I never heard the clanking of my cell door as it opened.

Instead, it was his voice that shook me awake.

"Up and at 'em, Ciccarelli! Your son is outside, bail money in hand."

*****

I sat in my jail cell for six days.

Nobody except Mike's D.A. friend and Kurt came to visit me-- and I think Kurt just did it out of guilt.

My anger built inside me but I kept my lips zipped while Steve drove me home.

*****

"Consider yourself lucky, Hugo, that I had exactly $10,000 in my savings account," said Barbra. "Otherwise, you'd still be sitting in your jail cell. You should bow down and thank me for saving your life."

I looked around Mocha Daze. They'd re-painted the interior a hideous teal color while I'd been in jail. "I already thanked you once, Barbra. That's enough. Stop rubbing it in."

Steve, cautiously said "Watch it, you two."

Barbra cackled and put her feet up on a table. "That's pretty ballsy, Hugo, talking to the person who could take your coffee house away from you like that." She snapped her fingers in my direction. Oh, the drama.

I resisted calling her what I wanted to and said, in a low voice,"Get your feet off the table. I may only own a small percentage of it but it's still part mine."

She stifled a fake yawn. "Hugo, you bore me. Why don't you just..."

I slapped her feet off the table before she could finish her sentence.

She was up and at my eyes before I could even bring my hand back to my side. "Don't you ever tell me what to do!" she screamed.

Steve stepped in quickly and caught her hand across his cheek, nails drawing blood in four thin streaks.

Caught up in the momentum of the moment, I lifted the table and flipped it end over end into the t-shirt rack.

"You're going to pay for that table, asshole," she said, shuddering and spastic from rage, "and those t-shirts, too."

"Just add it to what I owe you," I said and walked out of Mocha Daze forever.

*****

When I got home, I wrote the letter and said goodbye to my previous life.