers all looked at it longingly. If their father didn’t want it with his stew that night, they would be getting French toast in the morning. That was even better than pancakes.

Indie was late for dinner. He arrived just after the streetlights came on, prompting their mother to first scold him and then ground him for a week. It was the first time any of them had been forbidden to do anything after school including sports and it sent a ripple of unease under their roof. They would all rather have the beating and be done with it. Maybe not the youngest, Jay mused as he looked at his smallest brother, cowering behind the twins.

“You all know why, don’t give me those eyes,” their mother said angrily. “You come home before dark or I will ground you all for the rest of your lives.” Her punishment, so absurdly severe, took the edge off her threat, but they all saw the seriousness in her eyes. “I ain’t gonna be one of them mommas waitin’ for a child to come home that won’t be comin’ home, you hear me?” They all nodded in understanding. Jay stood to the side of the rest of his brothers, arms folded and nodding in agreement with his mother, clearly under the impression that she excluded her adult son from the scolding. She rounded on him.

“Jay, you stop that nodding.” Her finger shook in her anger. “You will be grounded just the same, even if you think you’re grown now. Come home by dark or else, young man.” His face showed surprise, but an undulation of indignant anger chased itself across his expressions.

“What about when they have me working at the garage, Momma? You want the money or not? You gotta make up your fuckin’ mind,” he asked sarcastically. His mother’s eyes flared in renewed rage and she started toward him with a hand raised to slap him.

Tiny arms wrapped themselves around her thighs and their mother looked down.

“We understand, Momma. Don’t be angry anymore.” He lifted his face up to hers for a kiss and was rewarded with a quick peck on his round, baby cheek. She visibly relaxed.

Annoyance rippled in Jay’s eyes and he turned away from his family and stomped to the room he was forced to share with his brothers. He slammed the door behind him and picked up his baseball from his pillow. He thought of throwing it at the glass window but knew he would feel that later when his father got home. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he could feel the tension stretched across his shoulders easing. He bounced the baseball on the wooden floor, a repetitive thunk-ka, thunk-ka, thunk-ka that calmed him.

“Are you still mad, Indie?” the boy whispered in the darkness. No reply came and the little brother turned over and faced the window between the two beds. His brother had refused to talk to anyone for the rest of the night. Somehow, it was their fault that he had been the first one to receive the first-time punishment of grounding on top of the switching his father had given him after he had come home.

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“Leave him be, Rat. He’s gonna be smartin’ in more ways than one tonight,” Jay said gently in his rare empathetic tenderness. His anger seemed to have burned itself out. He lifted the edge of his blanket and motioned the small figure over to him. The tiny boy’s heart, touched by the uncommon gesture, filled with a lightness that ruptured from him as tears. The tightness in his chest reminded him of his hiding place. As he climbed in Jay’s bed which smelled like salty sweat and aftershave, the boy looked back at his own bed where Indie lay, still facing the wall.

“Don’t cry or I’ll kick your ass out,” Jay said gruffly.

“Do you think he would like me to bring him some gum tomorrow?” the boy sniffled and asked innocently.

“You still got money hidden somewhere?” his brother asked in surprise. The little boy went motionless and quiet as he thought about where he had hidden his little money, cards and a pebble a few days ago. He counted the change silently, holding his breath. He rubbed his chest, only just starting to be sore, and nodded.

“Do you think Indie would like that, Jay? I know Momma said to let him be and you did, too, but I know if I had a switchin’ and couldn’t be out with my friends after school I would probably be real sad and I think gum would cheer me up a little.” He frowned when he noticed that thinking about the hidden cards made his chest a little more uncomfortable.

“Yeah, that would probably cheer him up a bit.” Jay was silent, his already narrow eyes going even more narrow in thought. “What you else you hidin’ in your secret stash, Rat?” he prodded. The boy knew that Jay, and the others, were curious where he hid his treasure such as his pocket change. He thought guiltily of the cards. Cards that belonged to Jay.

The boy opened his eyes and peeked up at his brother through his lashes nervously.

“Just small things. Nothin’ that important. My money and some rocks,” he murmured. Thinking about each item made his chest hurt a little more. It felt sort of like he was holding his breath or had somehow breathed in too much, maybe. He breathed in deeply again, easing the tension across his front.

“If I wake up and my cards are back to where they should be, I ain’t gonna be mad,” Jay said, stifling a yawn. He closed his eyes and turned his head away from his brother, signaling his desire to sleep. The little boy just nodded mutely and breathed deeply again.

Somehow the little boy managed to fall asleep, even in his discomfort. He woke to a popping in his chest, like his breastbone being punched and gasped out loud. He jolted upright and felt his soggy shirt cling to him coldly and he had goosebumps all over his arms and torso. The bedroom window was wide open. He had a terrible feeling that he had just missed someone in the room. When he looked down at the pillow where his head had laid, he noticed his money, pebble, and two mushed up soggy cards sitting in a cold wetness.

He felt in his hiding place and everything was gone. It had all fallen out while he slept, but the tightness in his upper body was also gone, replaced with a raw soreness that hurt when he touched it. Maybe he had tried to hide too much, too fast.

The tiny boy gathered up the treasures and crawled out of Jay’s bed silently. As he crept into his own bed, he felt Indie turn to him in the darkness.

“What happened, Rat?” The concern in his voice made the younger boy tear up. He wasn’t ready to show Indie, besides he wasn’t even sure he could show him right now if he wanted.

“Bad dream,” he murmured instead and shoved the crumpled wet cards and other small things under his own pillow. “Sorry I woke you, Indie.”

“Why’d you open the window? We should keep it shut.” He got up in the relative darkness and quickly closed the window and flicked the latch on top to lock it. “You’re safe, Ratty.” The reply came back closer to him and he felt his brother’s arm snake around him and he pulled him closer. “Ain’t no one gonna get you.”