Going to Jail for my Birthday
No, not like that
I’m going to jail for my birthday this year. My husband and I went out for birthday eve dinner to two of our favorite restaurants, Marelli’s in Belmont and Constantine’s in Gastonia. Marelli’s has the best bread on the planet (and a to-die-for house-made balsamic reduction. Constantine’s is the best dining experience in the area.
Firat usually waits on us at Constantine’s, and we asked for him, but there was something about the way the bartender said he wasn’t working tonight that felt off. A short while later, when we were having a drink with Hussein, the owner, he told us that Firat has been detained by the local authorities on a bogus charge, and he’s flagged for ICE detainment as soon as he posts bond.
Firat immigrated legally from Turkey. He waits tables here, but he’s actually an environmental engineer who had a solar panel patent pending in Turkey when he left. He’s one of the kindest, most gentle humans I’ve met, and I’m heartbroken about what has happened to him. I’m going to jail for my birthday, to visit my friend.
About the Creator
Harper Lewis
I'm a subversive weirdo nerd witch who loves rocks. Intrusive rhyme bothers me. Some of my fiction may have provoked divorce proceedings in another state.😈
My words are mine. Suggest ai use and get eviscerated.
MA English literature, CofC
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Comments (5)
I’m so pleased Firat has a friend like you. I’m so far away, yet terrified by what’s happening - and Australia’s complicity in so much…especially knowing how, historically, we’ve followed the US around like an annoying kid-sibling. It’s heartening seeing the resistance - large and small, loud and quiet.
My hope that he makes it out of this means nothing, but I'm just unnerved by this. Ugh.
Did you bake him a cake with a file in it? I hope everything works out for him.
Ugh!!! Hope he can get out of this situation. Seems like a great person just trying to live.
I was a little bit worried at first.