“I was gone for five minutes! What happened here?”

My younger siblings, Valentina and Betté, sat by the sides of Daddy, who was lying on the floor.

“Look,” Daddy tried to talk in a calm voice, but I could see the tears in his eyes, “I’m fine. I just tripped.”

My eyes gazed to his ankle, which Valentina was already holding ice on. His bone had popped out of place, and it was starting to bruise.

“Quick!” A tug on my shirt and the voice of four-year-old Betté snapped me out of my daydream. “The numbers for 911? Tell me!”

“No, no, no, no!” Daddy whimpered, “Do NOT let him call 911. Don’t call them yet! Just.. you guys get your mom on the phone.”

Skipping over to the counter with high hopes, I handed them my card.

“You have 270 tickets,” The man said with a smile.

Ugh.. I thought. I thought for sure it’d be more than that!

Seeing the disappointment on my face, he leaned in and whispered, “If you want to get something for 300, that’s cool.”

This completely flew over my head. I got some candy, and as I was heading out the door, it hit me about this man’s kind gesture.

I turned to my older sister, “Did he technically give me free tickets?”

She nodded, “Yep.”

My heart felt so warm. Feeling a smile spread across my face, I turned back to the man, who was already looking at me.

“Thank you for the free tickets!” I yelled, to which he shrugged and told me it was not a problem.

As I walked out of the arcade, I could hear my brother-in-law say to my sister, “I bet she got that guy fired,”

“What do you mean?” I chimed in, feeling my face scrunch.

“You let everybody know in the arcade that he gave you free tickets. What if his boss heard that?”

And that’s the story of how guilt and embarrassment ate my teenage self alive: literally and figuratively.

His name is Thomas. Gosh, that name made him cringe; definitely wasn’t the best choice for him.

Whenever you hear “Thomas”, it might not be the first guess somebody would make on his name. His stance is awkward, his pants puddle around his feet, his afro droops to his shoulders, and, gosh, there was that one mole under his big, brown eyes that everybody couldn’t stop looking at.

Due to the way his nose scrunches up and the way his lips twist in disgust, people assume he lacks empathy. That’s far from the truth, which is the reason why he is nicknamed “Bubba”. His heart is always in the right place, and he’s a good listener. He’s always there for somebody and can easily comfort people, just like a brother.