Asylum // Espinosa

2

                           *2002*

"Mommy, can I get a lollipop?" Matthew asked his mother as he looked at the display of lollipops by the checkout counter at the supermarket.

Laura smiled down at her only child and nodded as she ran her fingers through the mohawk the that sat messy on his small head.

"Of course sweetheart."

Matt grabbed a red lollipop and put it on the conveyer belt.

"Get another one, son." The cashier said looking down at the boy. "The orange ones are the best."

Matthew shook his head, "The red one is better. Besides, it reminds me of blood."

The cashier raised his eyebrows, "you like horror movies?"

Matthew nodded. "My dream is to be one of the bad guys like the movies when I'm older. But not in the movies, in real life."

Laura's face turned pale as the cashier looked over to her.

"Your total is $204.50 ma'am," the cashier told Laura. She nodded and filled out a check. Then, she handed the check to the cashier and put Matthew in the cart along with the groceries.

"Mommy, can I buy a gun?" Matthew asked his mother as she pushed the cart out of the super market.

•

"Rafael there is something seriously wrong with our son." Laura explained to her husband as they put their groceries away in the correct cabinets in their kitchen.

Rafael laughed, "Don't be silly, hun. He's completely normal. Trust me when I say, 'it's just a phase.'"

Laura shook her head, "you're saying this about the boy who basically, not even basically, he TOLD ME he wanted to live at Fou when he was older. Fou is for pshyco paths, murders, and just- MY SON DOES NOT BELONG IN FOU! HE ISN'T NORMAL RAFAEL HE NEEDS SOMEONE OR SOMETHING TO SNAP HIM OUT OF THIS 'PHASE.' The hell with it, you don't care anyway."

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME THAT I DO NOT CARE ABOUT MY EIGHT YEAR OLD! NO RIGHT!"

Laura slammed the ham in her hands on the glass cutting board that sat on top of the granite counter top causing it to shatter into peices. She let out a cry before exiting the room.

Rafael sighed and began to clean up the mess of broken glass that his wife just caused.

His son was normal, wasn't he?

Matthew ran into the kitchen and jumped up onto one of the four bar stools behind the island.

"Daddy!" Matt exclaimed holding a peice of construction paper behind his back.

"Yes Bubba," Rafael replied turning, his attention to his child.

"Look what I drew!" Matt shouted holding up the yellow peice of construction paper.

Rafael looked at the drawing shocked.

Laura was right.

Matthew Lee Espinosa was in no means, normal.

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