Reality (Sequel to Future)

Chapter Seven

Happy Thanksgiving, you guys! I'm thankful for each and every one of ya'll. Enjoy these two chapters and eat good! -Bailey
Next week rolled round and today was the day Chresanto would see Deon again. After changing Deon's diaper, I got him dressed up. Today was the day we were going to see Chresanto and I was so...nervous actually. I hoped that Deon didn't treat him like a stranger. Maybe I'm overthinking it but it seems like it's been forever since they've seen each other. And what if Deon seeing him in that kind of environment really did effect him? This parenting stuff is honestly the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Every decision I make effects him. Literally every one including this one.

Even though I knew that him seeing his father was more important, I still couldn't help but think of the what ifs. What if that image of his father in that jailhouse jumpsuit follows him forever? What if he end up not respecting him for it? It was driving me insane but I was going to have to just see. It was ten o'clock and Devin was still asleep. One thing I've learned about Devin in the four days that he's been here so far is that he's more likely to wake up at noon than any other time. I didn't want to wake him though. I'm almost sure that he'd prefer his sleep over seeing Chresanto. I went into the kitchen and got the ziti that Miss Mabel made for him.

"Thank you" I said to her taking the container of ziti and a fork with a napkin.

"Tell him I send him all of my love" she smiled.

I nodded and took Deon out to the car. I strapped him into his car seat and went back into the front. We pulled off for the prison.

"You get to see daddy today. You excited?" I asked Deon looking at him through the rearview mirror.

He just stared back at me biting his toy. One of his teeth were starting to grow in a little bit. I knew Chresanto would be happy to see that.

"He's excited to see you" I smiled but his blank expression remained.

The more expressionless Deon was, the more confident I felt about this visit. Maybe he wouldn't remember this after all. But I had no doubt that he would remember Chresanto when he saw him. It's hard to explain but when he and Chresanto are together it's like they have this unspeakable connection. It truly was a beautiful thing to watch. For the short time that we were together as a family, it was so nice. Now I don't know what to do with myself if I'm not taking care of Deon. We arrived at the prison and I took everything out of the car including Deon. We made our way to the visiting room and waited as the got Chresanto. He finally came out and his face instantly lit up. I didn't know if it was because of Deon or the food but either way he was happy. He made his way toward us and I stood up. He kissed me on the lips.

"Hey, baby" he said.

"Hey" I smiled.

He turned his attention to Deon and took him from my arms. The smile on Deon's face showed that he remembered him and was happy to see him.

"Hey, little man" he beamed holding him up in the air.

Deon laughed and squirmed in his hold. Chresanto stared hard for a while and brought him back down.

"Is that a tooth I saw?" I asked sitting down.

"Yeah" I said sitting across from him. "I was gonna show you but now you know. And as promised..."

I slid the container of ziti over to him with the fork on top. His eyes widened and took one arm off of Deon to pulled the container toward him. He opened it and groaned with pleasure as he took the first forkful into his mouth.

"Miss Mabel sends you her love" I said watching him with amusement.

"And I send her all of mine. You don't know how much I've been looking forward to this"