The Taste of Freedom - Happy to win!

"Twenty one years?"

"Twenty one years," the judge repeated firmly.

And that was that.

Nobody listened to Angela's 'but - but - but's as she was led away. Nobody paid attention to Angela's mother's sobs and protestations of her daughter's innocence.

The cell door clanged close and Angela was alone.

But the next morning, her mother was there. "My girl, my girl, I know you didn't do it ..."

"But Mamma, all the evidence ..."

"My girl, listen, I know. I know. I know you are innocent."

Angela looked at her Mom. A slight frown creased her brow. Then, she smiled. "Mother's instinct?"

"That ... and ..." But her mother was stopped from completing the sentence by the arrival of the warden.

"Visiting hour's up."

Angela was alone again. She sat on her cot and thought. She was innocent. She knew it. But what was that strange look on Mom's face when she said it? Not just love for her daughter but almost like ...

"Angela!"

It was her lawyer. The lawyer the court had appointed for her, a young man, just starting out.

"Hallo, Fabian."

"I've looked it up everywhere. Records on computer. Records on paper, prior to computers. Oral memory. There has never been a case like this before."

"It figures," Angela muttered.

"Nobody has been charged or convicted with the crime of licking 21 flavours of ice cream, thereby contaminating the entire barrel. And it being barrels, each one earned you a year's sentence. Had it been bowls ..."

"Listen, I don't lick ice cream off a barrel."

"I know that. But I'm your lawyer and I'm paid to defend you, so they'll say I'm biased. We need evidence. And I'm getting evidence."

"Getting it? How?"

"DNA testing. We're going to test the ice cream for the DNA on the scrapes. Once it's not your DNA, you're in the clear."

*********

Two days leter:

"Angela! I'm shocked!"

"Fabian, you were one of those ..."

"But these DNA tests! It was you!"

"Fabian, I use a spoon. I do not lick ice cream off a barrel!"

"It's your DNA, Angela!"

"I don't understand ..."

Angela's voice slowed and stopped.

"What?"

"But - but - "

"But what?"

"If it's my DNA and it wasn't me ..." she murmured.

"If it's not you and it is your DNA, it oucld only be your Mom."

They looked at each other.

*********

"I was going to tell you, I was going to, but then ..." Angela's Mom sobbed.

"But then?" Angela asked.

"I had always trained you up to be well behaved. How could I explain what came over me in the middle of the night? It was the time I was helping you out, remember, when you were studying for your exams. I'd come to the cafe with you and your shift was over and you'd gone home ..."

"You were supposed to be following just behind me!"

"I stopped at the ice cream freezer. I couldn't help it. I wondered what the 21 flavours would taste like, in order, one after the other."

"Why didn't you take a bowl and spoon?"

"Fingerprints."

"AH! You were scared of fingerprints so you left tongue prints ...

"Tell that to the judge."

They did tell the judge. And the judge didn't know whether to laugh or cry or be disgusted, so the case was dismissed.

Angela's Mom did get a lot of ice cream to take home. The containers marked 'contaminated' came to her. She got a pretty good idea of the taste of the flavours.

As for Angela, she's enjoying the taste of freedom.