Swollen Feet

Welcome

He took another deep breath and stood at the door.

He took another deep breath and stood at the door. Heart right behind his teeth, he knocked. Before ten seconds had passed the door was opened by a short woman in her late fifties, her long white hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing jeans and a sequined t-shirt. Her green-brown eyes looked up at the young man standing in her doorway with slight surprise, and some relief, but there was a bit of fear in them, too. Then she smiled and took a breath in.
"Hi Meryl."
"Edwin...!" She was a bit choked up. She still loved him, and the embrace she gave him was only more proof of that, though a little stiff. "Come in, sit down. PAUL!!! EDDIE'S HERE!"
How do you set down on the couch in the living room, and Mel came to join him as they waited for Paul. Merrill tried to get the mood a little bit more comfortable. "So, Eddie, how have you been?"
The look he gave her pierced her soul.
"I...I...I... mean, under the circumstances," she replied nervously.
Eddie's posture softened, and he smiled an apology. "I'm doing all right. It's a bit hard to get life back together, but I'm making it. That's why I came to to get my birth certificate for my new job, and, of course to see you. Oh, and I'm seeing someone."
Meryl relaxed a little, too, and it was easy for a while.
"Oh? Well, tell me about her."
Eddie smiled. He always loved talking about Jackie. She was his pride and joy, the apple of his eye and the cream in his coffee.
She was thirty-seven, but it's not like the age difference bothered either of them. He had met her while he was in the parole house. Not there, of course, but actually on a subway. He sat next to her, and he didn't even realize that he had been muttering to himself when she became bothered by it and asked him to stop. A conversation kind of sprung up from that, and before the ride was over, he'd found out that she was a counselor and she knew that he had done time, but not for what. They saw each other on a regular basis, and started dating. When he was released from parole he moved in with her. They've been together ever since.
"And now you know where I want after jail."
It was at that moment that Paul appeared. He was one year older than Meryl, about a foot taller, and he had not lost all of the color in his hair yet, although his hairline was rapidly receding. He simply stood in the doorway and stared coldly at Eddie, trying to make something of him. Eddie gazed uncomfortably, apprehensively back and took another deep breath.
"Paul," Meryl stood up and started toward him, "Eddie's home."