A Parole Gift
Emmanuel started to poke it with his stick and push it into the trash bag. But something made him stop and bend down for a closer look. As he leaned in, he noticed the item was a tattered rag doll with a pink bow. Anyone else would have tossed it in the can, but something about this doll looked, well, lonely and missed. Out of place -like it didn’t belong on the side of an interstate. And if anyone knew how that felt, it was Manny. Just a few more days he hoped, then his community hours would be served, and he’d hopefully be granted parole…just in time for Christmas.
Up ahead he hears the man yell: “Let’s go, back on the truck.”
Emmanuel stuffs the smelly doll into his orange jumpsuit and jumps in.
Back at the minimum security half-way house, he calls his mom. Anna works at the Drycleaner’s, and if anyone could clean this doll, she could.
She picks it up on her way to work and gives her son a loving hug. “Just a few more days, eh, Manny? Then you can move back in with me.”
Emmanuel still wasn’t sure about that, but he knew it’s what would make his mom happy. Especially for the holidays. She hoped he could come home and help out again- but this time without the drug money! “Dirty money”, she’d warned. “No good can come from that!” And she’d been right. Twenty-three months in prison, and another six at the halfway home had felt like a lifetime.
The next day Anna came by with the freshly laundered rag doll. It still had that weathered look, but at least it smelled clean again. It reminded him of himself -aged but hopefully presentable.
“Son, there was a zipper in the doll’s back. I thought it would just have stuffing inside, but I had to check it before washing it. Look at this-This note was inside. I bet this is who the doll belongs to.”
The tiny note read- “Dear Savannah, This doll is so you will always have something to love and hold on to, even if I’m not around. I love you, Mom.”
On the back was scribbled an address in case the doll was ever lost.
“That’s odd” said Manny when he read the address. “That’s just up the road.”
It had been a rough week for Casey. Her daughter kept crying for her lost doll. If only she hadn’t left it on top of the car when she drove off to work last week! She never would have thought her daughter would react like this. For goodness sakes, Savannah was six; wasn’t she getting a bit old to act this way? Casey told Savannah she’d buy her a new doll for Christmas! “Whatever you want”, she’d told Savannah.
But Savannah didn’t care! She said, “I don’t want another doll, I want my old Dolly! She’s lost, but she can be found! Just like that story we discussed in Sunday school. You know, the one about the Prodigal Son!”
So imagine Casey’s surprise when she walks to her garage the next morning and sees a woman trying to open up her mailbox.
“Hey you,” She yells. “It’s illegal to tamper with someone’s mail .What are you doing?
Anna immediately begins apologizing. “I’m sorry, Miss. I’m not trying to take anything. Really. I’m trying to give something back, but it won’t fit.”
By now, Casey was beside the woman and could see she was indeed trying to stuff something in her mailbox.
”My son…he found this…” stutters Anna.
Casey’s eyes grow wide as she sees the rag doll. Yep, it was the same one. She remembers stuffing a note in it while she was pregnant with Savannah. It was the first gift she ever gave her daughter.
Casey immediately puts down her briefcase and says, “Your son must be an angel…”
“More like my prodigal son”, replies Anna with a laugh.
Wasn’t that just what Savannah had been talking about last night?
”You have no idea how much this doll means to my daughter. I didn’t think we would ever see it again. I had given up hope”.
“I know what that’s like,” said Anna.
Casey interrupts saying, “Your son, he must be special. Who else would go out of their way to find a doll and make sure it got back to a little girl?”
“He is a good boy. He just doesn’t know it yet. He’s real smart too. Straight A’s in school and community college, but then he got in all kinds of trouble. I pray he’s past all that now. A mother can never give up hope, you know?” Anna says while tapping her heart.
“Oh yes, my daughter tells me that all the time.” Casey opens her briefcase and begins writing. Will you give this check to him? Tell him it’s a reward.”
“No Miss. He wouldn’t like that. He even told me to put it in the mailbox so no one would know”.
“Well at least tell me his name” said Casey.”Then my daughter can then write him a thank you note.”
A few hours later, as Casey is looking at the files from behind her bench, she hears Emmanuel’s name read from the court docket. She discovers she is the judge overseeing his parole hearing.
After a very short time, the judge smiles, pounds her gavel and says- “Time Served Fulfilled”. You are Free to go”. Then as a shocked Emmanuel is turning away to leave, Casey says to him, “I don’t expect to ever see you in here again- unless it’s as an attorney. I expect great things from you. Don’t let your mother down!”
Emmanuel nodded, not having a clue where that came from. But the judge had planted a seed. Lawyer, huh -that could be cool. He’d certainly seen the other side of the law, and he never wanted to live behind bars again. Maybe, just maybe, Law school was where he could finally belong.
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About the Author
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