Unlocking the Bars

It's been nearly 15 years since my brother, 16, was certified as an adult and sentenced to 20 years in the Texas prison system. I'm no math whiz, but that amounts to about half his life.

Lessons learned and education earned in the first half differ greatly than the second.

Will he learn how to function in this brave, new, tech world the way he learned to survive among murderers, rapists and child molesters?

In the next 15 years his oldest niece and Goddaughter, whom he left as an infant younger than 1 and who is now waffling about a quinceanera, will have completed high school, hopefully university, started working in her artistic fields and perhaps fallen in love.

His second oldest niece will be heading to college, maybe on a dance scholarship, and most likely will have completely planned her dream wedding.

His twin nephew and niece will be disgruntled teenagers whose thumb-sucked gap teeth will hopefully have closed.

His missed a lot, but no more.

My gorgeous, faithful, loyal, brave, stoic, protective, loving brother will dream with me and share the lives of my husband and children in the next decade and a half. No longer through letters, photos, and occasional monitored visits. In the flesh. Living and breathing beside us. Reacting to terrorist attacks, marveling at new Apple creations, feeling deflated about rat-race finances, worrying about global warming and trying to 'live green,' crying and laughing at weddings, becoming reinvigorated at baby births and baptisms, tasting hope and optimism at graduations, sobbing and strengthening at funerals.

Those things he has never known. Never experienced in the first 15 years of his youth. Most certainly not in his second 15 years, living day to day in a concrete box and being told how to feel, what to say, and what he could and could not learn.

The excitement is penetrating the walls in my home, shooting through each of the older girls and my husband.

I'm making fajitas and homemade guacamole, fresh tropical turkey salad and homemade chocolate chip cookies and muffins.

His new button down Polo and black Nike tank top are washed, his deodorant, razor and toothbrush are packed. My sister, my mother, and his best friend have also purchased various necessities, clothing, toiletries and incidentals to have ready for him to begin his new life full of support and ripe for opportunity.

Thursday is coming, and we will all be there to witness my big brother deeply inhale his first breath of fresh air like a newborn baby--and begin truly living his next 15 years.