Mending Broken Flowers

Afterward, she casually drove herself to Clark's Drive-In and got a vanilla ice cream cone, making sure to get a lot of the ice cream around her lips.

Gabriel would realize soon enough that it was ice cream, but let him wonder for that few moments when he saw her face.

He knew she didn't like to swallow his load; preferring to have him squirt onto her face and chest instead.

She returned the car to Daisy and hummed happily when Daisy dropped her off at her apartment.

"Tell Gabriel 'Hi,'" Daisy almost said, then thought better of it and just waved to her sister as her sister opened the outer door of the apartment building.

The apartment was dark when Lily let herself in.

"Sleeping, huh?" Lily hissed and hit the light switch.

The bed was still made; it had not been disturbed since she made it that morning.

"Fine, fucking ass hole," she snarled, looking out the window and seeing that his car was not there. "We'll just have our little talk when you get back here."

She cleaned her face, got out a nightgown (she didn't feel safe sleeping nude when he wasn't there) and got into bed.

Then she hit the light switch again and looked; his pillow wasn't there.

"Oh, God, what a titty baby!" she scoffed. "Ran home to your mommy?"

She had trouble sleeping without him in the bed next to her but finally fell asleep.

Fortunately for Lily, she was working the evening shift; it was nearly eleven o'clock the next morning when she finally woke up. For the two months they'd been living together, it was Gabriel's alarm clock that woke her up.

She looked over on his nightstand and blinked; his clock was gone.

Lily had a horrible feeling of dread as she slowly slid open the top drawer of the chest of drawers.

Empty. All of the drawers were empty.

She flung open the close; the few clothes he had in the closet were gone.

She dug her cell phone out of her purse and hit the number 1 on her phone.

"I'm sorry, but you've reached a number that has been disconnected, or is no longer in service," the nasally electronic voice announced.

Oh God," Lily moaned.

She hit the number 4 and Annie answered.

"Miss Annie, hi, this is Lily, please let me talk to Gabriel," Lily begged.

"Ain't here, found a God damned note on the fucking counter this morning, believe that shit? Little bastard just up and quit on me, huh?" Annie shrilled into the telephone.

Lily stood, frozen in shock as Annie poured out a litany of complaints.

"Says here the damned van's broke, had to send Huvall's out there to get it; George's don't have no tow truck," Annie continued ranting.

"Oh, please God," Lily moaned.

"I mean, after all I done for him; he thinks I built this shop for my health?" Annie's tirade continued.

"Oh, Miss Annie, what am I going to do?" Lily finally sobbed out.

"Busting my ass put clothes on his back, food on the table and this is the thanks I get?" Annie shrilled.

----

A helpful clerk in Monroe helped Gabriel change his cell phone number and was more than happy to charge the extra twenty dollars to make it an unlisted number.

"And the announcement won't give out my new number, right?" Gabriel asked.

"Nope, it'll just tell people the old number's been disconnected," the clerk agreed.

"So what is my new phone number?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry sir, that number's confidential," the clerk said, dead-pan.

Gabriel looked at the kid for a moment, until the clerk laughed and printed out the knew number.

"Cute," Gabriel said and left the store.

He drove out to his rental house on Kentucky and parked in the garage.

He had alerted the management company that the house was no longer for rent. The management company was more than happy to let him know that he had forty eight hours to get all utilities turned on in his name.

He unpacked the car and was actually saddened at how few earthly possessions he had.

He used his credit card to purchase the bare minimum of furniture at one of the local furniture stores; he wasn't worried about Annie or Lily tracking him down through his credit cards; that was in the movies and television. He wasn't a fugitive; he just had no desire to put himself through any more misery.

"Free at last, free at last," he said aloud in the empty house. "Thank God Almighty, free at last!"

Gabriel put together the furniture that needed assembling, arranged the furniture to his liking, and kept himself busy.

"Hey stranger," he heard a familiar voice call out as he looked at the lawn mowers at the local Wal-Mart

"Carmen," he smiled.

"Heard you was back in town," Carmen smiled as she hugged him tightly.

"Aw shit, how'd you hear that?" he groaned.

"Uh, dumb ass, I'm the manager of your properties management company," she laughed. "Hear you took over Kentucky."

"Yeah, some skanky ho was living in my place on Texas," Gabriel agreed.

"Hey!" Carmen exclaimed and slapped his arm. "Just for that..."

She leaned close to him.

"No 'welcome home' piece of ass for you, buddy!" she whispered, then laughed out loud.

"Baby, good as that sounds, I think I'll take a rain check, okay?" he asked.

"Problems with Lily?" Carmen asked sympathetically, rubbing his arm softly.

"Afraid so," Gabriel said.

"Tell you what, you look like you could use a good old fashioned screwdriver and I'm just the girl to make it for you; get whatever you're here for and be at my place in twenty minutes, no better make it thirty; I need to stop at the package store," Carmen demanded and left the aisle before Gabriel could decline.

----

Lily went to work, came home, and sat by the window, waiting for Gabriel. Every night, at nine o'clock, she would call Miss Annie and ask if she'd heard from Gabriel.

Her new alarm clock was just like the clock radio Gabriel had used, and was tuned to the same radio station that Gabriel had his tuned to.

It was tuned to a horrible rap station out of Baton Rouge.

"Why you have it on that?" she had asked. "You hate rap."

"Exactly," Gabriel had smiled. "Nothing wakes me up quicker that that hateful stuff."

Lily got up every morning, looked over at his side of the bed, then got to her feet and looked out the window. Then she would fix her breakfast, shower, get ready for work, and go through the paces of her day.

The car she drove was Daisy's old car; Daisy's boyfriend bought her a BMW Z4.

"Daisy, I'm telling you, when we were in school, Kevin was dealing even then," Lily had cautioned her younger sister.

"You're just jealous," Daisy had sneered.

"Daisy, he doesn't work; how do you think he got that car?" Iris asked.

"Whatever, y'all are all just jealous," Daisy sneered.

"Please, Daisy, please be careful; you're playing a dangerous game," Lily begged.

"Uh huh, like the game you was playing when you drove Gabriel away?" Daisy asked sweetly.

----

A web design company in Monroe was more than happy to take Gabriel on, especially with the glowing reviews his instructor's had for him. Gabriel was happy to languish in the anonymity of his cubicle, and not a flower in sight.

He shoed up at eight, started his day, clocked out at twelve noon on the dot and ate his lunch, usually at his desk, then clocked back in at twelve thirty and worked until five thirty then joined the hundreds of commuters clogging I-20 heading west.

Some nights he and Carmen met for dinner and drinks, some nights, Carmen was 'busy' and he ate alone. He didn't ask and she didn't volunteer whom she was with or where she was when she was busy and he didn't ask.

"I love you, but I'm not IN love with you," she explained.

"Same here," Gabriel shrugged.

"Now, tell me about this web page you're working on," Carmen would ask, then pretend to fall asleep as he described the various interfaces.

----

One morning, Lily woke up, sat up, and threw up. She staggered into the bathroom, cleaned herself up, cleaned the bedspread up, and then threw up again.

She called into work and told them she was sick; Cindy Scandurro had been out several days with a very nasty flu; Lily was taking no chances.

She crawled back into bed and was there when her mother called.

"Daisy's dead," Cheryl sobbed into the telephone.

"What?" lily screamed?

"Somebody broke into Kevin's house, killed them both with a shot gun," Cheryl sobbed.

----

Annie looked around at the flowers and nodded approval; all of the arrangements had come from Annie's Floral Designs.

Then a young man came in with an elaborate arrangement of daisies and put it near the white casket.

Annie quickly scanned the card; it was signed 'Gabriel.'

"Excuse me," Annie asked the young man. "Where did those come from?"

"Um, they was ordered from, oh, yeah, right here, Patterson's. In Vicksburg, Mississippi," the kid said, showing Annie the source of the order.

Annie waddled down the pew where Lily, Iris, and Cheryl sat, grieving.

"I think I know where Gabriel is," Annie hissed.

"Is he here?" Lily asked, looking around hopefully.

"No, no, I think he's in Vicksburg," Annie said and pointed to the flowers.

But Gabriel was not in Vicksburg.

Patterson's said that the floral arrangement had been ordered from their web page.

It was Iris that thought to check whom had designed the web page. But that was four months later.

----

"Hey, um, Florez?" Alan Moore stuttered.

"Yeah?" Gabriel looked up from the page he was working on.

"Um, can I um, I need to see you," Alan said, gesturing to Gabriel.

Gabriel saved the work and walked to the man's small office.

"Um, I um, well, I um, man, I'm sorry, you know?" Alan said.

"Alan, I don't have a clue what the hell you're trying to say here," Gabriel admitted.

"Um, your mom? She had a heart attack; they um, they don't know, you know? Looks bad," Alan managed to get out.

"Oh," Gabriel said and sat back heavily.

"Um, I um, I guess you, you're going to um, you're going to need some time off, huh?" Alan said, already clicking on the screen.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'll give you a call when I know more," Gabriel numbly said and got to his feet.

Carmen expressed sympathy and promised to pick up his mail while he was gone.

The July heat was unbearable, but Gabriel wasn't concentrating on that as he drove south.

The lunch rush had died down at Leah's; Gabriel ate the sandwich without even tasting it.

He drove to his mother's house; a quick call home had let him know that she had been checked out of the hospital and was resting at home.

As he pulled into the driveway of the home, the front door opened.

----

The plan had been for Lily to wait until Gabriel came into the house. Five months of waiting, praying to see him again, though, made impatience win out over common sense.

She heard the familiar sound of his Volkswagen Beetle pull up into the driveway and she bolted for the door.

"Lily! No!" Annie yelled out.

But Lily was already out the door and bounding down the three steps, racing for Gabriel's car.

"Mother fucker!" Gabriel screamed in absolute rage as he watched Lily coming down the steps.

"No, Gabriel, wait!" Lily screamed as the little car screeched in reverse out of the driveway and down the street.

"Please!" she screamed and ell to her knees in the street.

"Real fucking cute, mother," Gabriel spat when Annie answered the telephone.

"See? See?" Annie shrilled into the telephone. "You ARE just like your father! Get the poor girl knocked up and then just leave her high and dry! That's just what your father would have done."

"Please, Miss Annie, please, let me talk to him," Lily begged, reaching out for the telephone.

"Don't. Ever. Call. Me. Again. Even if you are dying, I just don't fucking care," Gabriel spat into his cell phone, then turned it off.

"Please," Lily sobbed, clutching for the telephone.

Lily screamed in frustration as she heard the dial tone.

"If you had waited, just five more minutes, just waited, but no, you had to go running out there," Annie yelled at the sobbing girl.

----

There was a young man seated at his cubicle. Gabriel looked at the young man, noticing that the kid still had the acne from adolescence on his face.

"Hey, Alan, what's up?" he asked, gesturing with his head toward the young man.

"Uh, well, um, we uh, we figured, you know?" Alan gave his usual explanation.

Mr. Singleton, the owner of the company came out of his office and gestured with his head toward Gabriel. Gabriel was glad to be saved from Alan's vagueness and strode toward the offered chair.

"Florez, it's like this," Mr. Singleton cut right to the chase. "We are losing money faster than we are pulling it in. It really is that cut and dry. So, I can either keep you on at half your salary, or I can hire three kids like Bobby out there. Cost's the same, get more work.

"Wish you'd said all of this before I left yesterday, Gabriel said.

"Thought that little dip-shit had, but I see Moore did his usual bang up job," Mr. Singleton said.

"So, fire him, put me in his office," Gabriel suggested.

"Would love to, believe me; boy's about as useless as a bag of ass holes, but he's my sister's kid; what you going to do, huh?" Mr. Singleton shrugged.

"See, Alan? That's how you tell someone their services are no longer needed, not all that pussy shit you do," Mr. Singleton yelled at the young man that hovered near the office door.

"So my final check will be ready...?" Gabriel asked.

"Next week, same as always," Mr. Singleton said.

"Oh, no sir!" Gabriel smiled. "My final check had better be ready within twenty four hours; it is the law, you know, and we've not discussed my severance pay, now have we?"

Mr. Singleton was incensed that letting Gabriel go would cost him six weeks of pay, but had to agree with Gabriel, it was better than spending the next six months to two years in a long drawn out court battle over wrongful termination.

"Now, THAT'S how you fire someone, not all that pussy shit you just tried to pull on me," Gabriel smirked at a red-faced Mr. Singleton.

----

Gabriel wearily pulled into the garage and waited until the garage door was down before getting out of his car. He smirked at Carmen's small car, her 'toy' as he called it.

"Hi stranger, was just putting the mail on your table," Carmen greeted him.

"You went and got the mail, dressed like that?" Gabriel smiled.

She stood, nude.

"Yeah, why not?" Carmen smiled.

"Uh huh," Gabriel smiled.

He looked at the bare table.

"Um, so where's the mail?" he asked.

"Oh, well, there wasn't any," Carmen smiled widely.

"But I thought you jus said, oh, fuck, never mind; what are you doing here?" Gabriel asked, beginning to make coffee.

"Um, you remember that guy, Ronnie?" Carmen said.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, that biker?" Gabriel nodded and set up the cream and sugar on the counter.

"Well, um, he's kind of been um hanging around and, you know?" Carmen said nervously.

"So you're hiding out here?" Gabriel asked. "What'd you do, wait until I left for work this morning?"

"Uh huh," Carmen said and playfully pushed her mug closer to the pot, putting it in front of his mug. "So what are you doing here?"

"Got fired this morning," Gabriel shrugged.

The coffee finished gurgling and Gabriel picked up her mug. Then put it over on the far counter and quickly filled his own mug.

"You bastard!" Carmen huffed and retrieved her mug.

"Yep, that I am; my mother absolutely delights in reminding me of that every chance she gets," Gabriel said and sat down at his table.

"Sorry," Carmen said and sat down next to him at the table.

"But you know, this is probably the best thing that could have ever happened," Gabriel mused aloud.

"What?" Carmen asked, lightly touching his arm.

"Getting fired.," Gabriel said.

He sipped his coffee then smiled at her.

"Okay, you want to hide out here, hide out here; move all your stuff in, okay?" he said.

He stood up, stretched, and started undoing his tie.

"Me? I'm getting out of here," he said, his mind made up.

----

The Arkansas Transportation Institute promised to have Gabriel Florez ready to drive his own rig in six weeks. He filled out the paperwork, then wrote a check for the full amount.

"But, we um, we got this payment plan where you don't have to just drop it all right now," the clerk said.

"Uh huh, at what? Eighteen, nineteen percent interest, right?" Gabriel smiled. "That's all right."

"So why do you want to be a trucker?" the instructor asked the twenty one students crammed into the small room.

"Tired of wearing a suit and tie," Gabriel shrugged. "Plus that, like the idea of moving, not being tied down, you know?"

"Well, my wife's been on my ass about it's good money, you know?" a small man said, licking his lips constantly.

"Well, Slim, it is good money, but it's also a lot of time where you won't be home," the instructor said.

"All right! Sign me up," the man said, eliciting laughter from the twenty men and the one woman.

The woman gave her reason, which, in Gabriel's opinion, amounted to just a bunch of feminist rhetoric.

Years of driving the delivery van, years of learning to not park on the client's lawn, or on their driveway, or too far out into the street had been ingrained into Gabriel. While the truck was much larger than a van, Gabriel found handling the Mack semi fairly easy.

"All right, let's see what you can do with this puppy," the instructor said, pointing Gabriel toward the Peterbilt.

At the end of his six weeks, Gabriel was asked if he'd like to stay on as an instructor.

"Thanks, but like I said, I want to be moving, not tied down," Gabriel smiled.

Chapter 9

The four years had been good to Gabriel. His pale face was now a rugged and tanned face. His light blonde hair was almost white by hours in the sun; his beard and mustache were also whitened by hours in the sun. His blue eyes bore a permanent squint. Hours and hours of scanning both horizon and close up had hardened the eyes, but he still smiled readily.

His physique, always muscular due to his love of sports, was now hardened into solid muscle and bone. Even with all the overly rich food he ate at the various truck stops, his waist was still a trim thirty one inches around.

He slowed down for his exit. Traffic was light and he smiled as he pulled up in front of his house on Kentucky. Before he even came to a full stop, Carmen and Joey came bounding outside.

"Hey trucker, looking for a good time?" Carmen smiled up at him.

"No, looking for three hots and a cot," he groaned.

"What you get me?" Joey demanded.

"Joey, that's not nice! Mr. Gabe doesn't have to get you anything, just because he's been gone!" Carmen chided her son.

"I got you a tickle and a bite," Gabriel snarled and made the two and a half year old boy squeal as he picked the toddler up.

"Good one?" Carmen asked as Gabriel carried the squirming boy to the front door.

"Yeah, bit of trouble getting through South Dakota; had a wild fire out there, but got through okay," Gabriel said and gave the boy the awaited for matchbox car.

"Now, how many does that make," Gabriel asked."

Three," Joey said.

"Three?" Gabriel said. "No, I bet it's more like twenty nine, huh?"

"Twenty nine," Joey agreed.

"Aw, boy, you don't know, huh? I think we need to count them all again, huh?" Gabriel laughed and hugged the boy tightly.

"Um, hey, shower, huh?" Carmen said.

"Hey, last time I checked, you wasn't my momma; you don't tell me when to shower," Gabriel smiled and kissed her.

"Want another kiss?" Carmen asked. "Then go take a shower."

"Yes ma'am," Gabriel said and walked down the hall to his bedroom.

After a hot shower and after a hot meal, Gabriel sat down with a bottle of Crown Royal and the stack of mail Carmen had set aside for him while he had been on his run.