Written By Brad Harness
Frankie Valera knew his womanizing had caused his marriage to fall apart. He knew after Janice he should stop. He knew, too, after Karen. He had paused in his extracurricular activities before starting up with Samantha.
But he had shown interest in her and she had reciprocated. They enjoyed three months running around as he made excuses to his poor wife. Poor, poor Pandora. Her father was right - Frankie was a bum!
So Pandora arrived back at her parent’s house over on Fifth Ave. - The posh part of town. She had unpacked there and now lived in her old bedroom - which they had changed into an exercise room but which now had been converted back to a bedroom.
As for him, Frankie woke up with a stiff neck that morning. He grimaced, massaging his sore muscles and noticing that his car windows were all fogged up. He sat upright and using the palm of his hand, rubbed a clear circle in the closest window. He was in the Walmart parking lot, and had hidden his car between a pair of tractor-trailers who were allowed to park there for the night. But they were gone - having left early to get to where ever it was they were headed.
That left Frankie’s Valiant alone in the lot, and obvious to all. He figured it was only a matter of time before the store manager came over and asked him to move on.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
There was a sound from the driver’s window, and Frankie could see the dark blurry shape of a man pounding on the glass. He leaned forward into the driver’s seat and wiped away the fog.
Two angry eyes were staring in at him. “You can’t park here!” barked the store manager.
Frankie nodded his head in defeat, opened the rear door and stepped out to talk with the fellow.
“I’m sorry, I had no place to park last night…Ya see, I was evicted from my home last night…”
It wasn’t quite true - but it was not completely false, either. For reasons he’d rather not disclose, he was homeless now.
The man relaxed and chuckled. “Well, can’t have been too comfortable for you last night. Hey, I was there once myself!”
Frankie smiled weakly and nodded.
“Tell you what,” said the manager. “I have a garage with a couch and TV…you can sleep there tonight.”
NEXT WEEK: PART 4
