⋆ ⋆ ⋆
⋆ ⋆
⋆ ⋆
W I T H  L O V E , M O O N

[wes] | mickie
🌒🌔

"Son, let's take you out to eat." Dad continued with his arm around my shoulder.

We were walking towards the car with tears of joy flashing on our faces. I can finally say that my family, even my dad had cried.

"Yes." I groaned "anything."

"Bad food?" River asked.

"Crap." She chuckled.

Once in the car, Sarahi had settled her head on my shoulder. I gripped onto her hand. I realized Sarahi had grown a lot in the past three years. I mean, River and even my parents had changed. Three years was a long time. However, Sarahi resembled a young lady. She had grown into a mature and tough girl. I bet she had suffered a ton by her classmates with all that was happening.

I had caused such deep pain into this family especially with Sarahi. She had to go through such a tough experience at such a young age. It was tough.

"Road House?" Dad looked through the rear view mirror.

"Sounds good." I smiled. Pretty much anything sounded good at this point. I was sick of all the bland and disgusting food that was served.

We had arrived at the Roadhouse and it was packed. It wasn't unusual for a restaurant like this to be full. I took in my surroundings and realized I had gotten so unused to the fact of people of all sorts enjoying themselves. Children, adults, and elderly were talking then taking a bite of their food out of pure enjoyment. I was unfamiliar with social interaction. Everything seemed so new.

"Table for five?" The waiter asked.

"Yes." Dad answered.

"Come with me." We followed the uniformed guy to the middle of the room. He set five neatly wrapped silverware on the table and handed out menus. "Anything I can get you guys while you check out the menu?" He flipped open his notepad.

"Umm," Dad looked up, "a coke for me."

"Lemonade."

"Water."

"Water."

I wasn't aware that the waiter had already gone around the table until Sarahi elbowed my arm. "Uhh...coke."

The guy wrote it down and left. Everyone plunged into their menus but Dad had already opened his. I skimmed through the entire list and I was baffled by everything. I felt overwhelmed with all the choices. I mean, I was disconnected from the world for three years and now I'm here enjoying dinner with my family. This was something to take in, to treasure.

"Wow," I spoke dumbfounded, "I already forgot how to order." Mama chuckled.

"Damn Wes. Prison changed you." River laughed.

A moment later the waiter came back with our drinks, "Okay, ready to order family?"

"Yes." I responded. I had settled on the steak and shrimp platter.

Once the waiter came back with our food, I stared at my plate. It looked well-seasoned and mouthwatering. Compared to the flavorless piece of crap I had to eat, this was heaven. I sliced a piece of my steak off and poked one of my shrimps into the fork before placing them into my mouth.

I chewed and savored the meat from sweet sweet heaven. "Mmm..." The taste was delightfully pleasing.

"Well, Wes fell in love with his food." I heard. I glanced to my right. She was smirking. River was just full of remarks today.

I finished my entire platter with room for a bit of dessert. Sarahi and I ordered a piece of triple chocolate cake. I offered my parents cake but they refused saying they were just ready to burst. I shrugged and took a bite.

"So nice to have you back home sweetie." Mama's eyes were glistening with happiness. I'm glad for it because I wanted to end all the suffering.

"Yeah." Sarahi stared. I couldn't help but smile.

I took another bite and looked up from the cake to observe the room. People and people were passing through. Waiters were walking with trays full of food. Others were sitting and eating and leaving crumbs all over, a pet peeve of mine.

Suddenly a middle-aged woman came across my view and gave me a nasty look. She seemed unpleased with my presence. I even heard her wince. Her husband followed where the she was looking at and widened his eyes.

Was there something wrong? Did I seem to offend her? I mean, I don't get why but it could just be because of the woman's hormones.

The man also gave me an annoying look. This was getting awkward. Then the man gently pushed his wife to indicate their journey to the exit.

"What the hell was that?" River asked.

My parent's faces immediately grew pale. "Dad? Mama? What's going on?" I questioned. They were quiet and I felt uneasy.

"Wes," Mama finally spoke, "honey...the town doesn't believe your innocence."

"What? That's ridiculous."

"That's exactly what we think son. Everyone in town knew you'd never do any harm, but now the words been going around that you're a murderer. No one believes you." Dad said.

This was the town I knew was full of friendly people that cared and once recognized that I would never even kill a harmless bug, the same town, now, that believes I'm a killer. This was crazy.

"The newspaper published a column of your release. That's how the word got out." Dad explained.

"How the hell did they get that information?" I was shocked at what I was hearing.

"And sweetie, we've even gotten letters in the mail calling you a murderer." Mama told.

Okay, this was getting way out of hand. Even my parents are getting harassed for a problem I easily put myself into. My parents didn't deserve this.

I lost my appetite. "We should go." I suggested. Dad asked for the check.

Don't know whether I was starting to get paranoid or not but on our way out I kept witnessing more nasty looks. It was uncomfortable.

In the car, it was silent.

"Wes, I don't want you worrying about any of this." Dad spoke.

"How am I not going to Dad?"

"Look, just be glad you're free and heading home with a clean conscience." He smiled through the rearview mirror.

Sarahi settled her head on my shoulder, again. I gripped Sarahi's hand into one of mine and gripped River's hand in the other. She was looking out the window but didn't reject my gesture. I rested my head on Sarahi's.

I looked straight and noticed my dad holding mama's hand in his. I missed this.

• • • • • •

[GRAPHIC CREDITS]:
@atltiller : cover