A Warm Mouth in the Dark

The most heinous offense Officer Jeremiah Johnson had ever committed in his life was stealing from his mama’s cookie jar when he was ten years old.

He felt guilty about that. He felt guilty about allowing his older brother to talk him into doing it. He felt so guilty that he confessed to his mother as soon as she came home from her “woman of the AME church” meeting.

He hadn’t sinned since. Those ethics, instilled in him by his parents, drove him to achieve everything he’d ever worked for in life. Everything his father wanted for him, Jeremiah succeeded at obtaining. How those ethics bypassed his older brother, no one in the family really knew. Same house, same parents, yet completely different outcomes.

Officer Johnson was the pride of a large and proud Black family. He carried the weight of doing things the right way in light of the fact that his brother had let his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles down so many times.

And he was about to make them even more proud. He planned to pop the question to the girl of his parents’ dreams.

The ring… Fabulous enough to make his mother cry. The romantic evening he’d organized in his mind… Fabulous enough to make his fiancé cry.

Three weeks had passed since he bought the ring, but Jeremiah hadn’t set things in motion for this magical proposal.

Marrying his future fiancé would be the cherry on the parfait of the perfectly planned and executed life. Yet Officer Johnson hesitated. The reason “why” escaped even him.

Then, one night patrolling one of the city parks, Officer Johnson experienced his biggest transgression ever. Alone in the dark, with a man no less, the officer was forced the young officer to face his reservations towards the “perfect” marriage, his “perfect” life and why he would ever let such a mishap occur.

And why he thirsted for it to happen again.