My Family Left Me Alone on a Holiday – Until One Knock Turned the Night Upside Down

“Turn around, sir, and put your hands behind your back.”

They read me my Miranda rights while I stared at the wall, struggling to process why this was happening to me.

The cuffs clicked.

I glanced once at the table behind me, still set for the family dinner that nobody came to eat.

My voice came out smaller than I wanted.

“Aggravated assault. 1992.”

“That’s not possible.”

As they led me out, I saw Linda across the street, watching the cops lead me away with one hand covering her mouth.

I hung my head, more ashamed of the empty chairs everyone could see from the street than the arrest.

I knew I was innocent, and I believed that the truth would come out and I’d soon be free.

Being arrested for a crime I didn’t commit seemed like a smaller problem than having Linda see that my family hadn’t come for dinner.

I was naive. In holding, I sat straight-backed with my coat folded in my lap while the police officers asked questions: my name, my address, where I was on a specific day in the fall of 1992.

“Teaching high school English. In Ohio.”

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