FIRST DAY OF A NEW LIFE.

DAY ONE.

A young man in a military uniform is standing in front of a tall metal door. A siren and flashing lights tell every guard the door will open. Aiming snipers standing in towers just in case someone tries to escape. Private Logan used to be his name, but now it’s only Mike Logan. That’s what a five-year plus one-day sentence in a military prison does to you. It takes from you everything you had, even your dignity; your name is the only thing you have left after.

There’s a big unlocking sound heard way back of the prison court. Mike feels like he was in grade school, standing in front of the principal’s door because he got in a fight. He’s a free man; he should be happy, but he’s not. The door finally opened. It seemed to have taken an eternity, and Mike was in front of an all-new world.

“You can get out now. You are a free man.” says the guard with a hand on the handle of his gun. Mike takes a step forward and turns around.

“Where should I go?” asked Mike.

“I don’t care, go anywhere, go live your life.” with a hand sign, the guard tells them to shut the door as he laughs at Mike. The door starts closing just behind Mike, still standing, thinking about where to go. He starts walking with his duffle bag on his back; all he owns fits in this bag. Mike sees a billboard of a dinner five miles south from there. Walking doesn’t scare Mike, and he’s used to walking long distances. In the Army, they make you walk everywhere and nowhere and even run under the rain with all your gear on your back. So, five miles for Mike is nothing. He was free to walk where he wanted and when he wanted.

The dinner, a good old metal trailer turned into a restaurant, Mike takes place at the lunch counter.

“Hi, what can I get with twenty bucks ?” asked Mike.

“Well, honey, you can get what you want. It’s on the house. It’s the first of January. We are still in the Christmas spirit, first day out?” says the waitress with a smile that says don’t worry, sun, it’s all gonna be alright.

“Yeah!” Mike answers, looking down the floor.

A few minutes later, a young boy came in with his mother while Mike ate his soup and sandwich.

“Look Ma, a soldier!”

“Stop it, Fred, let the Man eat his lunch!”

“Hi, kid!” says Mike with a big grin.

“I’m Fred. Do you have a gun? Have you shot a bazooka? Did you drive a tank?” Fred has a lot of questions for Mike.

“Sorry sir, excuse my Sun”-

“No, it’s alright, mam, I don’t mind.”

“Come on, Fred, let the Man eat.”

The young, enthusiastic boy takes a seat near Mike.

“Fred, I think we can go farther down.”

“No, Ma, I want to sit here, near him.”

Mike finished his meal and took his duffle bag back on his back.

“Thank you for the meal!”

“Was it good?”

“Oh yes, ma’am. It’s the best I’ve had in a while!”

Before taking the front door, Mike says goodbye to the young boy and his mother. The rain had started to fall hard, and it fell sideways. Mike is just standing under the rain. He doesn’t know where to go.

“Ma, we can’t let him go under this rain!” says Fred.

The mother’s facial expression says don’t go; she feels like she should do something, but she’s afraid he’ll do something crazy.

“Ma!” says Fred.

The mother got up and went outside. Fred’s glued to the window as his mother and Mike talk under the freezing rain. They both got back in the dinner.

“Are you coming home with us?”

“Hahaha!” Mike’s laughing at the young kid’s idea, but he would love that. The mother feels something for him, and she doesn’t know what is the feeling yet.

“If you want to come to our house, we welcome you with our arms open.” Says the mother with such a soothing voice. Mike knew he wouldn’t have another chance to say yes.

“Yes, I’ll be happy to come.” Says Mike.

Mike sat there with the Newport, enjoying the moment; even if it wasn’t his family, he felt warm inside. After ten minutes, they all get in the mother’s car. On their way home, Mary wants to know a little about Mike. Where did he come from, and if he has family?

Mike has been in the Army since high school. He never knew his parents, so he lived with his grandma. His father was a small-time crook, and his mother was a drug addict and a prostitute.

He went into the Army because he wanted to do something good with his life.

After his two new friends finish eating lunch, they all get in Mme Newport’s pickup truck.

“Nice pickup!”

“Thank you. It’s a gift from my husband when he left us.”

“Sorry!”

“Don’t be, I’m not.”

As they took the road home, it was the perfect time for her to ask him questions.

“I have a question.”

“Okay, ask away.”

“What did you do time for, and are you a real soldier?”

“yes, I’m a real soldier, well I was.—”

As Mike explained to Marie why he did time, he was surprised to see how, in five years, everything seemed to have changed.

“we’re here!” said Fred. “Can I show him my room?”

“yes! Come on, Mike!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Fred is the first one out of the truck and in the house. It was a beautiful white Victorian-style house with a front porch that ran on two sides of the house; Mike loved it. Mike helps Mary with the groceries as Fred already waits for Mike in his room.

“Mike!” shouted the kid from upstairs.

“Coming!” Mike leaves the paper bag of groceries on the kitchen counter and goes upstairs to see Fred’s room. As he passes Mary’s room in the hallway, he stops and stares for a minute, and he has never seen a woman’s bedroom before. All kinds of ideas pass through Mike’s head.

“uh, Mike, that’s my mother’s room!”

As Fred took Mike out of his thinking head, he finally got into the kid’s room. It’s filled with a lot of army toys, G.I. Joe’s, army jeeps and tanks, jets, he had everything with a camo logo on it.

“Wow! You really like the Army.”

“yeah, it’s my dream of being like you, but Ma says she won’t let me do it!”

“she’s right, you know, it’s not a place for you.”

the young kid is disappointed as his mother calls on him.

“Look, if you go, who’s gonna care for your mother?”

“I guess you’r right, coming Ma!”

His mother sends him in the bath, and after that, it’s bedtime for Fred. Mary’s alone with Mike in the living room as Fred cleans every little part of his body in the bathroom.

“What happened to your husband? If it’s okay for me to ask.”

“He left us two years ago. I don’t know where he went.”

“How did he take it?”

“Hard, we are just beginning to get by it.”

“Pour, little fella!”

“Pour me; I had to deal with him every day, with his cries and screaming!” she blushed and said something she regretted almost instantly.

“Two years without a man is hard.”

“Try five years without a woman.” Mike almost touched her hand, looking into her eyes as she got up.

“I have to check on my sun.”

“yeah, of course.” Mike stayed there in the dark, thinking he had probably made a fool out of himself.

When Mary returned, she was wearing her nightgown and ready to sleep. She positioned herself in front of Mike without knowing the street light getting into the living room behind her, and Mike could see the perfectly round shape of her breast through the thin tissue of her nightgown.

“You can take a shower if you like. I’ll make your pullout bed for you.”

Mike didn’t know where else to look and immediately took the offer.

“thank you. Upstairs?”

“Yes.” As she answers Mike, she sees a faded reflection of herself on the television, and even then, she can see the shape of her body. After she finished making the pullout bed, she went upstairs to bed.

Mike did not shut the door so she could see him through the door slot, drying himself with a towel she had left for him, a perfect soldier body, without noticing she was standing in the hallway gently touching her breast and biting her lower lips. She could never imagine something like that happening in her wildest dream. She returned downstairs before he saw her. Mike had lost the keys to the doors with his five years in jail. Mike couldn’t get her out of his mind in her see-through nightgown, with the backlight letting him see just enough. Mike never had the chance to be with a girl.

He hoped she would leave him alone for the night; he didn’t know where to start.

She drinks a glass of water in the kitchen as he’s ready to get in bed. She points herself to the living room doorway.

“Do you need something else?”

“No, thanks! I’m alright.”

Her heart rate skyrocketed as she came into the living room to say good night, but this time, she placed herself in front of the light so he could see the shapes of her body.

“Good night, Mike!”

Mike swallows his saliva before talking back.

“Good night!” says Mike, looking her straight in the eyes.

Just as Mike was getting comfortable in the pullout, Mary returned down.

“Sorry, Mike!” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking, and… you’re not leaving in the middle of the night?”

“No, in the morning, maybe.”

“Okay, great, good night!”

“Good night!”

She goes back up. Mike has a big smile as he goes back to sleep. After a few minutes, Mike couldn’t sleep anymore, and he couldn’t get her out of his mind. So he sits on the edge of the pullout bed and grabs his head with both hands.

“Are you alright?” Mary asked. She went back down, but she couldn’t sleep either.

“Yeah, I’m alright!” as he lifts his eyes to discover Mary before him.

He started to touch her on the back of her knees, and his hands were moving up under the nightgown, his hand softly touching the crossroad between her thighs and her buttocks. It was only then she noticed that Mike slept naked. She hadn’t felt like that for a long time before her husband left her with the kid, and Mike never felt like that before. Mary slowly pushes him back on his back in bed and gets on top of him, bending over to kiss him on the lips as she gently puts him inside of her. The passion and the sensation were incredible for both of them. Mike couldn’t hold on for long as she rocked forward and backward. The hardest part for them was to make love in silence.

DAY TWO

Mike and Fred are in the kitchen eating breakfast that Fred made for Mike. Mary comes down singing a love song. As she arrives in the kitchen, a smile automatically appears on her lips.

“Good morning, man!”

“Good morning, Ma!” Mike didn’t answer, but he smiled back at Mary. Fred knew something weird was happening but didn’t compute what was happening.

“Did you sleep well, Mike?” she said with a smile.

“Yes, I did, and you?”

“I slept like a baby, thank you!” After Mary’s answer, Mike blushed, and little Fred still didn’t know what was happening with his mother.

He could only see his mother’s big, bright eye; she glowed.

“Can I go outside and play with Mike?”

“Can I take a shower, and after, I’m gonna leave you two alone.”

“You can’t come out and play?”

“No, I have to go find myself a job.”

“Go on, get dressed, and you can go out if you want,” said Mary with her usual soft tone. Fred gets upstairs quickly to get dressed as Mary stays in the kitchen with Mike, looking at each other.

“You don’t want to stay?”

“Of course, I want to stay, but I have to find myself a job, or I’m going to end up in jail.”

“We don’t want that!”

“No, we don’t.” Mike gets up and heads for the shower. He left the door open on purpose for Mary to come in. He knew she would.

“Are you coming back?”

“Yes!”

“When?”

“Today, tomorrow, or the day after?”

“I must apologize for what I did; I will return later.”

“Everyone has the right to a second chance.” Says Mary as she hugs him.