Swollen Feet

Home

Eddie stepped out of his car and took a deep breath. What would they think of him? Would he still see them as their son? Would they trust him? Love him?
He told himself he had to do this. He was here already. They were expecting him, and, well, he needed his certificate. He went again to the house mustering up all the strength in him. His heart was pounding in his throat while his stomach had dropped to his feet. He loved Paul and Meryl dearly, but he didn't know how much weight that carried anymore. Killing a man does that to a person.
He hadn't seen them since his trial, and that was almost seven years ago. He was seventeen, he had let a pretty nonchalant life until that night. He and a bunch of friends from school had gone to a frat party at the University with some of the boys they knew, and had gotten more drunk than he had ever gotten before, and more drunk than he cared to again. He couldn't even drive home, not really because he was drunk, but because Jimmy, one of the boys, had taken his keys and wouldn't give them back. He knew Paul and Meryl would have a fit if he missed curfew, so, in his impaired state, decided that walking home would get him there in time.
There was a park, not even a mile from the University, where Eddie had thought to take a rest for a moment. I was just about to doze off when he was rudely interrupted by grungy 40 year old guy that must have been high on something. (He later found out that it was enough coke to make an elephant stoned. [My teacher's note: coke doesn't make you stoned. 😂] This druggie - his name was Ted Lious - pushed and prodded and yelled incoherently until Eddie finally lost it and hit him. The rest he doesn't remember, just that when he came to, he himself was lying, curled up in the sandbox and the other guy was over by the swings, beaten to a bloody pulp and lifeless. Eddie got off due to the "conclusive evidence" that coke overdose had killed the man, and not Eddie, but he knew better. He had killed him. And now he'd have to live with that and knowing that he'd been let go. He was simply charged with assault and battery, and got out after three years for good behavior.
Eddie shuttered and shook his head to rid his mind of such horrid thoughts. He was really a good kid, and Paul and Meryl had raised him well, as if he really was their son. He just hoped that they would still him as a good kid. At twenty-four.
He took another deep breath and stood at the door.