ROSEVILLE, Mich. — If you had gone into a time capsule for nearly 25 years, seeing the outside world only through the window of television, then you might understand how the Highers brothers feel today.
Red-eyed and a bit dazed from a lack of sleep, Thomas and Raymond Highers are drinking in things they've never seen -- or at least haven't seen for quite some time.
Paper money looks fake. Cellphones are new. And the steaks they had last night - they eschewed a planned spaghetti dinner for mouth-watering hunks of red meat - tasted like butter.
"The dollar looks the same. The rest look different," remarked Thomas Highers, as he shelled out bills for his first cellphone (he went with a flip model, which looked pretty fancy to him). But the $10 bill, "if somebody would have gave me this in the penitentiary, I would have said, 'Uh, that's wrong, bro.' "
The Highers spent a restless night in their aunt's home in Roseville, and began reassembling their lives this morning. Freed on bond while awaiting a new trial in a 1987 shotgun slaying in Detroit, the first order of business today was to shop for clothes.
Aunt Janet Hirth drove them to Macomb Mall, where they each tried on new shirts.
"Jan, you like that?" Raymond asked while holding up a short sleeved green button-down.
"It's a real nice shirt," she replied.
"That's a nice shirt, Ray," his brother offered from a few racks away. "Fits you like a glove, too."
Tommy talked about adjusting to freedom while he continued looking at shirts and shorts.
"I had a routine," he said about prison. "I kept a routine. That's what made the days go by."
Behind bars, breakfast was at 6 a.m. Supper, 4:30. It should be noted that by the time of this conversation today, which was after 10 a.m., the brothers hadn't even eaten breakfast.
Hirth handed her cellphone to Raymond. It was a call from someone named "Uncle Stanley."
Raymond struggled with the conversation. The call kept breaking up, as cellphones do. Uncle Stanley apparently was saying something about having the brothers come for a visit.
"You're going to have to come down here," Raymond said, too loudly for inside a mall store. "We're on these tethers."
The call dropped completely.
At the counter, the brothers opened their wallets and paid cash. They'd both been given about $1,000 to split from fundraisers friends and family have held recently. Thomas got two pairs of gym shorts, two sleeveless Nike Dry-fit shirts and a new pair of $50 Nike tennis shoes. Raymond chose two button-down shirts, two pairs of gym shorts and Nike tennis shoes.
At the register, Thomas picked up something. "What are these?" he asked Hirth.
"Those are gift cards," she said.
An older customer recognized the brothers as they were checking out.
"You enjoy all that," she said, gesturing to their clothes. "I'm glad the good Lord let you out."
The Highers marveled over the cost of things, even after the Kohl's clerk gave them big discounts. So the brothers split an 11-pack of socks, and passed on the underwear.
"That's a lot for undies, man," Thomas said.
When his aunt pulled out a credit card, Raymond asked, "How do we get these? We need one." She laughed. "You have to apply for that."
Before leaving, Raymond asked about David Beckham cologne, prompting his brother to ask how Raymond even knew about David Beckham cologne.
"Just a bunch of guys talking about it on the rock," Raymond said.
At a Metro PCS cellphone store, they asked the clerk things about Skyping and texting and video, then eventually settled on a couple of cheaper-model flip phones.
"We don't even know how to operate these things," Thomas told the clerk, who walked them through it.
Raymond asked things like, "So, how did you get the phone to come on, again?" and "What's the reception like?"
They agreed on a plan for $70 a month.
"That's $35 each a month," Thomas told his brother. "Let's rock."
Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com