Written By Brad Harness
And with that, Frank Valera ran into the bedroom and scooped his clothes into his two suitcases, which he then placed by the back door.
Re-entering the kitchen he tore some notepaper from the pad and snatched up a red pen – red ink was bang-on just about now after all – and scribbled out a note for the furniture repossessors:
“TAKE IT ALL! I AM OUTTA HERE!!
F. Valera”
He stuck it to the fridge under a fridge magnet and on his way out, left the front door ajar for them.
At least he still had his car, and that cherry red 1971 Plymouth Valiant was going to have to be his home for the next little while.
Frankie was a man of medium height. When people asked, he told them he was 5’10”. In reality, he was 5’7”. They never seemed to doubt him, they were likely being polite catching him in a lie.
It meant that he wouldn’t end up on a basketball team, that was for sure. But tonight, it meant he could just stretch out across his back seat and try to find forgiveness in dreamland. If he was able to sleep.
As he drove down Oak Street he glanced over at a two storey red brick house with a pair of stately oaks in the front garden. It was a nice house - a home! - and it belonged to Pandora’s parents. They’d be glad she was rid of me, thought Frankie.
He carried on down the block, turned left, and noticed another house. It was where Cheryl lived.
Frankie had met her two summers ago at a pub after he had finished work. Cheryl worked there as a waitress. She was fun and pretty, and drew men like poop drew flies. Frankie had let himself become her latest conquest. The affair had broken Pandora’s heart and she had nearly left at that point.
But she hadn’t - she stayed, and she tried to attract Frankie’s eye and prevent yet another coming between them. Pandora was a knockout when Frankie had first met her, and after ten years, she had let herself go a bit. His lecherous ways soon intersected with the lives of several other women in OuterHaven: Janice, and then Karen - whom he saw for a year - and then Samantha. She had been the straw that broke Pandora’s will to go on.
“That Frankie’s a bum!” her dad had counselled her. “You’re better off without him.”
Her mother agreed, and Pandora backed up and left Frankie.
NEXT WEEK: PART 3
