I have not spoken to Lonnie since.

I don’t know exactly what became of his share of things, only that lawyers handled it and that the law took whatever course the law takes with a man who profited from a fraud he can no longer deny.

People ask me, sometimes, when they hear a piece of this story, whether I miss him, whether I’d take a call if he made one.

The honest answer is that I miss the brother I thought I had, the one from before I knew — but that brother never really existed, any more than the weak mother I thought I had existed.